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"Stop crawling, Kael. It’s pathetic," Victor said, his voice smooth as polished chrome.
I didn't answer. I couldn't. My cheek was pressed against the wet grime of the alley floor, and every breath felt like I was inhaling shards of broken glass. A heavy boot slammed down on my wrist, pinning me to the concrete with a sickening crunch. I let out a strangled gasp, my fingers twitching in the oil-slicked puddle.
"You were my best hunter," Victor sighed, leaning down. He smelled like expensive sandalwood and old betrayal. "But you got greedy. You thought you could skim off the top of the corporate contracts? In this city, that’s not a mistake. That’s a death sentence."
I managed to twist my head, glaring up at him through a haze of blood. "You... you set me up. The Sector 4 job was a trap."
Victor chuckled, a cold, dry sound. He reached into his coat and pulled out a small, glowing cylinder—my Core. The very thing that gave me the edge in the slums, the thing he’d just ripped out of my chest ten minutes ago.
"Traps are for amateurs, Kael. This was an audit," Victor said. He tapped the cylinder. "And you failed. Now, do me a favor. Die quietly. I’ve already told the Board you went rogue and died in a skirmish. No loose ends."
He stepped back, signaling the two suits behind him. They didn't use guns. They used mono-wire whips. The first one lashed out, slicing through my shoulder. I screamed, the sound echoing off the neon-lit walls of the Eternal Night City, but it was drowned out by the thumping bass of a club three blocks away. Nobody was coming. Nobody cared.
"Wait!" I choked out, coughing up a spray of red. "I know where the rogue cores are hidden. The ones from the Black Market. I can give them to you."
Victor paused, his eyes narrowing. For a second, I thought I had him. Then he smiled—that smug, corporate smile that made me want to rip his throat out with my teeth.
"You’re bleeding out, Kael. You don't have leverage. You have a leak in your chest and a very short amount of time left."
He turned his back on me. "Finish it. Make it look like a struggle."
The suit stepped forward, the mono-wire humming with a lethal blue frequency. As the wire coiled back for the final strike, my vision began to flicker. Not like I was fainting—like a screen glitching. Static filled the edges of my sight. Red warnings I’d never seen before started scrolling across my retinas in a language I didn't recognize.
*CRITICAL SYSTEM FAILURE. HOST VITALITY: 4%.*
I tried to scream, but my lungs were full of fluid. The wire descended, a silver blur aiming straight for my neck.
Then, the world stopped.
Not figuratively. Literally. The rain droplets froze in mid-air. The suit’s face was locked in a mask of indifference. Everything turned a deep, bruised purple.
*"God, you're a mess,"* a woman's voice whispered. It wasn't in my ears. It was inside my skull, vibrating against my brain stem. *"Is this really the best the street hunters have to offer? A guy who gets outsmarted by a suit in a three-thousand-credit jacket?"*
"Who... who is that?" I gasped, though my lips didn't move.
*"I'm the one who's going to keep your heart beating for another thirty seconds,"* the voice replied. She sounded bored, yet there was a sharp, dangerous edge to her tone. *"I'm Nyx. And you, Kael, are currently a very convenient piece of meat."*
*"What do you want?"*
*"A body,"* she snapped. *"I've been trapped in a digital coffin for three decades. You're dying, and I'm bored. It's a perfect match. I give you the strength to kill that smug prick, and you give me a backdoor into the physical world."*
I felt a sudden, violent surge of heat. It started at the base of my spine and roared upward, like molten lead being poured into my veins. It wasn't a healing sensation—it was an invasion. I could feel her. Not just a voice, but a presence, a cold, calculating consciousness sliding into the gaps of my broken mind.
*"Do we have a deal, meat-bag?"* she asked. *"Or do you want to see what that wire feels like against your windpipe?"*
"Do it," I snarled. "Take whatever you want. Just let me kill him."
*"Deal. Now, hold still. This is going to hurt like hell."*
*SNAP.*
Time slammed back into motion. The mono-wire hit my neck, but instead of slicing through, it bounced off. I didn't even feel the impact. I felt... different. My muscles tightened, my vision sharpened, and a strange, electric hunger flooded my senses.
I didn't stand up; I launched.
Before the suit could react, I was on him. I didn't use a weapon. I used my bare hand, slamming it into his chest with a force that shattered his ribs. I heard the snap, felt the vibration travel up my arm. I didn't stop. I grabbed his head and slammed it into the concrete with a wet thud.
Victor leaped back, his eyes wide. "What the hell? You should be dead!"
I stood up slowly, my movements fluid, almost predatory. I could feel Nyx laughing in the back of my head, a dark, melodic sound that made my skin crawl.
"I feel great, Victor," I said. My voice sounded deeper, layered with a subtle, metallic resonance. "Actually, I feel like I could eat you alive."
"Get him!" Victor screamed, his composure finally breaking. "Kill him now!"
The second suit lunged, the wire whistling through the air. I didn't dodge. I stepped into the strike, catching the wire with my left hand. The heat from the fusion burned my palm, but I didn't let go. I yanked the suit toward me, my fingers digging into his collar.
*"Left hook, idiot,"* Nyx commanded. *"Pivot your hips. Now!"*
I followed the instinct. My body moved before I could even think about it. A brutal, crushing blow caught the suit in the jaw, sending him spinning into a pile of trash bins. He didn't get up.
I turned my gaze back to Victor. He was backing away, reaching for his comms device. He looked small. Pathetic.
"You're a freak," Victor spat, though his voice trembled. "Whatever you just did, the Board will hunt you to the ends of the city for it. You're not a hunter anymore. You're a lab rat."
I stepped forward, the rain slicking my hair back. I could feel Nyx pushing against my consciousness, wanting more. She wanted to see him bleed. She wanted to feel his pulse fade under my thumbs.
"I'm not a lab rat," I whispered, closing the distance. "I'm your new nightmare."
I reached out to grab his throat, but a sudden, blinding flash of white light erupted from the end of the alley. A high-frequency pulse hit me like a physical wall, throwing me backward. I slammed into a brick wall, the breath leaving my lungs in a violent rush.
As I struggled to breathe, a figure stepped out of the shadows. She was dressed in tactical gear, a long, matte-black railgun leveled directly at my forehead. Her eyes were a piercing, unnatural violet, glowing with an intensity that matched the weapon in her hands.
"Don't move," she commanded, her voice like ice. "One twitch, and I erase your consciousness from the grid."
I looked up at her, my chest heaving. Beside me, Victor was laughing again, his confidence returning now that someone else held the power.
"About time you arrived, Mira," Victor said, smoothing his jacket. "Kill the freak. I want his head in a jar by morning."
The woman, Mira, didn't look at him. Her finger tightened on the trigger, the railgun humming as it reached full charge. The air around the muzzle began to distort from the heat.
*"Kael,"* Nyx whispered, her voice suddenly urgent and sharp. *"If she fires that, we both die. Do something. Now!"*
I stared down the barrel of the gun, the violet light reflecting in my eyes, and I realized I had no move left to make.