Page 31 of The Monster's Daughter

For a second, I think it might work. The leader’s eyes flicker, her jaw tight.

Then a Brall twin snarls and raises his gun.

“This is a trick!”

The shot cracks like a thunderclap.

Pain tears across my shoulder, hot and searing. My knees almost buckle.

I hear Kage’s roar before I even register the blood.

Everything explodes at once.

He moves faster than I’ve ever seen him—one heartbeat he’s behind me, the next he’s across the room, claws slamming the Brall into the wall hard enough to dent the plating. The fighter’s gun clatters away. Kage snarls, teeth inches from the man’s throat.

Screams. Weapons coming up.

“No!” I shout, voice ragged. “Stop! Stop?—”

I fumble at my belt, fingers slick with my own blood, find the flash grenade. Pin out, thumb pressed, toss.

White light erupts, swallowing the room in a searing blast. Shadows stretch and vanish. Everyone yells, hands flying to eyes.

“Kage!” I hiss, grabbing his arm. “Move!”

He hesitates just long enough for me to see the murder burning in his eyes.

“Now!”

He rips his claws out of the wall and follows me into the maintenance shaft, his body filling the narrow space as we scramble down.

Behind us, the resistance groans and curses, blind and stunned.

The shaft is narrow, damp, choked with the stink of rust and old exhaust. Pipes crowd the walls, some dripping, some hissing faint steam. The floor vibrates faintly like a heartbeat under our knees.

Kage’s voice is a growl against my ear. “I would’ve killed them.”

I whip around just enough to glare at him in the dim light of my wrist console. “And then what?” My voice is hoarse, shaking. “We live in a cave forever?”

“They shot you.” His claws flex, scraping sparks off the pipe. “They aimed atyou.”

“Yeah, welcome to my life,” I snap, crawling faster. “I’m a medic, not a saint. People shoot me all the time.”

His nostrils flare. “Not while I’m breathing.”

I bite my lip hard enough to taste blood and keep moving. “Save the knight-in-shining-scales routine. We need to get out of here before they recover.”

He snarls low but doesn’t argue, his body heat a furnace at my back.

Static flares in my comm unit, a hiss like a snake.

“Bella…”

My stomach drops.

I yank it off my wrist, slam it against a pipe. It keeps whispering, voice soft and curious.

“…integrate… adapt…”