Page 7 of A Malicious Menagerie (Fangs & Fables #1)

Before I can wonder for too long, a shadow cuts in front of the red light, plunging the cave into darkness.

My heart plummets to my feet as icy fear prickles my skin and crystallizes in my veins.

Then, just as suddenly as it vanished, the light returns, just in time to illuminate a gaping maw full of needle-sharp teeth.

I scream, lunging backward so quickly that I stumble and fall on my ass.

Still, that vicious jaw keeps coming for me…

before instead snapping up the shark carcass and shaking it like a rag doll.

More blood blooms in the water, and I slap my palm over my mouth to keep from shrieking again.

I can’t look away as the massive serpent makes quick work of its meal, tearing the former predator to pieces and gobbling them down.

The beast’s long, sinuous body is covered in alternating bands of black and red scales, and jagged obsidian spikes adorn the length of its spine.

As it lashes its tail, I notice a set of barbs at the end that could easily impale a decent-sized whale with one powerful swing.

Overall, the stuff of my nightmares.

“What the hell are you screaming about?” a voice calls from the other side of the cavern. I flinch again as I whip my head toward the sound. John stomps toward me, the irritated look on his face easy to interpret even in the anemic light.

Feeling shaken and not too generous myself, I push to my feet and snap, “ Oh, I don’t know, maybe the massive creature that just ate a shark in front of me?!”

“Massive?” John squints at the serpent and sizes him up. “I mean, he’s relatively small for a sea serpent. He’s not fully grown yet.”

My jaw drops. “Not fully grown? He must be forty feet long!”

John shrugs. “Last one Mathis had was prob’ly sixty feet before he traded it out for this one. No idea how big they can actually get.”

My forehead furrows in confusion. “Why would he trade it out?”

He looks at me like I’m being purposefully dense. “Got too big for the tank. Had to kill it and sell it for parts.”

I just stare at him incredulously, my stomach roiling as I process those callous words. “It’s not a car . You can’t just scrap it.”

“Sure you can. Rich ladies like the scales for jewelry, and the meat is a delicacy.”

I press a hand to my stomach, willing back the bile. “That’s just wrong.”

He glares at me. “You eat meat?”

I narrow my eyes at him. “Yes?”

“Then there you go. No different than a cow.”

Somehow, it feels different from a cow, but I have bigger fish to… I mean, bigger issues to discuss. “Okay, for the sake of argument, we can say eating a mythical water monster is the same as eating a cow. What about the centaur?”

John frowns. “Don’t think anyone would want to eat them.”

“Because it comes a little too close to cannibalism?!” I splutter.

“They’re not human,” John argues hotly. “Can’t call it cannibalism if they’re not human.”

“Okay, maybe they’re not human, but they are people .”

He waves away my words. “I wouldn’t say that.”

“I would. He spoke to me—in his own language and in English.”

He suddenly grins. “What did he say?”

I flush and mutter, “He told me to fuck off.”

He chuckles, like this is all just so amusing. “Learned that one from me. Got sick of him jabbering at me. ”

The nerve of this asshole. “ Talking, not jabbering. Trying to communicate with you in his language, and picking up on our language along the way. With that kind of intelligence, you’re really going to stand there and try to convince me that keeping a person captive isn’t wrong?”

John’s humor fades and is replaced by indignation. “I just told you, he’s not a person. He’s a fucking horse.”

“Horses don’t talk!”

“Fine, Anna ,” he growls, spitting my name like a Mongolian death worm might spit venom, “then what are you gonna do? Petition Mathis to let him go? Free him yourself? I’ll tell you right now, he’s not going to fit in the back seat of the company car.

I’ll also tell you that Mathis will chew you up and spit you out if you turn on him. He owns you now.”

“No one ‘owns’ me,” I hiss scathingly.

He only smirks. “You keep thinking that, and you’re only going to end up getting yourself in trouble.

Let me guess—your mommy or daddy is neck-deep in debt?

” I don’t give him the satisfaction of an answer, but he continues anyway.

“What do you think will happen to mommy or daddy if you double-cross your billionaire boss?”

I grit my teeth so hard I’m at risk of cracking a molar, but the more I think about it, the more I realize that he’s right.

I signed a contract and, on top of that, an NDA, so I can’t even go to anyone for help with this.

And while I can quit the job (with two weeks’ notice, anyway), where does that leave Nan?

I’ll be back to square one, looking for a third job to make ends meet.

John must interpret my silence as defeat, and he smirks knowingly. “That’s what I thought. So, if you’re done with your tour, why don’t I teach you how to feed the kraken?”

I don’t bother telling him that I barely even started my tour.

I also don’t react to the news that krakens are real and that there’s one hanging out in a landlocked urban warehouse.

Honestly, at this point, all I want to do is survive the night and go home.

I need to lie in my bed and sort out what the hell I’m going to do now.

Before I follow John, I cast one last look back at the tank.

Once again, the only thing that moves is the seaweed as it dances and whirls in unseen currents, and the only indication that the beast was ever there at all is the smallest scraps of white flesh suspended in the water.

Suppressing a shudder, I trot after John and back into the light.