Chapter 9 · Daddy's Little Monster

"Don't move. Just... don't fucking move," Kael hissed, his hand clamping hard over Zero's shoulder, shoving her back against the jagged metal of the bulkhead.

Zero didn't fight him. She couldn't. Her legs were shaking, not from fear, but from the sheer, white-hot agony screaming through her nervous system. The neural link was fraying. Every time it flickered, it felt like someone was dragging a rusted serrated blade across her spine.

"Get off me," she gasped, though her voice sounded like it had been dragged through gravel. She tried to push him, but her muscles wouldn't fire. She was a broken machine, a weapon with a cracked core.

"Shut up and breathe," Kael snapped. He wasn't looking at her; he was staring at the corridor. The red emergency lights of the freighter flickered, casting long, bloody shadows across the deck. "If you spike your cortisol now, the feedback loop will fry your brain before I can even get the dampener on."

Zero let out a jagged laugh that turned into a cough. "My brain is already fried, Kael. That's the point of being a monster, right? No thoughts, just kill."

"You're not a monster," he muttered, his grip tightening.