Page 179 of Her Rabid Beasts

So I launch myself into a dive between the bullets and my regina, my life, my one hope. I let myself meet death. And I meet it with my eyes open.“I love you,”I send into her mind. For her, anything.

I wait for the battering of bullets. I wait for the pain.

But it doesn’t come.

Instead, a foreign power surges all around us like a gale force wind. I land back on all fours, and everyone screeches to a halt because something funny is happening.

Those black serpent guns are wrenched upwards with that same forceful power. And none of the bullets land.

The little black pieces of metal remain suspended in the air, moving slowly as if through water. I let out a happy, wolfy cackle. My regina turns around to see whose force is stopping the guns from firing and bullets from landing. So do I.

My dragon-brother lands heavily on the concrete driveway, blue-tinged black scales shining like living gems. But it’s not him who’s stopped the bullets, but the tiny, round figure sliding off his back.

Minnie. It’s Minnie with her small hands outstretched, her face dark in its anger and concentration. Yeti comes to stand behind her, placing his arms around his regina as if to protect her.

Elation tears through me, until my lion-brother growls in anger and I swing back to lock in focus on our enemies.

Tyres screech because Mace Naga has jumped into his Jeep as he peels away from the school at full speed. The other serpents leap to do the same.

In my lion-brother’s rush to follow the enemy, he doesn’t see the human who has stepped out of the car, swinging a gun and aiming straight between his eyes.

I bark a warning

But my regina is already flying through the air on the paws of the fastest beast on Earth, heading straight for the human’s throat.

But he’s seen her. He’s ready for her.

That human swings around his rifle and shoots.

My regina shifts—no, shrinks—so rapidly it’s hard to follow. Her muzzle becomes a beak and paws that are now small wings lift her into the sky. She’s a rosella. Beautiful red and blue but small. The shot misses.

Someone shouts and I think it’s the feline king.

My regina smacks into Ulman’s chest as she changes for a third and final time.

In a burst of power, she becomeshuge, leathery skinned and powerful, slamming into the human male with all the colossal weight of a fully grown saltwater crocodile.

The human’s gun clatters to the ground as more people scream. But he’s completely helpless as Aurelia’s massive, elongated jaws take his human head between them.

Andsqueezes.

The human screams. Aurelia thrashes, her bloodlust reigning supreme. I howl into the dusk with real happiness.

Then the human is silent and still, his lifeblood spilling onto the road.

My regina shifts into a human woman, scrambling off the human on her hands and knees, blood smeared across her mouth and teeth. And I realise that I’ve never seen a more magical sight. My regina is a wild, furious beast. A destroyer of men.

Chapter 77

Aurelia

My head is ringing, my mouth is full of the disgusting metallic taste of blood, and I’ve just killed a man. I retch and gag, spitting, trying to bring up the remnants of the awful truth as horror crushes me in a vise-like grip.

I’d justshiftedin front of everyone.

I’d just showneveryonewhat I was.

Seven years of fearful hiding, lying and crying all gone in one moment of?—

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