"Correct your tone," she whispered, her hand suddenly snapping up to grip his throat. Not hard enough to choke him, but enough to make him feel the crushing power in those fingers. "I am Nyx. I was designed to end civilizations. You are a scavenger who smells of cheap oil and desperation. Be grateful I find your pulse... appetizing."
Kael's breath hitched. He could smell something coming off her—not oil, but ozone and something like crushed lilies. The proximity was suffocating. He could feel the heat radiating from her core, contrasting with the chill of her touch.
"Let go," he managed to say, though his voice lacked conviction.
Nyx didn't let go. She leaned in, her lips inches from his ear. "I can feel your heart accelerating, Kael. Is it fear? Or is it something else?"
Before he could answer, a scream echoed through the warehouse. Jax had crawled out from the wreckage, his face twisted in rage.
"You little rat!" Jax screamed, leveling his pistol. "I don't care what you woke up! I'm taking that thing and selling it to the Empire for ten times the price!"
Nyx didn't even look at him. She simply shifted her weight, her grip on Kael's throat softening into something almost like a caress.
"A distraction," Nyx murmured. "Shall I eliminate the nuisance, or would you prefer to do it yourself, Hunter?"
"I'm not a hunter anymore," Kael spat, shoving her away. "I'm a guy who's about to get shot!"
"Then move," Nyx commanded.
She didn't wait for him. She blurred—a streak of sapphire and silver—slamming into Jax with a force that sounded like a car crash. The plasma pistol flew into the air, spinning wildly. Nyx pinned Jax to the floor, her knee crushing his chest, her hand wrapped around his throat in a mirror image of how she'd just held Kael.
"Wait!" Kael shouted, rushing forward. "Don't kill him! He knows who tipped me off about the core!"
Nyx paused, her fingers tightening. Jax was turning blue, his eyes bulging.
"Information is a currency," Nyx said, her voice devoid of emotion. "Does he have more?"
"Yes! Just... don't break his neck!"
Nyx looked at Kael. The look in her eyes wasn't human; it was a calculation. She leaned down to Jax, her voice a lethal whisper. "Tell him. Now. Or I will rewrite your nervous system to feel pain for the next three hours of your remaining life."
Jax choked out a name. "Vargas... The Inquisitor... he's already on the way! He knows the core is active!"
Kael froze. Vargas. The name alone was a death sentence. The Imperial Inquisitor didn't do arrests; he did purges.
"We need to move," Kael said, his voice shaking. "Now!"
"Agreed," Nyx said, releasing Jax like he was a piece of trash. She turned to Kael, her gaze lingering on his chest, right where his heart was hammering. "Your pulse is spiking again. It's quite... intoxicating."
"Stop talking about my heart and start running!"
They scrambled toward the blast doors, the heavy metal shutters the only thing between them and the wasteland outside. Kael could hear the distant roar of Imperial shuttles—the scream of engines that meant the end of the line.
He slammed his palm against the door release, but the console sparked and died.
"Dammit! It's locked!"
"Step aside," Nyx said.
She placed her hand on the door. A surge of sapphire energy pulsed from her fingertips, overriding the security locks in a fraction of a second. The doors groaned, sliding open just as a blinding light hit them from the outside.
Kael squinted, shielding his eyes. Through the smoke and dust of the rim-lands, a line of white-armored soldiers emerged. Their rifles were raised in perfect unison, a wall of death aimed straight at them.
In the center stood a man in a high-collared black coat, his eyes cold and predatory. Vargas.
"The forbidden protocol," Vargas said, his voice carrying over the wind. "And a pathetic scavenger to carry it. How poetic."
Kael felt Nyx shift beside him. She didn't look afraid. She looked hungry.
"Kael," she whispered, her voice vibrating against his skin. "If you want to live, you have to let me in. All the way."
"What does that mean?"
"The lock is not on the door," she said, her hand sliding down to grip his wrist, her fingers digging in. "The lock is on my power. Give me your full synchronization, or we die here."
Kael looked at the rifles. He looked at Nyx. He didn't have a choice.
"Do it," he gasped.
Nyx's grip tightened, and suddenly, the world exploded in sapphire light. But as the energy surged, a massive explosion rocked the warehouse. The blast door behind them didn't just close—it caved in, ripped off its hinges by a force from the other side.
Through the smoke, a second squad of Imperial rifles rose, cutting off their only exit. They were trapped.
"Now," Vargas smiled, stepping forward. "Let's see what the ghost can actually do."