Page 44

EON

W e walked down a tunnel just above the waterline of Magenta. A Stellarium line pulsed pink, the saturated light mixing with the orange glow of neon hung by the gang whose hideout we approached.

“DITA, you have everything loaded up?” I whispered into my Vysor.

“Everything is ready, E. My offline version is loaded as well for when you’re out of network. All the modules you asked for.”

“Good.”

I wasn’t wearing much—just a black bodysuit with Stellarium stitching and an overload of cutouts, a negligible mini skirt, and knee-high boots with reinforced knee pads. This outfit had killed at Hellfire and still let me dance without pain. It made sense to me for the heist.

Cy was eyeing me up and down, his face unreadable, then rolled his shoulder.

“You told me you got that taken care of.” I glared at his shoulder like I could see the implant through his skin.

“I did. All shiny and new now. Procedure left me sore, that’s all.”

I tapped my nails against the side of my Vysor.

I wanted to reach out and grab him, feel our Flux merge again so I could check if he was lying.

I wanted to feel his power pulse against me.

I wanted to feel that resonance between us that haunted my dreams. But I couldn’t.

He warned me not to use my Flux too close to the Den, in case they detected it.

He eyed me up and down again as I did the same to him.

“Got your little vibrator all safe and sound?” he asked with that impossibly annoying grin.

“Shut up. We’re about to cross into their cage.”

He gave a sarcastic salute. “You got it, boss.” He swung his hand around and looped it around my waist, pulling me in tight. “Time to play the clueless slut.” His fingers dug into my skin, and I knew he was trying to rile me up.

Well, two could play that game.

I leaned in close, my lips a whisper against the skin below his ear. “Whatever you say, corpo.” I tugged on his earlobe with my teeth, and he tried to suppress his shudder—but his spike of Flux gave him away.

“Hey, behave yourself. This isn’t a game.” He was surprisingly serious, and I saw my opportunity.

“And if I don’t want to play nice?”

I barely had time to throw my hands up as he slammed me face-first into the wall beside us. He pressed his elbow between my shoulder blades and twisted my arm up behind my back.

“That hurts!”

“Doll, I’ve barely even started,” he whispered right in my ear, his breath so hot against my skin that the hair on the back of my neck stood on end. “You step one toe out of line, and I’ll have you crying my name, tears streaming down those beautiful cheeks. Just like I dream about every night.”

“Fuck off, corpo!” I shoved back against him—which was a terrible idea, since it just pressed my ass into the bulge now straining against his pants.

“God, I love it when you talk dirty.” He pressed forward into me, and I hated my treacherous body for lighting up when he did.

“Everything okay—there?”

We both froze as Maddox’s voice came through the comms, broken up but clearly audible.

Cy released me immediately. “Yeah, we’re all good. Just reminding Eon that this is a dangerous place. She should stick to the role she knows.”

I should’ve just walked away. Let him play with his violent friends if this was how he was going to act. Then the Stellarium lights in the corridor blinked off and on with an ominous thunk .

Cy’s face went hard. “They know we’re here. No turning back now.”

He wrapped his arm around my waist again and pulled me down the darkening tunnel. He leaned in and whispered in my ear, “No matter what happens, don’t get separated from me.” A warning as much as a command.

We circled some debris and went through a chain-link fence someone had slashed open, reaching a fairly nondescript door.

A small screen lit up. The face on it barely looked human, distorted by some filter into something resembling a Kitsune mask.

The jaw was lengthened and filled with sharp, overly large fangs.

As he spoke, flames gushed out between them, floating up over the prominent eyebrows that swept up into pointed ears.

I could just barely make out the Japanese under the real-time translation my Vysor fed to me.

“The fuck you want, Cy?”

I guess they knew him. I was a little surprised to hear Cy speak back fluently.

“Kazuki, always so nice to see you. Let me in, ya bastard.”

“You don’t have an appointment.”

“Sure I do.” He pulled what was probably enough Vector for an entire squad of Flux-capable agents out of his jacket and waved it in front of the camera.

My heart sped up as the fluorescent green substance swayed in the feed, and my pinky twitched.

My arm seized as I stopped myself reaching for it instinctively.

“Fresh from the lab. You could cut this four times over and still have the strongest Vector on the street.”

Even through the digital mask, I could see the greed in the man’s eyes.

“Who’s the whore?”

“Just that.” Cy slapped my ass a little harder than necessary, but I didn’t flinch.

“She’s not coming inside,” said the Kitsune.

“Don’t be a cock-block. She gets off on this shit. Plus, Hinokawa-san will be pissed if you let me walk away with this haul.”

The Kitsune let out a harsh breath between his teeth, but then the door slid open, and we stepped into the Den.

Two bruisers, each probably over two-fifty, greeted us immediately.

They wore masks mimicking the filter I’d seen on the entrance screen—white porcelain with shining chrome fangs, hiding the bottom half of their faces and projecting stylized Kitsune features over their Vysors.

Though less distorted than the filter, the masks completely concealed their true features.

In the dim entrance hall, the glowing masks made them look demonic.

One immediately started patting down Cy, the other came for me. He wasn’t gentle or professional. He groped both of my breasts, then slid his hands down over my ass, fingers diving far too deep between my thighs.

“You’ve got to pay for that,” I hissed.

The mask was programmed to mimic his true facial expressions, because the fang-filled grin on his face grew wider. “Oh, we’ve got a live one here.”

I felt a sharp pain at the back of my neck, and my hand shot up immediately to feel the hot chip now embedded over my old scar.

“Just in case you’ve got something hidden I can’t see, slut. I wouldn’t try tugging it out unless you want to end up brain-dead.” He slapped my ass and shoved me back toward Cy. “All yours, fucker. I can’t stand when they have an attitude.”

“Just say you don’t know how to handle a woman who’s conscious,” Cy shot back, his arms spread wide like he was lounging at a spa—not standing inside one of the most dangerous places in the city, antagonizing the guards.

My molester looked ready to slug him when the other one pulled two weapons from under Cy’s coat.

“You know the rules,” he said with a huff, clearly not for the first time.

“Kazuki, how much more suspicious would I be if you’d found nothing? Plus, I like when you get a little rough with me.” Cy winked, and I watched the guard’s face twist with rage.

We were dead—and we hadn’t even gotten inside yet. Both brutes looked ready to murder him, and honestly, a part of me couldn’t even blame them. What the hell was he doing?

Then, a door out of the small inspection area opened, spilling loud, thrumming music and red light into the space.

“Enough. The boss wants to see him. Now.” Another man motioned from the door. I was frozen in place, so Cy wrapped an arm around my waist and dragged me forward.

“Always nice seeing you bastards.” He didn’t look back as the door slid shut behind us.

We followed our guide down a long concrete hallway, sporadically lit by beams of Stellarium embedded in the walls. We were so close to the Magenta data center that they glowed a dark red instead of the soft pink of the surface.

Cy kept our pace slow enough to fall behind the guide. “What the hell was that?” I whispered in his ear.

“Relax, doll, they know who I work for. It’ll take a lot more than that to put us in real danger.

Besides, I was hoping to distract them enough they wouldn’t chip ya.

” He glanced at the back of my neck and frowned, then scratched the back of his, where he also had a Flux dampener.

“Shit always itches to all hell,” he muttered.

Right on cue, I heard the soft chime in my ear.

“Offline mode activated. E, I’m here and I’ve started the scanning protocol, but no signal yet.

” DITA’s voice, through bone conduction, was only audible to me.

I tapped my fingers against my thigh in a coded shorthand for situations when silence was critical.

Me: Still walking. 100 ft more.

DITA chirped her affirmation.

We kept walking, my heels clicking over the concrete, loud even over the music. The hallway opened into what had likely once been a production floor.

It was wide and massive, with steel-grate walkways crisscrossing overhead every fifty feet.

Members in glowing masks patrolled above, some with automatic weapons tucked under their arms, others just lounging and hanging over the rails.

I jumped when a glass bottle shattered below, tossed carelessly from one of the walkways.

The main floor was littered with tattered couches and mismatched furniture, screens mounted haphazardly on every available surface.

I spotted VR setups, and more people playing games than I’d expected.

On the far end was a makeshift gun range, where a few more members were casually firing off rounds, laughing and hanging off each other.

Near the center, a boxing ring had been erected—currently empty—with a gym setup beside it.