“Stop her!” Dr. Henry’s voice cut through the noise. He battled Beck, who backed him against a tree.
Two figures broke away from the fighting and sprinted toward me. One was a petite woman with glowing yellow eyes. The other was a hulking blond man whose muscles strained against his black jacket. Both moved with inhuman speed.
I snatched up a metal stand and brandished it like a baseball bat. The woman reached me first. She lunged, her fingers curled into claws. At the last second, I spun away, and air whistled past my head as the woman staggered past me. A second later, a bear rounded the utility truck and tackled the woman to the ground.
She screamed, eyes rolling as the bear slashed her throat.
A mix of triumph and revulsion seared my chest.
A growl made me swing to the right. The blond man leapt a pile of smashed equipment, his red-rimmed eyes focused on me.
I lifted the stand.
He laughed, displaying blood-stained teeth. “You smell like a bear. Like a little bitch in heat.”
My insides trembled. The pole slipped in my hands, which had grown sweaty. He charged forward, and I swung hard.
The man caught the pole and wrenched it from my grasp. I stumbled backward, slipping on the snow and landing hard on my ass. Glass crunched beneath me. Pain shot up my spine.
With another mocking laugh, the man reached for me. I dug my heels into the ground and tried to scuttle backward. My vision filled with red-rimmed eyes and blood-stained teeth. Crying out, I flailed in the snow, trying to get my feet under me. My fingers closed around something hard and solid. I swung.
Light arced across the man’s face.
He shrieked, spinning away. Smoke rose from a searing wound across his face and neck. His face twisted in agony as he clawed at his burning flesh.
Scrambling to my feet, I stared at the device I’d plucked from the snow. It was a handheld ultraviolet disinfection wand. The light was powerful enough to kill bacteria and sterilize equipment.
Powerful enough to burn vampires—and humans on the edge of becoming vampires.
The man swung back to me with a snarl. Flesh melted down his face, exposing the bone of his eye socket. “You’re going to pay for that, cunt.”
“Not if I make you pay first,” I said, pointing the wand at him. Concentrated light splashed his face. He screamed, his lips peeling back and becoming pinkish liquid. They ran down his face as he continued screaming. Embers spread beneath his skin, glowing orange as the top of his coat merged with his flesh.
He burst into flames, his screams abruptly silenced. He fell to his knees and stayed upright for one terrifying second. Then he crashed to his side. The snow snuffed the flames, but smoke rolled from the top of his head.
Around the clearing, the other humans stopped fighting. Horror covered their faces as they stared at the smoking corpse.
Cal—his light fur distinctive among the bears—ripped into the human he grappled with. I swung the wand toward them, and light slanted across the man’s arm. He shrieked, stumbling. Smoke poured from his sleeve. Cal closed his mouth around the man’s throat. Bone crunched, and the man sagged in Cal’s jaws.
Surging forward, I shone the light on the man’s dangling body. He convulsed once, then went still as flames consumed him.
Dr. Henry swung away from Beck, fury contorting his features. But something else lurked beneath the rage.
Fear.
He was two thousand years old. But I held the sun.
Hefting the wand, I found the dial and cranked the intensity to full power. The light gleamed white, distorting the air around it. Darting around broken glass, I ran toward Dr. Henry with the wand held high.
“No!” he shouted.
I swung the beam over him.
He hissed, throwing up a hand to shield himself. His sleeve began to smoke.
Beck roared, saliva dripping from his jaws. Dr. Henry turned and tried to run. Beck slashed a massive paw down, his claws raking over Dr. Henry’s back. Four deep gashes opened. Immediately, blood soaked his lab coat.
Dr. Henry stumbled.
