"Stupid mutt. Skinning it was harder than I thought."
Yolanda stepped out, her hands slick with blood. She waved them in front of me, casual, almost playful.
My eyes flooded red.
"You killed Mochi?"
"Yep." She didn't even flinch. There was a note of pride in her voice. "He bit me. What did he expect? Besides, Lewis said I could. He knows I'm studying veterinary medicine, and my dissection skills need work. So he let me practice on it."
Practice.
The word drove into my chest like a poisoned needle.
I snatched a wooden stick off the ground and swung it at her, my vision blurred with rage. "Yolanda! I'll kill you!"
The stick never reached her. A large hand caught it mid-swing.
"Letitia. Are you done?"
Lewis's voice was cold as ice.
I looked at him. The hand gripping the stick trembled.
"Lewis, you let her kill Mochi? Are you even human? Do you have a heart at all? How could you do that to him?"
Lewis swept his gaze over the wreckage on the floor. Something flickered in his eyes—a flash of pain, gone almost instantly, buried beneath that familiar cold mask.
"It was just a dog."
Just a dog.
A dog.