The penthouse alarms screamed like a dying animal. Crimson light bled through shattered glass, painting Victor's silver hair in strokes of blood. He stood amid the wreckage, a statue carved from ice and arrogance, his bergamot-and-gunpowder scent flooding my senses. It dragged memories to the surface—his hands guiding mine on a rifle, his voice soothing night terrors, his lips brushing my forehead: "You're the only thing real in this world."
Ethan shoved me behind him, his pistol unwavering. "You don't touch her."
Victor's laugh was velvet wrapped around a blade. "Still playing guard dog, Cross? Even after lying to her face?" His gaze scraped over me, hungry. "Did he tell you he watched you burn?"
Flash: Smoke. Heat. Ethan's eyes through flames.
Amir's knife pressed into my palm from behind, his breath hot on my neck. "When I move, run for the service elevator." His thumb brushed the scar on my thigh—our scar. The bullet I'd taken for him. The memory Victor stole.
Before I could nod, a needle-thin dart hissed through the air.
It struck Amir's throat.
He staggered, betrayal flashing in his obsidian eyes as he crumpled.
Jace stood in the doorway, his tablet glowing, face pale as death. "He has my sister," he whispered, voice cracking. "I'm sorry, Alex."
Victor sighed. "Loyalty is such a fragile thing, isn't it?" He snapped his fingers.
Black-clad Hounds materialized from the shadows, rifles humming.
And Amir moved.
His blade became a silver blur, slicing through two Hounds before they hit the ground. "NOW!" he roared, blood streaking his jaw.
Ethan fired—crack-crack-crack—dropping three more. Jace slammed his palm on the tablet. The penthouse AI shrieked, and the panoramic windows imploded, sucking Hounds into the void.
Victor didn't flinch.
He lunged.
His hand closed around my throat, thumb pressing my frantic pulse. "You feel that?" he murmured, pulling me flush against him. My body betrayed me, heat pooling low at his familiar scent. "Your heart remembers me."
I spat in his face.
He grinned, feral. "Good. I missed your fire."
The syringe bit into my neck.
Cold flooded my veins. Darkness swallowed Ethan's roar, Amir's curse, Jace's shattered sob as Victor cradled me. "Sleep, little wolf," he whispered. "We're going home."
Consciousness returned in fractured pieces.
Cold steel against my spine.
Graphene cuffs biting my wrists.
The sterile stench of antiseptic and decay.
Victor's lab. The place where nightmares were manufactured.
He stood over me, gloved hands adjusting a drip line feeding shimmering liquid into my arm. "Welcome back, Alexandra."
Ethan stood beside him, jaw clenched, eyes avoiding mine.
My heart stuttered. "Ethan?"
"He's been so helpful," Victor purred, stroking my cheek. "Did you know he documented every memory that resurfaced? Every nightmare? Every whimper?" His fingers tightened. "Especially the ones about me."
Betrayal tore through me, sharper than any blade.
The door hissed open.
Amir stood silhouetted in the doorway, drenched in blood that wasn't his own, knife in hand. "Get. Away. From her."
Victor chuckled. "Right on schedule."
Amir's blade pressed against Victor's jugular. "I won't ask twice."
Victor tilted his head, exposing his throat. "Will you kill me? Again?"
Amir froze.
Memory detonation: Amir standing over Victor's body. Blood pooling on white tile. My scream tearing raw from my throat.
Victor tapped Amir's chest. "You murdered me once. She still doesn't know why."
Ethan stepped forward. "Enough games, Victor."
"Ah, yes!" Victor clapped. "You tell her, Ethan. Why did you really pull her from that fire?"
Ethan's knuckles whitened.
Jace's voice crackled over hidden speakers: "Incoming! Security override in 60 seconds!"
The walls trembled. Alarms wailed like banshees.
Victor sighed dramatically. "Always interrupting." He bent, kissing my forehead. "We'll finish this soon."
Chaos erupted.
Amir sliced my restraints. Ethan hauled me upright. We burst into a corridor choked with smoke and strobing lights. Jace stumbled toward us, nose bleeding, tablet sparking. "He knew! He herded us here!"
Amir shoved me toward a grated vent. "Go!"
Ethan grabbed my arm. "That's a deathtrap!"
Jace coughed. "He's rigged the exits!"
"ENOUGH!" My voice echoed, raw. I faced them—Ethan's stormy guilt, Amir's scarred intensity, Jace's shattered remorse. "If you want my trust… tell me the truth. Now."
Silence hung thick, broken only by distant gunfire.
Ethan spoke first, voice gravel. "You were Subject Zero. The first successful hybrid of human and… something else." He flinched as my breath hitched. "Victor didn't just experiment on you. He used your DNA to create himself."
Amir stepped closer, his dark eyes holding mine. "He's not your brother, Alex. He's your son."
The world tilted. Flash: A petri dish. A pulsing embryo. My blood swirling in nutrient-rich fluid.
Jace wiped blood from his lip. "We were hired to terminate you. To erase Victor's greatest mistake… and his greatest weapon."
Before the horror could sink in—
—The wall exploded.
Victor stepped through swirling dust, untouched, his eyes glowing like liquid mercury. "Touching," he drawled. "But terribly incomplete." He extended a hand. "Come with me, Alexandra. Let me show you what you truly are."
Ethan moved in front of me. "Don't."
Amir's knife glinted. "Choose us."
Jace's trembling fingers brushed mine. "Please."
Victor's smile was a dark promise. "You know you crave it. The power. The truth. Me."
My pulse hammered against my ribs. The nanotech in my veins hummed, responding to Victor's proximity, to the raw terror and need coiling in my belly. I looked at Ethan—his strength forged in fire and lies. At Amir—his loyalty written in scars and blood. At Jace—his genius broken by guilt.
And at Victor—my creator, my destroyer, my dark reflection.
I lunged—
—Not for Victor's hand.
For his throat.
My nails sank into his skin. "I choose myself."
Victor gasped—not in pain, but in ecstasy. His eyes flooded pitch black. "Yes…" he rasped, blood welling where I gripped him. "Wake up, little wolf."
Power erupted from my core.
White light seared my vision. The walls trembled. Ethan, Amir, and Jace were thrown backward. Victor's laughter echoed as the light consumed him, consumed everything.