Rabid by Jami Lynn Saunders Page A

a sort of metamorphosis that enhanced our abilities and restored our morality and intelligence. Now we know we were wrong to turn these poor humans into creatures, and we have not changed one soul since our metamorphosis. That is why we leave this choice to you.
    â€œI don’t understand.”
    We will not consciously, by our own will, turn another human into one of our children. The weight of that choice must be borne by another. That is your choice. If we change him, give him his life back, he will be one of us, and you must bear the consequences of that choice.
    â€œAnd if I choose not to change him?”
    Then the hope of a feral cure dies with him.
    â€œBut if I do ask you to save him, what are the consequences?”
    He will become one of our children, a nocturnal, forever, and may be cursed to live for hundreds of years. But he will be able to travel with you to find the two werecats that hold the cure within their blood. Once you’ve found Pippa Reyes and Abby Hunter, you must travel to the Olympic Mountains, where the doctor will have a chance to create the cure from their bloodline. Bringing him back to life will give him amazing strength, agility, and other abilities, similar to the abilities you have in your cat and reptilian forms. And he will be able to read thoughts and control the will of others with the power of his mind, a result of our experimentation with psychic warfare. But before his full transformation through metamorphosis, his morality may be compromised, and he may use his gifts against others.
    â€œThe other choice is that he’s dead and we lose any hope of creating a cure.”
    Yes. But if he regains his life, he will face a challenging struggle. The doctor will need your help as he works through his metamorphosis.
    â€œHe’ll become rabid?”
    No, it is not the same as Pippa and Abby. The metamorphosis lasts only hours, but it is excruciating, and he will be unprotected as well as a threat to those around him. The anxiety of the metamorphosis leaves our kind maddened for the length of the transformation. As our children’s cells fight for dominance, either marsupial or Chiroptera, the rage that momentarily fills them could lead to others’ deaths, as it has with many of our own children.
    Aiden’s expression was grim.
    You need not fear, Aiden. As a hybrid, you can protect him against himself and others when the time comes.
    â€œHow will I know when the time has come?”
    It will be soon, and when it happens, the doctor’s skin will turn blood red from the changes happening within him. Before the change, his vision will begin to deteriorate, and after the change he’ll be nearly blind. But his other senses will be greatly heightened.
    Aiden closed his eyes, tried to think. A cure depended on the microscope. “But without his eyes, how can he find the cure?”
    He will find a way .
    â€œThen, I beg you, please save him,” Aiden said.
    Is this your final decision? Some would say that death is better than what he will face.
    â€œHe’d want the chance to create the cure.”
    Then it is done. The gift we plan to give the doctor is to turn him into a hybrid, like ourselves, so that he may morph between human and nocturnal. Our children do not have the choice of fully returning to their human form. Their cells refuse to allow them to be both, as we are. The combination of our bloodlines will make the doctor stronger than our own children. He will become their leader, and they will follow you both to protect and lead the doctor to his destiny.
    Aiden nodded. “We do it for the world.”
    The three beings surrounded the body of Dr. Jack Tanner, raising him up off the ground as if he were a marionette being lifted by strings. The three beings surrounded him and enveloped him in their wings. The other nocturnals drew in, surrounding the three creatures as they began to chant. The sound was low and guttural, with an eerie