Chapter 18 · Blood Siphon

"Move, Rex!"

Vesper slammed her shoulder into me just as the armored brute tore through the steel partition.

The impact sent us both across the maintenance platform. My back hit a support beam. Her body hit mine a heartbeat later, warm and hard through her combat jacket, one hand locked around my collar.

Then the brute swung.

The beam bent with a shriek. Vesper dragged me down before the armored fist could turn my skull into paste.

"You said this route was clear," I rasped.

"I said the route was open. There is a difference."

"That thing is wearing half a tank."

"Then stop complaining and kill it."

The brute stepped out of the torn wall.

It had once been a man. I could still see the shape of a jaw under the chrome plating, and one human eye blinking behind a cracked red lens. Heavy armor covered its chest, shoulders, and thighs. Hydraulic pistons pumped along its arms. Every step punched dents into the grated floor.

My lungs seized.

Not pain. Worse. My ribs moved, but the air stopped halfway in. The paralysis agent still crawled through my bloodstream from the gunship crash. My fingers tingled. My knees shook.