Alarms wailed through the alien hangar bay as flames blazed around Jessica, her werewolf senses overwhelmed by the cacophony of the ship's self-destruct sequence and the explosions. The escape pod containing Kevin and Salina had just launched, their terrified faces pressed against the view port growing smaller as they hurtled toward Earth. She couldn’t reach them on time, but all she could do now was make sure the alien werewolf didn’t reach her home planet.

  "Come on, you purple freak," Jessica growled, her transformed body tensed for battle. "It's just you and me now."

  The creature stalked toward her on all fours, its once-smooth purple skin now covered in coarse fur, its elongated snout filled with jagged teeth. Yellow eyes locked onto hers with unmistakable hatred. The bite she'd given it earlier had transferred something–her werewolf essence merging with alien biology to create something horrifying.

  Another explosion rocked the ship, sending both creatures stumbling. Panels tore free from the ceiling, crashing around them as the hangar bay disintegrated. Jessica knew she had minutes at most before the entire vessel detonated.

  "If I'm going to die," Jessica snarled, her voice barely recognizable even to herself, "I'm taking you with me."

  The alien werewolf lunged, its massive frame moving with impossible speed. Jessica met the charge head-on, her cheerleader's agility now enhanced by preternatural strength. They collided in midair, a tangle of claws and fangs. The impact sent them crashing into a control panel, sparks showering around them as they grappled.

  Jessica tore into the creature's shoulder with her teeth, tasting its strange, metallic blood. The hybrid howled–a sound that was neither fully alien nor animal–and slashed across her midsection. Pain lanced through her, but her werewolf healing immediately began knitting the wound.

  "You're not getting to Earth," Jessica growled. "Not while I'm still breathing."

  The ship lurched violently, throwing them apart. Warning lights flashed as another section of the vessel detonated, closer this time. Through the hangar bay view port, Jessica could see stars spinning as the massive craft began breaking apart.

  The alien werewolf recovered first, charging at her again. This time, Jessica dodged, using the creature's momentum to send it crashing into a stack of alien equipment. She followed up with a flurry of slashes across its back, her claws tearing through the hybrid's tough hide.

  But the creature was adapting, learning her movements. It spun with unexpected grace, catching her arm and flinging her across the hangar. Jessica slammed into the far wall, the impact forcing the air from her lungs. Before she could recover, the creature was on her, pinning her with its superior weight.

  Its jaws snapped inches from her face, its fetid breath washing over her. Jessica strained against its grip, her muscles trembling with effort. The ship shuddered around them, metal groaning as structural integrity failed throughout the vessel.

  "Get... OFF!" Jessica roared, summoning a surge of strength born of desperation. She head butted the creature, the crack of impact momentarily stunning it. That half-second was all she needed to free her right arm and drive her claws into the hybrid's eye.

  The creature reeled back, howling in pain. Jessica scrambled away, putting distance between them as she sought any advantage in the crumbling hangar.

  Another explosion, this one massive, ripped through the adjacent section of the ship. The entire hangar bay wall nearest to them buckled and then tore away completely. The sudden decompression created a howling vortex as everything not bolted down was sucked toward the gaping hole.

  Jessica dug her claws into the metal flooring, fighting the pull of the vacuum. The alien werewolf wasn't as quick, its massive body sliding toward the breach. At the last moment, it caught itself on a support beam, hanging precariously as the void of space beckoned beyond.

  Jessica had a choice–stay where she was and hope to survive the ship's ultimate destruction, or ensure the creature never reached Earth. She decided in a heartbeat.

  Releasing her grip, she let the decompression pull her forward, aiming her body like a missile at the creature. They collided with bone-jarring force, both creatures torn free from their anchors and sucked out into the infinite darkness of space.

  The cold vacuum hit Jessica like a physical blow. Her lungs seized, her skin burning from the absence of pressure. She braced for the suffocation that would end her life–but it never came. To her astonishment, she could still breathe, though each inhalation felt like drawing in liquid nitrogen.

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  The werewolf transformation, she realized. It's protecting me somehow.

  The alien werewolf seemed equally surprised by its survival. For a moment, they both hung suspended among the stars, Earth a blue-green jewel below them, the massive alien ship breaking apart behind them in silent, magnificent explosions.

  Then the creature's yellow eyes narrowed, and it kicked off from a piece of floating debris, propelling itself toward Jessica with murderous intent. Their battle wasn't over–it had merely changed venues.

  Jessica twisted in the zero gravity, using a passing chunk of alien metal to redirect herself. They collided again, tumbling through the void together. Fighting in space was unlike anything she could have imagined–without friction, every movement continued until counteracted. Each swipe of her claws sent her spinning in the opposite direction. Each impact pushed them apart until they could grab hold of each other again.

  Yet, despite the absurdity of their situation, Jessica fought with renewed determination. The Earth grew larger beneath them as gravity claimed them both. They were falling, pulled into the planet's embrace while locked in mortal combat.

  The alien werewolf clawed at her face, tearing three parallel gashes across her cheek. Jessica retaliated by sinking her teeth into its forearm, ripping away a chunk of purple flesh that dispersed into the vacuum. Their dance of violence continued as they tumbled ever downward, caught in Earth's gravitational pull.

  Behind them, the alien ship's explosion lit up space like a newborn star, the shockwave propelling debris in all directions. A massive section of hull plating, glowing red-hot from the explosion, spun toward the battling werewolves.

  Jessica saw it coming a split second before impact. The burning metal struck them both, slamming into the alien werewolf's back and driving them down faster toward Earth. The werewolf alien screeched in pain as its fur caught fire, the metal fused to its flesh.

  They were speeding up now, the blue planet no longer below them but rushing up to meet them. Jessica realized with horrifying clarity that they had entered the upper atmosphere. Friction heated the surrounding air, creating a cocoon of super-heated plasma.

  Pain unlike anything Jessica had ever experienced engulfed her as her fur singed and her skin blistered. The alien werewolf thrashed in agony beside her, its own body suffering the same torment. As the inferno of reentry intensified, Jessica made a split-second decision.

  With the last of her strength, she grappled the creature, positioning its larger body beneath her own. If one of them was going to survive this fiery descent, it would be her–and she would use the alien as a shield.

  The creature fought back ferociously, understanding her intent. They tumbled and grappled as they plummeted through the stratosphere, the friction of their entry turning them into a falling star. Jessica held firm, forcing the alien werewolf to absorb the worst of the heat.

  The alien's flesh began to blacken and crack, its skin hardening into a charred shell. As they fell through clouds and into the troposphere, the creature's struggles weakened. Its once-powerful limbs twitched with diminishing strength as its body continued to burn and harden around Jessica.

  She realized with grim satisfaction that the alien was dying, its body transforming into a burnt cocoon around her. The creature's last act was to wrap its arms around her in a death grip, its once-fearsome jaws locking into a permanent grimace as the intense heat calcified its tissues.

  Jessica's own consciousness faded as oxygen deprivation and pain overwhelmed her enhanced physiology. Through the narrowing tunnel of her vision, she could see the landscape below coming into focus–forests, roads, and the familiar outline of Moon Lake reflecting the moonlight.

  Home, she thought distantly. Almost there.

  The alien werewolf's body had completely hardened now, forming a protective shell around her as they continued their meteoric descent. Jessica's last coherent thought before darkness claimed her was a prayer that her friends had made it safely to Earth in the escape pod.

  Then, consciousness fled, leaving only the burning form of two intertwined creatures–one dead, one barely alive–streaking through the night sky like a falling star. From the ground below, witnesses would later describe a meteor with an unusual trajectory, burning bright green and purple as it carved a fiery path overhead.

  Down and down the burning cocoon fell, the alien's carbonized body shielding Jessica from the worst of the atmospheric entry. Gravity pulled them inexorably toward the sleeping town of Moon Valley, where three teenagers had been abducted tonight and where two had already returned.

  The burning meteor that contained Jessica pierced the night sky above Moon Valley, a silent harbinger trailing fire and smoke. Its trajectory brought it down toward the dense forest that bordered the western edge of town, where the trees stood ancient and undisturbed.

  To anyone watching, it was simply another piece of space debris burning up in the atmosphere–spectacular but ultimately ordinary. None could know that inside that flaming shell was a girl who was anything but ordinary, a girl who had fought an alien monster in the void of space and somehow lived.

  The cocoon of charred alien flesh plummeted toward the earth, Jessica's unconscious form nestled within its protective embrace. As it disappeared below the treeline, the night sky returned to its peaceful state, stars twinkling innocently as if nothing remarkable had happened.