"What do you mean shadow cats?" Eden whispered harshly, kicking her blankets aside. "You said they'd be the least of our concerns down here."

"Don't. Move. Quickly," Colton said, holding his hands out, almost as if to warm them in a nonexistent flame from the quenched coals. His head tilted slowly. Listening maybe. "We want it to think we're not aware of it."

"It?"

"Hopefully it. A single shadow cat will go out of its way to avoid a warg, and vice versa. Cole and I have been marking the trails all day, so it will know what we are. Usually that's enough to warn them away." Moving slowly, Colton retrieved her shotgun from her bag and shoved it at her. He reached for his knife and CJ jerkily handed it over. "They're solitary creatures except for mating season, and we're a month too late for that. But if this is an adult female with cubs and we're in her territory, she might be bold enough to attack."

Shit. Where were her boots? Eden spotted them and dragged them on, moving with slow, cautious movements, even as her heartbeat ran ragged.

"She might back off if she thinks we're a threat to her cubs," CJ muttered, pumping two rounds into the chambers of his shotgun.

"Unfortunately not." Colton knelt low beside a boulder, peering over the top of it as he scanned the near dark. The moon was sinking toward the horizon and visibility had dropped. Eden could barely see him; he blended into the nightscape like a shadow himself. "The females are the dangerous ones. They've got poisonous spurs, and they do most of the hunting. They'll kill to protect their territory and if her cubs are almost fully grown then they'll be with her. We want this to be a male, as they tend to be less violent."

"That's a turnaround from humans," CJ said.

"You ever broken into a woman's house when she's got kids in there?" Colton murmured distractedly.

"Neither of us has been in the kidnapping game." Eden couldn't help herself. "So I guess that's a no."

"Puta madre." Colton held up his hand, gesturing for silence. "Fucking motherfucking fuck. I can see a couple of shapes out there. They're not full-grown, but they're almost adult-sized by the look of them, which makes them just as dangerous." He turned in a slow circle. "I must have caught the scent of one of them. What I don't see is mama. She's the better hunter and she'll be downwind."

This was an appropriate time for swearing. Eden swallowed her nerves. "What do we do?"

"You keep your back to the rocks," he told her. "They'll try and pounce on you from behind and crush your neck or suffocate you. Do you know how to use that thing?"

She swiftly loaded the shotgun like a pro. "Do you think Adam didn't teach me how to shoot?"

"Only as a last resort," he warned. "Stay out of it if you can. You're more likely to hit CJ or me, than anything else. A combat situation's miles away from popping cans on the range, especially when your target can move faster than you can see in the dark. Use it to defend yourself if we go down."

She didn't argue. Her face was still bruised from Black Tom's sudden blow. No matter how much Adam had tried to prepare her for this sort of situation, she was rapidly learning how far out of her depth she was.

And if they went down, she was dead.

"How many are out there?" CJ's voice pitched high.

"I've got three on my radar and a mysteriously missing adult female, but I daresay she'll be out there. They don't call them shadow cats for no reason."

Yeah. Eden swallowed. So named because you never saw them coming. The genetically manipulated creatures had camouflage down to a fine art.

She pressed her back against the boulder and blinked, trying to adjust her vision to the pale moonlight.

Colton gave a burst of quick orders to CJ, the pair of them standing guard in front of her. With the rock at her back, the shadow cats could only come at them in a frontal assault—which was probably why Colton had picked this spot to camp.

"What are they waiting for?" CJ demanded.

"They're still young," Colton murmured, staring out into the night. "Learning to hunt. I don't think they expected us to sense them coming."

Something landed on her head. A bug or... no, gravel. It rained down over her shoulders, and she rubbed it out of her hair. What the...? Eden's heart stopped dead in her chest as she heard the faintest shift of sound above her.

Oh, shit.

"Colton," she whispered loudly.

He jerked a hand at her. "Shh. I'm trying to listen."

"I think I just found the mother," she blurted. "It's on top of the boulder."

His shoulders stiffened and he slowly turned around, just as Eden tilted her head back. Her heart started kicking again, and a shiver of breathlessness went through her. Directly above her, a patch of pure darkness separated itself from the velvety night skies, and then a high-pitched yowl erupted.

"Shit!"

The shadow cat launched itself off the top of the boulder, aiming directly for Colton. He jerked his shotgun up and fired, the sound echoing through the night. Eden was blinded momentarily by the sudden light of the muzzle flash, a scream escaping her and the shot echoing through the night.

Jesus. She blinked away the afterimage, catching a glimpse of CJ darting in with his knife, trying to get the creature off Colton. The world around her jerked like a vignette of slides running through a projector. Colton was flat on his back on the ground, as if the mama cat had slammed into him. CJ smashed into the cat, as Colton flipped to his feet.

A high-pitched scream pierced her eardrums, and then Colton was cursing as the shadow swiped its claws at CJ.

It was moving so bloody fast.

And worse, the night itself seemed to be rippling with darkness.

"The kids are joining the party!" she yelled, as CJ grunted and staggered back beneath the mother's sudden assault. "Colton!?"

Trying to dance in low to hamstring the mama cat.

Behind him a shadow loomed.

Adrenaline pumped through her veins. Eden jerked the shotgun up and narrowly avoided pulling the trigger as one of the creatures launched from the boulder above her across the clearing. Colton had been right. Shooting a stationery target when you weren't in a fight for your life was a vastly different beast to trying to aim when your heart was fit to pound out of your chest.

And she might not have time to reload.

But....

It materialized out of the darkness as the glow from the embers in the fireplace lit it. She caught a glimpse of thin fur that seemed to ripple through a dozen different shades of black and gray, as if its fur absorbed the light. Don't miss. Her heart rabbited in her chest, and Eden focused down the line of the barrel as it launched itself at Colton's unprotected back.

She pulled the trigger.

The butt of the shotgun kicked against her shoulder like a mule, and the creature jerked and slammed into Colton's back, screaming in pain.

Easier now to breathe. Eden reloaded as Colton rolled to his hands and knees, her movements mechanical, even though a fist of nausea bloomed in her throat. The cat she'd shot twitched on the ground, but didn't move, a gaping hole in its ribs.

"You all right?" she yelled.

"Fine. Thanks," Colton snapped, and darted forward to drive his knife into one of the cubs. "Stay out of this."

"Trying to!" If she had the chance. Eden turned, jerking the shotgun around to cover both sides.

CJ went down with a scream beneath a pair of shadow cats. All she could see was a writhing mass of darkness. Stepping forward, Eden pumped both rounds into the chambers, but she couldn't gauge what was CJ and what was the predator.

"CJ!" she screamed.

A shadowy limb lifted and moonlight flashed off the curve of his knife. He plunged it into the mass atop him, and a high-pitched squeal of pain erupted.

The other cub leaped off him, landing lightly atop the boulder ten feet away from her and Eden turned on it. Don't shoot unless necessary. She hesitated.

But Colton didn't.

He pulled the trigger of his own shotgun, and the shadow jerked and tumbled out of view.

Hell. Gasping for breath, she lowered the shotgun. Had she been too late? Was he moving, or was that just her imagination? "CJ?"

CJ lifted his head as if to examine his abdomen, then collapsed back on the ground, breathing hard. "Son of a bitch."

"Got your back covered," Colton snapped, the back of his legs bumping into her as he fired in rapid succession into the darkness. Reloaded. Fired again. "Check him out if you can, angel."

Another feline scream. And something deeper; a low rumbling of pure fury lifted all the hairs on her arms. Eden had been about to kneel at CJ's side, but her gaze stalked the darkness, and she swallowed as she straightened. No time.

"That's two of her cubs down. Mama's not dead yet. You loaded?" Colton barked. "We've got mama and one cub left, and she's pissed."

She steadied her shotgun. "Ready."

Eden settled her back against his, searching the darkness for anything that moved. "CJ, are you okay?"

The young warg rolled onto his side, clutching his abdomen. "It was trying to rip my throat open, but my gun was in the way, so its claws barely glanced me." He sounded breathless as he staggered to his feet and looked at his hand. "Sorry. I lost the gun. It was faster than I expected."

Colton tossed him a shotgun and CJ snatched it out of the air.

"We need to drive that bitch off," Colton said. "You two stay here and guard each other's backs. I've got this."

Then he was gone, vanishing into the night like a wraith.

"Damn it! Colton!"

No sign of him. Shit. CJ's body trembled against hers. Eden swallowed. Without Colton they'd be sitting ducks out here.

How were they supposed to drive off a pissed-off shadow cat and her one remaining cub? Eden's mind raced. She was Wastelander born and bred, so she knew the rules.

To protect yourself against shadow cats you needed light.

Fire.

They didn't like the smell of gasoline either.

"Stay here," she told CJ.

Eden rested the shotgun on her knees and started rifling through Colton's pack for his flask. The handful of coals in the small pit smoldered pitifully. The second she doused them with his whiskey they spat and sizzled. Flames roared up. Eden kicked the rest of the kindling they'd gathered earlier onto the fire.

Eyes gleamed out there in the darkness. A grunt sounded. And another feline yowl.

"Colton?" she yelled.

Please let him be alive.

She had no idea what they'd do if he wasn't.

Silence settled through the night like a heavy mantle. Slowly the flames started to die down, but there was nothing moving out there. No response from Colton either.

Shit. The son of a bitch had a lot to make up to her, but at the same time.... She didn't want his life to end here. Nemesis or not, his death would still weigh on her conscience, and she didn't want him to be... hurt. Eden swallowed. The weight of the gun was starting to ache through her arms, and she raked the shadows for any sign of him, her ears pricking.

"Hear anything?" she murmured to CJ, who was moving between the corpses and making sure both shadow cats on the ground were definitely dead.

He looked up.

Shadows moved at the corner of her vision. Eden jerked her shotgun toward them, her finger whispering over the trigger—

"Just me," Colton called, materializing out of the night with his hands in the air. Silver warg-shine flashed across his pupils as if the lure of blood and violence brought the monster within him to the surface. She kept the gun on him a second longer—just in case—but she'd seen Adam in a worse state over the years.

Colton paused and slowly lowered his hands with a questioning twitch of his brow.

Definitely still human. A warg couldn't pull off that amount of arrogance.

Eden released the breath she'd been holding, and lowered the shotgun. "You're alive."

For a second there....

She was surprised how much the thought bothered her.

"Don't sound so disappointed."

"I'm not." Her hands shook suddenly. "Did you kill them?"

"They fled. I managed to sink my knife into mama cat, and the cub bolted." Colton's chest heaved, blood dripping from the end of his knife. He'd lost his hat in the scuffle, and dirt marred his cheek.

"Will they be back?"

"Hopefully not. But I don't want to risk it." Raking his hand through his close-cropped black hair, Colton took in the campsite. Striding toward his bag, he started stuffing his belongings back inside it. "Get moving, guys. Until the sun starts to rise, we're vulnerable. Shadow cats aren't the worst things out there, and there's enough blood here to rouse a warg from a few miles away."

"Are you okay?" Eden asked CJ, noticing the blood on his hand in the firelight.

"Fine," CJ muttered, but he didn't look at her and his voice sounded rougher than usual as he cleaned his blade on shadow cat fur.

The unusual behavior made her frown. CJ sounded like he'd swallowed acid. "Any more bleeding? Light-headedness?"

His nostrils flared and silver flashed through his pupils as he looked up, revealing how close to the edge he was. "Don't touch me."

Eden held her hands up.

With his amulet he could keep the warg trapped within him, but she didn't like how on edge he seemed.

"It's the battle rush," Colton muttered, kneeling on her bedroll and tugging the leather straps through the loops. "Give him a few minutes to get his head clear."

"And you?"

Colton pushed to his feet, tossing her bedroll toward her. "It's nothing I can't handle. We've got to get moving. Killing half their pack is enough to drive them to retreat for the moment, but they'll start following us again soon. The mother's injured, but I daresay she's brewing some serious revenge theories. They're vindictive creatures. If we can make it out of their territory, then we might be safe. They won't leave their usual haunts. Too many other predators out there, and she took a beating tonight. Might make her wary."

"That's not necessarily reassuring." She attached her bedroll to her backpack and slung the straps over her shoulders.

"It's not meant to be."

* * *

Hours trickled by. Eden staggered forward, putting one foot after the other. She could vaguely remember falling asleep when they first set up camp, but now her body ached as if she'd only managed to snatch twenty minutes or so before the shadow cats attacked.

And the second the sun started to rise, a thick oppressive heat began to make everything sticky.

Going to be a scorcher by the feel of it. Eden paused at the top of the trail and tipped her water canteen to her lips. Ahead of her Colton looked like a dark blur on the landscape as he roved ahead, scouting the terrain. He'd found his hat somewhere, and his loose-hipped stride caught her eye, though she didn't know why.

Eden's eyes narrowed as he paused at the bottom of the switchback. Colton rested a hand on his thigh, bending over for a moment as if to catch his breath. Maybe she wasn't the only one feeling the lack of sleep—and he'd had none.

Something felt off.

"Edie," CJ muttered, his limp long since faded as the warg within him healed his injuries. She'd checked them out back at the camp, but despite a few faint scratches across his hip and one narrow claw mark, CJ was fine.

"Yeah?" It was so goddamn hot out here.

"I can smell blood. Thought it was shadow cat for a while, but now I'm starting to feel better I realized it’s not."

Eden's heart leapt. If it had been him, CJ would have admitted to it. Which left....

Her head turned, tracking Colton. He rested a hand against a rock and tilted his water skin to his lips. The stark outline of him stood out against the rising red-gold of the sun, but she wasn't focusing on Colton's hard body.

Eden's brows drew together. She'd known something was wrong. Sweat tracked marks down the dirt on his face. The side of his shirt was damp, but she hadn't noticed he was bleeding, thanks to the color of it and the darkness of the night.

"Son of a bitch," she snapped, as Colton's knees wobbled. "Fetch some wood. We need a fire, and I need boiling water. Now."

Ahead of her, Colton went down on one knee, splashing water from his canteen as he tried to catch it.