Chapter 24 · Hostile Blood

"Get off him, Kane! His spine is going to snap!" I grabbed the enforcer's shoulder and pulled with everything the overclocked core left in me.

Kane did not move.

The boy under him shrieked and drove both heels into the maglev floor. Metal buckled with a sharp crack. His eyes flashed red, then white, then red again. A string of black coolant ran from the corner of his mouth.

"Hold his wrists," Kane ordered.

"You hold them. You're the one crushing him."

"Vera. Now."

The neural link punched his command straight through my skull. I felt the pressure of his grip as if his hands were wrapped around my own. I felt the boy's panic too, hot and wild, skittering through the shared channel.

I swore and dropped beside them.

The boy twisted hard. He looked barely old enough to shave, but the strength in his arms was wrong. Cables hung from the torn collar of his jacket. One had burrowed beneath his skin and pulsed every time the combat core in my spine reacted.

"Hey," I said, catching his left wrist. "Look at me. Don't fight us.