Chapter 14 · Apex Loop: Glitch Evolution - Chapter 14: Kin Betrayal

"Stay down, little brother. You reek of her. You reek of fresh meat."

A hand slammed my throat and pinned me to the concrete before I could even get my knees under me.

Not a claw. A hand. Five fingers. Black nails. Hot as hell and shaking.

"Get off me," I snarled, and my own claws scraped uselessly against his forearm. "Get the hell off!"

He didn't. He leaned in close. His face was wrong. Like mine. Half-melted, half-stitched back together, one eye human-blue, the other blown out and yellow and leaking.

"You don't get it yet," he hissed. His breath stank like copper and rot. "You're new. You're still listening to her voice."

"Who the fuck are you?"

"Number Seven," he said. "Before you. Before the others they flushed. I'm what you turn into if you keep eating."

The weight on my throat eased a fraction. Just enough to let me suck air. My whole body was still buzzing from the last evolution, that sick, hot itch under my skin where the new muscle hadn't set right.

I could smell him now. Really smell him. Same sour glitch-stink as me. Same wrong code underneath.

Kin.

"Bullshit," I said.