Chapter 26 · Down Into the Lab

"Stop touching me like I'm not about to rip someone's throat out."

Kane's voice came out rough, like gravel scraped over iron. His hand locked around my wrist before I could pull back from his face. The claw marks I'd seen earlier were deeper now, spreading up his forearm in dark, jagged lines that looked like they were carved from the inside.

"You already did that," I said. "Upstairs. Remember?"

"That wasn't me."

"Yeah, it was." I yanked my hand free and stepped back. The tunnel wall behind me was cold through my shirt, damp and slick with something I didn't want to name. "You tore through three guys and didn't even slow down. So either you tell me what's happening to you, or I walk."

He stared at me. His eyes were still too dark, pupils blown wide enough that I couldn't see where the black ended and the brown began. Blood spattered his collar and the side of his jaw. Not his blood.

"You can't walk," he said. "Eli's down here."

"Then take me to him."

"I will.