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scattering something white that glittered like crystal. Mason glanced her way, seeming to read her without even trying.
    â€œRock salt,” he said without missing a stride. “It’ll put them off our scent.”
    Jenna hunched into her jacket, feeling naked and undone. The dogs sounded closer now. She smelled them too, a noxious stench that reminded her of graveyards. In her mind’s eye, she could almost see hideous skeletal things with flesh barely clinging to bone. But that was crazy. They were just dogs, some strays gone feral.
    Shadows flashed in her peripheral vision. She put on more speed, the feeling of life-or-death hitting her hard. The threat was intuitive, on a soul-deep level, and kicked her flight response into high gear. Dry, brittle branches whipped her face as they ran. They felt like bony fingers clawing at her skin. She swallowed a scream.
    I want to wake up now. Time to wake up. The only reply to her desperation came in the form of Mason’s warm fingers twined with hers.
    She remembered her father’s warning voice: If you run, predators will chase you. Sounds of that pursuit crashed through the trees behind them. She heard some of the creatures breaking off, maybe confused by the salt Mason had strewn across their trail. But the dogs didn’t stop.
    Animals went for the weakest prey first. Mason was only running—not turning to fight—because she was there. He was trying to protect her, like he said he’d promised Mitch.
    Her breath came in shallow gasps as they entered the clearing. Golden slivers of light edged the cabin’s blacked-out windows, offering a hot rush of relief. They’d made it. Jenna scrambled up to the front door. Her hands trembled as she tried to work the knob. Terror and the cold made her clumsy.
    Two creatures broke from the shadow of the trees. They’d been dogs at some point. Now they were something else entirely. Something ... other . What she’d imagined of their appearance was entirely accurate. How?
    Only she’d missed the awful way the air shimmered around their gaunt bodies, cloudy like the haze off a sun-scorched pavement. Her blood congealed as they turned their ghoulish muzzles toward her, cloudy eyes gleaming garnet red in the dark. So unreal, so eerie, that ghastly shimmer urged her to look away. But if she did, she’d be their dinner. Although the demon dogs weren’t like anything from nature, the law of predator and prey remained.
    Mason planted both feet to face them. “Get inside!”
    Jenna didn’t know what world she’d stepped into, but she felt trapped on the other side of the looking glass. No old rules, if there were any rules at all. She stumbled into the cabin and slammed the door. She leaned against it, her heart pounding and her senses muddled.
    A gunshot shattered the silence. Several more shots rang out. How long before he ran out of ammo? Mason was her only link to normalcy, and he was out in the cold, fighting those things—no matter what they were. He’d intended to prove a point, but what the hell would happen to her if he died?
    Fear warred with self-preservation. When her breathing stabilized, she crept to the window and peeled back the blacking. With his ammo gone, Mason fought the creatures bare-handed, except for his jumbo Maglite. He was big and strong, but there were two demon dogs. Not good odds.
    She didn’t like the look of the foul, viscous slobber running from their jaws as they lunged. If they bit him ... well, she didn’t know enough about this crazy new world to predict what might happen. But animal bites were never good.
    Jenna cast a desperate look around the cabin. She couldn’t leave him alone out there, not when she was the reason they’d ventured out in the first place.
    â€œYou’re not Mitch’s daughter for nothing,” she said aloud. “ Do something.”
    Her gaze settled on the dead fireplace. A good-sized