The shark gnashes his jaws at me, and Lyle removes the forearm he’s pressed to our brother’s throat, allowing both of them to prowl forward with bloodlust in their eyes.
Apparently, I’m the only sane bastard in the room.
My brothers gather around crocodile Aurelia with reverence, in something akin to ritualistic prayer, except their Goddess is a guzzling croc and her sermon is the primal sound of her consuming the entire torso of The Collector.
Aurelia hasn’t taken our captivity well, and it only hits me now how hard it affected her. The combined effect of her heat and murderous, regina rage has resulted in the most primal bloodlust. She’s pushed her mammalian side completely away and moved down, right into reptilian.
Sighing dramatically, I attend to the next important thing, which is The Collector’s messy head. I grab her by the hair, my eyes illuminating her Aurelia-punctured features. Her skull has been cracked in multiple places by Aurelia’s teeth, but she’s still recognisable.
A loud belch sounds from beside me, and I spin around, brows raised to see Aurelia with her jaws open over what remains of The Collector’s legs.
“Must leave evidence,” Savage agrees wisely. “Now she looks like the Witch of the East with her feet sticking under Dorothy’s house, only?—”
“She doesn’t evenhavethe rest of her body,” I say, trying to hide my glee.
Aurelia slumps sideways before shifting. Savage reaches for her, but she thrashes as human skin appears and her snout retracts into her human face. The four of us instinctively reach for her, my animus roaring for her gaze to touch me. She gets to her feet, and when she rises in her human form, I feel like the entire universe has roused itself in my head. As if my centre has shifted into here and now andher.
Aurelia’s fingers reach out for us, brushing along our chests, our faces, and Scythe’s teeth. “Mine,” she snarls. Her face andmouth are covered in blood. Her skin is hot, and her golden, honeyed scent fills my head. “Mine.”
“Yours!” Savage cries with glee, grabbing her face and planting a big kiss right on her bloody mouth. Lyle rubs his nose against her cheek, while Scythe’s tattooed hands reach for Aurelia’s bare stomach as if he’s soothing her old scars.
I’m suddenly aware of shuffling movements and hushed voices around us. Connor, Minnie, and Sabrina are huddled together and peering at us with a group of Katerina’s collared servants. I don’t say anything, I just raise The Collector’s head. One of the servants faints, and Minnie clutches her stomach. Connor presses his hands to his face, shaking his head back and forth like this is a nightmare.
“I thought…” He covers his mouth. “We need to get the others out.”
Aurelia suddenly appears at my side. “Lorian,” she growls.
“Who?” Connor asks.
“The unicorn,” I clarify.
His face, already ashen, seems to fall. “They moved him out of his cell a few nights ago, but…”
“But what?” Aurelia stalks forward, and her appearance makes her friends flinch. Minnie’s eyes, however, light up. “Where are the rest of the guards?”
“Dealt with,” Sabrina says, tugging the cords of a strange black cat suit. “Rounded up or dead by Hyacinth.” She wrenches forward one of the guards wrapped in so many ropes I can’t see his uniform anymore. Sabrina holds up bunches of keys. “Took these off Stacey’s rex.”
By the ever-loving gods.
“Take me to Lorian,” Aurelia says to Connor.
“Free the rest of the captives,” I say to the others. “And for the retinal scanners…” I hold up The Collector’s head. “That should do it.”
Minnie and Sabrina are more morbid than I ever gave them credit for because Minnie grabs the head by its hair and the two run off cackling, their captive between them. No wonder the anima girl gang gets along so well.
Connor, looking like he wants to vomit, reaches out for Aurelia. With a cute grunt, she takes his hand, and together the two animas lead the way. Scythe and Lyle try to shove past me, but I manage to elbow Lyle and hurry ahead of them.
The scent of blood tints the air as we pass the cages Katerina was keeping the Animal Justice captives in. Crocs thrash in the river on our left, and it doesn’t take me long to see where Connor is leading us.
My eyes are like a spotlight beam on the metal hut in the middle of the thickest part of the river. No fewer than ten full-size saltwater crocodiles lie on the banks on either side, and more glowing eyes stare at us, half submerged in the water. Their kind don’t usually come out when there’s no sun to bake in, but the blood of the events of tonight has sparked their interest. At our approach, the fattest of them swings a mighty head to look at us. A Jurassic bellow resounds from the opposite side.
“This is their favourite spot,” Connor says, gulping. “They specifically feed them here.”
The carcasses of the humans I’d killed had disappeared rather quickly. No doubt their remains had been scattered all through here. “Is the top of the hut open?” I say, wondering if I can fly in and wrench it off its foundation.
“Yeah, but uh…they canjumpten feet into the air,” Connor says, “and the top of it has a metal mesh. He can still see the sky, but no one’s getting him out of that without opening the steel door with the retinal scan.”
My regina wanders forwards, brushing the wire fence with her fingers. Another croc bellows in warning. Connor shivers.
