Vision brought pain. Even though it was still dark, using her eyes brought a sharpness to the back of her brain that promised to be one hell of a headache.

“Oh, my!” Dr. Webb exclaimed and fell on his ass, trying to back away from her. He’d bound her wrists with bandage tape. It was something doctors and nurses carried with them habitually and probably the only thing he had to use. A strip of tape is brittle and snaps easily, but use enough, especially when there’s no leverage to pry against, and it’s as effective as rope.

Apparently, the good doctor had been carrying a fresh roll.

The blow to her head was still making her ears ring. At least he’d tied her hands in front of her. He blinked owlishly and pushed himself backward, sliding on his butt like a child. When he was far enough away, he scrambled to his feet.

“Please don’t try to call for help,” he said, and began patting his pockets as if he’d forgotten something. He put a finger to his lips and mumbled, “Oh my, oh my...” several times while searching the ground around her. “Ah-ha!” He snapped his fingers and trotted along behind her, reaching for something on the ground.

He returned carrying a pistol. Hers. His hand shook so badly she was afraid that it would go off on him accidentally.

“Please, as I say, don’t call for help, Doctor. The local constabulary is, well, let’s say that they would take my side on this; if nothing else, at least on this...”

“You’re working with Melinda?” Angelica asked through gritted teeth. It hurt like hell to talk, but she needed to keep him busy while she worked the tape on her wrists. Besides, she hadn’t seen it coming. She seriously hadn’t seen it coming and needed the confirmation from his own lips. None of this made sense.

“Melinda?” He blinked again. “Dr. Johns?” He looked around as though someone else could take that question. “I...I work with her at the clinic, same as you. Why?”

“I don’t mean Meadowlark!” Angelica snapped. Webb flinched as if he thought she would hit him. “I mean her experiments.”

“Experiments?” he repeated dumbly. “What...what experiments?”

“Doing experimental DNA testing on living humans!”

“What?” Webb reeled back. He couldn’t be faking this reaction. He was genuinely appalled, his eyes wide with shock and horror. “That’s...that’s monstrous!”

Angelica thought a moment. Not the answer she’d expected. What was she missing? What about the thing he’d said about the authorities being on his side? Durand? She took a chance. “As opposed to slavery?”

He closed his eyes and sighed. “Please...” he said slowly. “You have to understand. It was Durand. He blackmailed me. I...I thought I was doing right, doing what we came here to do, you and, though I assume you, but most certainly I...I came here to help, to restore, to ensure health...” He was looking at her now, his eyes pleading for her to forgive him.

Which would have been hilarious had he not been staring at her with a gun pointed at her head.

“Durand had a group, children all, mostly girls. They were all so scared... just because I was a doctor. He said that...that they were all from the same place, the same village...” Webb was beginning to babble. He seemed almost relieved to talk about it. “I helped them, though they didn’t seem to have much in the way of physical problems. I did help them. And then they were gone... and then...” He closed his eyes. “Durand insisted on giving me a ‘bonus’. Extra money. I said no, it was my job, but he wanted this exam off the record...” Webb’s arm fell to his side. The gun pointed to the dirt. “I needed the money. I...I can’t practice in the States anymore... I need the money to start over, to get out of here... I didn’t know, I swear I didn’t know.”

The tape held. It was too strong, as much as he’d used. She looked at it and at the waist of her pants. The top button had come open. She wasn’t sure if it happened as she fell or if his search for her gun had taken a creepier direction, but the fact worked for her. She felt new rage course through her body. Rage that she could use.

“Dr. Webb,” she said, her voice icy. “Release me.”

He stared at her from ten feet away, confused. A little man in a little world that had suddenly gotten too big for him to understand. “How can I? If I let you go, he’ll kill me.”

“Durand’s already dead,” she said, spitting out the words. “And the man with him. The children are scattered to the wind. And every last one of those children is going to testify against you, Dr. Webb. I can promise you that.”

Webb paled and sniffled. His eyes darted around him in every direction as though he was sure that police were in front and behind him already. “I didn’t... It wasn’t...”

She stared him down. Silent. Unforgiving.

With a shriek he pointed the gun at her again, his fingers fumbling with the trigger. If the safety hadn’t been on he might have shot by accident. As it was he dropped it, and stared at it a moment, lying at his feet, before running off into the night.

Angelica lay still. Tied. Pissed. Wondering where the hell Taylor was, and whether he was having any better luck than she was.

She sighed. She could see only one way out of this.

Fine, then. What’s it like to be a cat during the day?

***

SHE LAY THERE A MOMENT and began the shift. She regretted the decision when the tape wouldn’t give way. She was afraid that it might slice into her, it was too tight for the lioness. The pain began to exceed the pain of the change and she had to clamp her teeth down against it. Writhing, biting back screams that would bring the wrong kind of attention at a point when she was most vulnerable, she tried to relax, to accept the change. Just when she didn’t think she could last another moment, the tape snapped and she rolled to her feet.

All four of them.

She heard a roar from the distance. It sounded like it came from the edge of the jungle, from the place where the equipment had been. Where Batu’s body had been stashed. She looked at the pistol on the ground and sighed internally. She was going to need it and she had a horrible feeling that the safety might not have been on after all. Gingerly she picked it up between her teeth, holding the grip awkwardly, letting the barrel hang downward.

She ran.

She pelted as fast as she could, no longer caring about the taste of gun oil or the risk she took by running through rough terrain with a loaded pistol in her mouth. All that mattered was getting to Taylor. She skidded to a halt at the edge of the copse and slipped through the trees.

Melinda was half-lying, half-kneeling on a wooden plank that stretched out over the hole Batu had been dropped into. There were the broken remains of another like it beside her. She was aiming a gun down into the pit.

One that looked suspiciously like the one she carried in her mouth.

Taylor!

As a cat, Angelica could smell Taylor in the brackish water, knew he was in tiger form. Every instinct made her want to charge the woman, but she knew that since the other board hadn’t held Taylor there was no reason to think this one would hold her.

Melinda staggered to her feet and pulled the trigger. Or tried to. She looked at the gun from the side.

“Mr. Mann,” Melinda called, her voice high-pitched, even coquettish. “What’s wrong with the safety? Your gun appears to not be working.”

There was no answer.

“Wait.” She fiddled around with it. “Got it.” She brought the gun down and fired.

Taylor cried out, a wild angry roar that could only be the tiger. There came a crashing sound, the sound of a body splashing in the water and lying still.

Angelica roared and couldn’t stop screaming, even as she changed, even as she rose from the brush and landed on the plank, ripping the gun out of Melinda’s hand. Even as she emptied the pistol into Melinda. Frantic, furious, with more bloodthirsty rage than she’d ever have thought possible, she glared as Melinda fell, body dancing under the rain of bullets, her lips parting, giving her a look of wide-eyed surprise.

Angelica caught her as she fell, kept her body from tumbling into the chasm below. The board was more than enough to support her as a naked human.

“You!” Melinda spat when she saw Angelica lean over her, a trickle of blood escaping from the corner of her mouth. “I’m so proud of you.” And the light in Melinda’s eyes went out.

Taylor spluttered from below her. Very angry, and very much human.

“TAYLOR!”

“I’m okay,” he said, climbing awkwardly from the muck and leaning against the edge of the pit. “It’s okay. She’s a lousy shot. It hit my hip, but the change...” He shook his head. “I’m okay.”

He might have been alright, but he was still standing in... well, she didn’t want to see what he was standing in. And there was no way out of the pit that she could see.

“Hang on!” she cried, and ran to the bulldozers. She opened a door and searched the vehicle. There was a heavy length of chain rusting in the back of one of the earthmovers. She dragged it off and pulled it over to the board.

“How do I—?”

“Drape it over the board,” he called, “and get off the board.” Under his breath he added, “And pray that the board holds.”

He likely hadn’t meant for her to hear that last part. Unable to breathe she backed away, giving him the space to do what he needed.

The chain dangled tantalizingly out of reach. Amazingly Taylor leapt and caught it, pulling himself upward, hand over hand, gripping both ends at the same time. Angelica watched nervously, but there was a part of her that admired his naked body, muscles taut under herculean effort.

Trapezius, deltoid, latissimus dorsi, deltoid... yummy.

Angelica stifled a half-hysterical giggle. Here she’d just killed someone, and she was admiring the view. Taylor grabbed hold of the board and heaved himself free of the pit. He was filthy, but he was alive.

He walked up to where she was kneeling and held out his hand. She took it and stood, meeting his eyes and melting into his strong arms as he tucked her under his chin. Somewhere in the distance she heard shouts. Chaos. Confusion.

None of it mattered.

“You saved my life,” he said into her hair.

“You are my life,” she said into his chest.

They held each other until the shaking stopped. Who it was that shook they never knew, but if one did, they both did. It was the realization that the sun was fully up and they were both very naked and cold that finally broke them apart.

“I would take you right now,” Angelica said with a smile, her hand resting on his chest, “but you stink.”

Taylor framed her face with his hands and looked into her eyes. Then he glanced down at his waist and she followed his gaze.

“Let’s definitely wash that off before we... um...”

He laughed. The sound was at once joyous and free. She wanted to laugh with him but found herself fighting tears. The long night was over. The lions, wherever they were, would be safe. The children, the women of the camp, at least now had a fighting chance at survival. All would be well.

She would be well, too. It would just take time to figure things out.

“Race you,” he said suddenly, stepping away from her. The change came quickly. The tiger awaited.

Angelica tossed the pistol into the hole and imagined what it was like to be a cat.

A really fast cat.