Nocturnal Read Free

the back and man that weapon!”
    Salvatore climbed into the back. Mangus smiled and handed him the machine gun.
    â€œAbby, no, we don’t have to do this!” Nothing Pippa could say would matter. Abby was mad, and her rabid mind wouldn’t let her see the truth. Yet Pippa pleaded with her. “You’re my sister. We’re family!”
    â€œFamily? This is my family,” Abby hissed, cocking her head toward the growing pack of ferals surrounding the pit. They were gurgling and gnashing their teeth, awaiting the kill.
    â€œYou lied to me,” Abby said. “You took Salvatore from me! Uncle Alex told me!” She looked over her shoulder at nothing, nodded, and then turned back to Pippa. “He told me everything. About how you knew all along that we were sisters. That our mother was still alive, but you killed her only a few months ago when you discovered your werecat side. Now you’re going to pay for it all.”
    Pippa prepared to defend herself. She knew Abby was seeing ghosts, just as she had seen Keenan, who had prodded her to kill. “Abby, don’t listen to him, he’s not real. Alex is a figment of your imagination!”
    Abby laughed. “He told me you’d say that!”
    Pippa’s heart sank as she watched her rabid sister begin to morph. Abby screamed out her hatred as her body grew and twisted, stretching nearly to the breaking point. Abby meant to fight to the death, but Pippa would do everything she could to keep from killing her own sister—which gave Abby a big advantage.
    Pippa called her rabid side. Her muscles and tendons grew and stretched, and she cried out with the pain of it. She had to control herself, even while in a maddened state. Abby was snarling, and the horde of creatures peering down at her from above growled in response. But now Pippa heard another noise, off in the distance, beyond the growls.
    The sound of speeding four-wheelers caught the ears of the ferals. They turned and howled into the night. Pippa felt a brief surge of hope at the thought that Rathbone was coming, but that split-second lapse in concentration gave Abby her chance. She leaped and pinned Pippa to the bottom of the pit and sank her teeth into Pippa’s shoulder.
    â€œAbby,” Pippa cried out in pain. Blood poured from her wound, staining her shirt. The ferals shrieked in glee. Pippa had never experienced such pain. She nearly blacked out, but her agony quickly turned to rage. Her senses heightened, and she morphed deeper into the rabid state. She pushed and clawed and heaved herself up and wrenched her sister’s jaw from her shoulder. The advantage had switched. Pippa hurled Abby toward the side of the pit and heard the breath squeezed from her sister’s lungs as she slammed into it. Abby sank to the ground, unconscious.
    Ferals above screamed in fury, but they were screaming at the humans and werecats who had come to save Pippa. She tried to claw her way out of the pit, but even in her cat form the pain in her shoulder was nearly too much to bear. When she stopped to rest only a few feet from the top, she felt a crushing grip around her ankles and was yanked back into the pit.
    Abby swung Pippa by her feet and sent her flying. Pippa hit the side of the pit and felt bones crunch and ribs break. Every breath sent pain shooting through her. She looked up and saw Abby coming in for the kill. Overhead, gunfire filled the air, but her friends were too late. Abby was in the air, only feet away.As she waited for death, she saw a vision of light wrap itself around her sister. Then everything went black.
    It is time, the three beings announced. Glide, our children, find the bloodline that holds your father’s retribution. Protect the doctor and return to us when it is done.
    Dr. Jack Tanner nodded to the three creatures who had given him life and then turned and ran from their nocturnal safehaven. As the other nocturnals followed their new leader,