59. Aurelia

Chapter 59

Aurelia

S omewhere around noon the next day, as I lie fast asleep in the pack bed, Scythe's hand skims along my thigh. Sleepily, I place my hand over his and am suddenly greeted with a nose to my pussy.

My eyes fly open.

Scythe looks up at me from between my legs, and it's a stunning sight until he rasps, "Blood."

I am slick between my legs, and I'm suddenly aware of a terrible ache in my uterus.

"Oh fuckity fuck," I mutter.

"Pardon?" Lyle asks, rolling over and looking very offended.

"Painkillers," I moan. "Wait, do we even keep any around here?"

"What for?" Savage asks, alarmed, grabbing my thigh from my other side.

I cry out, throwing the sheet over Scythe's head and pulling my underwear down. "Oh no!"

"What's wrong!" Savage exclaims. Then he too starts sniffing.

"Nothing," Scythe says, pulling the sheet down to free his face. "It's her cycle."

Everyone except me leaps off the bed all at once, striding in all different directions for some reason I can't fathom. In the distance, Savage gives an excited shout, "I've been waiting for this!"

Which makes me frown as I roll off the bed and walk bow-legged to my wardrobe, where I have stowed one regular pad from the communal stash in the anima dorm. My periods have been so infrequent and irregular that while I've been at the academy, I've never bothered with keeping much of a supply. But Savage bursts back into the room, doing a sharp left-hand turn when he realises I'm not in the bed.

"Regina, I've been saving these!" He opens a big paper bag that's filled to the brim with packets of sanitary pads and tampons of all different brands and sizes. "I didn't know what you would like best," he says, excitedly pulling a packet out. "See, I thought you'd like this because it's purple, but I looked inside and the actual pad isn't purple, which seems like false advertising to me. And then there's little writing on the back and I got Xander to read the back of it and he told me they were different facts!" He looks back up at me with a puzzled expression. "Why do they have to teach you things when you're on your period?"

I grab a packet of super-size pads in one hand, and a new pair of undies in the other.

"Shall I rub your tummy?" he asks.

"I need to clean up first."

I head to the bathroom. "And actually, ‘ why are they so expensive?' is the better question."

Savage dutifully follows me right into the toilet and I have to force him to turn around and he does so with a harrumph .

"Lyle told me they have a period tax!" Savage exclaims. "So I said I was going to rip out the neck of the man who invented that."

"Hmm," I say vaguely, sitting down and pulling on the new pair of underwear and sticking the pad to it. "At least he could use one of these to mop up the blood."

"Yeah," Savage nods sagely. "Are you done yet? Next time, I'll stick the pad to the underwear because you're the regina. I'll be the pad-sticker monitor."

There's a knock at the door. "What are you two doing in there?" Lyle asks suspiciously.

I've just managed to pull up my underwear when Savage opens the door to find both Lyle and Scythe waiting.

I clutch my stomach as nausea wracks up my throat.

"Give me that," Lyle says bossily.

I pull my bloody underwear out of his reach. "Excuse you!"

He gives me an exasperated look. " Angel."

"I'll just throw it out," I say, angrily pushing my way past the three of them, with one hand on my stomach and heading back to the room. "There have to be painkillers around here somewhere," I mutter to myself.

They stalk after me, practically stepping on my heels as I arrive back into the bedroom and stare at the bloody spot in the middle of the pack bed.

"I'll get the sheets," Lyle says quickly.

"I have five different types of pills," Scythe says, turning me around by the elbow and showing me an open plastic box with a variety of medications inside.

"Some of those are illegal, aren't they?" I say mildly, examining the labels and selecting the paracetamol and ibuprofen.

He remains silent.

"She shouldn't have that on an empty stomach," Lyle says disapprovingly, tossing the dirty sheets aside and unfolding a new set.

"I'll get the food!" Savage announces, shifting into his wolf form—presumably to get there faster—and bounding away with his tongue hanging out one side of his mouth.

Once the new sheets are on, Lyle reaches over to grab me.

"I'm not an invalid!" I cry, shooing him off. "It's just my period." A cramp assaults me and I double over with a groan. "Just gotta wait for the painkillers."

"Would you prefer them IV?" Scythe asks seriously.

I wave him away, climbing into bed an inch at a time like I've aged forty years. "Being a woman is fucked up," I groan.

"I know, angel," Lyle says, brushing my hair as I lay my head down.

"You don't know anything," I grumble back.

Something warm presses against my back and I know it's a hot water bottle. Instantly, I feel bad. "Sorry."

"It's alright."

"Is there any chocolate?"

Three minutes later, Savage returns with a bag of lunch sandwiches in his maw.

"You've got slobber all over it now," Lyle mutters.

Savage shifts and removes it from his now human mouth. "No, it's fine."

It's an entire operation after that. Savage feeds me tiny bites of ham and cheese toasties and then Lyle puts pills onto my tongue and holds a glass and straw up to my mouth.

"I'm really not sick," I say, clutching the hot-water bottle to my stomach and grimacing until Savage offers me a tiny square of fairy-bread.

"Every animus enjoys this, Aurelia," Scythe says from where he's on his laptop in the tub chair. "Let them do it."

"Yes, take pity on us," Savage says happily.

I'm never going to forget how Scythe called me baby the other night. It still makes me feel giddy to hear that dark rasp in my memory.

Savage puts a hand to the side of his mouth like he's telling me a secret, but says quite loudly, "His shark probably wants a taste of your— Argh!" A book flies through the air and slams into Savage's head.

But Scythe is now ignoring us and has already gone back to his work. I cast wide eyes at Savage and he nods his head conspiratorially. That explains his nose buried between my legs from before. He has been sort of obsessed with my blood.

Lyle and Savage spend the rest of the day taking turns rubbing my back and feeding me food and tablets. I manage to dodge Savage each time I need to change my pad, but he's content with the job of ‘pad-sticking monitor'. After I get back into bed each time, I make him try and read each of the random facts on the paper protectors he's been collecting.

This works surprisingly well.

I make him copy down the facts word by word into a new exercise book he's labelled ‘Savage's book of diddlings and doodlings'. I mean, if he wants to make up words, I don't see why not if it makes him connect the sounds to the letters. He's been using the book to write down lyrics to his songs and poems about me, but until now, they've mostly been pictures. Now that's changing, and he's super happy about it.

Mid-morning the next day, Lyle and I are alone in our dining room and he's feeding me a bowl of pumpkin soup and grilled cheese when a telepathic energy creeps like slime against my mental barriers.

My brows fly up. Lyle is so hyperaware of me and on alert for an attack from my dad that he puts down the soup spoon, immediately sending his power out to sense what it is.

"What is it?" he asks.

I press a finger to his lips and he growls in his throat. The unfamiliar power prods my mental shields and exudes a celestial heat.

This fucker.

Opening a tiny hole in my telepathic shield, I allow him in. "Deputy headmaster," I say smoothly, although it feels heinous to say that to anyone other than Lyle. "To what do I owe this intrusion?"

"You have not been in class for over a week and none of your mates have been cooperative in their responses," he snaps defensively. "I am simply doing my due diligence."

I see the moment Lyle's animus takes over, no doubt sensing the phoenix. Amber irises are swallowed by his dilated pupils, and his hands tighten on the armrests and he starts to rise from his chair.

The only thing I can do is clamber on top of him. I straddle him in his seat, clapping my hands over his mouth.

"Oh, I have my period," I reply. "My mates are taking care of me." I laugh. "You know how they can be."

There's a long pause on the other side. Lyle begins to snarl under the two hands pressed against his mouth. So I do the only thing I can think of and grind against him, thanking my lucky stars I chose a tampon this afternoon.

Lyle's head cocks to the side and he stops his noise. I lean in and lick his mating mark. It's imperative I stop Lyle from doing something rabid to the phoenix. We can't afford that sort of trouble right now.

Suddenly, I realise Damien hasn't replied yet.

"Sir?" I soothingly stroke Lyle's big biceps.

"We no longer permit period days, Miss Boneweaver."

Jerk. Lyle always let the animas stay in their dorms if they wanted to. There is no tricking an animus about having your period, so he never worried about people taking advantage.

On the other hand, my pain is actually okay this afternoon. As long as I keep dosed up on my painkillers, I would be alright to get out of here to class.

"Right, well, I'll be in class tomorrow morning, " I say, kissing Lyle on the neck again. "Thanks for caring."

"If you are not present in class tomorrow morning, you will be receiving a detention slip."

I said I'll be there, didn't I? Lyle senses my irritation and grabs my hips to try and remove me, so I just lean further into him, pressing my teeth against his neck and biting down softly.

"Any other threats, Lord Agnis?"

"You will attend therapy sessions with me. Enough is enough with the special treatment."

Before I can make a smart retort, his telepathic presence fades away.

I groan in annoyance, leaning back from Lyle.

"I'm going to end him."

Startled at the roughness of his voice, I blink into Lyle's animus eyes. "No, you won't," I say, pressing a kiss to his stern lips. "He was just concerned."

Nosey, more like.

Lyle frowns. "Regina."

"Don't regina me! I handled it." I shake a finger at him like he's a student. "And don't get growly at me, Mr Pardalia."

He leans forward, his breath tickling my mouth. "I'll growl at you whenever I want. I will kill whoever disrespects you whenever I fucking want."

If I was dead, that would have kickstarted my heart back up again. Suddenly, I'm hot and bothered as his fingers slide under my T-shirt, caressing small circles on my lower back.

"Kiss me," he commands. "I need to calm down."

Gladly, I obey.