Chapter 10 · Blood in the Pit

"Get off me, Rex!" Vesper drove her knee into my ribs as the cyber-hyena snapped inches from my face.

I rolled, caught the beast by its armored throat, and slammed its head into the pit floor. Metal teeth clacked shut where my cheek had been.

"You were the one who landed on me," I grunted.

"You dragged me through a roof!"

"I was falling."

"You picked the roof!"

The hyena kicked hard enough to shake my grip loose. Its body was too big for the scavenger pits, all black plating and welded muscle, with red cables pulsing under its hide. A hunter mod. Military-grade. Illegal enough that Doc Vance would sell his own teeth to study it.

And now it wanted to chew through my skull.

I shoved Vesper aside as the creature lunged again. Its claws tore three bright lines across my jacket. Heat kissed my chest.

"Stay down," I snapped.

She came up with a pistol already in her hand. "Don't give me orders."

"Then stop standing in my kill zone."

"Your kill zone is the entire pit!"

The shot cracked beside my ear.