He laughed arrogantly. “Not everyone can have these. They were hand-picked for me.”
“Then…” I batted my eyes before letting my smile drop. “I suppose I’ll have these ones.”
My fingers elongated into claws mid-sentence, and I drove them straight into his eye and ripped it out.
His scream rippled through the lab as he shoved me backward. “YOU BITCH!” Blood streamed down his face. I blinked at my claws, one hooked around a bright purple eyeball.
Got one.
“Nyx! Kill her!” he screamed.
?*“Boys,” I yelled, “let’s tear them to shreds.”
Conrad flashed into existence beside the doctor, his hand snapping around the man’s throat. Rage vibrated off him like static. “You laid your hands on her?! You die today.”
The air shifted for a split-second before a spear of compressed wind shot toward him, and instinct took over. I kicked his leg out, knocking him off balance. The look he gave me was one of disbelief, but when his arm began dripping blood instead of his heart, he let it go real quick.
“Nova!” Zeth appeared at my side, hauling me up by the arms.
Across the room, a blur of midnight fur and iridescent streaks slammed into Nyx, pinning her to the ground with a jaguar’s snarl.
The doctor crabwalked away on his hands, panting. “Let’s see how you facethese.” Giggling, he slapped a red button on the wall.
Chains rattled onto the ground. That guttural growl from earlier echoed again—closer. Angrier.
“Tear them apart,” he shrieked. “Make them bleed!”
Something lurched out of the shadows, a twisted mass forced into a body it didn’t want.
Fluorescent light illuminated all the bumps and deformities of this creature. A hunched spine, patches of fur fighting for territory along with bare flesh. One side of its head bulged grotesquely, pulsing with green fluid, and a single long fang emerged from its mouth. Its fists were two slabs, meaty hammers forged to crush bone.
We all stepped back, catching our breath.
“Zeth,” I murmured, “can you control it?”
He closed his eyes and hurled his power at the creature. When the blast hit, the thing staggered, then shook it off like rain. Zeth strained harder, face contorting and body trembling with the force he was pushing into it.
“I… can’t…” he gasped, chest heaving, sweat along his brow. “I can’t take over.”
The monster took a step toward us, and I knew all hell was about to break loose.
Zeth pulled the magical guns from the back of his waistband—one for each hand—and snapped them open to load each with a glowing round. His voice was steady, focused. “I think the heart is the core. That’s where the magic’s concentrated.”
Before I could answer, a sharp whine sliced through the air.
I snapped my head back just in time to see Nyx fling Deslen across the jagged wall like a discarded toy. His body smacked into the stone wall with a crack that tore a cry from my throat. He slid down. Didn’t move.
No—
She lifted herself with air currents, gliding across the room until she hovered above him. Air spear forming. Arm raised. All her power aimed at the man I?—
No. No, no, no?—
I lunged forward even though I knew I wouldn’t make it in time. If I couldn’t save him, I’d at least bring her down with me.
A feral growl split the air, and she paused.
Midnight fur tore past me, a blur of fangs and raw fury. The wolf hit her midair, driving her into the ground. Claws and teeth ripped into her throat before she could scream properly. Blood painted the wall as her body convulsed beneath him.
