Chapter 14 · Hounds in the Hall

"Move, Kane!" Selena shoved him into the service alcove as metal claws scraped across the corridor floor.

He hit the wall hard enough to bite his tongue. Selena followed, one hand clamped over his mouth, the other holding her pistol against his ribs.

"Make a sound," she whispered, "and I put you down before the hounds do."

Kane tasted blood. He looked at the pistol, then at her fingers pressed against his jaw.

"You always this friendly?" he murmured through her palm.

Her eyes narrowed. "You always this stupid?"

The hounds rounded the corner.

They were not animals anymore. Their bodies had been rebuilt with black armor plates and hydraulic limbs. Red sensor lenses burned beneath their skull guards. One dragged a chain behind it. The chain had a human hand still locked around the end.

Kane's stomach tightened.

He knew these hounds. He had watched them tear through the east barracks in his last life. Victor had called them security units. The survivors had called them butchers.

Selena's hand slipped from Kane's mouth.

"How many?" she breathed.

"Four. Maybe six behind them."

"You can see through walls now?"

"I can count footsteps.