Chapter 5

"I'm saving your life, idiot!" She didn't move. Her palm was ice against my burning skin. "Your protocol's spiking. It's eating you alive!"

The alarms were still screaming from the last chapter. Red light strobed across her face. Somewhere above us, metal doors were getting blown open.

"They're here," she hissed. Her eyes flicked to the ceiling, then back to me. "Silas's dogs just breached the lower level. And you're choosing NOW to have a meltdown?"

"Not— choosing—" My teeth clacked together so hard I thought they'd shatter. Neon red lines crawled up my arms. Not the normal blue-white of a clean protocol. This was wrong. Black and red, like infected blood. "It hurts— fuck, Eve, it hurts!"

"I know." Her voice dropped. For a second the Ice Queen cracked. "I know it does. Listen to me. You have to let it flow. Don't fight it."

"Easy for you to say!" I grabbed her wrist. Her skin was so cold it burned. "You ever had your blood try to boil out of your body?"

"No. But I've watched a dozen Shells burn out trying to take a protocol they couldn't handle." She leaned in, her face inches from mine. Her breath hit my lips. Cold, fast. "You are not a Shell anymore, Kai. So stop acting like one. Control it."

"How?" I spat the word at her. "You got a manual for 'forbidden god power that wants to kill me'?"

"You devour. That's what it does. So devour something!" She looked over her shoulder at the sealed service door. The pounding was getting closer. Boots. Lots of them. "Or they're going to devour us."

The heat spiked again. My vision went white at the edges.

I could feel it now. The Blood Protocol wasn't just in my blood. It WAS my blood. And it was starving.

A panel on the far wall exploded inward.

Two guys in matte black Syndicate armor stormed in, rifles up. Visors down. No faces.

"Contact! Two targets!" one of them shouted. "Male Shell variant, female—"

Eve moved before he finished. She was fast even while crashing. She ripped a pipe off the wall and threw it. It clanged off his helmet.

"Down!" she yelled at me.

I didn't get down. I couldn't. The pain snapped and then — just stopped.

Everything went quiet. Not the alarms. They were still wailing. But inside my head, quiet.

The burning didn't vanish. It changed. It settled. Like it finally found a direction.

"Kai?" Eve said. Her voice sounded far away. "Kai, what—"

The first soldier turned his rifle on me.

And I looked at him and I was just... hungry.

"Mine," I whispered. My voice didn't sound like mine. It was deeper, rough.

I pushed off the floor. My legs shouldn't have worked. They did.

"Kai, don't!" Eve grabbed at my arm. Her fingers slipped off. My skin was slick with sweat but it wasn't hot anymore. It was humming.

The soldier fired.

I didn't dodge. I put my hand up.

The bullet never hit me.

It stopped an inch from my palm and just hung there, spinning. The air around my hand was rippling, black-red, like heat haze.

"What the hell—" the soldier started.

I closed my fist. The bullet crushed into dust.

"Okay," I breathed. A laugh ripped out of me. It hurt my throat. "Okay, that's new."

Eve stared at me, eyes wide. Her lips parted. "Kai... your eyes..."

"What about them?"

"They're bleeding light."

The second soldier didn't wait. He charged me, trying to butt me with his rifle.

I caught the rifle with one hand. The metal groaned.

He was stronger than any normal human. Syndicate augments. But I just held it there. And then I pulled.

Not the rifle. Him.

I felt the Protocol lunge out of me. Invisible teeth. It sank into his system and just — drank.

His whole body seized. The blue lines of his standard-issue protocol flared bright under his skin, then got yanked toward me. Like rivers reversing.

"—agh! Get it off! Get it off me!" he screamed. His visor cracked. Light poured out of his eyes, his mouth.

"Kai, stop! You're killing him!" Eve shouted. She was on her feet now, but she didn't come closer. She looked scared. And something else. Her chest was rising fast.

"Am I?" I said. I could feel his power flooding into me. Cold and clean and then burning up and becoming mine. It was the best thing I'd ever felt. Better than food when you're starving. Better than air. "Feels like I'm finally eating for the first time in my life."

The soldier dropped. Just a husk in armor. His protocol was gone. And I was full. So full I was shaking.

The first soldier backed up, rifle shaking. "Monster... you're a monster! Command, we need—"

I was in front of him before he could finish the call. I didn't even remember moving.

"Shh," I told him. I put my hand on his helmet. "Give it here."

And I took it. All of it. The second rush was even bigger. My knees almost buckled, but not from pain. From power.

I threw my head back and laughed. The sound bounced off the concrete. The red emergency lights reflected in the puddle of sweat under me and for a second I saw myself. Veins lit up like neon circuits. Eyes solid red.

"Holy shit," I whispered. "Is this what Elites feel like all the time? No wonder they think we're bugs."

"Kai." Eve's voice was sharp. It cut through the buzz. "Kai, look at me. Right now."

I turned. Slow.

She was standing three feet away. Her gun was up again. But her hand wasn't steady. Her cheeks were flushed, her lips parted. She was breathing like she'd run a mile.

"You need to lock it down," she said. Her voice was low, trying to be commanding and failing a little. "You're spiking again. You'll burn out if you keep gorging."

"I'm fine." I took a step toward her. She took a half-step back. Her back hit the wall. "More than fine. I feel... god, Eve. I feel like I could tear this whole city down."

"Don't." Her gun didn't waver, even if her hand did. "Don't come closer."

"Why not?" I kept coming. I liked the way her eyes tracked me. The way her pulse jumped in her throat. I could see it now. Hear it. "Scared of me, Princess?"

"I'm scared FOR you, you moron." But she didn't push me away when I stopped right in front of her. We were chest to chest. Her gun was trapped between us, barrel pressed against my ribs. My hand came up, slow, and hovered next to her jaw. Not touching. Just close enough she could feel the heat coming off me. "You don't know how to control it yet."

"Then teach me." My voice dropped to match hers. "You need my blood to live, right? So teach me how not to die before you can use me."

Her eyes flicked to my mouth, then back up. Her breath caught.

"Kai—"

The service door behind us blew open a second time. Not two guys this time. Six. Heavy boots. Heavy rifles.

And they weren't aiming at Eve.

Every single barrel locked onto me.

The power inside me surged again, but wrong this time. Too much, too fast. The two protocols I'd just eaten fought with the Forbidden Key. My blood really did start to boil. My legs gave out.

I hit one knee. Hard. Concrete cracked under it. I caught myself with one hand, gasping. Red-black light sputtered around me like a bad connection.

"Kai!" Eve shouted. She spun, putting her body half in front of mine, gun up at the squad. "Stand down! That's a direct order from Eve Syndicate!"

"Negative, ma'am," the lead soldier said. His voice was flat, filtered. "Silas Syndicate has override. The Shell is priority capture. Alive if possible."

He stepped forward. Boots echoing. Stopping right in front of me.

I looked up. Couldn't get up. My blood was on fire again and my vision was tunneling.

He pressed the cold muzzle of his rifle straight to my forehead.

"Don't move, abomination," he said. His finger tightened on the trigger. "Or do you want me to paint the wall with whatever's left of—"