Run, Rena!"
Hale's voice wasn't a plea; it was a command that vibrated through the very marrow of my bones. I scrambled behind the heavy industrial cooling unit just as the laboratory door disintegrated into a cloud of splinters and steel.
The air was suddenly choked with the acrid sting of flash-bang grenades and the sharp, clinical smell of military-grade smoke. Red laser sights danced through the haze like hungry fireflies, all of them converging on the silhouette standing in the center of the room.
My heart felt like it was going to burst through my ribs. I was a scientist, a woman who spent her life under the soft glow of desk lamps, not a fugitive. I looked down at my hands they were stained with Hale's synthetic blood and the grease from the machines. I had no money, no backup, and now, the government was at my door to take back the "property" I had stolen.
"Target acquired! Fire!" a voice barked through the chaos.
The deafening clatter-clatter-clatter of automatic gunfire filled the small basement. I screamed, pressing my palms against my ears, waiting for the sound of Hale falling. Waiting for the silence that would mean I was truly alone.
But the silence never came.
Instead, I heard the sickening crunch of metal being crushed. I peered around the edge of the cooling unit, my eyes stinging.
Hale wasn't dead. He moved through the storm of lead like a phantom made of midnight. The bullets didn't seem to stop him; they sparked off his skin, leaving glowing blue embers where they struck. He reached the first soldier in a heartbeat, his hand clamping onto the barrel of the rifle and twisting it into a pretzel with a single, casual flick of his wrist.
"Rena, get to the back exit!" Hale yelled. He didn't even look back as he tossed the soldier across the room, sending him crashing into my expensive centrifuge.
"I'm not leaving you!" I cried out, my voice lost in the roar of another explosion.
I lunged for my bag the one containing the hard drive with his consciousness backuk but a hand grabbed my hair, yanking me backward. I shrieked as a soldier in black tactical gear pinned me against the wall, the cold barrel of a pistol pressing into my temple.
"Cease fire!" the soldier yelled. "I have the doctor! Asset 07, stand down or she dies!"
The room went deathly still. The smoke swirled around Hale's towering frame. He turned slowly, his glowing amber eyes locking onto the man holding me. The light coming from his chest pulsed with a deep, rhythmic thrum, like a warning siren.
"Let. Her. Go," Hale whispered. The sound wasn't human. It was the low, guttural warning of a predator that had found its mate in danger.
"Drop to your knees or I blow her head off!" the soldier screamed, his voice cracking with a fear he couldn't hide.
I looked at Hale, tears streaming down my face. "Hale, don't..."
In a blur that the human eye couldn't track, Hale didn't drop to his knees. He moved.
There was a wet thud, and suddenly the weight against me disappeared. The soldier was gone, thrown twenty feet back into the darkness of the storage closet. Hale was suddenly standing in front of me, his massive body shielding me from the rest of the squad.
He turned to face me, his hands reaching out to cup my face. His touch was heavy, his palms radiating a heat that felt like a furnace. For a second, the amber in his eyes softened back into the chocolate brown I loved, and I saw the man who used to help me with my research.
"Are you hurt?" he asked, his voice trembling with a terrifying intensity.
"I'm fine, Hale, but we have to go! There are more of them outside!"
He leaned down, his lips brushing my ear. "No one touches you, Rena. No one."
He picked me up as if I weighed nothing, tucking me against his chest with a possessive grip that made it hard to breathe. With a roar that shook the glass remaining in the windows, he didn't head for the back exit. He headed for the reinforced brick wall at the front of the building.
"Hale, what are you doing?" I gasped, clutching his neck.
"Shortcut," he grunted.
He hit the wall at full speed, using his shoulder as a battering ram. The bricks exploded outward, and we burst into the rain-soaked night. He hit the pavement running, his strides covering ground at a pace that felt like a speeding car. Behind us, sirens wailed and searchlights cut through the dark, but Hale didn't slow down.
He ducked into a narrow, flooded alleyway, weaving through the labyrinth of Oakhaven's industrial district. Finally, he stopped behind a row of rusted shipping containers, setting me down gently on my feet.
The rain drenched us both instantly. My lab coat was ruined, sticking to my skin, and I was shivering so hard my teeth were chattering. Hale stood over me, his amber eyes scanning the perimeter like a radar system.
"We're safe for a moment," he said, though his body stayed tense, ready to spring.
"Safe?" I laughed breathlessly, a bit of hysteria leaking into my voice. "Hale, we're fugitives. They're going to hunt us. They're going to hunt you."
I reached out, my fingers trembling as I touched the glowing blue lines on his chest. "What have I done to you? You're not... you're not supposed to be this."
Hale grabbed my hand, pressing it firmly against his heart. I didn't feel a heartbeat. I felt a vibration, a powerful, mechanical hum that seemed to sync with my own pulse.
"You gave me a second chance, Rena," he said, his voice dropping into a dark, seductive register. "And I'm going to use it to make sure nothing ever scares you again."
He leaned in to kiss me, a desperate, hungry movement that tasted of rain and electricity. For a moment, I forgot the soldiers, the debt, and the monster I had created. I only felt him.
But as he pulled away, his expression suddenly went blank. His head tilted sharply to the side, his amber eyes widening until they were almost entirely orange.
"Rena," he whispered, his voice sounding hollow.
"What is it? What's wrong?"
He looked down at his own hands, which were starting to flicker with a glitchy, digital static. "I... I can hear them."
"Hear who?" I asked, grabbing his shoulders.
Hale looked at me, a look of pure horror crossing his face. "Not the soldiers. The others. The ones who died in the lab before me. They're... they're inside my head, Rena. And they're telling me to kill you."
Before I could scream, Hale's hand clamped onto my arm, his grip so tight I heard the bone groan. He wasn't looking at me anymore. He was looking
at something behind me that wasn't there