"Don't you even breathe wrong. I can peel that light right out of your chest."
Mira's forearm was across my throat. Not light. Solid. Her boot had my ankle pinned to the brick and her other hand was glowing white-hot two inches from my sternum.
I couldn't get air. Couldn't get the Current to answer either. This body was still junk.
"You feel that?" she said. "That's a Veil tap. Forbidden. So tell me what you are before I rip it out."
"Get off him!" Leo shouted. He was pressed flat against the dumpster, hands up, shaking so hard his backpack rattled.
Mira didn't even look at him. Her eyes stayed locked on mine. Ice-blue. Pissed. And way too close.
"Kid stays out of this," I choked out. "Your problem's with me."
"Everything's my problem," she said. "You're spiking city sensors. You're unregistered. You're dirty. So yeah, you're my problem."
A siren ripped the air above us. Not one. Like twenty.
Then the whole block went red.
An emergency klaxon slammed on from every pole and rooftop. A corporate voice boomed over the loudspeakers, so loud the brick vibrated against my back.
"CITIZENS OF ASHPORT. LEVEL FOUR CONTAINMENT PROTOCOL IS NOW ACTIVE. STAY INDOORS. CAPE RESPONSE TEAM DEPLOYING."
Searchlights snapped on. Drones dropped from the clouds like flies. Big ones. Corporate capes with the Helion logo burning on their chests.
"Oh, perfect timing," Mira muttered. She eased off my throat just an inch so I could suck in air. Her tracer on her wrist was screaming. Red light flashing. "They found your little flare. Great. Now the whole city wants you."
"You called them?" I said.
"I AM them, idiot." She grabbed my jacket and yanked me sideways, dragging Leo with her other hand. "Move. Now. Alley box. If they see us in the open they shoot first and scan the bodies after."
She shoved us both into the narrow gap between a laundry vent and a shuttered noodle shop. It was barely three feet wide. We were chest to chest. Her armor pressed against my shirt. I could feel the heat coming off her glove. Smelled sweat and ozone and cheap laundry steam.
"You got a plan or you just like pinning teenagers in alleys?" I said.
"I got a quota," she snapped. "And you just ruined my month."
Leo was jammed between us, breathing fast. "Are they gonna kill us?"
"Not if she gets her capture," I said, looking at Mira. "Right? That's what you need? A live one for the bonus?"
Her jaw tightened. "I need a live capture to make rank. You need that kid not to end up in a corporate lab. So we both have a problem."
A drone buzzed right over the alley mouth. Spotlight sweeping. We all froze. Her hand landed on my mouth. Hard. Her palm was hot. Her fingers dug into my cheek to keep me quiet.
The light passed. The drone kept going.
She didn't let go right away. Her eyes dropped to my mouth, then back up. Her breath hit my face. Fast.
"You let go or you gonna charge me for this?" I whispered against her palm.
She shoved me back an inch. "Don't flirt when you're about to be bagged and tagged."
"Not flirting. Just noting you haven't killed me yet. Means you need me."
"I need you contained," she said. "There's a difference."
Another voice crackled over the loudspeakers. "UNREGISTERED VEIL SIGNATURE. SECTOR NINE. LETHAL FORCE AUTHORIZED IF RESISTANCE IS DETECTED."
Leo made a small noise. I put a hand on his shoulder. Squeezed.
"Hey," I said to him, low. "You with me?"
"Yeah," he whispered. "Don't leave me."
"Not going anywhere." I looked back at Mira. "So what? You turn us in and they dissect us? That's your big promotion?"
"I follow orders," she said, but her voice had an edge now. Like she hated saying it.
"Orders from the same people who let him bleed out on the street yesterday?" I said. "Come on, Quinn. You know what Helion does to anomalies."
Her tracer beeped again. Louder. A second drone was circling back. We were running out of seconds.
"Fine," she hissed. She yanked a small black disc from her belt and slapped it against my chest. It stuck. Cold. Then hot. "You want him safe? We do a bind. Right now."
"What kind of bind?" I said.
"A Tracer Bind," she said. "My tech locks onto your little light. You run, it burns you from the inside out. You fight me, same thing. I break the deal and let you go when I shouldn't? It fries my badge, my record, my whole career. That's the price. Clear enough for you?"
"And Leo?" I said.
"He walks. I log him as a non-combatant witness. He goes home. No lab. No file. But you come with me. Quiet. No tricks."
"That's a leash," I said.
"That's the only way you both live past the next five minutes," she said. "You want a better offer? Look outside."
Outside the alley, boots hit pavement. A full Helion squad. Rifles up. Visors scanning.
"Reid," Leo whispered, grabbing my sleeve. "Don't do it. They'll hurt you."
"They'll hurt you worse if I don't," I said.
I looked at Mira. Really looked. Her hand was shaking a little. Not from fear. From holding back. She was pressed so close I could see the sweat at her temple, the way her lip was caught between her teeth.
"You swear he walks?" I said.
"On my commission," she said. "I swear."
"Then do it," I said.
She pressed her thumb to the disc. It pulsed. A thin line of white light shot from it into her gauntlet, then back into my chest. It burned. Like ice and fire at once. I gritted my teeth and didn't make a sound.
Leo stared, eyes wide. "Reid?"
"I'm good," I managed. "Still here."
Mira's eyes flicked down to where the light connected us. Her breath caught. For a second her hand hovered over the disc, not pressing, just... feeling the heat coming off me.
"You feel that?" she whispered. "That's you, tied to me now. You try to ghost, I feel it."
"Yeah, I feel it," I said. "Cozy."
The squad outside shouted. "CONTACT! ALLEY SEVEN! WEAPONS FREE!"
A rifle fired. Not at us — at the drone's spotlight reflection. But the next shot wouldn't miss.
Mira spun, shoving Leo behind her back with one arm and throwing her other arm out toward the alley mouth. Her cape field flared, a translucent wall.
The blast hit it and scattered. The force knocked her back a step — right into me. Her back hit my chest. Her hair brushed my chin.
Then a second shooter on the rooftop adjusted. Red dot landed. Not on Mira.
On Leo's head. Peeking out from behind her.
I didn't think. I grabbed Mira's waist and twisted, putting my own body between that dot and the kid.
The shot fired.
It hit me square in the shoulder. The Tracer Bind screamed. White light exploded across my chest. I took the full kinetic hit and the burn at once. My knees buckled. I didn't fall because Mira caught me.
"You idiot!" she yelled, hands on my shoulders, holding me up. Her face was right in mine. Angry. Scared. "Why did you do that? You could've let him take it and run!"
"Not how I work," I gasped. Blood was hot on my shirt. But the Current — damn it — flared. Just for a second. Healing the burn as fast as it happened. Her eyes went wide seeing it.
Leo was sobbing. "Reid! Reid, you're bleeding!"
"I'm fine, kid. Stay down." I looked at Mira. "Still want to pull that trigger on me, hero?"
She had her stun pistol up. It was aimed at my chest. Her finger was on the trigger. The whole squad was yelling for her to confirm the capture.
Her hand was shaking. She stared at the blood on my shirt, at the light still pulsing between us, at Leo's face.
She couldn't do it.
Her pistol lowered an inch.
"I can't," she whispered. So quiet only I heard it. "Damn it, I can't."
Her comm crackled loud in the alley. So loud Leo jumped.
A man's voice. Cold. Corporate. Her boss.
"Quinn, directive update. Target is now designated unrecoverable. Bring him back dead. Repeat, bring the target back dead. Do you copy? And Quinn — if you hesitate again, you're done. Do you—"