"You are here to rescue me, right?"
I thought about how easy it would be to drop from my perch, slash through that tent, and take her down. I imagined my fangs clamped around her throat, and felt a kernel of horror in my gut, but it was only a kernel.
"Stop that," she hissed, yanking her gaze away. "Go get the others. You outnumber these guys. Together you can save me."
I didn't move.
She looked at me again, and the sweet and shy Nicole disappeared. Her eyes blazed.
"The others aren't here, are they?" she said. "You have no intention of rescuing me. Why would you? I'm competition for your precious Daniel. You don't want him, but you don't want anyone else to have him either. You're a selfish bitch, Maya Delaney. A slut, too, fooling around with every guy in sight, right under his nose."
As Nicole raged, the hair on my neck prickled, because in her eyes, I saw madness. Obsession and madness.
"Everything comes so easy for you, doesn't it, Maya? School, boys, friends, sports. Even your precious animals. You can't just take care of them like any normal person. You have to be some kind of animal whisperer. Magical healer. So damned special. Like Serena, captain of the swim team and the best singer on the freaking island, and how much does she practice? Sings in the shower. Paddles around the lake. Do you know how hard I work? It's never enough. You two get the trophies and the solos and the As and the boys."
You're crazy, I thought. Did they do this to you with their experiments? Or is this just you?
I started inching back.
"You're just going to leave me here?" she said. "Well, you know what, Maya? I could use a little company."
She screamed, a long drawn-out shriek of feigned terror.
TWENTY-THREE
MORENO WAS THE FIRST to see me, and he let out a curse as loud as Nicole's shriek.
He pulled a gun from his hip. An automatic pistol.
Antone knocked it from his hand and pointed his flashlight at my flank.
"It's Maya," he said.
He started toward me. I was inching back, the branch too thin for me to turn around.
"It could be Annie," Penny whispered, her gaze fixed on me. "Come looking for her brother."
Antone shook his head. "That's Maya." He met my gaze. "I know it is."
He kept walking until he was directly under my branch.
"This is your first time, isn't it?" he said, his voice soft.
"You're scared and you're confused--"
I let out a snarl that reverberated through the quiet forest.
Antone chuckled. "Or maybe not. I should have guessed you'd hit the ground running." He smiled. "Or hit the trees climbing. But you're trapped now. I know that's not fair. You came to rescue your friend and--"
"She didn't come to rescue me," Nicole spat as she stormed out of the tent. "She came to taunt me. She's a spoiled brat--"
"Get her out of here," Antone said, eyes never leaving mine. "Maya, you know you're trapped, and I'm sure you want to put up a fight, but that's not going to help anyone."
I hunkered down, measuring the distance between us.
"Cal..." Penny said. "Back away. She's getting ready--"
"She won't." His gaze fixed on mine. "She might want to, but she won't."