Nothing.

“Here, kitty, kitty!” I called, picking up a thick branch and wielding it like a club. “Ready to use up another of your lives?”

A WHUMP! from behind me left me with a cold, burning sensation on my upper right arm, and the gun flew out of my hand. I whirled around to come face-to-half-face with Alpha, whose sword arm already was stained with my blood. The bastard had been above us in the trees—like a cat, I ruefully reflected.

He raised his arm again, and I swung the branch to block what would’ve been a fatal blow. The sword sliced right through the wood, and I tried to use the stubs to drive him back, but he knocked first one and then the other out of my hands.

“Careful,” I said. “You don’t want Ishango to be moving into a damaged vessel.”

“Oh—ah—we have alternatives,” Alpha said, approaching with sword raised.

I looked over to Maggie, and she looked how I felt: terrified.

We had no guns.

We had no weapons at all.

We were about to die.

CHAPTER 54

Maggie

JORDAN PUT HIMSELF between Alpha and me—a rugged he-man gesture I appreciated for its stupid, stubborn bravery.

“Leave us alone!” he shouted. “I’m not giving in to Ishango’s insane idea. Why the hell would I agree to anything she wants after what she’s done to this town? To its people? To my father?”

“We—ah—will carry on with our plans with or without your surrender, Rho. The only question—ah—is whether you allow the Gooding family to—ah—live.”

“No,” I called sharply. There was no way I could allow Jordan to consider turning himself into something like Alpha. “With Ishango’s plan, there’s no real living for anyone. Don’t fall for his manipulation, Jordan.”

“Gotcha,” Jordan replied, and struck out with his leg to catch Alpha’s knee with an audible crack.

The personlike thing staggered, then whipped out that friggin’ sword again. This time Jordan avoided it easily.

“You’ve shown up in a few of my nightmares,” Jordan grunted. “But now I’m thinking they’re actually memories. Were you there when they were operating on me?”

Alpha grinned hideously, his lipless mouth stretching even wider to expose his skull teeth. “Indeed, Rho. I was the one who performed your modifications. As well as on your mother years ago.”

“Wait, what about Charlie?” Jordan asked.

“Ah—if I had anything to do with Charlie, he’d be here as well.”

Alpha threw a punch at Jordan’s head, but Jordan ducked under it and twisted Alpha’s weapon arm behind his back. Alpha followed with a swift blow to Jordan’s head, forcing him to let go.

The two of them swung and parried, stabbed and dodged in a complex dance around the mountain terrain. What Jordan had been telling me finally sank in: He knew how to fight, at a level way beyond professional. I might have enjoyed marveling at his mastery of the art if not for the sinking feeling that this particular bout would end in his death—and likely mine, too.