Ivy gave Landon’s hand a squeeze; then she and Clayne ran ahead, tracking Declan’s and Kendra’s scents. They set a fast pace, which forced the rest of the team to commit almost all their attention to keeping up. But Angelo trusted the shifters to alert them if any hybrids got close enough to be a threat.
Clayne came back fifteen minutes later to report that Declan and Kendra had been moving fast, running whenever the terrain would allow it. A few minutes later, Ivy materialized out of the darkened jungle to tell them why they’d been in such a hurry—there’d been a lot of hybrids on their trail.
Angelo swore. He hated thinking of Kendra running through the jungle while a pack of bloodthirsty hybrids nipped at her heels. He’d liked her from the moment they’d met in Washington State and couldn’t stand the thought of something happening to her. She was smart, resourceful, and loyal to her friends. But she wasn’t a soldier, and she wasn’t used to the stress of being hunted like an animal. Angelo prayed Declan could keep her safe long enough for the rescue party to catch up to them. At the pace Ivy and Clayne were setting, that shouldn’t be too long.
But two hours later, their pace slowed considerably until finally the two shifters up front came to a complete stop. Clayne disappeared into the jungle while Ivy doubled back to let them know what the hell was going on.
“We’ve lost Declan’s and Kendra’s scents.”
Derek frowned. “What do you mean, lost them? Like they were captured?”
Ivy shook her head. “No. It just disappeared. I think Declan is using something to cover their scent, but I’ll be damned if I know what it is. Clayne is trying to follow them using their physical tracks instead, but that’s hard to do in the jungle at night. It’s going to slow us way down.”
“If you two are having problems tracking them, maybe the hybrids will, too,” Angelo said.
As they waited for Clayne to return, Angelo grabbed a quick bite to eat. He was just putting away a half-eaten energy bar when Ivy’s head snapped up.
Six weapons swung in the direction she was looking as if they had a mind of their own.
“What’s wrong?” Landon whispered.
“Clayne’s headed back, and he’s not alone,” she said softly.
“Declan and Kendra?” Derek asked hopefully.
“Hybrids—a lot of them.”
Angelo’s hands tightened around his weapon.Shit.
Landon quickly positioned them for a hasty ambush, spreading everyone out in a loose line. He put Angelo on security, along with Brent and Butler. Their job would be to not only lay fire into the kill zone, but also to act as a reaction force in the event that any of the hybrids tried to slip around their flanks.
“Wait for Clayne to come through here before you open fire,” Landon ordered. “Initiate on my signal unless compromised.”
Thirty seconds later, Clayne came running so fast he was almost a blur, a pack of snarling hybrids on his heels.
Landon put a three-round burst through the chest of the first. Angelo took that as his signal and started shooting. Everyone else around him did, too, and the jungle came alive with the sound of gunfire and the glowing zip of tracer rounds.
One big-ass hybrid with blood pouring out of at least four holes in his chest and stomach charged Angelo. He switched to full auto, hoping it would bring the damn thing down, but it didn’t even seem to faze the creature. Then Clayne was beside them, his .45 blasting into the hybrid at point-blank range. The beast reached for Butler even as it fell. The lieutenant pulled his sidearm and put one more round through the thing’s head for insurance’s sake.
“What the fuck are these things?” Butler took aim at another hybrid inches before it reached Brent, who was in the middle of reloading. “Zombies would go down easier.”
Angelo was too busy burning through clip after clip of ammo to answer. He had to say one thing about the hybrids—they didn’t lack for balls. They attacked like nothing he’d ever seen.
If there was any saving grace to the hybrids’ aggressive style, it was that they did it without any finesse or thought. They threw themselves at whoever was shooting at them without flanking the ambush, retreating, or any other option Angelo would have considered had he been in the same situation. When the hybrids ran out of ammo, they didn’t even try to reload. They simply tossed their weapons aside and attacked with fangs and claws.
It seemed to take forever to finish them off. Landon moved among them, checking for injuries and the status of ammo. The smell of smokeless powder and hot metal warred with the near-overwhelming stench of blood. Angelo breathed through his mouth, trying to avoid the worst of it, but it didn’t help much. All around him, the jungle was deathly still, as if every animal within a mile was waiting to see what happened next.
Butler shook his head at the dead hybrids scattered throughout the kill zone. “Holy shit. There are only ten of these damn things. I thought there were at least twice that.”
“Ten’s enough.” Clayne bent down to take a closer look at one of the hybrids. “Damn, look at the fangs on this one. They’re as long as my fingers.”
Landon took out his flashlight. “Turn off your NVGs.”
When they’d done as he ordered, he turned on the flashlight and swept it over the dead bodies. Angelo flipped up his goggles and joined his former captain as Landon leaned down to look at one body, then the next.
“What’s up?” Angelo asked.
“These hybrids are different than the ones we fought in Washington.” He shined the flashlight straight into the hybrid’s mouth. “Damn. Is that a second row of teeth coming in? Ivy, take a look at this.”
