"Are you okay?" she asked.
Minka nodded. She couldn't describe the feeling of closeness that now existed between her and Ivy, but a part of her thought it must have been what it was like to have a sister.
A noise in the gravel caught Minka's attention, and she turned to see Renard trying to reach for the gun Minka had knocked out of his hand earlier. Ivy was on the man before he even got close to it, flipping him over and growling at him.
"Don't make me chase you," Ivy snarled. "Your buddy Klaus did that, and it didn't work out too well for him. He died of a heart attack just as the chase was getting interesting."
Renard's eyes widened, and he held up his hands in surrender. "Okay, okay. I give up!" He swallowed hard, his gaze darting from Ivy to Minka and Angelo, then back to Ivy again. "Please don't kill me. I'll do whatever you want. I'll tell you anything you want to know about Klaus and his hybrid research-anything you want, just don't kill me."
Ivy's eyes narrowed. "Tell me about Thomas Thorn and his connection to Keegan Stutmeir."
"Shouldn't we wait until we get everyone else together before we start questioning him?" Angelo interrupted.
Ivy shook her head. "No. I want to hear what he has to say now-before Powell and Moore show up."
Renard looked confused for a moment but then started talking, speaking so fast that Minka could barely keep up as Renard told them how Thorn had funded Stutmeir and his efforts to create man-made shifters for more than four years, and how he'd continued funding the hybrid work after Stutmeir's death.
"Klaus communicated with him constantly," Renard said. "Thorn sent him detailed orders on where he wanted us to focus our efforts. He made Klaus and me very rich men in return for us creating a serum that would give him an army of hybrids."
Ivy's eyes narrowed. "Someone would have figured out they were different from other soldiers the first time he used them."
"That's what we tried to tell him," Renard said. "But he didn't care. He wanted us to hurry up and perfect the serum, and when we were too slow, he threatened us. That's why Klaus found us another backer for our work."
"Who was it?" Ivy asked.
Renard shook his head. "I don't know the person's name. Klaus told me that it was someone else on the DCO Committee. All I cared about were the new hybrid protocols that were provided to us."
"When did you start working for this new person?" Ivy asked.
"In December."
Ivy glanced at Angelo, her green eyes glinting. "That's right after we destroyed the hybrid lab down in Costa Rica. Whoever this other person on the Committee is, they must have decided they didn't want to start from scratch."
"So they tracked down Klaus and Renard and bought them off, then turned over all the research from Costa Rica to them," Angelo added.
"And it worked," Renard said. "We blended their work with our process and came up with the perfect hybrid/shifter blend." He gestured to the dead hybrid on the ground a few feet away. "They possess all of the strengths of a shifter with none of the control issues of our previous hybrid strains."
Minka felt sick at the gloating tone in Renard's voice. How many people had died in horrible pain so he and Klaus and whomever they'd worked for could create their perfect hybrid/shifter blend? Renard had probably never even bothered to count.
"Where are all these detailed reports and communications you had with Thorn and this new person?" Ivy asked Renard.
He pointed at a big research building several hundred meters away engulfed in flames. "In a mainframe computer in the lab-or what's left of it."
Ivy turned to see where he was pointing. Then her eyes went wide. "Oh God. Derek and the hybrids are in there." She threw Angelo a quick look. "Bring Renard."
Then she was gone, racing across the smoke- and fire-filled compound so fast she was almost a blur.
"What the hell did she mean?" Renard asked. "Bring me where?"
Angelo snorted as he pulled Renard to his feet. "Back to Washington, DC, so you can finger Thorn and send him to prison-or wherever they send psychos like him."
"You can't!" Renard protested, trying to pull free. "I won't last five minutes once Thorn knows where to find me. I'm not going."
"I wasn't asking," Angelo said.
Renard swore, yanking his arm away and giving Angelo a panicked shove. Before Minka knew it, the doctor was running. He had to have known he could never get away from them. Then she saw the pistol lying on the ground. Renard wasn't combat trained like Angelo, but he had a head start. He would reach the gun before Angelo could stop him.
Minka was moving before she realized what she was doing, her body instinctively responding. She had to get to Renard before he made it to that pistol.
* * *
"How long have you … ?"
Landon let his voice trail off as he and Diaz watched Derek slowly come to the realization that he wasn't going to be able to save any of the unconscious hybrids Landon had carried out of the burning building. Three of them had been dead by the time Landon and the others had gotten out there with the sedated female, but Derek had really thought they had a shot at pulling the last one back from the brink.
Landon had finally reached Ivy on the radio a few moments ago, telling her where they were and asking for an update. Before that, he and Diaz had helped Derek, taking turns giving CPR to the frail, broken creature and doing everything the medic told them. But there was nothing any of them could do that could repair the damage the young man had endured. He and Diaz knew that already, but Derek was still leaning over the body with fingers pressed to the creature's throat, trying to find a pulse that wasn't there.
Diaz stared down at the ground. "How long have I been turning into a monster you mean? It started right after getting bitten by that hybrid in Washington State. That damn thing infected me."
Landon frowned. He remembered Diaz getting bitten in the fight. "You can't turn into a hybrid by getting bitten, Diaz. Trust me on that one."
Diaz shrugged. "Apparently you can, because I sure as hell wasn't like this until that hybrid took a chunk out of me."
"If that's the case, why do your eyes glow yellow like a shifter, instead of red like a hybrid?" Landon asked.
A muscle in Diaz's jaw flexed, but he didn't respond. "It's not exactly something I've taken the time to study."
Landon put a hand on his shoulder. "There are some people at the DCO who can probably tell you what's going on."
Diaz pulled away and shook his head violently. "No fucking way. I'm a Special Forces soldier to the core. I don't want to get mixed up with that freaky shit of yours. And if they find out I'm a hybrid, that's where I'll end up. I don't want to work in an organization where I have to worry about my partner shooting me in the back or scientists cutting me open to see what makes me tick. You can't ever tell a soul about this."
"I won't, and neither will Derek," Landon promised. "But it's going to be hard to hide it for long. Ivy will figure it out at some point when she picks up your scent-if she hasn't already. Sooner or later, someone else will figure it out, too."
"I'll take later then." Diaz gave him a pointed look. "And in the meantime, I'm going to stay as far away from Ivy as I can."
Derek pulled his hand away from the hybrid's throat and came over to sit down on the ground beside them. He looked really tired.
"They never had a chance," he said softly. "Too much internal damage from all the crap the doctors pumped into them, I guess." Derek glanced at the female hybrid lying on the jacket he'd spread out on the ground a few feet away. "What's going to happen to her?" he asked.
Landon followed his gaze. He didn't know why, but the woman looked familiar. It was almost like he'd seen her before. "Ivy and I will take care of her, and so will Zarina, Layla, and Tanner. We'll make sure she's safe."
Derek nodded and looked like he would have said more when Diaz's head jerked up.
"Ivy's coming."
* * *
Angelo swore as he stumbled back, stunned the gutless, piece of shit doctor had actually caught him off guard. If the guy thought he could outrun Angelo, he was stupid as well as a coward. But then Angelo saw the pistol on the ground.
Shit.
He was already praying Renard was a bad shot when a blur of movement flew past him.
Minka hit Renard just as the man rolled over and lifted the weapon. She didn't make a sound as she raked him with her claws and tore open his throat, letting momentum carry her over him. She hit the ground and did a perfect tuck and roll before coming to a stop and spinning back around in a balanced crouch.