Page 5

“Target is still unidentified. Continuing sweep.”

A pause.

“Negative. Recall to base. Priority Alpha directive received.”

He backed up and away. I heard the thunder of their footsteps, slowly receding, until only the soft hum of the servers remained.

Had they left? Was this over? Why?

I took a deep breath, then another. Nothing, silence.

One step, then another, I made my way toward the exit. The door was in sight when it slid open. I ducked behind a tower, begging my traitorous lungs to be quiet, as someone came inside.

“Damn, the beta squadron really fucked this place up, huh?” an irreverent voice said.

An affirming grunt responded to my new adversary. So, there were two of them.

“They can’t do anything without us. God, I better get overtime for cleaning up this mess. How many are left in here?”

“Intel estimates two remain,” a deeper voice responded. “Heat vision’s no good in here. We need a physical sweep.”

Two? So two had gotten out. Or were dead.

“Just two? This was not worth me dragging my ass down here. You go left, I go right?”

Another affirming grunt. I pressed against the server as one of them came around the other side. His steps were unhurried, and I slowly circled the tower, avoiding him. He continued on, and the door was in sight. I willed my feet to move, but nothing happened.

Go, you idiot. Run.

But I couldn’t. There was still someone in here.

I should just leave them. It was their own fault, playing at rebels and—

A shot rang out, and I ran straight back into the maze of servers.

I skidded around a corner, and my heart stopped. A darkly suited man pointed a gun at Taos, trapped at a stack’s edge. A hood covered his head and almost hid a featureless, smooth mask. The glass was so dark it reflected almost no light. One of POM’s elite alpha assets.

I didn’t think.

I grabbed a piece of metal from beside a ruined server and charged the man, swinging at his head.

The faint humming of his shield deflected most of the blow, but it still knocked him aside.

I slammed my whole body into him, knocking both of us down.

Metal struck against metal as his gun skittered across the grate below our feet.

“Run!” I screamed at Taos, and I saw blood leaking from below her hand where she clutched her stomach. She lurched to standing just as pain exploded across my face.

I threw my elbow back as the man grabbed me around my throat, and he groaned as I connected with his solar plexus.

We spun, body over body, on the floor, and I knew he was trying to reach his gun. I kneed him hard in the stomach and hit him anywhere I could connect. He retaliated in kind.

The barrel of the weapon glinted out of the corner of my eye, and I kicked him hard.

He flew back against the opposite stack, sparks flying as he collided, and I scrambled for the weapon.

But as my fingers connected, his foot collided with my ribs and then the gun.

It clattered against the floor and fell through the gap in the grate, out of both our reach.

“Shit.” He cursed as he grabbed the back of my neck and lifted me up.

Still dazed from his kick, I stumbled as he threw me toward a server.

I caught myself and spun around just in time for his fist to connect with my stomach.

I doubled over, but his hand wrapped around my neck and he forced me back.

“Tough bitch, huh? Let me get a better look at you.”

His mask retracted in sections, folding back into itself to reveal a devastatingly beautiful face, framed by shockingly blue hair.

His almond-shaped eyes burned with power, Flux tracing around the irises until they glowed cyan like an overheated star.

It was brutal and feral and absolutely terrifying.

He pressed his hand into my throat, and I clawed at it, but his smirk only grew, his teeth flashing like fangs. Then an electric field like nothing I’d ever felt before flared.

He pressed me into the stack and sparks flew, my skin burning everywhere the electric current surged through me. Pain burned at every single one of my nerves until my vision went almost completely white.

He didn’t pull out another gun, but flicked his arm out straight, the sleeve of his suit lighting up with glowing blue lines. I moved my arm to block, just as I saw electricity snake over its surface, flowing out of him.

Flux. Some of the strongest electromagnetic fields I’d ever felt coursed through him, and I wasn’t able to stop him as he slammed his forearm into my ribs.

White-hot pain sizzled over my skin, and I could smell my flesh burning as he pressed into me, pinning me between his power and the stack.

A line of symbols glowed over his left eye and cheek—a Flux-activated tattoo.

That feral look in his eye was completely unhinged, and he opened his mouth like a snake intending to swallow me whole.

But underneath the pain that had me writhing in his hands, I could feel my own Flux growing.

He poured more voltage into me, and my whole body seized up—but he didn’t know he was feeding me too.

From my toes to the top of my head, it spread, the pain only increasing how much my body could hold. Could he feel it, how I was reveling in it? Every muscle in my body clenched, begging for release. And underneath all that pain, something much sweeter lingered.

“Is that all you’ve got?” I forced a smile to my face, even as my teeth nearly cracked, my jaw clenching.

Amusement flickered in his eyes.

“You want more?”

He leaned in so his body pressed into mine, his power coursing through both of us. He shifted his leg between my thighs so we were even closer and pushed more voltage through me.

I screamed, every single part of me begging for it to stop, for it to end—and yet I had never felt more alive.

Yes, I wanted more. I wanted it all.

My Flux responded to him, and I felt something I had never felt before. Resonance—like our frequencies had aligned.

I didn’t resist, and the pain vanished, leaving me with only euphoria.

He brushed his lips against my ear as he said, “You going to let me see that pretty face?”

His hand slid up my throat to my jaw, tugging at my mask.

I unlocked my muscles long enough to slam my hands into the server behind me. I sent a bolt through it and all the surrounding machines. Despite overloaded circuits, I continued searching until I located it. A battery bank at the end of the stack.

I sent it all there—all my power, and all of his.

The explosion broke us apart.

My ears rang and my body ached, but I pulled myself to my feet. I ran, my legs spasming from the leftover current, and I clutched my raw side, but I ran.

I didn’t look back, but I heard him shout, “Until next time, doll!”

I sprinted out of the server room door and back to the ladder. My fingers slipped as I tried to climb, coming away dark with blood that I hoped was Taos’. I scrambled up and out, slamming the cover closed behind me.

I didn’t stop.

I ran, and my lungs burned, my ribs screamed in agony, my Flux sang—and for the first time in recent memory, I felt alive.

I felt alive, and I wanted it to stay that way.