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“You cannot destroy it,” Mitri informs him with authority. “We may need the information inside – “

The tenuous control I was fighting for slips from my grasp as if the tether had been oiled.

I would be lying if I said I didn’t relish it.

I’m mid-shift when Kimi’s tail whips out, breaking past the Hag’s glamour. With a snake-like quickness, it wraps around Mitri’s neck and cleanly slices his head off.

My howl is set loose from my throat as I complete the shift. The target of my rage is lying in two pieces on the floor, and I have no outlet.

Mal roars at me in warning, grabbing King and pulling him back behind him, fully succumbing to his fight-or-flight instincts. His wings flare out to block his mate from my sight, but I’m not interested in either of them.

Mike disappears with alacrity behind a closed door. I’m not concerned with him being in Bees’ presence. She can take care of herself against a weakened meat bag.

I tear into Mitri’s corpse, ripping and shredding as much of him as possible. Mal and King disappear during the distraction. I sate my hunger for the moment, then turn to the table, destroying it along with any folders that lie there.

Kimi is outside, and I can smell a fire starting as he burns her file and watches it all turning into ash.

Unsatisfied and hungry again, I crash through the glass and stalk behind him. That tail whips up and points towards me, end sharpened for piercing.

“You watch. Don’t interfere.”

His tone isn’t flat anymore. It’s filled with that darkness I’m more familiar and comfortable with. My stalk becomes an alert trot until I reach his side, his tail tracking my movements as if it can see me.

This, I understand.This, I approve of.

The file upset her, and now it suffers for it.

The immortal hurt her, and he took his head.

Sure, it’s a simplified version of emotions, but we are simpler creatures, he and I.

I look down at the Human seeming figure. Here is the determination I wanted. The willingness to crush any obstacle that stands in its way. In the form of an insane cat with the will and determination to destroy a Goddess, not once, but five times. The intelligence to know when that evil is no longer present and pause to reassess. This is what she needs. Vengeance given flesh.

With my rage lessening at every ember-filled flick of Kimi’s tail, my mind calms enough to bring rational thought to the fore.

The immortal only seeks knowledge. I shouldn’t fault him for that. He is a sociopath, after all. But, he needs to learn that actions have consequences when it comes to Bees. I think the cat beside me might be willing to help teach him. I don’t think he’s unsalvageable after this stunt. Nonetheless, it will take some time for Bees to feel the same comfort with him as she did before.

Kimi pulls the red folder out from his jacket pocket and thumbs through it, the pages blurring in his hands.

I don’t know when he snagged it from the table, but I’m grateful for it. I was too quick to destroy everything, unthinking.

Not all of these people are dead, and they need to be. He takes his time looking through the seven still left alive, his fingers tapping over each picture in a rhythm that repeats on all of them. Then he closes it and slides it back into the jacket. His tail sifts through the ashes left, ensuring nothing else is left, and any sparks are put out.

He returns to the house and holds the sliding door open for me.

The glass looks like I never broke through it. The table is once again clean to the point of sterilization and repaired. Mitri’s body is missing, and so is the gore and blood I left behind.

This infestation of brownies may not be as inconvenient as I thought. It also helps that Bees is in love with the kitchen because of them. I’ve never seen her so excited and animated over anything before. I admit I’m jealous, but the need to hunt down the blights has disappeared.

I find myself giving up a lot of things for my mate’s happiness. The least of which is allowing any of these people to stay.

What if I’m wrong about the cat? His attitudes are unreliable, and I’m finding it hard to pin him down.

I watch him take the newly stacked pile of folders off the table. I suppose my efforts at destruction weren’t as thorough as Plan B. He opens one of the doors leading to a bedroom, and Mal’s snarl echoes as he tosses them inside and says, “Study.”

Then he walks past me and down the hall to my room, opening the door and staring at me pointedly.

My lips curl back, but before I can emit any noise, he interrupts, “Clean.”