The ride over was pure hell. My heightened senses made every bump in the road feel like a bus crash and Johnson sang the entire way. The words to "Shining Star" by Earth, Wind and Fire echoed in my brain like dice, banging into every corner of my skull. Did the guy know any songs written after I was born? It sure didn't seem like it, and I nearly climbed out and ran alongside the vehicle just to escape.

A small crowd had gathered at the edge of the village by the time we pulled up. Before I got out of the Humvee, I turned to Will. "Think I should put on some shades?"

He chewed on his bottom lip a second, then asked, "Can you see in the dark with them on?"

I raised my eyebrows. "What do you think?"

"Okay, better questiona"will you burn holes in the lenses if you wear them?"

We stared at each other a minute, then cracked up. "God, I'm such a freak."

"Nah," Will said. "Well, maybe a little. I think the shades are a good idea, though, at least for now."

I felt like a poseur greeting people in a pair of knockoff Ray Bans like I was some stoned rock star, but no one ran for holy water or torches to burn me at the stake because of my eyes, so a little poseur behavior was probably excusable.

While Uncle Mike directed the civilians to gather in a central location so we'd have an easier time guarding them, I went to Zenka, Will at my side. Her white hair was braided tight against her scalp and she was wearing pants, boots and a long smock-like top, almost like she'd dressed to be mobile. Was she thinking of jumping into the fight, or just planning in case we needed to move fast? I hoped she didn't have to do either, but I was glad to see her prepared.

Zenka looked me up and down then snatched the sunglasses off my face before I had a chance to react. She cackled when she saw my eyes. "I am glad I lived long enough to see this."

Will cleared his throat and shifted uneasily. Zenka focused her stare on him. "It's good you are here, too, William Hudson Cruessan."

He skittered back a few steps. "How'd you know my name?"

Zenka turned back to me without answering. "They'll come from the southwest. The thing that controls them lives in the cliffs there."

"We checked that area," I said. "We didn't find anything."

"It will not be found if it doesn't want to be." Zenka stared at the sky. A few stars had become visible and an arc had been cut from the moon's side from the shadow of the Earth, an omen of things to come. "If you deal its minions a blow this night, it will have to try to destroy us itself. Then you will find it easily enough."

"Is it Gaunab?" I asked.

"Gaunab is not of this world," she murmured. "But creatures who serve him are."

Zenka left to check on her people and Will faced me. "Dude, how'd she know my name?"

"She knows things." I searched the crowd for Uncle Mike. I needed to make sure my team was stationed on the southwest side of the village. "You'll get used to it."

"No," Will said, following me between the huts. "No, I won't."

It didn't take much to convince Uncle Mike to let me stage my guys where I wanted them and I picked a ramshackle house made of loose boards right at the edge of the village. I settled in the dirt behind the little building, Lanningham and Johnson at my back. Tyson and Will covered the other side. Tyson hadn't been my first choice, but Murphy was on Ramirez's team, and it wouldn't be fair to trade out my B movie fanatic for another wielder's best guy. Dorland had stayed behind with Uncle Mike's team to protect the villagers, but he'd be ready with the grenade launcher if we needed ordinance support.

We'd offered to evacuate the village, but that had been shot down almost immediatelya"the people weren't willing to leave Zenka behind, and where Zenka went, monsters would probably follow, so they'd make their stand here with us. Uncle Mike had gathered everyone into the center of the village and surrounded them with a wall of soldiers. My job was to make sure their job was easy.

"Nothing gets through us," I said, watching the plain of sand, grass and scrub-brush. "Nothing."

"Sir, yes sir," Lanningham said. I turned to see if he was being sarcastic. He met my gaze and puffed out his wide chest. "Nothing gets through, sir."

Sirafrom an officer. When I first started out with the team, I'd begged the colonel to be compared to a corporal, rather than a private. Now the guys saw me as a fellow officer. A year ago, that would have thrilled me. Tonight, I realized exactly what it meant.

I'd work hard to deserve the title.

The minutes ticked down. A wan, lukewarm breeze grazed us every so often; otherwise, it was dead quiet. Not even the nocturnal creatures were out to scavenge. I shifted, feeling a prick of uneasiness tease my brain.

"Orange," Johnson whispered. In the dark, his large frame was barely visible.

"What?"

"Your eyes. They were yellowish before, but they're turning orange." He pointed at the sky. "Kind of like the moon."

I glanced up. The moon had changed color from its usual creamy yellow to a sherbet-orange. We'd been watching as the earth carved an ever-widening arc in its side. Now the last sliver had disappeared, leaving a blood-red moon to reappear in its place.

"We've got totality," I said. "It's starting."

As soon as the words left my mouth, screeches and howls echoed across the plain. Tyson chattered excitedly to Will and I barked, "Quiet!"

I stared at the moon. The guys at NASA said that once we moved into the total eclipse phasea"nowa"it would be forty-two minutes until the moon started exiting the earth's shadow on the other side.

Forty-two minutes. How would we withstand a full on assault for that long?

Listen, Tink commanded.

I closed my eyes so I could hear better. The screeches mingled and mixed into a chorus of terror. A baby started wailing in the village. Someone ignited on a flamethrower. Tyson started breathing faster.

Listen harder.

I drew the knife slowly, cringing at the loudness of the metal rasping against its sheath, and forced myself to tune into every sound. Boots crunching grass. Lanningham clicking the safety off his Berretta. Thenathere, under it all.

A dark voice chanted in a guttural language I'd never heard before. It seemed to come from underground. Not under my feet, but deep in the earth. The screeches of the beasts prowling outside the village rose and fell in time with the dark voice's chants.

"What is it?" I whispered.

What we're here to find. The spirit sounded cold and hard. She was angry. Ready yourself. This will be a hard fight.

In response, the muscles in my arms and shoulders tensed. I felt like a spring, coiled tight with the spirit's finger on the release. "Stand tough, guys. They're on the way in."

In the distance, shadows trotted back and forth. My night vision had kicked in, lighting the desert that weird blue like before, but the creatures lurked just out of my range. A smell, like burned meat and stale grease, rode downwind from that direction. I snorted in disgust. Enhanced reflexes and sharpened vision were one thing; being able to smell monsters from more than a quarter-mile away was just plain nasty.

The howling quieted. As the minutes ticked past, I tightened my grip on the knife's handle. Johnson shifted next to me, peering through the night-vision scope on his M4. "Archer, there are dozens of them out there."

"Cats?" I asked. I couldn't see well enough to know for sure, even though it sounded like them.

"Yeah." He let out a low whistle. "At least I think so. These areabigger. Tank-class."

I was about to ask him to give me a more accurate count when gunfire erupted on the far side of the village.

"Incoming!" Ramirez called out on the radio. "Northeast side!"

"They flanked us," Johnson said, looking back at the village.

We didn't have time to worry about it. The Cats on our side gathered together and became distinct as they ran at us full tilta"twenty, maybe thirty of them, driving in a huge pack. They were bigger than last timea"a lot bigger. Hard muscle rippled and claws like knives dug into the earth to propel them forward. The leader let out a yowl, showing off killer fangs, and the others joined in.

I checked the moona"a blood-orange circle glowered back.

My watch said we had thirty-six minutes to go.

Chapter Twenty-One.

The Cats came in a wave. Johnson was screaming for ordinance, but I hardly heard him. The thrumming chant of that dark voice filled my ears. I didn't understand the words, but I knew what it said.

Kill them all.

My knife's handle heated up in my hand in response. Rage made my arms shake, and I stood firm even as grenades whistled over my head to explode in the middle of the pack of monsters. A half-dozen Cats were thrown from the force of the impact, and many more caught fire. Their howls were terrible. The rest kept coming, flying across the plain like they'd been launched by a rocket.

Walking on steady legs that moved without my brain directing traffic, I left the shelter of the small building and faced them head on. Lanningham shouted for me to get my butt under cover, but the knife-spirit had other ideas. So did I.

Despite the grenades, more than a dozen Cats were still on their feet and closing fast. I dug my heels into the dirt, bracing myself for the onslaught. Dorland fired another volley, catching the stragglers, but nine Cats made it through the last barrage of ordinance and were too close to be in range for grenades. Bullets did no good; now it was up to me and the other wielders to keep Zenka and her people safe.

"You have control," I whispered to the knife-spirit. "I'm just here to kill stuff. Put me to good use tonight, okay?"

My knife flashed blue and Tink let off a battle cry in my head that spilled from my own mouth. Then I ran.

I couldn't let the Cats make it into the village, so I went to meet them on their turf. I didn't know how I'd keep nine in check by myself, but it didn't matter. Nothing would get through.

I plowed into the middle of the pack, whirling like a dervish, and struck down three before they knew what hit them. Now surrounded, I ducked, swiped, swung and slashed as huge paws with wicked, hooked claws batted at my body. One cut through the heavy canvas jacket I wore and, based on the stinging, cut my skin. Another caught my thigh.

As soon as they drew blood, a haze drifted across my vision and my movements sped up beyond what I could do on my own. I hopped onto the back of the closest cat, stabbing the knife between its shoulder blades, before rolling off to face the others. Two of the remaining Cats pounced and knocked me flat on my back. One pinned my shoulders, growling low in its throat as the other raised a paw over my head. I worked the knife free just in time to stab the first Cat in the heart. That gave me the leverage I needed to roll away before the other Cat smashed my skull; instead, it slammed its paw into the dirt so hard it sunk in six inches and hit a rock buried in the ground. The monster let out an angry howl before crawling away with its hurt leg cradled against its chest.

The other three Cats circled around me, looming over me upright on their back paws, at least nine feet tall. No matter where I moved, I couldn't keep all of them in my field of view. Plus, the wounded one was out there, hiding in the shadows. I kept my knees bent slightly as I weaved back and forth so I'd be ready to dive to one side if I had to. Gunshots and screams echoed from the village. Ramirez yelled at Brandt to watch his back. From the sound of things, I needed to finish up here and go help.

One of the remaining Cats leapt at me and I dodged it, shouting, "Will! Now!"

We hadn't told a soul what we had planned, because there was no way my uncle would've let Will use a flamethrower on a practice range, let alone in the middle of a fight with me in his line of sight. So we got creative, and kept it to ourselves.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Will dart from behind the building. Johnson shouted for him to stay back.

"Like hell!" Will yelled. "Heads up, Matt!"

I tucked and rolled into the shadows as fast as I could, while Will ran up behind the Cat and sprayed a stream of fire at its back. We'd gotten the idea from our fight with the Takers last summer and, with a little experimentation, had discovered most forms of Axe body spray had enough alcohol in them to light half of Will's backyard on fire. Even better, the other soldiers never thought to question why we each needed three aerosol cans of the stuff while stationed in the desertadespite the fact that neither of us had ever used it.

The Cat burned in a pine-scented fireball. In its panic, it ran at the others, proceeding to light one of them on fire, too.

"Yeah!" Will shouted, pumping his fist in the air.

By now I was back on my feet, and I cut down the burning monsters.

Someone shouted for help behind us. The last Cat standing had cornered Tyson against the house. He was gasping, and his expression went from awe to terror and back again as he ducked under a paw aimed for his skull. The Cat punched through the boards of the house, and Tyson used the time to get away.

He only made it three steps before the Cat yanked its arm free, swung and knocked him off his feet. Tyson sailed into the darkness, where he landed with a loud, "Oof!"

"Go get Tyson," I yelled to Lanningham as I stalked toward the Cat. It bared its fangs and rumbled out a roar.

And headed straight for Will.

Not sure why it was trying to take out my support staff when I was standing right there, I threw my knife as hard as I could and it slammed into the monster's eye. The Cat went down in a mess of floppy limbs. When I went to retrieve the knife, Will covered me with our second can of Axe in his left hand and a fireplace lighter clutched in his right. I had to give him bonus points for courage; his hands weren't even shaking.

"That last Cat is out here somewhere," I said, breathing hard. Blood trickled down my back from the scratches, but I was still tripping with knife-spirit magic so it didn't hurt. "Come on; we better go help the others."

"What in the name of all that's holy were you two thinking? You were so tangled up in there, I had no line of sight," Johnson snapped as Will and I tromped by. "And that can of deodorant could've exploded in your hand, Cruessan!"

"No time for that now." I stalked toward the village without slowing. "Yell at us later after we put down the rest of these monsters."

Tyson came limping back, whooping and hollering. "That was so badass! You owned those Cats!"

"Yeah?" I said, giving him a hard look. "How about the part where you nearly got turned into Fancy Feast?"

"Best night of my life!" Tyson said, laughing.

Will laughed a little, too, but stifled it when I shook my head. "Tyson, stay here and watch the perimeter. Call us if anything shows up. Do not try to fight these things on your own."

Tyson gave me a disappointed look, but stayed put like I asked. Lanningham fell in behind Will, keeping close. I checked the moona"the red had faded a bit. My watch said we had twenty-four minutes left in totality.

We burst into the center of village to find a complete melee. Houses had been smashed and broken boards littered the ground. A few buildings were burning. Inexplicably, laundry was strewn everywhere, too, and shattered pottery crunched under our boots. The whole scene was lit orange from the flame throwers.

Murphy and a group of soldiers had surrounded the villagers, acting as a meat shield. Most of Murph's guys had black streaks of soot and dust on their faces, but no one seemed to be seriously injured. Twenty yards away Ramirez, with Dorland as backup, was fighting six Cats at once. Brandt was on the far end, engaged with his own gang of monsters. Ramirez seemed to be holding his own, so I took off running toward Brandt, Will and Lanningham hot on my heels. As soon as the Cats saw me, three of the four broke away from Brandt and charged us.

"Time to fly," Will said. He ran ahead a few steps, then dropped to his knees with his hands out and fingers interlaced.

Without breaking stride, I jumped onto his outstretched hands and he flung me through the air. I held the knife out in front of me, bracing the handle with my left palm for the impact. Two of the Cats tried to scramble out of my way, but I slammed into one of them and stabbed it in the neck, taking the other down with us as we hit the ground. A quick thrust of the blade, and the second one let out a gurgling yelp before going limp.

I was on my feet before the third one could get close enough to swing a paw. It tried to fake me out by feinting left, then ducking right, but I stayed with it, backing the Cat up against the wall of a house. The monster stared into my eyes as I advanced and once I had it cornered, the Cat didn't make a sound or try to fight. I dispatched it quickly, but something about its resignation made me uneasyaalmost like it knew it was merely a distraction before the big show.

When I turned to check on everyone, Brandt was standing over a dead Cat, watching me with his jaw slack. Ramirez stalked into view, his knife bloody and his face grim. He nodded when he caught me looking. The Cats were finished, with seventeen minutes of totality lefta"the whole fight had taken less than half an hour.

I wiped the blade on my pants and shoved it into its sheath. That's when I noticed how quiet the village had become. In the center, Zenka had joined Murphy and Uncle Mike, and all of Zenka's people stood in a crowd behind them. Every person there was staring at me.

"Dude, you want your shades?" Will whispered.

It was too late; they'd seen my eyes. But not just that. They'd seen me fight, under the knife-spirit's influence, which wasn't something too many civilians could say. "No. Glow-in-the-dark eyeballs are probably the least weird thing these people have seen all night. Might as well let my freak-flag fly, right?"

Will gave me a half-smile. "Yeah. Loud and proud, man."