“They sound like dragons,” Savage says, also stepping forward to join her. “But even dragons can be killed.”
There is movement in the water, a giant splash, then a full-grown, naked man crawls out of the river and straightens. He’s thick like a bull, no less than six and a half feet of brown skin and huge muscle with slitted, yellow pupils. He points an oversized finger at us. Okay, so this just got significantly worse. Natural, even rabid crocs I could deal with, but a whole colony with human intelligence?
Aurelia snarls at the animus, baring her teeth and still-bloody mouth in challenge. “Let’s fucking do this.”
I have to do a double take at this regina of mine. Lyle and Savage also blink at her like they’ve seen a new dawn. A second later, feathers are sprinkling over me, and she’s burst into her eagle form. She takes flight and swiftly makes her way over the fence, towards the metal hut.
“Wait for me!” Savage cries, hurriedly hooking his fingers into the fence and climbing.
“There’s barbed wire at the top!” I warn. Savage cusses me out, his eyes only for his regina. But then Lyle’s animus is blasting his power into the fence, and the entire thing bends over like an old man. Metal screeches, water splashes, and tails thrash. Aurelia gives a shrill cry, and I swear bloody murder.
“Lyle!” Aurelia admonishes, a regina command ringing through the air and making us all freeze.
Chapter 34
Lyle
My rabid lion gets shoved back behind his chained door at the sound of my regina’s cry. My vision clears, and the night is suddenly open to me, along with the mob crocs thrashing in the water now that I’ve pushed down the fence. A metallic shriek pierces the air as some parts of it snap, but I’ve shoved it hard enough for the central point to lie useless in the water.
My rabid lion has always been…ambitious.
Connor lets loose a shout, and he sprints back to the main house like hell itself is after him. Xander groans in annoyance as five crocs charge at us, something scarily human flashing in their eyes. I lash out with my telekinesis, realising too late that order powers don’t work on crocs. Savage lunges onto the back of one large animus, wrestling its jaws shut with his bare hands.
“Anyone got duct tape? I’ve seen them do this on TV!” our wolf calls excitedly.
“Yeah, sure, just in my fucking pocket!” Xander shouts, his fire whip snaking out and wrapping the snout of another croc.
The issue is that two more are coming for him. And for me. And for Scythe.
The shark in him is silent as he yanks off his belt with a snap and leaps right over the first croc charging for him, and heads for the second. I have no time to see how he manages to use his belt, but since I can’t use telekinesis on the crocs, I use it to shoot myself towards my regina where she stands on the metal roof of the hut in the middle of the water. My bare feet land in a crouch on top of it with a heavy metallic thud. She’s trying to wrench off the metal mesh that covers the structure.
“A little help here!” Savage demands from the bank, still on the thrashing croc. I pick up Savage and whizz him over to us on the roof, followed by Scythe, who had two crocs creeping up on him from behind. Xander…looks like he’s managing fine, so I leave him be.
“Great!” he shouts sarcastically at me, no less than five glowing fire whips anchored to his fingers like a puppet master as he wrestles with the crocs he’s bound.
“You’re a dragon, remember!” Savage shouts, cupping his hands to his mouth. Xander drops his head back in annoyance before he shifts. Clothes tear, cartilage snaps, and the ground shakes as a mighty black dragon replaces the human male.
I always forget just howbigthe bastard is.
He wastes no time in opening that maw. Orange-yellow fire spills over the land, fence and river, roasting as it goes, steaming up the water and boiling the shallower parts on the bank. We all have to turn away for a moment, covering our eyes and faces as heat and light turn this part of the world into a small hell.
When the fire clears, I turn around to see smoke billowing into the sky. The metal fence is now nothing but a hunk of melted and twisted mess. This is not the case, unfortunately, for the fifteen very angry crocs who have now become hulking human males and females.
“They can’t be killed by dragon fire?” Savage cries, clutching the sides of his face because even he knows we’re outnumberedhere. It’s then that I notice the movement on the side of my eye. Savage roars and punches the leaping croc right in the throat. It splashes back in the water, but three others try their luck in quick succession.
“We need to get out of here, regina,” I say, thumping the metal roof. “This thing is bound with hyena magic.”
“I’m not leaving him!” my regina snarls at me.
Immediately, I’m ashamed of myself. But a commanding voice travels across the air like a spear, “Move aside!” and we all stare as none other than Celeste Agnis sprints towards us with Minnie, Connor, and Sabrina behind her. Celeste explodes into a ball of red fire, fading away to reveal her brilliant phoenix form.
The crocodiles charge at our friends, and Aurelia stands up with a cry of dismay. But the lady phoenix breathes fire over the riverbank. This time, it’s magical phoenix fire that blasts the descending crocs, the sound nothing but a screaming cry.
The heat and magic singe the hairs on my skin and pulls my regina into the protection of us three males. But there is another female scream, and Minnie is soaring into the air in terror, a white-faced Sabrina in her arms, her right arm in bloody pieces.
And that’s because the phoenix fire did not touch the charging crocs. I whip a frantic Connor up into the air, dumping him on Xander’s back.
“Lia!” Savage cries, and it’s then that I notice my regina isvibrating.
