Jake and Frank hoisted the .022 caliber rifles up, checking that each one was properly loaded. Macario held a bow with an arrow loosely notched against the taut string.

“Three guys against four girls hardly seems fair,” Jake joked as he grinned at Mac. “It’s been way too long since we’ve done this.”

“That’s what Lisa said last week after she rescued Danielle’s kids,” Mac grinned back. “If those kids hadn’t been so terrified, she would’ve played with those soldier boys a lot longer than she did. She made me cut her up really good when she got me alone that night.”

“Yeah, my little girl’s a real terror when it comes to sex, boys, and knives,” Jake replied, grinning at the thought of carving into his oversexed daughter.

“Guns, knives, swords,” Mac laughed, “and this, too!”

He held up the wickedly pointed steel-tipped hunting arrow. This wasn’t the smooth pointy shaft of a training arrow – this would kill whatever it hit. Modern technology of the last (the twenty-first, that is) century had created an arrow that was deadlier than any bullet. This arrow was designed to extend four two-inch blades into the surrounding meat and blood vessels of whatever it hit, guaranteeing a kill.

“Hey!” a shout came from behind them.

The guys turned to see Jake’s son, Jake Hedron and his wife Tabatha approaching.

“Lisa told us about a girl hunt!” Jake Hedron grinned. “Tabatha wants to play, too!”

“Yeah!” Tabatha grinned. “I got all shivery and excited just thinking about it!”

“Okay, but where’s Jake’s gun?” Mac asked, more than willing to have a beautiful redhead to shoot at.

“Oh, I’m not shooting,” Jake Hedron replied, grinning sheepishly. “Tabatha is the one who wants to play. I’ll just watch.”

“You okay with watching us gun down your wife?” Mac asked, raising his eyebrows.

“Yeah, I imagine so,” Jake Hedron replied, looking somewhat unsure of himself. “That’s really why I tagged along – I want to know just exactly what she gets out of all this.”

“That makes five girls to three guys,” Jake Pestova said. “Here’s Tabatha, and out there, already hiding, is Lisa and Annalisa. Lisa also has her two phoenix trainees with her – Tia and Tara.”

“Can we shoot back?” Tabatha wanted to know.

“No,” Mac grinned at her, “and you aren’t allowed any clothes, either.”

Tabatha grinned and turned toward her husband. They both began to unbutton and remove her blouse. As it became possible, Tabatha pressed her bare breasts into Jake’s hands.

“The next time you touch these,” she breathed into his face, “my breasts and belly will be bloody and full of holes. When you find me lying on the ground, writhing and dying, will you fuck me, my love?”

Jake almost stepped backward at the intensity of the pure lust pouring out of his wife’s sinuous body, uncertain of what he would feel when and if he found her in that condition.

“Cat…” Jake whispered, already agonizing over her willing, eager demise.

Tabatha blew him a kiss and vanished, teleporting out into the woods where the other girls were hiding. Her clothes, uninhabited now, fell gently to the ground.

“Well, let’s form a line,” Jake Pestova said to the others. “One rifle on each end, Mac and Jake in between. Let’s spread out!”

The four of them began pressing forward into the wooded area. There was a lot of low brush, and it was easy for them to hear each other’s movements, as well as any movements a girl nearby might make as her hiding place was broached.

After about ten minutes of intense searching, their line was spread to about a hundred feet wide. A sudden movement between Jake Hedron and Mac caused Mac to swing around, bow at the ready as a large bird fluttered out of the brush. Mac eased back on his bow and let the creature escape. Pheasants were scarce; girls weren’t.

“Watch where you step,” he advised Jake, “there’s probably a nest nearby.”

Jake Hedron slowed his forward motion and began searching the ground more carefully. A piece of lighter-looking dirt attracted his attention. Curious about what a real bird’s nest looked like, he stepped forward and peered down, pulling a piece of brush upward and out of the way.

“That’s a foot,” he mumbled, almost to himself.

The dirt-covered bare leg it was attached to suddenly snaked up and the foot smacked him in the face. Then a bare body was rushing past him with an excited squeal back the way they had just come.

“Hey!” Jake shouted, feeling lame that he hadn’t caught her as she brushed by, almost rushing into his arms with a gleeful excitement dancing in her eyes.

Tia was already into the trees by the time everyone else noticed she’d even been there. Aiming carefully, Frank squeezed the trigger of his rifle. With the blood rushing through his ears, he didn’t actually hear the shot, but his rifle bucked as it fired. Tia spun around and down, struck in the shoulder and thrown off balance by the impact.

Frank and Jake Hedron ran into the trees after her.

“Exciting, huh?” Mac asked, calling back to his father-in-law, Jake Pestova, who had been too far away to get a clean shot at the fleeing girl.

“Which one was it?” Jake called back.

“Tia, I think,” Mac replied. “Maybe Tara.”

“Good!” Jake grinned. That meant Lisa, Annalisa and Tanya were still out there, hidden somewhere, fair game to whoever brought them down. Also…

“Wait!” Jake called softly at Mac.

If that had been one of the ‘T’ twins, the other would probably be nearby. Mac grinned as that thought occurred to him as well, and they both began tramping around and disturbing as much brush as they could.

After about ten minutes with no results, they gave up and began moving forward again, further into the woods.

“I imagine the girls are getting bored waiting for us menfolk to find them,” Macario joked.

Tara yelped as he stepped on her hand. Then she erupted up out of the ground right into his face, knocking his bow and arrow out and away. She bolted right at Jake, diving to one side as Jake fired blindly at the gorgeous, bouncing boobs rushing at him.

A yelp of pain answered the loud report of his rifle, then Tara rammed him and rushed on by, hardly appearing to be wounded at all.

“Ahh! God!” Mac yelped. “You shot me in the leg, you stupid bastard!”

Jake stood staring at Mac kneeling on one knee, then realized that Tara was getting away. He twisted around just in time to see her bare backside disappear behind a tree. A tinkling of laughter echoed in his mind.

“Clever girl,” Jake mused, as he turned toward his groaning friend.

Mac was staggering up to his feet, testing his already healing leg wound.

“Good thing you didn’t hit the bone,” Mac grinned. “I’d’ve had to kill you, then.”

“Both the ‘T’ twins are behind us,” Jake mentioned. “Do you want to track them, or search for more interesting prey?”

Mac grinned, wanting to find his own Lisa or perhaps buxom Tanya or maybe Tabatha, who was as new to the hunt as Tia and Tara. He also knew that Lisa and Tanya, as the more experienced prey, would set vicious traps to disable their beloved hunters. Their own demise would occur when they surrendered themselves to the lure of seducing their trapped prey – the ones who had previously hunted them and who always had some vicious, sharp surprise waiting for the ladies to get close enough…

“Interesting as in ‘dangerous’, you mean?” Mac laughingly replied. “Of course! Let Frank and your son chase the twins and hope they don’t get burned. Each twin always knows where the other one is. They’ll probably circle around, meet up somewhere, and try to ambush Frank. Should be an interesting story to hear, later, don’t you think?”

“Yep,” Jake agreed. “I’m surprised, though, that Frank would let Tanya be hunted by me – he has a forever grudge against me for taking Béla away from him.”

“Oh, I think he’s gotten over that, by now,” Mac replied, thinking hard on the subject. “Since Béla chose to be reborn with that Sibilius fellow, I don’t see how he can hold her against you – especially now that you have Annalisa…”

‘Shhhh!” Jake interrupted as he suddenly crouched down and put all of his attention in front of him. “I heard something!”

A rustling in the bushes ahead of them attracted Mac’s attention as well. Both men crouched down as they separated out to flank whoever or whatever was making such a noisy fuss. When they approached the center of the bushes where the sounds had come from, there was nothing there.

“Well,” surmised Jake, “must’ve been a rodent or a badger we startled.”

“Yeah,” Mac agreed.

They turned and continued to walk in the direction they had been going earlier. A distant rifle shot let them know that Frank was still chasing Tia.

“Hi, Daddy,” a cheerful voice said from above them.

Jake looked up as Lisa dropped down on top of him, her knees on his shoulders driving him into the ground. Mac leaped sideways and brought his bow up, quickly notching an arrow for his beloved wife.

Mac’s arrow wasn’t necessary. Lisa dropped right down on Jake’s rifle, tearing a hole in her stomach before it even went off and blew a hole out through her right shoulder blade. Lisa rolled off her father, gasping and holding her belly with both hands. Jake lay on the ground, unable to pick up his rifle for another shot. Lisa had broken his collarbone when she dropped on him.

Mac put aside his bow and arrow and approached his wife. Lisa grinned at him through clenched teeth and slid back away from him, still holding her wounded stomach.

“C’mon, Hon,” Mac cooed at her. “Let me hold you for a moment while you bleed out.”

“Ha,” Lisa replied through clenched teeth. “You just want to make love to me while I bleed to death.”

“Well,” Mac grinned. “That is the object of the hunt, isn’t-GNNK!”

Mac dropped to his knees as he stared at the large metal arrowhead sticking out of his chest just below his right nipple. The little knives extended from the tip of the arrow too late to further injure him – they only worked their ‘magic’ when the arrow was imbedded in its prey, not shot completely through. He turned back to see Tanya on her knees, still holding the bow and smiling sweetly at him.

“Was that for me?” Lisa asked, choking on blood that was beginning to fill her lungs. “A special arrow to kill a phoenix?”

“Here,” another female voice said from right next to Mac, “let me take care of that.”

Tabatha knelt down, her beautiful red hair barely covering her bare breasts. Taking hold of the arrow behind the wickedly knifed point, she pulled it forward through Mac’s chest.

As the feathered tip passed through his lungs, Mac could feel blood flowing into the wound, filling his right lung for a moment before the damaged blood vessels clotted and began to heal. A short coughing fit cleared his lungs of the heavy substance so he could breath again.

“Some hunt!” Tabatha complained as she tied Mac’s hands behind him. “I didn’t even get shot at and Mac’s been shot twice!”

Tanya was tying up Jake in a similar manner, her breasts not unintentionally brushing against Jake’s body as she worked. She knew, though, that Mac would be her lover today. Frank wouldn’t be too happy if she chose Jake instead of Mac. Old wounds of the heart are the hardest to heal, after all.

“We only have two hunters, Katie,” Tanya smiled up at her would-be daughter. “Frank’s still out there somewhere.”

After the men were hogtied, Tabatha went over and knelt down beside Lisa.

“You know, Annalisa could let you have some of her blood, and you could heal like you used to,” she suggested to Lisa as Lisa lay gasping on the ground in an ever-increasing pool of her own blood.

“You don’t think I’m too changed from human for her hybrid blood to work on me?” Lisa grunted, her body trembling as she weakened from her blood loss.

Tabatha smiled down at her old friend and lover, then shook her head.

“No, I don’t think you’ve changed that much,” Tabatha told her. “You used to be able to flare up into pure energy and your hybrid blood would be recreated with your new form. Maybe you just need a new supply of hybrid blood.”

Lisa choked for a moment, then spit up some blood. She could flare right now if she chose to, but then she’d miss that special incredible orgasm she usually got as her body expired. But, Tanya didn’t need to know that – a girl must have her secrets, after all…

“Vlad told me that he noticed changes in my body when I reappeared each time after he’d… done… whatever. I don’t remember how to exactly duplicate my body anymore from one time to the next. I can only go with what feels right at the time.”

“Won’t your twin phoenix trainees have the same problem?” Tabatha wanted to know.

“They haven’t yet,” Lisa replied, beginning to take shorter breaths as her heart began to race. “Tia managed to… flare once and her body retained its healing abilities… after… she recreated it from pure… energy. Hey! That’s mine!”

Tabatha turned to see Tanya bent over Macario, sucking his magnificent dick as it stiffened.

Tanya looked up and grinned, “I was just getting him hard for you.” Then she rose and knelt down next to Lisa on the other side from Tabatha. “Let’s get her mounted on him before she dies on us.”

“Good idea,” grunted Lisa as she tried to rise and let her loving friends half carry her toward her helpless mate. “Except that Daddy shot me, and the rules are that he gets me.”

“Damn! She’s right!” Tanya grimaced, then set Lisa down next to Jake who was still hog tied and lying on the ground.

“You up for some fucking?” Tanya asked, grinning down at him.

“Frank would kill me,” Jake murmured as his eyes traveled over Tanya’s ripe, youthful-looking body. “But oh God you’d be worth dying for.”

“Not me, Silly,” Tanya grinned. “You shot your daughter. You get to fuck her ’til she dies.”

“Oh, right,” Jake said, seeming disappointed, somehow.

“Just for that I’m going to turn your dick into pure fire, Daddy dear,” Lisa promised as she watched her father’s cock harden under Tanya’s experienced hands.

“How’s your shoulder?” Tanya asked as she brushed her nipples against Jake’s hairy chest.

Jake moved his shoulder, testing the freshly healed break. “It’s healed okay, I guess.”

“Good,” Tanya replied, sensuously undulating her torso against his hardened cock. “I think you’re ready, then.”

Jake groaned his disappointment as Tanya backed off and rose to help Tabatha position Lisa on top of him. She slid easily down onto her father’s cock, but was too weak to do anything except lie on top of him.

“You feel… good in there… Daddy,” Lisa panted, her dying body not allowing her to breathe deeply. “But… you’re going to have… do the work…”

She collapsed against his chest and shoulders, her body completely limp. Then she shuddered once, radiated one meager orgasm through her father and died.

“This just won’t do,” Tanya complained as she rolled the still-coupled pair over so that Jake could move his hips.

“She needs a hybrid lover,” Mac suggested, still lying on the ground, tied up like Jake. “One of her sisters or maybe one of Elaine’s sons who could keep her supplied with hybrid blood.”

Tired of holding Lisa’s limp, expired body while Jake pumped back and forth inside her, Tanya reached around and touched the ropes binding Jake’s arms. They vanished away and Jake sighed in relief as he moved his arms out from behind him.

“Here,” Tanya murmured. “You wanna fuck her, you hav’ta hold her.”

She rose up and went back to Macario. “You’re still hard,” she noticed, then dropped down on him without any foreplay whatsoever, not groaning like she usually did when his girth stretched her beyond what she was used to.

“You want Jake bad, don’t you?” Mac grinned up at the voluptuous blonde bouncing up and down on him.

“Shut up,” Tanya murmured. “I shot you, so you’re mine. I’m just surprised that Frank isn’t around to make certain that Jake and I don’t connect.”

Meanwhile, Frank and Jake Hedron were hot on Tia’s trail. For the next hundred feet beyond where she was dropped by Frank’s bullet, there was a blood trail. But that ceased as her shoulder wound healed itself. Now only trampled grass and the occasional broken branch led them on.

“Look at this!” Jake Hedron exclaimed, holding up a broken twig. “This was deliberately broken! She wants us to know where she’s going.”

“That can only mean they’re setting a trap for us,” Frank grinned. “Should be bloody fun!”

“Fun?” Jake asked, raising his eyebrows. “And I notice the word ‘bloody’, which you never use in normal conversation…”

“The traps Lisa and Tanya set can be pretty gruesome,” Frank admitted. “You should have a weapon to defend yourself. I once fell into a pit with a live wildcat trapped in it. Fucker tore me to shreds.”

“Bet Tanya loved that, huh?” Jake grinned, picturing the possibilities.

“She has a lustful taste for blood, that’s for sure,” Frank replied. “It doesn’t seem to matter to her if it’s mine or hers.”

“Okay, there’s a clearing, and… no trail,” Jake said, considering the possible ways Tia could’ve gone.

“End of the trail…” Frank said, almost to himself.

He crouched down, making a complete circle while slowly searching for traps. Jake did likewise. As ex-head of Tomlin Security, he had an apt eye for things that didn’t look natural despite the fact that he wasn’t much of an outdoorsman.

“Frank…” Jake whispered excitedly. “I see her…”

“Where?” Frank whispered back.

“Two o’clock to where you’re pointed right now,” Jake whispered back. “Behind that fallen log…”

Before Frank turned, he positioned his rifle butt up against his shoulder, then twisted toward the right. Tia, realizing her position was known, bolted, then smacked down, almost doing a belly flop as Frank’s bullet slammed into her back and blew out through her stomach.

She lay gasping on the ground for a few seconds, then began crawling off to the right as fast as she could manage, leaving a wide trail of fresh blood and some gray matter that came out of her belly.

“You can’t get away by going sideways, Sweetie,” Frank grinned as he approached her. “You should be trying to put some distance between us.”

Jake was a few feet behind, following Frank’s trail through the tall grasses as they angled to intercept her.

“Wait!” Jake suddenly cried, but it was too late. Frank was gone – completely disappearing into whatever trap the now wounded vixen had led him into.

“Jesus holy fucking crap!” Jake heard from somewhere nearby and in front of him. The voice sounded angry.

Carefully approaching the side of the pit Frank had practically dived into, Jake looked over the edge.

“You sound pretty healthy,” Jake observed. “Are you hurt?”

“I broke my god damned fucking ankle,” Frank swore at him.

“How do you suppose she made a hole this deep in the amount of time she had?” Jake asked, curious.

Anyway, that’s what he intended to say, and everything came out as expected except the last word, which sounded like, “Haaa-AADDD???”, as Tara rammed into Jake’s back and toppled him into the pit on top of Frank.

“ ’Cause there was two of us,” Tara replied, grinning down at the both of them sprawled in the dirt at the bottom of the pit. “Hi, Frankie. You two behave now while I check on what you bastards did to my sister. Don’t go ’way…”

Tara disappeared. Frank slipped his fingers down into his right boot and came up with a six-inch-long Bowie knife.

“You’ll need this,” he said, handing the wicked blade to Jake. ‘You can stand on my shoulders and dig out a root to pull yourself out.

“Now would be a good time,” Frank added, noticing that Jake wasn’t responding to much of anything.

“Oh, yeah!” Jake replied, still embarrassed at letting Tara sneak up on him like that.

Placing the knife in his teeth like he’d seen actors do in pirate movies, he placed his foot into the ‘stirrup’ made from both of Frank’s hands. Frank hoisted him up and Jake’s booted feet dug into Frank’s shoulders, now, while he leaned, half-balanced against the side of the pit. They both half-closed their eyes and tried to duck away from the dirt that showered down on them as Jake dug.

Then Jake had a good handhold on a tree root and was pulling himself up and out of the pit. Not finding anything to grip around the rim, Jake dug his knife into the ground and used it to pull himself further up.

Tia and Tara were examining Tia’s stomach when Tia noticed Jake’s head pop up.

“They’re getting out!” she cried, pointing a bloody finger at Jake’s head.

Tara rushed forward, intending to knock Jake back into the pit. Swinging one foot over the top, Jake rolled away from the rim while trying to dodge Tara’s kicking feet as she tried to knock him back down. Pulling his knife free, he gouged Tara’s right leg, causing her to yelp as she stumbled and fell on top of him.

They struggled fiercely for a few seconds until Jake managed to get that wicked Bowie knife pointed at Tara’s swaying breasts. Not wanting her nipples slashed, Tara backed off and let him up.

Jake Hedron stood, half-crouched in a defensive position, gasping from his escape efforts. Tara backed away, defensively crouched down as well, leading Jake around so that Tia was behind him.

Jake could easily see in her mind what she was attempting, and let her think she was succeeding. As Tia leaped up, Jake leaped forward. The three of them crashed to the ground, together, Tara gasping with new pain from the knife buried in her solar plexus.

“Don’t pull it out!” Jake yelled as Tia angrily shoved him to one side and grabbed the knife handle.

Tia yanked backward on the knife and it pulled free, followed by a gush of bright red blood as it pulsed out of Tara’s chest.

“Dammit, I told you not to pull it out!” Jake yelled as he tried to staunch the pulsing geyser of blood.

“I can put it back in,” Tia suggested, not seeming too upset at the spurting geyser spattering down on her twin’s belly and legs. “Will that help?”

“Not now,” Jake proclaimed, sounding angry. “She’ll be dead in less than a minute no matter what we do!”

“You better fuck her quick, then,” Tia replied, grinning at the expression Jake had on his face – pure disbelief that Tia was not as upset about her dying sister as Jake would have her.

Then he realized just how horny he really was. His cock was pressing tightly against his jeans and had been since he began fighting Tara. Tia dropped down on her knees and began furiously working Jake’s jeans down.

“Hurry!” Tia exclaimed. “You caught her, you have to fuck her! Preferably before she dies…”

“Tia…” Tara gasped, staring helplessly at her bloody hands and the bright red fluid pumping out of her body. “Help me…”

“It’s okay, T,” Tia cooed as she turned to embrace her dying sister. “You’ll be fine. I’ll guide you through it, I promise.”

“I’m scared,” Tara whispered.

“You wimp!” Tia exclaimed, her voice quiet and loving. “You weren’t scared when you rammed that spear in my back… You weren’t scared when I jumped inside your head when my body died…”

“Yes I was,” Tara cried. “I was terrified. I was scared to death that I’d lose you…”

Jake was out of his jeans now, so he pushed Tara back against the ground, mesmerized at the brightly painted, glistening, blood-red body that Tara was becoming. Climbing up so that his cock was positioned above her bright red pelvis, he tried to guide himself inside the terrified girl.

Tia moved to help, and between them both, they managed to get Jake’s hard-on buried in Tara’s bright, red-soaked bush. It slid in easily, lubricated by Tara’s life blood as it flowed down her belly. The instant Jake was inside her, Tara cried out as she orgasmed.

“Good!” Tia exclaimed. “You’re both doing great!” Tia lay down on the ground with her head over her sister’s face. “You’re going to be fine! Just enjoy it! Oh God, I can feel him inside you! Just relax and you’ll come again – yeah, just like that!”

Jake Hedron rammed his cock in as he felt Tara’s pussy clench against him. He had never been so aroused by death before. He had done his share of killing in his long life, but he’d never done anything like this. This was pure, bloody murder for the sake of sexual pleasure. He felt appalled and degraded, yet found himself unable to stop.

With Tara’s next orgasm, she bucked wildly underneath him and shuddered. Her eyes rolled up into her head and her pussy clamped down on him several times, then she was very still.

“I’ve got you,” Tia whispered. “Don’t get scared, now. See? You’re dead! God, I can still feel inside your body. Keep fucking her, Jake. She can still feel it! Don’t stop until she starts getting hot, then back away, fast! Got it?”

Jake nodded, noticing that the blood was only trickling out of her chest where it had been gushing. Tara’s heart was stopped. She would be brain-dead in a few more seconds as her body began to shut down.

Still in an almost hypnotic trance, he placed his hands on Tara’s unmoving chest and gently squeezed her blood-covered breasts. A strange airy sound came out of Tara’s mouth as her lungs deflated.

“She can still feel you,” Tia promised, gazing at Jake. “Fuck her harder! She thinks she can have another orgasm before everything shuts down. Squeeze her tits with your hands! Make her feel it!”

Tara managed one final spasm, then was really, completely dead. Jake pumped his semen up inside her dead, unresponsive cunt with an orgasm as powerful as he could ever remember.

“She liked that,” Tia told him, gazing into his eyes with pure love. “She wanted you to come really good.”

“You… You… I killed her!” Jake cried out, distraught over Tara’s sexual murder. “And you made me… Oh God!”

“No, Jake,” Tia cried out, hugging her breasts against his bloody torso. “She loved what you did to her! It’s part of our training! She was supposed to die!”

“How can you say that about your own sister?” Jake cried, gazing down at the still, red-smeared body cooling between his legs.

He couldn’t believe how incredibly sexy the dead girl still looked. His cock was getting hard again just from the feel of her sticky blood against his pelvis. He pulled out and rammed into her dead pussy again, almost having another orgasm from the feel of her loose, unresponsive body as it jiggled from the impact.

“Yes!” Tia exclaimed. “Do that again! She liked it!”

“She’s dead!” Jake moaned. “She can’t feel anything!”

“Jake, I swear she can!” Tia cried excitedly. “We’re still connected and she still wants you to fuck her!”

“Oh, Jesus, I can’t believe I’m doing this!” Jake moaned as he began ramming in and out of Tara’s pussy again.

“She’s getting wetter in there, isn’t she?” Tia exclaimed. “That proves she still feels you!”

Jake realized that Tia was right. Tara was positively sopping wet – so much so that her girl-cum was replacing the sticky blood that had been lubricating her pussy before. A moment later, he was spasming and shooting another load of cum into her dead body. Tara didn’t respond, of course, but her juices flowed steadily from her slack-muscled pelvis.

“She came again, Jake,” Tia whispered, seemingly in awe. “You are truly a wonderful lover. But you should back away, now. It’s almost time…”

“Time for what?” Jake asked, then yelped as his shrinking cock suddenly felt like he’d dipped it into boiling water.

He backed away quickly, his eyes full of wonder as the dead, bloody flesh beneath him began to brighten into a red and golden flame. Tara’s body quickly became too bright to look at and Jake rolled backward to get away from the sudden, intense heat.

Tia sat unmoving, right next to her sister as she phoenixed, ignoring the brilliant fire of Tara’s reincarnation. She seemed to be sucking the fire into her own lungs as her sister flamed more brightly. Then Tia’s body was flaming as well, and both twins became two bright-white forms, setting the tall grasses around them aflame with their combined, brilliant heat.

‘We are one,’ Jake heard in his mind. ‘And the universe is ours…’

The brilliant light suddenly vanished. The twins were gone. The fire in the tall grasses died away as though unwilling to cause any more damage.

Jake Hedron blinked several times, trying to make himself believe what he had just witnessed – an evolving of two human life forms into… What?

‘Some sort of divine entity?’ he wondered.

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