Chapter 36 · Man or Monster

"Get out of my head!" I screamed, but the voice wasn't mine. It was a screech of static and hunger, vibrating through my teeth.

I slammed my fist into the medical tray, sending vials and scalpels clattering across the floor. My vision was flickering—half of it was the dim, sterile light of the clinic, the other half was a neon-red HUD screaming *CRITICAL CONTAMINATION: 96%*.

On the table, Rook Vane wasn't breathing. Not normally. Her chest was heaving in jagged, mechanical rhythms, and the black blood I’d forced into her veins was pulsing under her skin like a nest of chrome snakes. Her eyes snapped open. They weren't blue anymore. They were molten silver, glowing with the same glitchy light as the chip in my skull.

"Kade?" she gasped. Her voice sounded like two pieces of metal grinding together. She reached up, her fingers clawing at the air, and I saw it—the skin on her forearm was splitting, revealing a shimmering, metallic lattice underneath.

"Don't look at it," I hissed, grabbing her wrist. My grip was too tight. I could feel her bones creaking under the pressure. "Just breathe. Damn it, Rook, just breathe!"

"What did you do to me?"