"I wish I knew how we were planning to do this," Cassie whispered, leading the way to the shark tank. "Sharks are not dolphins. I mean, these sharks are well-fed, but they still arent exactly pets."

"Shark-petting," Marco mused, with an air of someone who was thinking deeply. "Add that to a dolphin rodeo, and wed have a whole new ESPN show."

No one laughed; Shara turned to look at him with a slightly raised eyebrow, and Jake smirked. Jakes smirk wasnt a happy smirk, and Shara looked more worried than anything. Marco himself, though he noticed these expressions of concern, was fixated on the shark that he would soon be facing. He didnt like the idea at all; even if Shara was going to be there, they would all still have to touch the shark.

After what had happened even the fact that Shara could slice up any shark that got near them in the time that it would take one of the others to blink three times, and the fact that they had Slade with them, wasnt nearly as reassuring as he thought it would be before he had come to the place where he would have to actually touch a shark.

"I have an idea," Rachel piped up. "The shark doesnt have to be conscious for us to acquire it, right? So we use our dolphin morphs; with seven of us in the tank with it, it shouldnt be too hard to get the DNA we need from that thing."

"So, we should just go and beat some poor shark half to death?" Cassie demanded, shocked. "When its not even attacking us?"

Rachel spread her hands in a placating gesture. "Its a shark, Cassie. A shark. People eat sharks."

"And vice versa," Marco added, with a hint of morbid amusement.

"It beats just jumping into the tank with it," Jake said. "Or having Shara rip it out of the water and hold it for us the way she offered. Theres no way of knowing how long something that big could survive out of water. And wed need time for all of us to get our hands on it."

Cassie looked like she was going to say something, but then she stopped. Clenching her jaw firmly shut, the way she tended to do when she disapproved of something but didnt have any convincing counter-arguments, she continued on her way into the park.

"Sharks can all die as far as Im concerned," Marco said with a laugh, though he hadnt been making a joke; after what theyd done to him

(Theyre just predators being predators,) Tobias said, speaking for the first time since they had arrived. (They arent evil. Just hungry.)

"So youre on Cassies side?" Marco asked, though he kind of doubted it; Tobias had changed since hed been trapped as a hawk, and more since hed started living like one.

(No. Kill or be killed. Eat or be eaten. Thats the predators law; I know. I am a predator. I say we do what we have to do, to make sure none of us gets killed.)

"Fine," Cassie snapped. "Lets just get this over with."

Making their way over to the large fish tanks, the eight of them were silent save for the slapping of bare feet and the click of unshod hooves. The three large, oval fish tanks sat in front of them, looking oddly like backyard swimming pools at their currant distance.

Shara and Slade had instinctively taken up guard positions on the edges of the group, using their far superior night-vision to search the darkened recesses of the park for anyone or anything that might present a problem to their lesser-equipped allies as they all moved along the pathway. Passing by the tended bushes that lined the path, they continued to watch for danger.

Tobias, in the trees that had been planted to give shade during the daylight hours, was the first to see their next obstacle. The two siblings, however, had heard them just before

(Someones coming!) he shouted.

XX

Everything was black and white; shades of gray, really, painted in nice sharp lines so that she could see every movement that her prey made. That was what he was, now; by threatening her friends, he had made himself her enemy. And enemies like this were nothing more than prey.

He made a few noises, something that she thought she might have recognized at one point. At the moment, however, it was nothing more than the yelping of her prey.

Gripping her lancer tightly with both hands, she rammed it deep into the belly of her prey. Driving upward, she stopped just below the shoulder. Her prey was already mortally wounded. Cutting it open would only make a mess, and she was not overly fond of messes.

XX

Watching in horror as the two guards they had to be guards, because no one else would be there at this time of night with a gun were unceremoniously butchered by two invisible people that had to be Slade and Shara, Jake shuddered. Hed seen them taking up positions on the outside of the group, but he hadnt thought much of it at the time. Slade had always been a bit intense, but even after seeing what Shara had done to those sharks

Still, hed never expected them to actually kill anyone. But, as the two corpses fell to the ground, two figures became visible in the gloom of the empty wildlife park. The one on the right was revealed to be Slade, holding a wicked-looking, jagged-edged short spear in his right hand, and the back of the shirt that the man he had just killed had been wearing in his left. Hed seemingly cleaved right through the torso below the armpits, but it didnt look like hed stopped there.

The reason for Jakes conclusion, morbid as it was, was that the mans arms had both been cleanly severed from his body.