The Chase (Lionboy Trilogy #2)

Charlie Ashanti is on the run from an amazing floating circus with six homesick beautiful Lions and an extraordinary sabre-toothed creature. Charlie has promised to help the Lions find their way home to Morocco but he has his own problems: his Mum and Dad have been kidnapped and he is determined to find them. His new friends, King Boris of Bulgaria and his security chief, Edward, have promised to help. But Charlie wonders if he was wrong to trust them when he and the Lions find themselves held virtually as prisoners in Venice. They eventually escape with the help of a friendly gondolier, and after a dangerous sea journey the Lions finally make it home and Charlie is at last reunited with his parents.