Chapter 14 · Chrome That Bites Back

"Stop fighting it, Kade. If you glitch now, we both end up as scrap metal," Rook hissed, her voice strained. She had him pinned against the rusted bulkhead of the safehouse, her fingers digging into his shoulders.

Kade couldn't breathe. His vision was fracturing into jagged, neon-green shards. Every nerve ending felt like it was being scrubbed with steel wool. The gene-chip in his head wasn't just processing—it was screaming.

"I can't—" he gasped, his spine arching. "It's... it's eating me alive!"

"It's not eating you, you idiot. It's hungry," Rook snapped. She shifted her weight, pressing her chest against his arm to keep him from thrashing. He could smell the sterile, metallic scent of her skin—something like ozone and expensive chemicals. "It wants the chrome. It wants the fuel. Give it what it wants or your brain is going to fry like a cheap circuit board."

Kade's left arm jerked violently. Beneath the skin, something shifted. A wet, mechanical grinding sound echoed in the small room, like a gearbox chewing through gravel. The skin of his forearm split open—