Again, Irene scrambled back, panic trying to set in. She wouldn’t let it, though. She needed her mind clear to get out of this. To survive. Her only goal was to survive.

More hyenas came and they charged the female lions, keeping them away from Irene and, apparently, their food source for the evening.

She knew she had only one chance and she either took it now or ended up finding out if so many religious belief systems were correct about there being an afterlife.

On hands and knees, Irene made a mad dash for her backpack. She’d just gotten hold of it when fangs gripped her side and flung her back into the midst of the fight. She landed hard, rolling to keep any of her bones from breaking in the process while maintaining a death grip on her pack.

They were still toying with her. She knew that because the lioness that grabbed her could have broken her spine but strategically dug into her side. They didn’t want to kill her too soon. Where would the fun be in that?

Focusing on her task, Irene tore open the zipper on the bag, spraying her papers, files, and computer printouts everywhere. She ignored all that and took hold of what she still had buried inside. Her fingers wrapped around the metal as sharp teeth sank into her thigh and dragged her back.

Somehow knowing this would be her last chance, Irene waited until it had dragged her off into a corner, away from the current battle between lifelong enemies, and then it released her. Before it could get another grip on her or tear into something vital, like an artery or her brain, Irene turned and slammed her homemade weapon against its throat.

Amazing the things one could come up with when bored and reading an electronics magazine. At the time she’d figured if someone named Jack Cover could create the device, why not her? So she’d created three nonlethal ones exactly like his, the one some police stations around the country were using. But she found the nonlethal devices boring. So she’d increased the voltage on the last three as much as she could. Still she’d never used them before but merely kept one in her bag for those long, late-night walks to her car across campus. Until now.

Irene pressed the side buttons she’d added to the device and squeezed. Those increased volts now tore through her attacker.

The hyena’s entire body jerked in surprise—until it began to smoke. The smell of burning fur didn’t deter Irene from keeping her weapon against its throat. She sat up when it started to stumble back and fall over, never stopping the charge or allowing the device to move away from the hyena’s neck.

After sixty seconds, she figured enough had been done and she stood and stumbled away, the hyena remains nothing more than a charred and bloody mess.

Irene quickly remembered there were more, and she spun around with the weapon held up in front of her. Rough breaths came out of her and she could feel blood trickling down her back and thigh,coating the inside of her jeans. As one, they all looked at the hyena’s remains and back at her.

Trying to control her shaking but knowing that with any animal a show of weakness would be her undoing, she yelled, “Well? Come on!”

At first, they didn’t move at all, staring at her with those cold eyes. She thought for sure they’d seen through her. That they could see and smell her fear. But she never looked away and slowly they stepped back. All of them.

They kept their eyes on her as if they thought she was as dangerous as they, and they took another step back. And another. And another. When they had a healthy distance between them, both lions and hyenas turned and trotted off back into the woods, heading to their own territories.

Irene waited until she could no longer see or hear them, then she turned and froze again, briefly wondering how much more she could take. They watched her with eyes much less cold but no less frightening.

It had to be an entire pack of wolves. She lifted her weapon, unable to stop her shaking this time, and waited. The one in front trotted forward and she watched it, waiting for it to make its move.

It did, shifting from wolf to human. And suddenly Niles Van Holtz walked toward her. Irene raised the weapon higher, where his big neck would be if he stepped any closer.

Van Holtz stopped and stared at her. “It’s all right, Irene.”

“I have to go.” Irene ignored the fact that her entire body now shook with fear and panic and pain. “I have to work. I need to go back to my lab. I can’t stay. You can’t make me stay.”

“Irene, I won’t let anyone hurt you. I promise. But you’ve gotta trust me and come with me, baby.”

“No. I’m going back to my car. Stay away from me, Van Holtz.” She kind of jerked the homemade stun gun and a few of the wolves stepped back. But not him. “I’ll do to you what I did to him,” she warned, motioning toward the charred hyena. “So stay away from me.”

“They won’t let this go, Irene. They’ll come back for you. You’ll never make it to your car. You have to come with me.”

He sounded so reasonable. He sounded like he cared. But no one cared about her. They cared about her brain and what she could do for them or what she could create. But no one—except maybe Jackie—cared about her at all. Especially Van Holtz.

She had to give it to the man, though. He was persistent.

“Irene, I know you’re scared, baby, and I can explain everything to you. But I need you to come with me.”

“Explain? Explain what?”

“About what you just saw. About me.”

She shook her head. “You don’t have to explain anything. I know all about you, Van Holtz.”