Chapter 13 · Rain, Blood, and Static

"Get the hell away from me!"

Zero slammed her shoulder into Kael, sending him sprawling across the rusted metal grating of the catwalk. Her breath came in jagged, wet rattles. Every nerve in her body felt like it was being scraped by a dull razor. The agony wasn't just a feeling—it was a physical weight, a crushing pressure that made her vision flicker into static.

"Zero, stop. Just let me look at the link," Kael yelled, scrambling to his feet. He didn't look like a scientist anymore. He looked like a drowned rat, drenched in the oily, grey rain that hammered down on the abandoned refinery.

"I told you!" She lunged, her fingers curling into claws, and pinned him against a support beam with a thud that knocked the wind out of him. Her forearm was pressed hard against his throat, her eyes glowing a predatory, unstable crimson. "I don't need your help. I don't need your pity. I need you to stay back before I rip your throat out."

Kael didn't fight her. He didn't even try to push her off. He just stared at her, his eyes wide and terrified, but not of her.