Conner was on the leopard before it realized he was even there, swiping at the heaving sides with a huge paw, knocking the furious cat away from Jeremiah’s torn body. Elijah sprinted through the trees as the two leopards came together, snarling, rolling, flexible spines nearly bent in half as they raked and tore at each other.

“Damn it, wake up, Isabeau!” Rio snapped. “Grab a rifle.”

His voice jerked her out of her shock. She didn’t hesitate, but yanked a rifle from the open trunk on the floor and jumped down. “Where?”

“Get as close as you can to them. If you get a shot, take it,” Rio ordered.

She ran across the intervening space, her heart in her throat. Just in her line of vision, Elijah bent and lifted Jeremiah, shifting him to his shoulder in a fireman’s carry. Blood dripped down his arm and back. Puncture wounds dotted his body. Elijah flashed past her and to her dismay it looked as if Jeremiah wasn’t breathing.

A blood-streaked Suma leapt, twisting, using the leopard’s flexible spine to turn in midair as Conner went up on his hind legs and anchored claws in the hindquarters, yanking the leopard down. Suma nearly folded in half, slamming powerful claws into Conner’s neck and side. Conner rolled, ramming into Suma, knocking him off his feet so the two leopards were a tangle of fur, claws and teeth. The roar of the two male leopards filled the forest.

Isabeau put the rifle to her shoulder just as a shot rang out and bark splintered from a tree trunk where Conner had been a half second earlier. If he hadn’t rolled, the shot might have hit his head. Her gaze jumped to the trees, trying to find where the shot had come from.

Instantly, Rio and Leonardo sprayed the canopy in the distance, obviously having no problem figuring out the trajectory of the shot.

“Shoot the son of a bitch, Isabeau,” Rio yelled.

She jerked her attention back to the ferocious fight between the two leopards. They were locked together in mortal combat, rolling over and over, their tails lashing, the sounds horrifying. She felt almost surreal, as if she was in the throes of a nightmare and not real life. There was no way to get off a shot and not take a chance of wounding or killing Conner.

“I’m trying,” she snapped back.

With the two bodies wrapped so tightly around one another, she couldn’t distinguish one from the other. They looked like a dizzying sea of spots, blurring as they slammed into one another, broke apart and came together again. The eyes appeared as simply two more rosettes lost in the midst of a thousand spots, except for the intensity. Smoldering fire. Shocking intelligence. Cunning. Rage such as she’d never seen.