A figure stumbled through the ruins, her breaths ragged, her green eyes half-lidded. The tranquilizer darts in her shoulder pulsed with a sickly, numbing warmth that crawled through her veins.

Izumi’s tiger markings—dark stripes that ran along her arms and the sides of her neck—seemed dulled, the usual vibrant black faded to a murky gray. Her tail dragged limply behind her, heavy as lead.

Wrong. This was wrong. She’d been running for hours. Maybe days. Time had turned to sludge.

A sound. Footsteps. Close.

Izumi’s legs gave out beneath her. Her claws scraped uselessly against a jacket sleeve as she pitched forward, the world tilting and blurring at the edges.

The last thing she registered before the darkness swallowed her whole was the firm grip of his hands catching her before she hit the ground.