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The ferry horn blasts. The gangplank starts to rise.

Without thinking, I sprint and leap. My fingers catch the railing as the ferry pulls away. Salt water sprays my face as I haul myself up, muscles straining.

I roll onto the deck, immediately shifting to blend with the crowd. But Olivia and the Grolgath are gone.

The choker's signal leads below deck. Time to hunt.

The isotope's faint radiation signature leads me deeper into the ferry's maintenance corridors. My boots echo on metal grating as I descend another level. The air grows thick with diesel fumes and salt.

Two figures materialize from the shadows. Their movements are too fluid, too precise. No human moves like that.

"Going somewhere?" The taller one's arm elongates, sprouting bone spikes.

I shift to Vakutan form, my clothes shredding as I grow. "Where is she?"

They attack in perfect sync. The shorter one's fingers stretch into whip-like tendrils that slash at my face. I block with my forearm, but the crystalline edges slice deep.

The taller Grolgath drives his bone spikes toward my gut. I grab his mutated arm and snap it, but he just laughs. The broken pieces melt and reform.

"The girl is none of your concern anymore." His face ripples, features flowing like wax.

I roar and charge, slamming him into a bulkhead. Metal crumples under the impact. The whip-fingered one wraps tendrils around my throat.

My claws rake across his chest, drawing alien blood. He screams but doesn't let go. The tendrils tighten.

The bone-spike warrior reforms his arm into a serrated blade. It plunges into my shoulder, grinding against Vakutan armor plates.

Pain fuels my rage. I grab the tendril-wielder and use him as a club, smashing him into his companion. They tumble together in a writhing mass.

Before they can separate, I tear into them with fang and claw. Their shape-shifting flesh tries to adapt, but I'm too strong, too furious.

Blood sprays across the walls. The Grolgath's death screams echo through the corridors.

When it's done, I lean against the wall, panting. Deep gashes cross my chest and arms. The shoulder wound throbs.

But Olivia's signal pulses stronger now. She's close.

CHAPTER 15

OLIVIA

Bob leads me down narrow metal stairs into the ferry's lower deck. The briny smell of sea water mingles with diesel fumes. Each step of my heels echoes in the confined space.

"Just a bit further," Bob says, his voice oddly melodic.

Something's not right about the way he moves. His legs bend at weird angles, like a marionette with extra joints. His arms swing behind him instead of at his sides, reminding me of those nature documentaries showing lizards running on their hind legs.

The choker Dar gave me feels warm against my throat. At least he can track me if things go sideways.

We reach a dimly lit maintenance area full of pipes and electrical panels. Bob stops and turns to face me, his movements jerky and unnatural.

"What I'm about to tell you will shake the very foundations of your reality," he says, his eyes gleaming strangely in the low light.

I can't help myself. After everything with Dar, this guy's dramatic buildup is almost funny.

"What are you gonna tell me, that aliens are real?" I say with a smirk.

Bob stares at me, his gaze unblinking. The silence stretches uncomfortably long.