That Rex Gotta Roar - Julia Mills Page 0,39

you were sunning your bony behind on one beach or another or the deck of your last boyfriend's yacht, I was working."

Getting into the 'argument' part of our ruse a little too much. Venting more hostility than I realized I had, I was shouting and taking one step after another closer to the now seething Vanessa Vandermere. Pounding on my own chest with my fist like I was auditioning for Tarzan, I belted out, "I take my profession, my Flock, my friends, my home, my LIFE very seriously, and I will not let you..."

“Let me what you little, useless, yellow bird?” Vanessa swooped down, stuck her pointed nose in my face, and hissed. “You think you can stop me?”

“Oh, hell yeah, I know I can stop you, you…” I was stuck. I was so mad I didn’t have the words to finish.

It was a stalemate - a good old standoff. We were two pissed off women staring each other down like the Gates of Hell weren't swinging open, and the Veil between life as we all knew it and the Underworld wasn't coming apart in my backyard. (Sure, it was a little childish. But it was all part of the plan. Or, at least I improvised on the plan and made it better, don’t you think? I know. I’m reachin’. But you can’t blame a Canary for tryin’.)

Standing there, glaring at one another, magic snapping and crackling all around Vanessa and steam coming out of my ears, I could admit to myself that I had jumped right off the deep end. However, I couldn't back down. I couldn't stop. It had been brewing for years. Then I heard, “Clem. Clem. Clementine Sue Cooper, I can feel how passionate you are, but you better get a move on,” from none other than the Almighty Shifter Wanker, and whatever sense I had lost in my verbal sparring with Vanessa actually returned to my brain.

Using my Inner Eye, my Psychicness, or just good old intuition, whichever the case might have been, I will never really know, I realized that my people, my Flock, those besties from the nesties who never let me down had fanned out into a semi-circle behind me just as Zelda designed.

Unfortunately, so did Vanessa.

Whipping her bony ass back up into the sky, her hands went over her head, and her fingers made jazz-hands towards the eerie, black, upside-down funnel cloud that was spitting out ravenous, rabies-ridden bats like they were JuJuBes. "Oh, no, you don't. I came here to raise Hell and rid the world of Clementine Cooper and her merry band of birdbrains, and that's exactly what I plan to do!"

Glowing, dark, horrible evil magic flew from her fingertips at precisely the same minute that bloodred smoke, bright green bubbles, and enough golden sparkles to decorate all of Times Square on New Year's Eve flew right beside my left ear. Meeting in midair, Zelda's angry, but very, very good magic met Vanessa's yucky, nasty stinky crap with a resounding bam, forming a big old ball of powerful mysticism that made the air itself shake and shimmer.

This was not the plan.

Neither was a six-foot-two Wild Boar, a six-foot-four Hound Dog, a Mule that was bigger than both, and one seriously pissed off Ostrich, who had to be seven-foot tall streaking across through the flames of the east garden of Thomas Manor, but that shit was happening, too. Whoever said the Shifters of Tallulu Parish weren't fierce had never seen us when we were protecting our own.

And that was when Vanessa realized she was surrounded.

Spinning around with such force that the long tails of her black overcoat flew out from behind her like a pair of beat-up, holey wings, that crazy Daughter - of - a - Voodoo - Priest - without - an - ounce - of - magic - that's - her - own made it as far as shouting, "GET THEM!" to her army of Things before she was knocked right out of the air by none other than my hunka-hunka-prehistoric hotness – Tank - in full, glorious T-Rex form.

It happened so quickly I almost missed it. From one tick of the watch I wasn't wearing to the next, my Mate went from super sexy, hunky man to gigantinormous Tyrannosaurus Rex. It was audacious. (And I don't use that word lightly.)

Spinning on one of his massive paws, my Mate swung his enormous tail like it was a Louisville Slugger and knocked that crazy bitch right out of