Chapter 25 · The City Hunts Her

"Move." Kane's hand locked around my wrist, dragging me down the stairwell before I could catch my breath.

"Where—"

"Anywhere but here." His voice came out wrong. Too low. Too rough. Like something else was talking through his throat.

The emergency lights flickered back on overhead, casting his face in strips of red and shadow. Blood streaked his jaw. Not his blood. The hunter's body was three floors up, crumpled in the dark, and Kane's eyes still hadn't come all the way back.

"Let go." I yanked against his grip. "You're hurting me."

He didn't let go. Didn't even slow down. Just kept pulling me down, floor after floor, while the stairwell echoed with our footsteps and something else—distant shouts, boots on concrete, the grind of the building's systems waking back up.

Marcus's voice was still ringing in my ears. *Eli's blood was phase one. Evie Carter is phase two.*

"Kane." I dug my heels in, forcing him to stop. "What does that mean? Phase two of what?"

He turned, and for half a second I thought he was going to shove me against the wall and tell me to shut up.