The Rising

The Rising by Kelley Armstrong, 2013 Harper

     Maya Delaney and her friends are paranormal experiments. Maya is a skin-walker, able to transform into a cougar. Her best friend Daniel is a benandanti or demon hunter with powers of persuasion and a "super-shout". Their friend Corey gets visions and has a power of charm, it seems all of the teens in their small town have some sort of power. But Salmon Creek is long gone and the friends are on the run from two powerful Cabals who want to control their powers.
     After escaping a forest fire, kidnapping via evacuation helicopter, being chased by the Cabal, losing four of their group, meeting and escaping Maya's biological father, and attending their own funerals the three friends are hoping for any help they can find. When Maya's twin brother shows up the trio isn't sure whether or not they can trust him. Ash has his own issues, but when Maya is captured to allow his escape he meets up with Daniel and Corey.
     The side effects of each teen's transition are surfacing; Corey's headaches are becoming debilitating and Maya is regressing into blind rages where she will attack anyone and everyone. They need the Cabal and its research to stabilize, while Maya is trapped in the Nasts' compound she realizes and recognizes the need. But she still tries to escape. Her biological father, who works for the Cabal, helps Maya, her boyfriend Rafe, and their friend Hayley escape.
     He suggests a plan of negotiation that involves finding another escaped group of paranormal teens. But it takes more than just a call to get their cooperation and even more to evade another capture. Maya and her friends are tired of running, but they will not concede without getting at least part of their lives back.
     Maya, Daniel and the rest of the kids from Salmon Creek have lived pampered lives, but they still know how to fight back and want to maintain their independence. Rather than let the Cabal take care of them, they hope to become more than simply experiments; they are real people and have hopes and dreams. Maya discovers more about her own life, her relationships, and her hopes for the future while running than while in the protective bubble of the Cabal's influence. In the final book of the Darkness Rising Series, Maya discovers who she is, who she wants to be, and how to use her circumstances to her own advantage. The book is focused toward teen readers.