"The 'then' was only few months ago."

I stepped back and crossed my arms. I'd obviously pissed off fate right-royally, and this was her way of getting back at me.

"Not here, not now, Quinn," I said, and forced my feet past him. "Let's get to the compound."

I switched to infrared, scanning the clearing and the buildings immediately behind the fence line. Still no sign of life. No whisper of movement.

We reached the fence. Quinn held out a hand, running his fingers a hairbreadth away from the wire. "Can't feel electricity running through it." He touched it lightly. "Nothing. It's safe to cut."

I stepped back and drew one of the lasers. "If the power is turned off, then this place is definitely abandoned."

"We still can't afford to relax our guard in there."

"I know." As if I could, anyway.

I cut a hole big enough for the two of us to slip through. Quinn went through first, his gaze scanning the area before coming back to me. "Nothing. Come on."

I followed, even though my heart seemed lodged somewhere in my throat and breathing had suddenly become difficult. We padded along in the shadows of the buildings, listening to the silence as we constantly scanned the area.

Nothing.

Not even insects.

As we moved in deeper, my gaze drifted up the tree-lined hill. Up there waited the place I'd barely escaped.

Quinn touched my arm lightly, making me jump. "Sorry," I whispered.

"You don't have to go up there if you don't want to. We can wait at the fence for the others."

I licked my lips, and shook my head. "I have to do this."

He nodded, and his touch slipped to my back, guiding me forward. Warmth flared where his fingers rested, rolling through the rest of me in waves. Though it was comforting, it did little to erase the knot of fear forming in the pit of my stomach.

We stealthily made our way deeper into the complex, slowly working our way up the hill. The closer we got to the lane, the slower my steps became, until I ground to a halt at the lane's entrance. My gaze came to the place where a dead man had once rested. A dark stain remained as a reminder of what I'd done.

"What's wrong?" Quinn asked.

"This is where I woke." My gaze went to the end of the lane. "And down there is where the two orsini came from."

"Orsini? What are they?"

"Warped bearlike things." Goosebumps fled across my skin. I rubbed my arms, and swept my gaze along the concrete wall. "I don't like the feel of this lane."

"There doesn't seem to be anything out of place." He wasn't looking at me as he said it, but rather, studying the lane.

"Something's down there." Something designed to kill.

"I can't feel anything human or nonhuman," he said eventually. "Nor can I hear any sort of mind traffic."

That didn't mean something couldn't be there. Especially given what this place was probably breeding. "There must be some other way into the building. Let's just—"

The rest of the words never got past my throat. Up ahead, the wall moved. Large sections of concrete seemed to peel away, and form colorless human shapes. They were huge and gangly, with long arms and legs. Even as we watched, their skin changed from the gray of the concrete wall to the black of the night. I knew they were still there, but I couldn't see them. Couldn't even feel them.

"Fuck." Quinn's voice was flat, fierce. "Chameleons."

I shot him a glance. "They don't look like lizards to me."

No amusement lit the depths of his dark eyes as his gaze met mine. "They're a rare breed of nonhuman who can take on any background, and literally become part of that background. They're also cannibals."

Oh, fantastic. "They're obviously not as rare as you thought, because there's ten of them here."

"Blind I'm not." He grabbed my hand. "Let's get the hell out of here."

"What about the lasers?"

"There's too many of them. Even if we take out a couple, the rest of them will be on us. Come on."

He didn't give me the choice, pulling me along with him. The chameleons followed, their large, flat feet slapping noisily against the cobblestones, drawing too close, too fast.

"Scream," Quinn said, and pushed me roughly to one side.

I hit the window of one of the false shops with enough force to shatter the glass, and tumbled on through the frame. Glass flew, slicing past my face. I hit the ground with a grunt, the laser flying from my hand. I cursed and then scrambled back to my feet.

The creatures were shadows deeper than the night. I blinked, and switched to the infrared of my vampire vision. Quinn became a flame surrounded by ten muted, dark red gleams. And while I could feel the buzz of Quinn's thoughts, the creatures were a dead zone. Not dead as in mind-blind, but dead as in nothing there, just empty space.

I screamed for help as loud as I could, then drew my remaining laser, leapt over the windowsill and ran toward the nearest creature.

Though I made little sound, the chameleon swung, swatting at me with a huge, night-dark paw. I ducked the blow, and fired the laser. The bright beam cut across flesh, and four fingers plopped to the ground, where they wriggled and squirmed like fat worms at the end of a hook. The creature screamed—a sound so high, so inhuman, that chills ran across my flesh. Those chills only increased when I realized new fingers were already beginning to grow out of the burned stumps.

Air stirred. I dropped and swung around. Two of them had crept up behind me. I dodged the blow from one, then fired at the hand trying to grab me. More fingers plopped to the pavement, twitching like live things.

More fingers regrew.

God, how were you supposed to kill things that could regenerate so quickly?

The creature I'd de-fingered screamed in fury. The other lunged. I kicked it away, but teeth tore into my shoulder, biting deep. I hissed, and punched backward, hitting flesh as slimy and cold as a toad's. My blow skidded along and fell away, and the creature's teeth bit deeper, cracking bone. Pain became a red tide, and sweat broke out across my brow. Bile rose, and I swallowed heavily as the other two creatures came at me. Ignoring the thing trying to eat my shoulder, I kicked out at the first creature, sending him stumbling back into the other.

Red beams of light cut through the night, and suddenly neither creature had a head. The smell of burnt flesh rent the air, making me gag. The red light bit through the night again, slicing mere millimeters away from my arm, and the creature trying to devour my shoulder released me with a roar. I shifted to wolf shape and limped away Once I'd reached the shattered shop window, I shifted back to human form, and sunk to the ground, nursing my injured arm and hand as I watched proceedings.

The cavalry had come to the rescue. Rhoan, Jack, and Kade had joined the fray and were dealing with the chameleons with brutal efficiency. I'd never seen my brother in action before, and it was truly scary to do so now He was fast, efficient, and utterly ruthless—everything a guardian should be, and everything I thought my brother wasn't.

And while Kade mightn't be as fast or as furious, he was every bit as efficient Obviously, he wasn't just a builder.

I looked away The bright flame of Quinn's presence had disappeared, and for a moment, fear surged Then the rich scent of sandal wood stung the air, and a second later, he was kneeling beside me. His beautiful face was scratched, his sweater torn, the burgundy color deepened by blood.

"Are you all right?" The lilt in his voice was as fierce as I'd ever heard it, and fear gleamed in his dark eyes. "Did they bite you?"

I showed him the shoulder. He swore softly. "We'll have to get that tended to. The bastards are well-known carriers of several different viral infections."

"The Directorate team are about five minutes off arriving," Rhoan said, appearing out of the remaining melee. He scooped me up in his arms. "We've a med-team amongst them, just in case something like this happened."