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"Move your damn leg, scrap-rat!"
That was the first thing Rook Vane screamed as she shoved me hard against the rusted siding of the alley. Her wrist was locked to mine by a heavy-duty magnetic cuff—the kind used for high-risk prisoners. The metal bit into my skin, cold and unforgiving.
"I'm trying!" I snapped back, stumbling as she yanked me forward. "Maybe if you didn't weigh as much as a tank in those boots, we'd actually get somewhere!"
"Shut it," she hissed. She didn't look at me. Her eyes were scanning the rooftops, her jaw tight. "If the breach team catches us, I'm not the one they're going to execute first. You're a walking glitch, Kade. You're the prize. I'm just the leash."
Behind us, the sound of a sonic boom rattled the remaining glass in the alley windows. A Corp breach team. I could hear the rhythmic, heavy thud of mag-boots hitting the pavement. They weren't sneaking. They were hunting.
"What the hell is in your blood anyway?" I asked, my voice shaking. My left arm was still humming, the gene-chip in my neck pulsing with a hunger that felt like a physical void. "Why are they chasing a hunter and a nobody?"
"Because my blood is the only thing keeping your little pet chip from frying your brain into oatmeal," Rook shot back. She stopped abruptly, pulling me into the shadow of a dumpster. She pinned me against the wall, her chest heaving, the scent of ozone and expensive sterile soap clinging to her. She was too close. I could feel the heat radiating off her, the frantic beat of her heart through the tactical fabric of her vest.
"You need the stabilizer," she whispered, her eyes darting to the cuff. "And I need to get back to the lab before my own system crashes. We're synced, Kade. If you die, the signal in my wrist triggers a lockdown. We go down together."
"So we're partners?" I tried to smirk, but it came out as a grimace.
"We're prisoners of the same mistake," she replied. Her hand moved, not to push me away, but to grip my collar, pulling me inches from her face. Her gaze was fierce, searching for something in my eyes. "Listen. I don't like you. I don't trust you. But if you trip, if you freeze, if you even think about running—I will leave you for the scavengers. Got it?"
"Crystal," I breathed.
Suddenly, a red laser dot danced across the brickwork next to my head.
"Down!" Rook yelled.
She didn't just push me; she tackled me. We hit the wet pavement hard, the cuff snapping our wrists together with a metallic clang that echoed through the narrow space. A high-velocity round shrieked overhead, chewing through the metal of the dumpster with a spray of sparks.
"Stay low!" she commanded. She scrambled to her knees, pulling a compact plasma pistol from her thigh holster. She fired three rapid shots—blue streaks that lit up the alley—forcing the breach team to take cover.
I tried to scramble up, but my leg caught on a piece of rebar. I went down hard, a curse ripping from my throat.
"Get up, you idiot!" Rook screamed.
As I struggled, another shot rang out. It wasn't aimed at me. It was a flanking move. The round caught Rook in the shoulder.
She didn't scream. She just gasped, a sharp, wet sound. She slumped forward, her shoulder blooming red, the blood vivid and shimmering—almost iridescent—under the flickering neon lights of the district.
"Rook!" I scrambled toward her, my heart hammering against my ribs.
She grunted, her face pale, but she still managed to glare at me. "Don't... don't look at me like that. I didn't do it for you."
"You just took a bullet for a guy you called a scrap-rat!"
"I took it because... because if you die, the stabilizer in my blood goes waste," she lied. I could tell she was lying. Her breathing was shallow, and she was shivering. "Now move. The exit is fifty yards that way. If we don't make it to the clinic, we're both dead."
I didn't argue. I hooked my arm under hers, hauling her up. She leaned into me, her weight heavy and warm. I could feel the dampness of her blood soaking through my shirt, and the moment it touched my skin, the chip in my neck screamed.
It wasn't a sound. It was a command. *CONSUME.*
My vision glitched. For a second, the world turned into a wireframe of gold and crimson. I could see the veins in Rook's neck, the way her blood flowed—not like human blood, but like a living circuit. The chip didn't just want her stabilizer. It wanted *her*.
"Kade?" she whispered, her voice weak. "Why are you... why are you shaking?"
I couldn't answer. I was staring at her wrist, where the cuff locked us together. The metal was humming. The chip was using the cuff as a bridge, tasting her through the connection.
We stumbled into the back entrance of Old Smokes' clinic, a derelict hole-in-the-wall that smelled of burnt solder and old grease. The door slammed shut behind us, and Smokes was already there, his cybernetic eye whirling as he took in the scene.
"Holy hell," Smokes muttered, stepping forward. "You brought a wounded Corp dog into my sanctuary? Do you want the whole district burned down?"
"Shut up and fix her!" I yelled, practically dropping Rook onto the stained surgical table.
Smokes didn't move to help immediately. He leaned in, his optic lens zooming in on the cuff connecting our wrists. Then he looked at me—or rather, at the glowing, pulsing veins crawling up my neck.
"Kade," Smokes said, his voice suddenly grave. "Your readings are off the charts. That chip... it's not just evolving. It's hungry. And it just found the best meal in Neon Grave."
As Smokes reached for a scanner, my HUD suddenly flickered to life. A bright red notification blinked in the center of my vision, overlaying Rook's unconscious face.
**[GENE-EATER PROTOCOL: TARGET ACQUIRED]** **[REQUIRED MATERIAL: STABILIZED GENE-BLOOD]** **[ACTION: RIP VEIN TO UPGRADE]**
I stared at the prompt, then at Rook's pale throat. The hunger was no longer a hum; it was a roar. If I didn't feed the chip, it would fry my nervous system in minutes. If I did... I'd be stealing the only thing keeping her alive.
Just then, the clinic's perimeter alarm shrieked. A voice boomed from the street, amplified by a megaphone, shaking the very foundation of the building.
"Kade Mercer. Rook Vane. You are under corporate arrest for theft of Grade-S biological assets. Surrender now, or we level the block."
I looked at the door, then back at the prompt blinking in my eyes.
"Smokes," I whispered, my voice sounding foreign even to me. "Can you get this cuff off?"
"I can," Smokes said, glancing at the door. "But the second I do, you're on your own. And Kade... look at your arm."
I looked down. My fingers were starting to sharpen, the skin turning a metallic, chrome-black. The mutation was accelerating.
"I don't have a choice," I muttered. I leaned closer to Rook, my hand trembling as it hovered over her wrist.
"Kade, don't," Rook murmured, her eyes fluttering open, seeing the hunger in my gaze. "If you take it... you'll never be human again."
I paused, the chip screaming for the blood. Outside, the first breach charge detonated, blowing the front door off its hinges in a shower of fire and concrete.
"I'm already not human," I said, and I gripped her wrist—