Book excerpt: Originally published in 2010 under the title The Venom of Vipers. A supervirus threatens to wipe out the human race. The only hope for the future is a cure hidden inside the human hybrid Ryder Stone. Created in a lab and brutalized, betrayed, and hated by humans, Ryder yearns for freedom. On the outside, a group of human genetic purists wants him dead. When Katie Marsh, a brilliant young geneticist, discovers his secret, she must fight to protect Ryder, gain his trust, and convince him to save humanity before the purists—and the virus—destroy them all.