The cat suddenly made a noise that was part growl, part hiss, his ears flattening against his head. Sanaul looked at him in surprise; Sorin was such a good-natured cat that he rarely ever hissed, let alone made a sound like that. Sanaul reached out to try and calm him when a sudden noise from inside the air-conditioning grille made him freeze.

It sounded like claws on metal.

Lots of claws.

Before Sanaul could think about what to do next, the grille practically exploded off the wall, and a tide of dark furry bodies tumbled into the room. With a yowl of sheer terror, Sorin turned and fled. Sanaul recoiled in disgust as the rats swarmed around his feet. His disgust turned to terror as, one by one, the rats started to snap and contort, transforming into hunched, demonic-looking figures.

As they reached out for him with dirty, clawed hands, Sanaul screamed.

The terrified cry from downstairs seemed to bring Ace out of her nightmare.

‘Sanaul?’

Ace raced for the stairs, leaping down them two at a time. Yaz hared after her.

The sight that met them at the bottom was like a vision of hell.

The rat-creatures were everywhere, chattering to each other in low sibilant voices, their pungent smell filling the apartment. Yaz could see a man crouched in a corner, his suit torn and, his olive skin streaked with blood from dozens of cuts. One of the Ratts was holding Ace’s cat by the scruff of the neck.

Ace gave a scream of rage, pushed to the very limit of her control.

‘How dare you!’

The Ratts turned in unison to stare at her. The one holding Sorin gave a hiss of pleasure and released the terrified cat, who fled out through an open door into what appeared to be an office.

Ace was practically shaking with anger. ‘You think that you can come into my house and do this to the ones I love?’ she screamed. ‘You think that I’m just going to stand by to let you do that?’

Wiping furious tears from her eyes, Ace grasped the silver pendant that hung around her neck and tugged, snapping the thin silver chain.

‘Sanaul!’ she yelled. ‘Duck and cover. Three-second fuse!’

The man’s eyes widened with shock.

Yaz realised what Ace was about to do. She stared incredulously. ‘You’re not serious?’

‘Shut up and get your head down!’ yelled Ace, hurling the silver sphere into the morass of rat creatures and pushing Yaz back onto the balcony.

Three seconds later there was the ‘crump’ of an explosion that shook the stairwell. No sooner had the sound faded than Ace was back on her feet, launching herself into the clouds of smoke that now billowed through the shattered glass doors.