Rabid by Jami Lynn Saunders

brought to us, we know that others of our experiments do still exist. But we see that you are not a pure child, but a hybrid. We see the feline and the reptile living together within you, as well as your human side fighting to claim dominance. We see that you are the result of our reptiles and the one you call Pippa Reyes. Your mind reveals many secrets.
    Aiden raised his right hand and stared at the black claws that extended from each greenish finger. “I didn’t choose this,” he said.
    No, you did not. But it was a gift nonetheless. The blood of the werecat Pippa Reyes saved your life. The bite of the reptile should have killed you. But the blood of the werecat, transferred to you with the aid of the doctor, gave you a second chance. Now we wish to give the doctor a second chance. We have read your thoughts, Aiden. We see your past, present, and possible future. You must learn to embrace it. What is done is done, and the choice you make today may lead us to a new era. The lifeless doctor lying next to you holds the key to correcting our mistakes, and we can give him that chance if you so choose. If we revive him, he will need your help.
    â€œJust a minute,” Aiden said. “Are you saying that the cataclysm was your fault?”
    Yes. We mistakenly initiated the final cataclysm. We three created the virus that produced the ferals and caused the metamorphosis of a variety of species, including reptiles such as the ones you fought in the swamps. Our experiments spawned many other species as well, including our own. We, too, are hybrids, a breed we were creating for the war that was brewing and that seemed inevitable. We are a combination of flying mammals of the order Chiroptera, known as the bat, as well as the sugar glider, a marsupial.
    Questions flooded Aiden’s mind, swirling around like leaves in a maelstrom. He forced himself to focus. “Are you saying the virus was supposed to be a weapon? That you created the virus? I was told that the virus was brought here by our enemies, that we suffered biological warfare at the hands of others. Why would you create such a horrible thing?”
    It was not intended to be a virus. We created strands of new species that could be combined with human DNA in order to create super soldiers. Some of our efforts were failures, and we stored them in what we thought was a safe underground storage facility called the Bunker. But we were wrong. The Bunker wasn’t safe. Our government blamed others for our mistakes and claimed that we were under biological attack. They would not reveal the truth. They would not take responsibility. We played with fire and burned the world. The release of the virus was a miscalculation, an unfortunate mistake that polluted the air when the Bunker exploded. So, yes, we accidentally caused the warfare, the Fallout, the final cataclysm. And now, for our role in this devastation, our punishment has been to live in this hybrid state for more than fifty years. How much longer we will live like this, even we do not know. But now that the doctor has appeared and your mind has revealed its secrets, we have a chance to alter the future by reviving the lifeless body on the ground before you.
    â€œYou can save Jack?” Aiden felt a tinge of hope, but every instinct screamed at him not to trust the creatures surrounding him. As he studied them, just as he had studied Salvatore when they first met, other forms began to appear from out of the shadows. They looked mostly human, except for their grayish skin, black and white stripes on their faces, and round black eyes.
    Yes, we can give your friend back his life. But that choice is yours. The beings that are filling the surrounding area are our children, men and women who have wandered too close to our lair over many decades. We have changed them because of our own loneliness, an early attempt at expanding our own species. But that happened before we experienced our transformational stage,