Kat-A-Strophic

PROLOGUE

O

regon Coast

May 21, 2000

They were hunting her again.

Nova’s hands stilled over the soup pot on the stove, the hairs on the back of her neck bristling.

Rogues.

Two shadowy figures emerged from the bushes outside and approached the door.

Slowly, she set the ladle down and slid a butcher knife from its wooden holder, then backed into the pantry.

She whisked the door closed and watched through the slats as the frosted glass on the back door shattered and the intruders burst into her sunny yellow kitchen, and cased the place.

The dark-haired one was big and muscular. His companion was pale and wiry, with a bluish tinge to his skin.

Their eyes roamed the space, searching, scanning, probing every nook and cranny.

Nova clutched the knife tighter, the fires stirring inside her, along with the embers of something deeper.

She took a clearing breath, seeking to quell the turmoil within her before it awakened.

Focus,

she told herself.

Life outside of the safe houses was a gamble. There was no protection from others of her kind—Super or Rogue, especially for a female. Tiberius had afforded her such protection, but it had come at a steep price. Leaving him had granted her great peace and freedom, but also put her in far more danger. The urge to take a mate was great among her kind, and females were in short supply.

She fingered the necklace at her throat. Its shungite stones covered her signal, but these two had found her anyway.

The soup on the stove bubbled over, hissing and burning.

“She can’t be far,” the strongman said in a low voice.

“Then vee vait her out,” the pale one suggested in what sounded like a German accent.

Just then, the baby cried from the back room.

Nova’s heart thundered in her chest.

The baby!

The two men stopped and looked at each other.

“Are you sure vee got zeh right house?”

The other nodded. “I saw her come in.”

The two turned and shuffled down the hallway toward the baby’s cries.

Nova flung open the door and rushed after them, waving the knife. “Get out!”

The pale man lifted his palm and blasted the blade out of her hand, encasing her in a pillar of ice.

She focused on her inner fire and burst into flame, quickly melting away the Rogue’s handiwork and simultaneously setting the door frame on fire.

Dammit

. It had taken forever to find this place.

“Feisty.” The man leered at her, then extinguished the flames and stepped closer. “I like a voman vith a bit of spark to her. My fellow ice shifters are a tad too…frigid.”

“I’m not interested,” she growled. “Now get lost.”

The baby sounded again, and he cocked his head.

“Perhaps vee can persuade you.” He motioned toward the back room. “Bring zeh baby to me.”

The strongman nodded and started toward the nursery.

Nova clenched her jaw. “Leave her alone.”

She trembled as the power rose inside of her, stretching, awakening.

The air grew heavy, and the walls vibrated and hummed, shaking a calendar off the nail.

It fell to the floor, opening to an image of a large red mountain in a desert landscape.

“Uluru,”

it read.

“Enter the Dreamtime.”

She stared at it, transfixed, the energy within her surging higher and higher, spilling out in her voice.

“Nobody hurts the baby…”

she boomed, sounding foreign and strange to her ears.

Then everything exploded into darkness.