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"Helena Carter," I said.
Kane's hand locked around my wrist. The black mark burned like a brand.
"Say that again."
"My mother. Helena Carter. She died when I was—"
The east window exploded.
Glass hit the floor in a wave. Three figures dropped through the frame, black gear, no faces, rifles up. Kane shoved me behind the desk so hard my ribs cracked the wood.
"Contract signed?" The lead hunter's voice came through a modulator. Flat. Wrong.
"Signed." Kane didn't move. Didn't pull a weapon. Just stood there between me and the guns like his body was enough.
"Then the asset's ours." The hunter's rifle swung toward me. "Step away from the girl."
"No."
The hunter laughed. It sounded like static. "You want to die for a fake wife?"
Kane smiled. It wasn't human.
"I want to see you try."
The first shot went wide. Kane was already moving. He crossed the room faster than anything that size should move and caught the hunter by the throat. The rifle clattered. The hunter made a wet sound. Kane's fingers dug in and the modulator cracked and then there was just a man choking and Kane's hand was wrong, too big, too many knuckles, nails like broken glass.
"Evie." His voice dropped an octave. "Close your eyes."
"Like hell."
The second hunter fired. Three rounds center mass. Kane didn't drop. He turned his head and I saw his eyes. No white. Just black spreading out from the pupil like ink in water.
"Last chance," he said. "Leave."
The third hunter pulled a cylinder from his belt. Red light. Blinking.
"Grenade," I said.
Kane threw the first hunter into the second and grabbed me and the world flipped. We hit the floor behind the overturned desk. His body covered mine. His chest didn't feel like a chest anymore. It felt like something bigger trying to fit inside a suit.
The grenade went off.
Not an explosion. A pulse. The lights died. My phone died. The contract on the desk caught fire and burned blue and went out. The hunter's modulator shrieked and cut. In the dark I heard Kane breathing. It rattled. Like his lungs were too small for what he was pulling in.
"Kane."
"Don't look at me."
"Too late."
I looked.
His face was half-gone. Not blood. Not torn. Just wrong. Bone pushing through skin. Jaw stretching. Eyes still black. His hand next to my head had six fingers now and the nails were digging into the wood floor like it was dirt.
"I can stop them," he said. "But I can't stop what I become."
"Then don't stop."
"Evie—"
"They're here for me. You said it. Asset. My brother. My blood. I'm not watching you die polite."
He stared at me. Something moved under his shirt. A ridge. A spine. I didn't look away.
"Fine," he said. "But when this is over, you run."
"When this is over, you explain."
He stood. His shoulders cracked. The suit tore at the seams. The hunters had flashlights up now. Three beams cutting through smoke and dark. They swept the room. Found Kane standing in the center.
"Target acquired," one said. "Voss is shifting. Authorization to—"
Kane moved.
I'd seen fast before. This wasn't fast. This was wrong. He was at the desk and then he was at the hunter's throat and there was no in-between. The hunter's flashlight hit the ground still on. It lit up Kane from below. His face wasn't a face. His hands weren't hands. The thing crouched over the hunter's body looked like a man wearing a beast wearing a man.
The second hunter fired. Full auto. The rounds hit Kane in the back and he didn't stop. He turned and the hunter said, "Oh god," and Kane was on him. The third hunter ran for the window. Kane caught his ankle and dragged him back across the floor. The hunter screamed. Kane didn't make a sound.
I stood. My legs shook. The black mark on my wrist was burning so hot I thought the skin would peel. I pressed it against the desk edge. The pain sharpened. Cleared my head.
"Kane."
He didn't answer. The third hunter stopped screaming.
"Kane, stop."
He crouched over the body. His spine bent wrong. Too many vertebrae. His shoulders heaved. When he turned his head toward me I saw teeth. Too many. Too sharp.
"Kane, look at me."
He growled. It came from somewhere deeper than his chest.
I walked toward him. My hand was bleeding where I'd pressed the mark too hard. I held it up.
"You said my blood signed the contract. You said it bound us. So look at me."
His eyes tracked the blood. Black pupils, no iris. But something in there focused.
"Come back," I said.
He stood. Bones cracked. His jaw reset with a sound like a tree snapping. The extra fingers curled in and fused and became five again. His face stitched itself back into something I recognized. When he spoke his voice was raw.
"You should have run."
"You should have told me."
He looked at his hands. Human again. Shaking. Blood under the nails. Not his.
"I don't remember what I do," he said. "When it takes over. I don't remember who I hurt."
"You didn't hurt me."
"Yet."
I stepped closer. He stepped back. His shoulders hit the wall.
"What are you so scared of?" I asked.
"You. Seeing me. Knowing what I am."
"I already know."
"You don't."
"Then tell me."
He laughed. It sounded broken. "You want the story? Fine. My family made a deal. Generations back. Power in exchange for blood. Beast blood. It runs in the line. It wakes up when we're threatened. It keeps us alive. It makes us monsters."
"And the mark on my wrist?"
"I don't know. I've never seen one burn like that. Not unless—" He stopped.
"Unless what?"
"Unless the blood recognizes itself."
I looked at the mark. Black lines curling up my forearm now. Moving. Alive.
"My mother," I said. "Helena. What did she have to do with your family?"
"I don't know. But someone does." He pushed off the wall and walked to the first hunter's body. Crouched. Pulled the tactical vest open. Found a badge clipped inside. Held it up.
Silver. Engraved. A burning saint.
"EmberSaint," I said.
Kane nodded. "Marcus Vale's company. The one that owns half the city grid."
"And sent men to kill me at my own fake wedding."
"Not kill. Extract. They said asset. They wanted you alive."
"Why?"
"Same reason I wanted you to sign." He looked at my wrist. At the mark still burning. "Your blood does something. Something they need."
I wiped my bleeding hand on my dress. White silk, red streaks. The dress I'd pulled out of a donation bin this morning because I didn't own anything that looked like wedding. The blood soaked in and spread.
"Then we find out what," I said.
"We?"
"You said the contract bound us."
"On paper."
"You said my blood signed it. That's not paper. That's real."
He stared at me. His eyes were brown again. Human. But something moved behind them. Something that remembered teeth.
"You want to stay," he said. "After seeing that."
"I want my brother back. I want to know why my mother's name made you look like I shot you. And I want to know what EmberSaint thinks my blood can do." I stepped closer. Close enough to feel the heat still rolling off him. His shirt hung in shreds. I could see the muscle underneath. The scars. The faint ridge of that extra spine sinking back under skin. "You need me. You said it yourself. My blood does something. So stop trying to scare me off and start talking."
His jaw worked. He was deciding something. I could see it. Trust or lies. Partnership or prison.
"Fine," he said finally. "But we do this my way. We go below. The tunnels. My people."
"Your people."
"The ones like me. The ones the city forgets."
"And if I say no?"
"Then you walk out that door and EmberSaint's got fifty more hunters waiting. Your call."
I looked at the bodies on the floor. At the burning saint badge. At Kane standing there with his hands still shaking and his eyes still a little too black.
"Lead the way," I said.
He almost smiled. Then the lights went out.
Not just the office. I looked out the broken window. The whole block. The whole downtown grid. Towers going dark in a wave. One by one. Like something was pulling the switch.
"That's not the grenade," Kane said.
"No."
He pulled his phone. Dead. Pulled a backup from his pocket. Dead.
"EmberSaint controls the grid," I said.
"They just killed it."
"Why?"
He looked at me. At my wrist. The mark was glowing now. Faint. Blue-black. Like it was drinking the dark.
"Because they know you're marked," he said. "And they know what that means."
"What does it mean?"
Before he could answer, his backup phone sparked. Came back online. One message. No sender. Just coordinates and a timer.
23:47:12.
23:47:11.
23:47:10.
"What is that?" I asked.
Kane's face went cold. "A hunt clock. Citywide. When it hits zero, every hunter in Vale's network gets your location."
"How long do we have?"
"Twenty-four hours." He grabbed my arm. Not rough. But firm. His hand was hot. Fever-hot. The beast still burning under his skin. "We move. Now."
I pulled back. Just enough to make him look at me.
"One question first."
"Evie—"
"My mother. Helena. Did she have this mark?"
His jaw tightened. He didn't want to answer. But the clock was ticking and the city was dark and I wasn't moving until he said it.
"Yes," he said finally. "She had it. Twenty years ago. Right before she died."
The world tilted. I grabbed his arm. My bloody hand smeared across his wrist. He didn't pull away. His pulse hammered under my palm. Too fast. Human and beast fighting for the same heartbeat.
"Kane," I said. "Don't disappear on me."
He looked at my hand on his skin. At the blood mixing with his. At the mark on my wrist burning brighter.
"I won't," he said. "But we need to go. Now."
He pulled me toward the back wall. Pressed a panel. It slid open. A staircase. Down. No lights. Just dark and the smell of old stone and water.
Behind us, the first hunter's phone buzzed. Then the second. Then the third. All at once. The same message. The same coordinates.
The same name.
Evie Carter.
Kane looked back at the bodies. At the EmberSaint badge still gleaming silver in the dark. At the city outside the window, black and waiting.
"They just made you the most wanted woman in the city," he said.
"Good," I said. "Then they'll come looking. And we'll be ready."
I stepped into the dark. Kane followed. The panel slid shut behind us. Above, the hunter's phones kept buzzing. The countdown kept ticking. And somewhere in the blackout, the city held its breath.