Chapter 14 · Cold Steel and Hot Blood

"Take your hand off me, Kyle, or I swear I'll bite through the tendon."

Dr. Kyle Damon tightened the restraint across my wrist until the metal edge cut skin.

"You already tried that," he said. "You broke one of my guards' fingers."

"He put his fingers in my mouth. That's a him problem."

Kyle leaned over me, his face close enough for me to see the pale blue ring around his pupils. One side of his neck was covered in thin silver ports. His smile never reached his eyes.

"You are still pretending this is a fight," he said. "It isn't. You are a specimen on a table."

"Then stop talking and get your refund."

He glanced toward the far wall.

Ronin stood there in chains.

Not ordinary chains. Black iron wrapped both arms and pinned him to a metal frame bolted into the floor. His shirt was gone. Blood ran from a cut over his ribs, disappearing beneath the chain at his hip. The collar around his throat had three red lights glowing in sequence.

His eyes stayed on me.

Not Kyle. Me.

"Vira," he said, voice rough. "Don't shift."

I laughed through my teeth.