Page 35 of Her Psycho Beasts

We’re close enough to kiss, and mesmerised by the shape of his lips, I sway forward. “Uh!” he chides like I’m a naughty dog. “Try that again and I’ll drown you.” My pussy clenches in annoyance and desperation and Xander’s nostrils flare. “I’m regretting this already.”

“Me too, dragon-man,” I mutter, raising my roll of picks and selecting two of them. “No funny business, or I’m reporting you to Damien.”

He scoffs, and it makes me want to cover his mouth with mine. “What, a phoenix can surely take down a dragon, right?” I insert my picks into the lock on the shackles and get to work.

“They wish,” Xander mutters. I’m briefly distracted by his mouth moving before I drag my eyes back to my work. “Preening pansies, the lot of them. Why do you think they’re dying out?”

I’m concentrating so hard that it takes me a while to realise that something is happening near my crotch and it’s not me at fault this time. My anima fluffs her wings with satisfaction and I move my hips just a little on the pretence of adjusting my seat. Yup, I wasn’t wrong about the dragon sized?—

“Stop it,” he snarls.

“I have a wedgie.”

“You’ll have something worse in a second.”

“Looking forward to it.”

He turns his head aside and leans back as far away from me as possible, exhaling a stream of dragon smoke through his nose.

“You should really do something about that anger problem,” I say conversationally, narrowing my eyes as I focus on mysecond pick, going by feel, like Sabrina taught me. “It’s not good for your blood pressure.” There’s a small click and I bounce in happiness. “Got it!” I cry.

But exactly a heartbeat later, the entire cavern around us shakes.

“Earthquake!” Connor shrieks.

Xander straightens his knee and I go plummeting into the water. I get my toes under me just in time, pulling at Xander’s shirt to push my head above the water.

“Fucker!” I splutter, slapping him in the chest.

He turns away from me, dropping his shackles into the water with a splash. “It’s not an earthquake,” he says, pushing me away from him. “It’s?—”

The cavern rumbles again, shaking the water and sending it sloshing around us. I cop a wave of it to my face and I choke, clawing at the people around me. One of the wolf animuses grabs a drowning Raquel and pulls them into him.

“Xander, get her!” Minnie’s voice is harsh.

Henry chirps angrily from somewhere up high.

“She’s fine,” Xander drawls. One big arm grabs me around the waist and hauls me above the water. I’m pressed to Xander’s side, my legs around his hips like a toddler as I wipe my face and wheeze air into my lungs. Henry hovers in front of me, checking if I’m okay.

“What’s going on?” Minnie asks. “The entire place is—” She cuts herself off, staring at something over my shoulder and her lips part in a sort of disbelief.

“What’s that?” Ashton shouts.

“Show off,” Xander mutters.

There’s a massive crack followed by a splintering sound, and then all at once, the lights in the cavern turn on and the glass tank around usshatters.

Water whooshes out in a roar and Xander lets me go. I slide down his body like a pole before turning around to see what everyone is staring at.

Not what.

Butwho.

Striding determinedly through the waves of water now gushing about his ankles is an imposing beast I’ve seen a few times in underground fighting rings before. Feline grace lines every muscled limb, clothed in black jeans and a black shirt, open down to his chest, revealing inky black tattoos and a golden chain around his neck. In one hand, he holds a bouquet of bright pink roses, wrapped in matching pink paper. His face bears many small, mysterious black tattoos and even if I hadn’t learned more about him in Scythe’s memories, my anima has always sensed that this is a dangerous tiger.

Mad Marduk the Caspian tiger is a scary bedtime story for our kind.

He waves his free hand, full of gold rings, and the five walls and of the obsidian cage groan before they fall outward, opening us up to the freedom of the cavern. The barred frame above us simply flips backward like a lid before crashing to the floor behind us.

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