Is it not said: " All cats are grey in the dark "? Well, so are the trees. All this vegetation favourable to relaxation and serenity during the day became at night a jumble of strange and frightening ghostly shapes, each one scarier than the next. I felt like I saw and heard the shooters behind every tree and bush, and my concentration was seriously affected. I knew Worth had my back, but I wasn't reassured. Especially since in this more than hostile environment my instincts were getting the better of me. I curse myself once again for not having dared to strip one of the dead guards of his clothes to cover myself, because on that cold October night I was literally freezing. In addition to that, the adrenaline, extreme fatigue and lack of food made it harder and harder for me not to shake.

After falling twice already, I was covered with scratches of all kinds, but despite my bare feet that made me suffer, I was pushing myself to speed up the pace. The sounds of the forest were changing and I felt that the few animals around were preparing to flee, sensing the danger.

I decided to stop making a perfect target at the shooting stand and chose to climb a tree as well. Well, in the forest, the scope for original hiding places was more than limited. I huddled on myself to keep warm and waited, all senses on the lookout. He was very discreet, but I still ended up figuring out the approximate location where he was. He had stopped the moment he stopped hearing me and, like me, he was waiting.

His behaviour suggested that he must have suspected a trap or that he overestimated me. Strangely enough, I was more in favour of the first option. This implied that they knew about the accident and therefore knew that we were no longer easy prey. We had restored some balance: we too were now armed! The minutes passed with a disheartening slowness. I couldn't stay here forever wasting precious time. Adam and Cassie were counting on us. Besides, speaking of us, what was Worth waiting for to shoot? I couldn't be a perched goose forever. Especially since I was feeling worse by the minute.

I was alone, lost and scared. My primary brain told me to run away like the animals I sensed around me, while my rational mind told me that if I moved, I was dead! No matter how much I believed the second one, the first one made me feel trapped in that tree. An icy sweat began to flow down my back and my heart began to beat. Then came the breathing difficulties, a good old-fashioned anxiety attack! Except it wasn't the time at all.

I struggled to get some air into my lungs, when a bullet whistled in my ears and landed in the trunk of the tree, barely an inch from my head. Despite the panic that had occulted all my senses, my body had instinctively reacted to the detonation, however weak it may have been, because I had already started to move the very instant a second bullet hit the trunk again, missing me only slightly for the second time. The adrenaline flowed through all my cells and gave back control to my body, which took over my overheated brain. I fell to the bottom of the tree like a monkey. Once on the ground, I didn't think and ran as fast as I could as I slid between the trees, in order to give as few shooting slots as possible to the man who was chasing me.

After a few minutes of frantic running, I heard more distant detonations, and the shots in my direction stopped abruptly. I slowed down and tried to regain more normal breathing when the characteristic sounds of a person running through the undergrowth, without any concern for discretion, were heard. This distracted me for a moment and, getting my foot in a root, I spread all the way down on the spongy ground, which fortunately for me cushioned my fall. I heard two bullets whistle over me; one of them grazed my arm while I was already on the ground, while the other went a good meter above my back. Which could only mean one thing: the one who came from my left and ran like an elephant through the woods fired to hurt, while the one who followed me silently since I had come down from my tree fired to kill. And obviously, Worth had only slowed him down. I felt a slight twinge of sadness at the thought of his death or perhaps serious injury alone in the woods, but the reality of my situation was made brutally plain to me when a bullet grazed me again.

I began to have a vague idea of who it was and asked myself if the option of a bullet in the head was not more tempting than the long hours of torture that awaited me, if it was Shaw's second son who caught me. Because the second man was him, without a doubt. The lack of discretion should have made me understand it immediately, he was so full of rage and desire for revenge that he was not interested in tracking. He wanted me fast and alive to make the pleasure last. I had to get out of here, but when I got up again, I felt a dazzling pain from my right foot. Shit, I must have broken something when I got my foot in that root. I continued anyway, when a bullet slapped the ground a few centimetres from my left foot. I froze.

- 'I wouldn't move if I were you!' the professor's son laughed. 'We both have a lot to catch up on, and I know where to shoot so I don't kill you. So don't make me do it.'

- 'I'm sick of your little sadistic games... Kill me and get it over with,' I whispered in a low but clear voice where anger and resignation were mixed.

The commando behind me, because it was him, wanted to kill me properly, and I was going to make it easier for him. I straightened up as completely as I could and spread my arms. It was over, I stopped playing. I had tried once again to fight the inevitable and I had lost. Worth was probably dead or something. I was alone again, as I had always been.

So that's how it was going to end. I was going to die alone in the middle of the woods! Despite all my determination to keep us alive, it wasn't enough. I wasn't strong enough, not combative enough, not smart enough. I was nothing. No matter how hard I fought, the result remained the same. I was just hoping that the others would be luckier than me, although I doubt it very much. I tried to stand up a little more and it was with my head held high that I waited for the fatal blow. I may have been at their mercy, but there was no way I was going to die crawling. I heard the sound of a weapon ready to fire.

- 'She's mine! You better not kill her, or I'll kill you!' the other nut job screamed hysterically as he walked up to me as fast as he could.

If they kill each other, well, that would only be a fair turn of events. But deep down, I didn't care, I was completely disconnected. I was waiting for the liberating whistle of the bullet that would finally lead me to oblivion, to peace, to a place where all this madness would finally stop. Instead, two very brief screams echoed, only a few seconds apart. At least one person was dead, I was sure, but it didn't matter to me anymore. I didn't even try to escape when my two shooters had been briefly distracted.

« Run! »

This mental order was like an electric shock and I regained control of my body. I bent in half and began to move as fast as my injured foot allowed. Clearly, it wasn't my time yet. Nevertheless, no matter how instinctively I fled, all combativeness had deserted me. I trembled and cried as I made my way through the thickets without any discretion. I was pathetic! Then two successive waves of heat and comfort rushed into me, warming me from the inside. I couldn't figure out where they came from exactly, I just understood that someone who cared about me was trying to help me. I immediately felt better and started to move much faster and silently.

Now I was more flexible and agile. Everything around me seemed clearer and more precise. I almost had the impression that it was suddenly daylight and I no longer caught my feet in all the obstacles that presented themselves. My foot, incidentally, looked better, but I didn't dwell on these strange facts. I continued my silent progression until I knew, with certainty, that someone was about to fall on me from the tree overhanging me.

I jump forward and slightly to the left to turn around in the middle of the jump, and fall back on my paws, thus facing my attacker. My paws? My legs, more like it! In fact, I had fallen back on all fours and was facing my opponent who was staring at me. Alas his daze did not last long and he jumped on me, nailing me to the ground with all his weight. Even though I felt like I had claws and fangs, I didn't, and despite all the energy and fighting I put into defending myself against him, I was only exhausting myself and obviously entertaining him a lot. He just held me on the ground, one hand on each of my wrists and his legs nailing mine to the ground. As he sat down, he looked at me from head to toe with a calculating and disturbing look, which immediately made me want to wash myself. Instinctively I showed him my teeth, and a kind of rumbling tried to rise from my throat.

- 'So, sweetheart, you're a real tigress by the looks of it. Unfortunately, the place and circumstances do not fit what I had in mind. I don't know what's after us, but I know it has something to do with you. Too bad, I'll have to kill you,' he said in a disappointed voice. 'You weren't even my type. But know that after that, I will hunt down all the others and do the same to them.'

Then he pulled out, from behind him, a huge hunting knife with a catch and began to wave it at me in front of my nose, with a madness in my eyes. However, to take his knife, he had to let go of my hand, and I took advantage of it. As he began to slash me above my left breast, I succeeded in grabbing a branch and trying to strike him with all my strength in his face, despite the unfavourable angle, my left hand and the injury he had just inflicted on me.

So I reached my target, but with a lot less strength than expected, and only managed to distract him, he didn't budge at all. He roared like a wounded beast and struck me with all his strength. Nevertheless, I managed to avoid the blow with my free arm and screamed from the pain that vibrated throughout my body.

Then a burst of gunfire erupted, followed almost immediately by fighting noises and a cry of agony that echoed in the silence of the forest. But my torturer barely noticed. So busy looking for the best way to make me suffer, he no longer paid any attention to what was going on around him. That was his downfall or should have been, at least, because I couldn't help but scream when he began to butcher me again. I only understood when I saw the arrow sink into his arm, that without my scream, the shooter would not have missed his target. In the end, it didn't matter much, because before my torturer could react, Jude threw himself at him with all his strength and speed and violently hit him to force him to release me. He did not make a sound, but his rage seemed to perfume the air and deformed his face into a terrifying mask. As soon as I was released from the weight of my attacker, I huddled on myself, knees against my chest, shaking. Jude seemed to have the situation under control and I didn't want to watch the carnage, because from the sounds I heard he seemed to be taking all his time. I knew that the bastard had more than deserved it, but Jude's deathly performance was unbearable to me.

- 'Finish him... please,' I articulated painfully.

Even though I had spoken very low, I knew he heard me. Without even turning to me, he picked up the knife that had fallen in the fight and without a word slit his throat.

I didn't want to look, but I couldn't help it. I tightened my arms around my knees as much as I could and stared at Jude as he picked up the weapons scattered throughout the fight. I didn't know how to feel anymore. I was in my umpteenth state of shock in less than a week and had no idea what the consequences would be afterwards.

For the moment, I felt disconnected, without being able to sort through my emotions. On one hand, I was very grateful to him for saving me, and on the other, I was angry at him for taking so long. He finally approached very slowly and crouched down in front of me. He then set out to make me release my grip on my knees very gently, with careful gestures, whispering to me soothing words that didn't really make sense. Like talking to a child. Finally, he made me unfold my legs and always as gently examine me. He took off his leather jacket and helped me put it on, before hugging me.

- 'It's going to be all right now,' he whispered in my ear. (I almost felt like he was saying it for me as much as for himself.) 'Did he...?' he asked me in a trembling voice of barely controlled rage.

Same reaction as Worth! Half naked in his arms, I had to admit that I had almost being raped. Recalling the pervert's touches, I shivered even more, but managed to shake my head to make Jude understand that it hadn't gone that far. He sighed with relief and I felt his body relax against mine. He pulled me away from him a little bit so that he could look me in the eye, and that's when I realized that I might not be the worst one of us after all. My sudden realization as I saw his face suddenly made me come out of my bubble and I started to feel things again almost normally, a little as if I had just pulled my head out of the water.

Even in the darkness, he was a painful sight. His face was emaciated and had a more than worrying shade, similar to the one he had when he was shot. It was then that I realized that his hands were cold and clammy, and that the right sleeve of his jacket was wet and sticky on my skin. I looked back at his arm and saw a nasty knife wound. But how could I not have noticed it before?

- 'You're hurt too, and you don't look well.'

My voice wasn't very confident, but at least it was back, that was a start.

- 'I thought I would never make it in time,' he said, shaking with exhaustion and staring at me as if he wanted to engrave my image forever in his memory.

Then I felt him wobble.

- 'You should sit down,' I said as I took him with me to the ground, where we fell more than we sat. 'Why doesn't your wound close faster?' I asked him, contemplating the nasty stabbing that ran from the top of his shoulder to his elbow.

- 'Too many transformations in too little time. I'm just exhausted, that's all. Now that you're out of danger, I can afford a moment of weakness.'

- 'Have you seen Worth? He was supposed to shoot one of the shooters, but...'

I didn't finish my sentence. I didn't want to imagine the worst possibility.

- 'I don't know where the others are, but they're no longer in danger from your so-called hunters. They are either dead or in the hands of Charles' men waiting for the police to arrive.'

- 'Charles? The police? I thought the first one absolutely did not want to hear about the second?' I said surprised, and little stunned by the news. 'Besides, you told me not to expect anything from him anymore?'

- 'I guess I can be wrong too,' he replied cynically. 'You had just saved his granddaughter, it was the least he could have done,' he continued in a much more "Judish" manner.

- 'Then why the police, if Charles came in as backup?'

- 'I said that he had agreed to help us, not that he had done it happily, nor that he had been generous,' he replied a little annoyed, as if I had just asked him a silly question.

Okay, that was already more logical and more in line with my thoughts about Charles. At his more usual tone, I knew he was regaining his strength. A glance at his overall look confirmed it to me. I felt a little more relaxed and interested in the conversation myself. As I was waiting for him to continue, I gave him an interrogating look so that he would pursue his explanation. On one side, I was interested but above all it gave us a good reason to stay there and rest. I couldn't take it anymore!

- 'I went to him for help because I had no choice,' he continued defensively. 'When Worth disappeared, I found myself alone with his men who, as you might expect, refused to listen to me.'

- 'How surprising!' I commented ironically. 'Sorry... Keep going.'

- 'Seeing that I would never be able to convince them in time,' he continued in a more forceful tone reflecting his annoyance, 'I had to go to Charles and ask him for his help. When we came back, the seven men I had spotted had turned into a dozen. So I called the agent who had set up the microphones to give him the coordinates of the farm, so that he could officially inform his colleagues. We tried to neutralize as many as possible, but with three of us and without being noticed, it wasn't easy. Then it took me so long to find you...'

His gaze became fiery and his voice strangely low.

- 'The others, they're safe... with the police?'

- 'They've already left. Now it's up to the cops to take over. As for how to explain all this...'

He made a gesture with both hands to refer to the forest, he seemed resigned.

- 'At least we managed to save Aria and Adam...'

He did not finish his sentence, but the question in his voice was clear: he wanted to know what had happened to the other missing persons. He didn't dare ask the question for fear of the answer.

- 'I didn't find them,' I told him gently. 'We may know more after we search this place.'

He didn't answer me and we stayed there for a moment to recover, but especially to think about the consequences that this investigation could have for the shapeshifters if too many unanswered questions arose. All his thoughts reminded me that I hadn't told Jude about the main cause of all this mess.

- 'There's a mole in the police force,' I thought best to tell him. 'It was certainly them who sent reinforcements to ensure the farm's defences,' I thought aloud, while standing up.

I staggered for a moment while Jude got up as well.

- 'You're probably right, because the professor's missing. We only found mercenaries who didn't even know exactly why they were there. By the way, whose work is it that slaughter in the forest?'

- 'The car crash?' I asked, not really seeing what he meant. 'It was me, but Worth finished them off.'

Just expressing it out loud made me shudder.

- 'Wow! How resourceful you are.'

Fortunately, his sarcastic tone was attenuated by a hint of admiration, because I was really not in the mood to start a verbal joust with him.

- 'But I wasn't talking about that. While I was looking for you, I came across two mutilated bodies. I was just hoping it wasn't the work of our crazy canines from the other day.'

What Adam had told us earlier about the monsters in the barn suddenly came to mind, but I quickly dismissed the idea. If these kinds of creatures were hanging around in the woods, they would certainly have killed more people. Besides, I would have captured their corrupted scents. So there was only one option left... Feline! It could only be her, at least that's what I was hoping for. But in that case, why didn't I hear her? Was she too far away or had something happened to her? I knew I should have told Jude, if only to explain why I could communicate with a panther, but a little voice in my head told me that it would be too weird, even for him. And somewhere along the line, I was afraid he'd reject me. So I didn't say anything and tried to cloud the issue.

- 'I think if there had been this kind of monstrosities in the woods, there would have been more than two dead bodies. Don't you think?'

I had barely finished my sentence when we heard someone screaming "no", followed by several shots, then... nothing. We looked at each other without a word, because it was not necessary. Without consulting each other, we started running in the direction of the shots. We both recognized the voice of the person who had just shouted...

It was Worth.