9. Aurelia
Chapter 9
Aurelia
G houl steadies me on the steel table with one hand as he plucks out a white feather from my skin with the other.
“Keep going and I won’t have any bloody left,” I say tightly into his head. I already have a bald patch under my wing as it is. Cockatoo feels like my millionth shift. They ran me through every form they could think of, starting with the snakes, then the birds, taking a feather from each form for their records.
In case anyone doubted it, plucking feathers from the root fucking hurts.
It seems to me like they want a sample of everything I am able to give. To study if there is any difference to regular animalia samples, I suppose. I have to give them credit for being thorough.
“Mammals tomorrow,” Solomon announces, securing the jar holding the white feather. “Back to human form now, if you please, Miss Boneweaver.”
Sure, do you want fries with that?
I have to focus to shift back into my human body. In truth, I’ve never shifted this much in such a short period of time, and shifting fatigue is definitely a thing. I imagine the shift and it happens slowly. My wings elongate into arms, the feathers disappearing, my twiggy legs extending into calves and toes, and my beak retracting back into my face.
Concentrating so hard, it’s only right at the end of my shift that I realise Ghoul is still holding me.
“Get off me, reptile,” I say, tiredly wiggling my naked body against his massive form.
“Careful, I might get excited,” Ghoul drawls, unceremoniously setting me onto the floor. I snatch up my dress from the table, quickly shoving it over my head and covering my body. The maid, Heather, had given me neither a bra nor knickers—I guess pets don’t need to wear any.
“Up on the table again,” Solomon says. “Dress goes up.” One of the other scientists wheels in a small machine, and I crane my neck to see what it is.
“Develop some class, serpent,” Xander sneers, suddenly at the door, throwing a towel over my lower half. “Or I’ll force it down your worm throat.”
“You do obsess about worms, don’t you?” Ghoul says mildly from my other side. “Is it because of the tiny one between your legs?”
Xander’s lids lower over his glowing orbs, giving Ghoul a droll look before striding back to the viewing area behind the glass. Everyone knows the old wives’ tales about dragons and their massive dicks. I’ve never actually gotten a look at Xander’s dick, so I don’t know if they’re true.
I register a sizzling magical phoenix’s presence with a jolt to the stomach.
“Ah, I thought I smelled eunuch,” Ghoul drawls, glancing over his shoulder.
I’m so surprised that I miss the opportunity to lunge for the newcomer’s throat.
Next time.
Damien Agnis wears his signature white suit and shirt, which does nothing good for the new, faintly green pallor to his skin. Though if Ghoul’s surprising new title for him is anything to go by, I guess it explains that. His hair is the same, crimson curls piled around his head and his white glasses frame golden eyes that hungrily take me in. He holds a black box, the handle clutched tight in one pale fist.
It’s then that I notice the wand to the ultrasound machine Solomon is waving at me. “Lie down, Miss Boneweaver.”
My mind flashes back to a medical room I visited not long ago. My mother lying small and helpless on the bed. An ultrasound machine had sat in the corner of that room, too.
Terror floods my throat. My veins. My heart.
“No!” I shriek, mouth twisting in disgust as I move to lunge off the steel table. “Get the fuck away from me!”
Ghoul casually steps to the side, blocking my exit with his body. “Nuh-uh, snakelet.”
“I thought we’d run into this little issue,” Damien Agnis says lightly.
I clutch the sides of the table in sweaty fists and glare at the phoenix lord, wishing I could burn him into something more rudimentary than ash. “Why are you even here?”
Damien sets the black box on the edge of the table, unlatching twin locks at the top. “I had a specialist cage made,” he says all too proudly. “Courtesy of the Lady Crocodylus. Marvellous woman.”
The Collector?
My irritation turns into alarm as Damien pulls out a glass cage, because inside of it bounces four coloured balls of fluff.
“Henry!” I gasp. “Gertie?”
The nimpins chitter and squeak in their confinement, their liquid black eyes wide in fear as they gather at the glass, squashing themselves against it as if they’re trying to get to me.
“Don’t think I did not notice just how precious these creatures were to you and your friends,” Damien explains, holding the cage up and tapping his nail against it as if it’s a fish tank. “See this lever on top?” He points to a red knob next to the handle. “One twist and it’ll send carbon monoxide gas into the chamber, which?—”
Ghoul makes an exaggerated choking sound in his throat. Rage and fear pool in my stomach. This. Fucking. Bastard.
“Miss Boneweaver is powerful, in case anyone has forgotten,” Damien says meaningfully to the scientists. “And she is only in steel shackles.”
“She is here voluntarily!” Solomon says irritably.
“Yes, but not everything we do here will be voluntary.” Damien says it so quickly, so casually, that it sends a chill down my spine. “She will be more compliant given the threat to these small creatures.”
Suddenly, I see the males around me in a different light. Nothing they do to me here is an ‘option’ any more.
Swallowing, I lie back down on the table and arrange the towel to cover the space between my legs. I pull my dress up, exposing my lower abdomen. “Make it quick,” I grit out.
“It is just to check the condition of your ovaries and uterus so we can?—”
“I know exactly what you’re doing,” I snap. “As I said, make it quick.”
Damien steps up so he can get a better look, and all I can do is stare at the ceiling as I try to calm my breathing.
Everyone leans forward to stare at the screen of the ultrasound machine, as if they’re all so very keen to take a look at my insides. Nausea roils in my stomach and I clutch the sides of the steel table so hard it becomes sweaty under my palms.
Solomon presses firmly just inside my right hip bone. “How many times did you do this to my mother?” I ask to the ceiling. “How many times before she became unresponsive?”
From the side of my eye, the scientists move uncomfortably. Someone clears their throat. There are no women in this room. Only males, only animuses. I wonder if she was scared. If she knew what the future had in store for her and her daughter.
“Try to relax,” Solomon gruffs. “You are thankfully young. There should be no issues with our work.”
“Unethical work,” I say. “Illegal work.”
“Voluntary work,” Ghoul says. “Important work.”
I glance at him, where he looms over me from my left. He never knew about my mother’s imprisonment, but that doesn’t matter, because he’s here overseeing mine now. I hope he can see the death in my eyes. I hope he can see that I will kill my father for all of this.