Moonlight

H sat next to Dallas at the bar of the pub, and for the first time in a long while he was actually enjoying himself. Dallas was beautiful, intelligent and a bit cautious around him but that was to be expected. However, he still enjoyed speaking with her, not to mention he just loved the sound of her voice and the way her Scottish lit played with her words.

"So, you see..." he began, "I am a nice guy. I hate the stares and grabs as much as you do. I think women can be just as, if not more brutal in that aspect then men."

"Aye, I ken see where ye are coming from in that aspect," she replied before taking another sip of an Irish ale. "I doona appreciate being stared at like a piece of meat."

"I understand completely," he replied. "So can we at least start over?"

Dallas arched a perfectly shaped brow as she turned her head slightly to look over at Hell. A long lock of black hair had fall over his face, giving him the sinful look of a fallen angel. "Aye, I suppose we ken. Jest as long along as we understand each other."

H gave her a sinfully sexy grin, she was finally opening up to him. "Great. So how long have you been in Vegas?"

Dallas looked at him and said, "A while, how aboot ye?"

~****~

"WHAT?!" Argona jumped to her feet in disbelief

"But he can't...I mean..." her shoulders drooping as she looked down at the other mark on her, the damn black dragon tattoo that wrapped itself around the bottom half of her left arm. Sighing sadly, she said "I guess he can. Everyone gets what they deserve in life and I suppose I deserve this. I did bring it on myself."

Looking up at Tiernan, a single tear slid down her cheek. "I'm sorry for disturbing you. You will tell him I am sorry. I will let myself out." Turning Argona walked back to the door her heart hurting even worse than before.

"Hold on a second, lass," said Tiernan with a sigh. The wolf hated to see another Were suffer because of his brother's foolish pride. "Maybe I ken help ya find him."

Argona turned back to Tiernan and gave him a smile before throwing her arms around him. "Thank you," she whispered as tears of joy began to fall.



~****~


AREA 51, Nevada Desert~

In the briefing room, several floors beneath the ground, Kaylen sat skimming through video of the newest test subject. Carefully selecting certain parts of the many recordings of her, he spliced them together along with all the data he had on the child. He couldn't believe that they were starting this again!

' "We need you to report to our facilities out in Nevada," said Alain Kostas, the senior lab administrator in New York. "They have a project out there that they need your expertise on since you were involved before in the handling of our last genetic creations."

"What do you mean?" asked Kaylen in surprise. "I thought we were at least a year away from creating another super predator."

"Not anymore," said his boss as he reached into the drawer of his desk and pulled out a thick manila folder and handed it to the scientist. "Better catch up on your bedtime reading, McKenna, for you will be leaving in two days for Nevada and your new assignment."

Gazing down at the folder that he held in his hands, Kaylen furled his brow when he saw the label 'PHOENIX'. Opening the folder, he was shocked and sickened when he saw that his assignment was another genetically enhanced Were-hybrid, only that this was...a child. "You have got to be kidding! A child?!"

"We had to start from scratch after Predator escaped," said Kostas, "and all we had left of her were a few hairs samples but it was enough to extract a DNA make up. The same went for Shadow Cat. All we had to do was find a suitable woman who was pregnant and start the testing while she was carrying the child."

Kaylen felt his stomach churning as he listened to his supervisor recount how they brought Project Phoenix to life. "Sadly, the mother didn't survive once the child was born but the child is most remarkable, McKenna, and the Council and I feel that you could work wonders with her as you did with the previous two."

'This is disgusting,' Kaylen said to himself as he closed the folder. 'They've already ruined two lives and I can't let them make it a third.'

"Did you hear what I said?" asked Kostas.

"I'm sorry, sir," he apologized, "I have a lot on my mind at the moment. Still trying to defrag that hard-drive with Predator's information on it."

"Ah, always the hard worker. I said that your accommodations have been made and I have your plane ticket. You will be leaving in two days' time to be there to meet with the staff as well as meet with your subject. Do me proud, McKenna, do me proud...." '

He now sat and watched with a mix of sadness and disgust as two of the newly enhanced canines were sent into the maze where Project Phoenix was wandering. Kaylen frowned as the two dogs charged from two separate directions catching the child between them, leaving no where for her to run. The fear on her small face tugged at his heart as she jumped up onto the side the wall and scaled it like the web-slinging hero of comic books.

"So many similarities between her and Predator... I can't let this happen again," he whispered softly.

Kaylen then encrypted the file under the guise of another email before sending it out to the one person he knew who would help. He would do everything he could to free the child before they corrupted her innocence and turned her into another cold blooded killer like her predecessors. The e-mail and video file had been labeled PHOENIX, so it would draw X's attention. Now all he needed to do was wait and try to keep the child as safe as possible without blowing his cover.


~****~


Xerena Jagger sat at her laptop checking her email when the screen flashed that she had a new message. When she saw who it was from, she immediately knew that it was important so she opened it up. What the Arcadian tigress saw both shocked and horrified her.

"Is everything alright?" asked Vergil Sertorius, a rare white Katagari lion who had been guarding Xerena and her siblings ever since she had first arrived in Las Vegas nearly a year ago. Standing a very intimidating six-five with white hair and ice blue eyes, Vergil and his twin brother Dante notorious for being cold and calculating when it came to killing enemies. However, when it came to Xerena, Vergil was as tame as a kitten but still overprotective.

Shaking her head, she then said, "Verg, do me a favor and call Max and SC. Tell them that we have a huge problem on our hands."

"Problem?" he asked as he came around to see what had disturbed the tigress. He hated it whenever she was distressed about something, however, he never let his face betray his true feelings.

"Yes, another lab but this time they have a child."

"Son of a bitch," he muttered under his breath as he pulled out his mobile phone and quickly dialed the number to Max's apartment.


~****~


Shadow Cat paced outside the Lachlan house since Argona was in there and needed a friend. Stopping and looking up at the house again, she continued to wait, almost dreading the idea of ringing the doorbell since SC knew what awaited her inside. Walking in there would be like Daniel walking into the Lions' Den since wolves lived there and wolves were related to dogs. "And I hate dogs," she whispered, remembering how she was forced to fight them during her time in the Lab. It was all a bad memory now, but more importantly, Argona needed her. So taking a deep breath and repeating to herself over and over,'They are friends not the enemy,' SC said to herself as she walked up to the door and rang the doorbell and waited.

Nothing.

Frowning, she rang again and banged on the door for good measure. She knew the drakos was home and dammit she'd get that stubborn dragon up and out one way or another. Becoming impatient, SC started to bang on the door once more when it suddenly opened. All SC could do was blink at the tall, raven-haired man before her with eyes so green they practically glowed. She didn't know how long she stood there staring for every sensible thought had left her head.

"You're not Ari," she finally said, then muttered a mentally slapped herself.

"Indeed I'm not, lass," he replied as he stood there looking at the young woman, arching his brow slightly. "She jest left a moment ago.

SC thought she was going to faint from the sound of his voice. So deep and rich, that it sent shivers down her spine. And that accent! She remembered Argona telling her that the Lachlans where from Scotland. 'My gods, a voice like that should be against the law to use on a woman,' she thought to herself. 'And not to mention the looks too. A man this hot should definitely be illegal.'

"Um, do you know where she went?" SC finally asked.

"Tae see me stubborn brother. Hope she knocks some sense into him."

Her mouth formed a small 'o' once she realized to whom she was talking to...Aisling's identical twin brother, Tiernan. "You're Tiernan, right?"

"Aye," Tiernan replied with a nod. "Ari mentioned that ye might be coming around. Told me to tell ya that she is fine, lass."

Still a bit shell shocked by the appearance of the wolf before her, SC was starting to reconsider her misconceptions about wolves in general, especially if they looked as good as Tiernan Lachlan! "Um, okay then. I'll just be on my way. Sorry for disturbing you, Tier," she said as she gave him her best smile before turning and walking away as fast as she could.

'Good god damn he's hot!' she thought as she walked back down to the end of the driveway. 'No wolf and I mean NO WOLF should look that damn sexy and get away with it!'


~****~


The incessant ringing of the phone slowly woke Max from a deep sleep. Blindly padding his hand along the nightstand, he finally found the receiver and picked it up.

"It had better be a damn good reason for waking me," he growled into the phone.

"Damn, and they call me cranky," said Vergil. "And I do have a good reason for waking you. Found another lab."

Listening, he shot up in bed. "What?!" Max said. "Say that again."

"Found another lab," said Vergil, "and this one is here in Nevada. Only this time, the test subject is a child. Same project that created SC and the elusive Predator that everyone is looking for."

"I'll be there in thirty."

"See you then, lion," Vergil said before hanging up.

Hanging up the phone, Max jumped up from the bed then looked over at his Gataki. Rethinking a moment, he sat back down on the bed next to her and gently shook her shoulder. "Gataki...wake up please."

Slowly Roxane's jewel like eyes opened and she smiled at him, until she saw the dark look in his eyes. "What is wrong, Max?" she asked, sitting up to face him.

He looked at her, reaching up to brush a stray lock of raven hair from her face. "I received a disturbing phone call just now, Gataki. I wasn't going to tell you but you need to know..."

"Why weren't you going to tell me?" she asked, drawing her knees up to her chest. Max knew that this was going to be hard to explain to her since both she and Shadow Cat were the creations of the very same project that was once more at work again creating a new super predator to stalk and kill the Dark Hunters. However, the results had been less than favorable for the Daimons who had altered the genes of two cats. The creators had become the hunted.

"There is an insider who has been leaking information to us about the labs for sometime now," he continued. "Xerena Jagger is his contact and she just received a very disturbing e-mail from him. I'm going over there now to get more information and read the file myself." Letting out a sad sigh Max looked at the pantheress with nothing but pure emotion and the urge to protect. "They have another lab up and running and it's right here. But worst of all, Gataki, they have another test subject and it's a child."

Roxane's eyes began to glow and the smell of ozone began to fill the room as she leaped off the bed and gathered up her clothes from the floor. "I'm coming with you," she growled lowly as she slipped the suit on over her underwear.

"But you are in no shape," said Max. "You are still in heat."

"Fuck it! I'll be damned to hell if I let them ruin one more life like they did mine. There is no telling what barbaric treatments they may have started on her," Roxane shot back. "Accelerated growth treatments, being forced to run through mazes, and other bullshit treatments."

The lion was taken aback by the bitterness in his Gataki's voice but she would know better than anyone what they were up against. "Alright," he said. "But please promise that you won't run off on your own."