Chapter 11 · The Forbidden Fix

"Stop moving. Just... damn it, Zero, stay still," Kael hissed, his fingers trembling as he pressed the injector against the base of her neck.

Zero didn't stay still. She couldn't. Her spine felt like it was being threaded with white-hot needles, a jagged, electric agony that didn't just hurt—it screamed. She slammed her back against the rusted bulkhead of the hideout, her breath coming in shallow, jagged hitches.

"Do it already," she spat, though it sounded more like a whimper. She glared at him, her pupils blown wide, her vision swimming in a haze of static and red. "Or I'll rip your throat out just to make the noise stop."

Kael didn't flinch. He’d seen her kill. He’d seen her tear through reinforced plating with her bare hands. But right now, he saw the way her fingers were clawing into the metal wall, leaving deep, ugly gouges in the steel.

"This isn't a standard sedative," Kael said, his voice low, clinical, but there was a tremor in it. "It's a neural dampener. If I miscalculate the dose, I could fry your motor cortex. You’d be a vegetable.