"Stop shaking, or I'm going to accidentally nick an artery," Old Smokes grunted, his voice like gravel in a blender.
He had Rook pinned to the rusted surgical table, a heavy-duty restraint strap biting into her wrist. I stood two feet away, my chest heaving, my left eye pulsing with a rhythmic, violet light that wouldn't quit. Every time it flashed, the Gene-Eater chip in my skull screamed. It wasn't a sound—it was a hunger. A physical, starving void that made my teeth ache.
"I'm not shaking," Rook spat, though her voice was thin. She looked at me, her eyes sharp and full of hate despite the pallor of her skin. "I'm vibrating with the urge to kill you the second I can move my arm."
"Cut the chatter," Smokes snapped. He slid the needle into her vein with a practiced flick.
I stepped closer. I couldn't help it. The moment the needle pierced her skin, the air between us seemed to thicken. I could smell her—not just the sterile scent of the clinic, but something underneath. Ozone and burnt sugar. The smell of a stabilizer. My chip didn't just want her blood; it wanted the code locked inside her marrow.
"Get back, Kade," Rook hissed. She tried to pull away, the strap creaking. "You're staring at me like I'm a steak."
"I feel like I'm dying," I whispered. I reached out, my fingers hovering just an inch from her shoulder. I could feel the heat radiating off her, a stark contrast to the damp chill of the basement. "The chip... it's eating me from the inside out."
"Welcome to the club," she retorted, though her breath hitched as I leaned in. "Only difference is, I'm rotting slow. You're just a glitch in a cheap suit."
Smokes didn't look up from the vial. "Quiet. Both of you. This is a delicate balance. If I give him too much, his brain fries. If I take too much from her, she goes into shock. We're playing a game of biological chicken here."
I watched the dark, rich crimson fill the tube. My vision blurred. The violet light in my eye flared, and suddenly, the world shifted. I didn't see the clinic anymore. I saw lines of glowing gold code streaming through Rook's veins, a blueprint of stability that my chaotic, glitched system craved. It was a drug. A fix. A lifeline.
"Just give it to me," I groaned, my hand finally landing on her shoulder. My grip was too tight, my fingers digging into the fabric of her tactical gear.
Rook stiffened. She didn't pull away this time. Her eyes locked onto mine, and for a second, the hatred flickered. There was something else there—recognition. Or maybe just the shared terror of two people who were more machine than human.
"You're pathetic," she whispered, but she didn't move. Her pulse was hammering against my palm, a rapid, frantic beat that matched the thrumming in my own skull. "You really need this, don't you? You're just a little parasite."
"And you're the host," I countered, my voice dropping an octave. I leaned closer, my breath brushing against her ear. "Which makes us a pretty great team, doesn't it?"
"I'd rather be a corpse," she snapped, but her voice lacked its usual bite.
Smokes pulled the needle out with a sharp *pop*. He held the vial up to the dim light, squinting through his cracked goggles. "Right. Half a vial. That should keep the mutation from liquefying your organs for another forty-eight hours. Now, let's see if your body accepts the graft or if you start vomiting black sludge."
He didn't even have time to hand me the syringe.
*BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.*
The clinic's perimeter alarm didn't just ring—it screamed. A high-pitched, ear-splitting wail that tore through the basement.
"What the hell was that?" I jumped back, my hand snapping away from Rook as if she'd turned into a live wire.
Smokes froze, his face going pale. He scrambled toward the monitors on the wall. "Damn it. They found us. I had the signal scrubbed, but they must have tracked the bio-signature from the transfer."
"Who found us?" Rook demanded, struggling against the strap. "The Corps?"
"Worse," Smokes muttered, his fingers flying across the keyboard. "A full-scale sweep team. Heavy armor, scanners, the works. They've already locked down the north and south exits. We're boxed in."
I looked at the vial in Smokes' hand. The blood. My fix. The only thing keeping me from turning into a heap of mutated meat.
"Give it to me now," I said, stepping forward.
"Wait!" Smokes yelled. "If you inject this while your adrenaline is spiking from the alarm, you'll trigger a systemic rejection! You'll blow a fuse in your prefrontal cortex!"
*BOOM.*
The ceiling shook. Dust and plaster rained down on us. Someone had just breached the upper floor. The heavy, rhythmic thud of combat boots echoed through the vents—slow, deliberate, and coming straight for us.
"They're in the building," Rook said, her voice suddenly cold and professional. She stopped struggling and looked at the door. "Smokes, get the strap off me. Now."
"I can't just—"
"Do it or I'll use my teeth to rip your throat out," she hissed.
Smokes fumbled with the release, and the strap snapped open. Rook didn't stand up; she rolled off the table in one fluid motion, coming up in a crouch, her hand automatically reaching for the combat knife she'd hidden in her boot.
I felt the Gene-Eater chip pulse again. But this time, it wasn't just hunger. It was a warning. The violet light in my eye didn't just flash—it locked onto Rook. A red target reticle appeared in my vision, overlaying her chest, her throat, her wrist.
*TARGET IDENTIFIED: STABILIZER SOURCE* *EVOLUTION REQUIREMENT: DIRECT ABSORPTION*
I stared at her. The chip wasn't asking for a vial anymore. It wanted the source. It wanted her.
"Kade," Rook said, noticing my stare. She stepped toward me, her eyes narrowing. "What's with the look? You're glitching again."
I didn't answer. I couldn't. Because at that exact moment, the basement door exploded inward in a shower of sparks and shrapnel.
Three figures stepped through the smoke. Black tactical gear, glowing red visors, and rifles that looked like they could punch through a tank. The lead soldier didn't speak. He just raised his arm, and a holographic projection flickered into existence in the center of the room.
It was my face. My goddamn face, flagged with a red 'TERMINATE' stamp across the forehead.
"Target acquired," the soldier's voice was a distorted metallic rasp. "Secure the mutant. Kill the assets."
He leveled the rifle directly at Smokes' head.
"Wait!" I yelled, stepping in front of the doctor.
But as I moved, the Gene-Eater chip surged. A bolt of violet electricity snapped across my skin, and I felt a sudden, violent pull toward Rook. Not emotional. Not romantic. A physical, magnetic hunger that nearly knocked me off my feet.
"Kade, move!" Rook screamed, lunging forward to tackle me out of the line of fire.
As we hit the floor, her arm brushed against mine, and the chip in my head didn't just scream—it roared. The red reticle in my eye turned gold.
*NEW EVOLUTION PATH UNLOCKED: BLOOD-BOND*
"What the hell is happening?" Rook gasped, her face inches from mine, her breath hot and ragged.
I looked up. The soldiers were already advancing, their boots thumping on the concrete, the muzzles of their guns glowing with charging plasma.
"I don't know," I whispered, my fingers curling into the fabric of her sleeve, "but I think we're about to get carved up."
One of the soldiers stepped forward, his boot landing inches from my head. He reached down, grabbing the collar of my jacket and hoisting me up like a ragdoll.
"You've got something in your head, scrap-rat," the soldier growled. "The boss wants it. Intact or in pieces, he doesn't care."
He slammed me against the wall, the impact knocking the wind out of me. In the chaos, the vial of Rook's blood of Smokes' hand shattered on the floor, the crimson liquid seeping into the cracks of the concrete.
I gasped, watching my only cure disappear.
Then, I felt it. A sharp, searing heat in my left arm. I looked down. Where Rook had touched me during the tackle, a thin, violet vein was now pulsing under my skin, stretching from my wrist toward my heart.
It wasn't a graft. It was a link.
"Get off him!" Rook yelled, swinging her knife at the soldier's wrist.
The soldier didn't even flinch. He caught her arm in a crushing grip and slammed her against the wall right next to me. Now we were chest to chest, trapped between the cold concrete and a killer.
I could feel her heart racing. I could feel the stabilizer in her blood calling to the glitch in my brain.
"Smokes!" Rook screamed. "The back exit!"
But Smokes wasn't looking for an exit. He was staring at my arm, his eyes wide with horror.
"Oh god," the doctor whispered. "It's not just eating the blood. It's rewriting the connection."
The soldier raised his rifle to Rook's temple.
"Tell me where the chip's origin code is," the soldier commanded, "or I paint this wall with her brains."
I opened my mouth to speak, but before a word could come out, the violet vein in my arm flared with a blinding light, and a shockwave of raw, distorted energy blasted outward, throwing the soldier back five feet.
I slumped against the wall, gasping for air. My vision was swimming in gold and violet.
"Did you... do that?" Rook whispered, staring at me like I was a monster.
I looked at my hand. It was shaking. Not from fear, but from power.
"I think," I rasped, "that I just became a lot more expensive."
Outside, the sound of a second breach team echoed through the vents. They weren't just coming for me. They were coming for both of us.
And as I looked at Rook, I realized the chip wasn't finished. The red reticle had returned, but it wasn't targeting her heart anymore.
It was targeting the link between us.
"We have to go. Now," Rook said, grabbing my hand.
As her fingers locked with mine, a surge of electricity snapped between us, and for the first time, I didn't feel the hunger. I felt her. Her fear, her anger, and a sudden, terrifying spark of something that felt like trust.
"Run," Smokes yelled, pointing to a hidden hatch under the table.
We dove through the hole just as a plasma bolt scorched the air where my head had been. We slid down a narrow, filth-slicked chute, screaming into the dark, until we slammed into a pile of rusted scrap metal in the sewers below.
I lay there for a second, staring up at the dim light of the hatch above. My chest was burning. My eye was still glowing.
And I could still feel her. Even though she was two feet away, I could feel the beat of her heart in my own chest.
"What the hell are you?" Rook asked, her voice echoing in the tunnel.
I sat up, the scrap metal groaning beneath me. I looked at the violet vein still pulsing in my wrist.
"I don't know," I said. "But I think we're stuck together."
"Don't get hopeful," she snapped, though she didn't let go of my hand. "The second I find a way to kill that chip, I'm leaving you in a gutter."
I smiled, though it felt more like a snarl. "Can't wait."
Suddenly, the water in the sewer began to ripple. Something was moving toward us. Something big.
And it wasn't human.
"Rook," I whispered, pulling her closer. "Do you hear that?"
From the darkness of the tunnel, a low, metallic growl vibrated through the floor. A pair of red optic sensors ignited in the gloom, ten feet tall and dripping with hydraulic fluid.
"Oh, great," Rook sighed, drawing her knife. "A cyber-hound."
I stood up, my muscles feeling tighter, faster, and far more dangerous than they had ten minutes ago. The Gene-Eater chip wasn't just hungry anymore. It was hunting.
"Let me handle this," I said, stepping forward.
"Handle what?" she asked.
I didn't answer. I just lunged.
But as I hit the beast, the link in my arm flared again, and a voice—not mine, not Rook's, but something synthesized and ancient—echoed in my skull.
*SAMPLED. EVOLVE OR DIE.*
And then, the hound's jaws snapped shut around my shoulder.