Chapter 14 · Beast Mode

"Get back! Get the hell back right now!" Lila’s voice cracked, her small frame shaking as she shoved her palm against Cain’s chest.

He didn't move. He didn't even seem to breathe. Cain was staring at the jagged hole in the wall where the mech-hound had just burst through, but he wasn't seeing the room anymore. His pupils had blown wide, swallowing the iris until his eyes were two pits of predatory black. A low, guttural vibration started in his chest—not a human sound, but the hum of a turbine spinning up to lethal speeds.

"Cain?" she whispered, her hand still pressed against the heat of his skin. He was burning up. Like, actually radiating heat through his shirt. "Cain, look at me!"

He didn't. He snapped.

In a blur of motion that the human eye couldn't even track, Cain launched. He didn't run; he leaped, covering ten feet in a single, explosive bound. He slammed into the mech-hound mid-air, his fingers digging into the reinforced titanium plating of the beast's neck with a screech of tearing metal.

"Holy shit!" Lila screamed, diving behind a rusted coolant tank as the hound let out a digitized roar that shook the floorboards.