Alex crashed blind through a sickening twist of green and brown. Vines lashed at her face as she ran. The bandage tore off on a branch and she didn't even look back. She couldn't feel her bare feet pounding over the rocks or the blood running down her arm.

Every cell boiled in a dizzying cocktail of heat and adrenaline. It started in her chest and pushed outward, kicking back into her lungs as it surged into her skull.

No, no, no. Not now.

Please.

Not now.

The collar strobed red. A part of her knew it was beeping just as fast, but all she could hear was a sharp, flat ringing.

Teeth snapped at her face. A heavy copper smell. Brown and tan fur. His fur. She flinched right, foot slipping on a rock, and caught herself with her hands. Her feet were moving again before she could even think about it.

She had to stop, to calm down.

No! She had to run.

She had to fight!

Her teeth itched, the taste of blood tainting her tongue.

Come on, you coward! The bastard couldn't even come to hunt her himself. If she ever got ahold of him… just one chance to clamp her jaws around his throat and–

Bzeeeep.

Her muscles seized, pushing and pulling in every direction at once. The world exploded in a blizzard of swirling white. She realized she was falling right before her face smacked into the ground, limbs still twitching from the collar's shock. For a moment, she laid there, eyes wide, throat closed tight. One hand clawed at the collar while she tried to force her lungs to pull in some air.

It took a few long seconds before she could manage even a tiny gasp of oxygen. Then half a breath and another. A dull ache spread down her shoulders and over her collar bone. Her skin burned beneath the metal.

Ow.

Well, that was a disaster.

Alex hissed in and dragged her forearms under her chest. It took a few more moments for her to build up the courage to push onto her knees. A shaky look around told her that she was still alone.

Her fingers didn't seem to work quite right when she fumbled for the gun. Eventually, she closed her hand around the barrel and let herself kneel in that victory for a moment. But she couldn't stay here forever. Gritting her teeth, she flexed the fingers of her free hand over a branch and dragged herself up.

Everything seemed to be in one piece. She was a little wobbly, but she didn't immediately fall when she let go of the tree.

Her injuries were minor. For her at least. The puncture she'd started to take from him was an inch deep and nearly twice as wide. Already smaller than a few hours ago. Its trickle of blood wrapped around her forearm. Her knuckles were red and wet between the cracks of the scab, but not much more. There was a jagged tear above her ankle, blood flowing freely from the wound. It would heal. All of it.

But she couldn't afford to wait.

She tore the sleeve off her shirt and used her teeth to split the other seam. Once she had a fat strip of fabric, she wrapped it around her injured ankle to catch the blood. It was filthy, but she would never get far leaving a trail of red in her wake. She could deal with the infection later.

Tucking his gun into the back of her jeans, Alex made her way deeper towards the center of the jungle. Everyone knew about the bigger caves. Several programs ran regular tours through them. But there was a smaller crack in the Earth, carved by the constant gnawing flow of the river. She'd hidden there plenty of times before. The water level dropped near the back, so she'd have a dry place. Plus the darkness would make it easier to ambush him if she needed to.

Not that it seemed she would.

There was no heavy quiet, no shift of careful footsteps. Every time she stopped to listen all she heard was the steady hum of the jungle. She started to relax a little. If he was following–and he probably was–he was too far behind to be an immediate threat.

Good. That gave her time. Time to prepare, to plan.

She kept going until the bright light of morning deepened into a hazy afternoon blue and darkened into twilight. By the time her nose sensed the musty air of the cave, her ankle was pulsing—definitely infected—and hunger clawed circles around her stomach. The stab wound she'd pulled from him was rimmed in angry purple.

At least she could get a little rest before he showed up.

Or not.

Her eyes settled on the cave and the hair stood up along her spine. She didn't need to see. A shift in the wind brought heavy copper smell and a powdery musk of canine that lit up her brain like a firework.

So this was the play.

Magnum stalked through the shallow water at the front of the cave, dipping his head into the light. Glittering amber eyes locked onto her, teeth bared in her direction. His fur was mottled black and tan. The setting sun glinted off the silver band hiding behind the leather collar around his neck.

"Well, well, well."

Alex spun around to face the voice. He was tall. Brown hair. Brown eyes. Features so sharp they could cut flesh. A custom tailored tactical suit hugged his angular frame. There was an unnatural smoothness in his expression that pricked an immediate sweat on the back of her neck.

"Not up for chatting, eh?" Rayner flashed her a grin.

She took a step back and Magnum growled. The dog held his head low, hackles bristling. The water rippled around his feet as he took a step forward.

"Hold," Rayner growled and Magnum froze with one leg hovering so close to the water his claws dipped into the surface.

The grin returned with stomach twisting intensity. "Such a shame."

Her fingers flexed into fists and back open again. Run down the river? No. Magnum would follow.

"I really wanted to know how you did it."

The trees? No again. Rayner would shoot her down before she could climb ten feet. She could already smell the gun.

"How you fooled me into thinking you were dead."

Alex froze, eyebrows twitching together. Dead?

She remembered a lot of things, too much really. There were teeth and bullets and fire before she'd woken up, but playing dead wasn't one of her tricks.

Rayner watched her, eyes gnawing over her like molars on a bone. "I have to say," he said, "I didn't know what to expect when I picked up this signal twice."

He brought his fingertips to the control switch looped over his neck and Alex stiffened. Her fingers twitched.

"Imagine my surprise when we were tracking a hunt and we got a ping on a collar that was standing next to me."

She swallowed. What was he talking about?

Magnum kept a steady low growl that vibrated through her from the inside out. Every ounce of her screamed to sink her teeth into flesh. It would almost be worth taking her own bite. But the collar wouldn't let her change and Rayner had the button. She'd never make it close.

"So tell me," he said with a curl of his lip, "how is it I threw your corpse into the incinerator yet here you are?"

Alex clamped her jaw shut, alarm bells going off in her brain. She wasn't dead and she'd never been in the incinerator. None of this made sense.

"Speak!" The word dripped with such a nasty hate it made her cringe.

He didn't give her time to answer. One hand moved back to his neck and a pulse of electricity surged into her veins. It was shorter than the last burst, not as high voltage, but it brought her to her knees. Did Magnum just yelp? Rayner was towering over her with his teeth flashing in victory.

"What's this?" There was an unstable lilt of amusement in his voice.

She flinched when he reached down to pluck the gun from her back.

"Heh." And that one sound meant so much.

It wasn't just a comment or a question. It was judgment. It was rage.

His boot slammed into her gut and Alex hit the ground hard. Magnum lunged forward a step.

"Hold!" Rayner glared at the dog and then pointed the gun at her stomach.

His eyes found hers and she saw nothing but a sick satisfaction. This was it, the moment she died.

After everything, it was still him.

The safety clicked off.

"Bad dog."

An arrow whizzed through the air and thwacked the gun from Rayner's hand. It slipped through the hole for the trigger, pumping a shot at Magnum's feet as it rocketed by. The dog jumped and Rayner flinched back.

Alex tilted her head at the gun spinning against a nearby tree. Almost immediately, bright purple gas started pouring from the arrowhead.

Huh.