“Can’t this thing go any faster?” Salvatore shouted. He could smell the sisters. They were only a few miles away.

Rathbone gave Salvatore a quick, sidelong glance. “About time you grew back your spine. Listen, I never really blamed you, boy. I was just mad. I might have been confused, too.”

Salvatore nodded, knowing it was the closest thing he’d ever get to an apology from the man.

“You picking up their scent?”

Salvatore nodded again. “We’re only a few miles off.” But as soon as the words left his lips, he caught a new scent lingering in the air. “I smell blood. It’s Abby’s. We may be too late!”

“Mangus,” Rathbone shouted over his shoulder to the soldier behind them. “Yank the automatic and load the electric net launcher. If that girl is still alive, we may have to net her.”

Rathbone glanced at Salvatore. “You ever shoot an automatic?”

Salvatore shook his head.

“No problem. Best way to learn is to shoot one. Mangus, show him how to fire it.”

“I won’t need it, I can morph and attack.”

“You keep your butt in this Jeep until I say otherwise. You morphing and killing a few ferals won’t get your girlfriend back. That machine gun will blow away dozens of those monsters before you could claw the life out of one. You just fire the gun and help carve us a path. Now hop in the back and man that weapon!”

Salvatore climbed into the back. Mangus smiled and handed him the machine gun.

“Abby, no, we don’t have to do this!” Nothing Pippa could say would matter. Abby was mad, and her rabid mind wouldn’t let her see the truth. Yet Pippa pleaded with her. “You’re my sister. We’re family!”

“Family? This is my family,” Abby hissed, cocking her head toward the growing pack of ferals surrounding the pit. They were gurgling and gnashing their teeth, awaiting the kill.

“You lied to me,” Abby said. “You took Salvatore from me! Uncle Alex told me!” She looked over her shoulder at nothing, nodded, and then turned back to Pippa. “He told me everything. About how you knew all along that we were sisters. That our mother was still alive, but you killed her only a few months ago when you discovered your werecat side. Now you’re going to pay for it all.”

Pippa prepared to defend herself. She knew Abby was seeing ghosts, just as she had seen Keenan, who had prodded her to kill. “Abby, don’t listen to him, he’s not real. Alex is a figment of your imagination!”

Abby laughed. “He told me you’d say that!”

Pippa’s heart sank as she watched her rabid sister begin to morph. Abby screamed out her hatred as her body grew and twisted, stretching nearly to the breaking point. Abby meant to fight to the death, but Pippa would do everything she could to keep from killing her own sister—which gave Abby a big advantage.

Pippa called her rabid side. Her muscles and tendons grew and stretched, and she cried out with the pain of it. She had to control herself, even while in a maddened state. Abby was snarling, and the horde of creatures peering down at her from above growled in response. But now Pippa heard another noise, off in the distance, beyond the growls.

The sound of speeding four-wheelers caught the ears of the ferals. They turned and howled into the night. Pippa felt a brief surge of hope at the thought that Rathbone was coming, but that split-second lapse in concentration gave Abby her chance. She leaped and pinned Pippa to the bottom of the pit and sank her teeth into Pippa’s shoulder.

“Abby,” Pippa cried out in pain. Blood poured from her wound, staining her shirt. The ferals shrieked in glee. Pippa had never experienced such pain. She nearly blacked out, but her agony quickly turned to rage. Her senses heightened, and she morphed deeper into the rabid state. She pushed and clawed and heaved herself up and wrenched her sister’s jaw from her shoulder. The advantage had switched. Pippa hurled Abby toward the side of the pit and heard the breath squeezed from her sister’s lungs as she slammed into it. Abby sank to the ground, unconscious.

Ferals above screamed in fury, but they were screaming at the humans and werecats who had come to save Pippa. She tried to claw her way out of the pit, but even in her cat form the pain in her shoulder was nearly too much to bear. When she stopped to rest only a few feet from the top, she felt a crushing grip around her ankles and was yanked back into the pit.

Abby swung Pippa by her feet and sent her flying. Pippa hit the side of the pit and felt bones crunch and ribs break. Every breath sent pain shooting through her. She looked up and saw Abby coming in for the kill. Overhead, gunfire filled the air, but her friends were too late. Abby was in the air, only feet away. As she waited for death, she saw a vision of light wrap itself around her sister. Then everything went black.

It is time, the three beings announced. Glide, our children, find the bloodline that holds your father’s retribution. Protect the doctor and return to us when it is done.

Dr. Jack Tanner nodded to the three creatures who had given him life and then turned and ran from their nocturnal safehaven. As the other nocturnals followed their new leader, Aiden stood still, watching them fade into the night, unsure how he would keep up. He felt the cold touch of a wing on his right arm. It sent a shiver of fear through him. He turned toward the three creatures. They nodded and pierced his mind with their eyes.

Don’t fear us. We mean you no harm. You can run with our children. You must become the true hybrid that lives within you. Call forth your werecat and reptilian forms.

Aiden was confused.

See them joining together. Feel them becoming one.

Aiden closed his eyes and concentrated. He saw both forms in his mind’s eye and called for them. As they came forward, he watched them combine into one. He opened his eyes and saw his reflection in the water. He was now a true hybrid, the only one of its kind. He had morphed and not realized it. No pain had expressed itself as he changed. The sight was exhilarating. He was the perfect union of reptile and mammal. He was spotted green and hairy, with the teeth of a cat and the claws of a reptile. He stood over eight feet tall, and his arms and legs were well muscled. He breathed the air as if for the first time. Energy filled his body, and he crouched like a runner ready to race. His legs uncoiled, and he sprang forward. In an instant, he was gone.

The three beings returned to the cold darkness of their home and morphed back into their human forms, revealing three men, weathered and aged. They sent their thoughts outward. By the Ancients, may you succeed, Jack Tanner.

Rathbone and his men had been prepared for battle and unleashed a killing spree against the ferals, wiping out most of them. A group of men descended into the pit and tended to Pippa, who was barely alive. When she was stable, they used ropes and pulleys to pull her and Abby out of the pit.

“Good thing you sniffed them out,” Rathbone said to Salvatore. “They would’ve killed each other.”

Salvatore and Rathbone watched as Abby fought against the electric net that bound her. She screamed and clawed like a rabid animal. Any regular human would have been rendered unconscious from the jolt.

“Tranq her,” Rathbone yelled. “That’s the only way we’ll be able to subdue her.” A man jabbed a needle into Abby’s leg, and she screamed in protest.

Mangus appeared beside Rathbone and Salvatore. “We’ve heard from the Tar Pits, sir.”

“And?”

“They’ve barricaded themselves in the safehold. They’re surrounded by hundreds of ferals. The entire city is overrun. They don’t know where they’re coming from or why.”

“I do,” Rathbone said. “They’ve been breeding like animals for decades, especially down south. Their numbers have grown, and they’re searching for food. Something is drawing them north. Maybe they sense the safehold in the mountains. Regardless, we need to wipe them out before they devour every human and werecat in their path. Have you heard from Rebecka?”

“Yes, sir. She radioed in a few minutes ago. She’s only an hour behind us.”

“Radio her back. Give her our coordinates and tell her we’ll wait for her team. Then radio the Tar Pits. Tell them we’re coming for them.” It would take three or four hours to reach the Pits. Rathbone hoped they wouldn’t be too late.

Salvatore stared at Abby as she finally succumbed to the tranquilizer. Pippa looked as if she’d been snapped in two. It had taken eight men, four in the pit, four out, to remove her on a gurney.

“Thought your kind healed quickly,” Rathbone said to Salvatore. “Even from a feral attack.”

“We usually do,” Salvatore replied. “But these girls aren’t normal werecats. They’re rabid. Who’s to say what kind of damage they’ve done to each other.”

Salvatore turned away so Rathbone wouldn’t see the tears sliding down his face. The thought of losing Abby was too much to bear. And if she did survive, how could he tell her he was a traitor?