Kaela dashed up the stairs. Her legs and lungs burned.

She reached the next floor, and as she peeked into one room, she paused. A different layout faced her. Boardrooms dotted the floor. Kaela only had to glance through the large glass windows to see that nobody was in them.

One boardroom, its blinds closed, sat against the wall at the very end of the room.

Kaela’s gut told her to run. Her legs turned to concrete as she took the first step toward it. She almost sheathed her dagger at her leg, but something stopped her. Instead, she tucked it into her waistband, covered it with her shirt, and kept her gun at the ready.

The silence in the room was more deafening than the gunshots downstairs, and the ringing in her ears didn’t help.

Kaela crept to the door and placed her hand on the cold knob. She rested it there for what felt like forever, every muscle in her body urging her to turn back, to let go of the knob. But she ignored that urge, and with a deep breath, she shoved the door open, painting a careless look on her face.

Even with the careless look, she flinched at the sight of Caleb.

She’d expected soldiers, maybe even a tied-up Lance, but he was alone.

Caleb was sitting on a chair, leaned back and looking at a large TV that nearly covered the entire wall. Dozens of camera feeds, showing areas where Kaela hadn’t even seen any cameras: the back entrance, the stairwell, Derek fighting the soldier. Fighting… Rob? Her heart dropped to her stomach, not only at the sight of Rob infected with the nanobots, but Caleb whirling around in his chair to face her. She raised her chin at him, and his smile widened.

“What a pretty neck,” Caleb said. “I can’t wait to wrap my hands around it.”

Kaela spat in his direction, for what little it did. “You sent Rob so Derek wouldn’t come up here.”

Caleb laughed. “I made sure not too many soldiers took the stairs. I wanted to tire you out, not kill you. But you two were still moving along rather nicely, so yes, I ruined the surprise a bit early and sent Rob down there. It worked, didn’t it?”

Kaela’s heart pounded, and her legs twitched. Her body screamed at her to run. “So you got what you want. Why do you want me dead, of all people? Why not find a way to lead Eric up here?” She scanned the TV for Eric or Lance, but Caleb shut it off, plunging the room into near darkness. Moonlight shone through the bulky windows.

“Because I see an opportunity,” Caleb said. “And I don’t like to pass up an opportunity.”

A shadow disturbed the moonlight. Kaela whirled, but a dagger plunged into her side before she could avoid it. The gun slipped from her fingers. She gasped, and tears trailed down her cheeks as she sank to the ground, looking up at Amari’s face.

She wore a sleek black dress, and her veins glowed a vibrant purple.

She met Kaela’s eyes with a lopsided smile. “Hey, sweetheart. How do you like the new look?”

* * *

Eric reached the main floor. Gunshots rang out like rumbling thunder. Three soldiers took cover behind the corner of the hallway, one of them holding a riot shield.

Eric grinned. Well, isn’t that cute?

They fired relentlessly toward the entrance, bullets whizzing past them. Eric stabbed the first one, covering his mouth so that he couldn’t yell. The soldier with the riot shield died with a blade in his neck. With a swipe of his scythe, the final soldier’s head rolled into the lobby. Eric ripped the shield from the dead soldier’s iron grip.

Primal anger flooded through him. If he didn’t find his son, he would kill every soldier in this building until he did. He wiped the purple blood from his face, the smell intoxicating.

Eric cleaned his blades and peeked around the corner. Dozens of soldiers fired at the chief and her officers. They were holding strong, but the soldiers had shields. The doors of the armored vehicle were riddled with bullets, and Rotoya likely didn’t have much ammo left, even with Derek’s extra stock. Eric wouldn’t be able to help against all those soldiers.

Something caught his eye. Purple blood splattered against the small window of a door across the lobby. Kaela’s words rang in his head. She’d mentioned a break room somewhere in the lobby. That had to be it.

Eric sneaked behind the soldiers, holding the riot shield up for protection and camouflage. They were all too focused on the chief to even notice him.

A few bullets whizzed past. Fewer still dinged against the shield, sending a new flood of pure adrenaline through him.

Eric reached the break room, but before he could slip inside, a soldier flew through the door, breaking it from its hinges. Eric fell back, the body landing on top of him. He struggled and pushed the corpse off, leaving the riot shield behind as he rushed inside, both of his blades at the ready.

Eric froze. Purple blood coated the walls and floor, and bodies were scattered throughout the room. Some were intact, some not so much.

Three soldiers were left standing, and Lance faced them all. His veins were glowing a blindingly bright violet. He was covered in purple blood.

Eric watched in silent shock as Lance made short work of the three soldiers left. Faster than he’d ever seen a human move, Lance tore through them. The first two went down in a flurry of feral strikes and blood. The last soldier dropped his gun and could only step back in fear as Lance faced him and leapt on him. Punch after punch, Lance pounded the helmet he wore until the visor cracked then shattered. Still, Lance kept punching until purple blood sprayed with every slam of his fist into the soldier’s face.

The soldier’s body had long gone still, but Lance didn’t stop. Finally, Eric stepped over the bodies, nearly slipping twice in the blood. He reached out to his son’s shoulder. The moment he made contact, Lance whirled. Before he even had a chance to speak, Eric was lifted off the ground and slammed on the metal table.

Lance stared down at him, fist raised, eyes glowing. But he stopped himself. His purple eyes flashed with recognition, and slowly, his veins returned to normal. The piercing green returned.

Eric wanted to say his name, but a different word came out. “Son?”

Lance stared down at him for a long moment, then a drop of blood—red blood—dripped onto Eric’s cheek. Lance looked down at his hand then back up at Eric and said, “I… I can explain.”

“Later,” Eric said. He looked out the door as the gunfire raged on.

Lance stared at the ground as if listening to something. He nodded. But as he made to leave the room, Eric grabbed his arm.

“What are you doing?”

Lance looked out at the lobby then back at Eric. His veins glowed again. “Making a distraction.”

And with that, Lance grabbed a pistol from a fallen soldier, tossed another to Eric, and sprinted out of the room. Eric followed him.

Caleb’s soldiers were distracted by the chief and her officers firing at them.

Lance’s veins glowed once more, brighter than ever, and he dashed toward the group with little more than a pistol.

Eric gaped.

Lance tore through their lines like a walking sword. Their shields did little against him as he shattered a soldier’s arm and stole a shield for himself. Shield in one hand and pistol in the other, Lance bashed their heads and fired at their legs. Some of their heads rolled from the impact of the shield hitting them.

The soldiers caught on to Lance’s attack and fired at him. He threw his shield and rolled, picking a new one from the sea of bodies, blocking the gunshots and firing his own.

Rotoya and her officers mowed down the ones Lance didn’t kill.

Eric shook his head to regain his focus. He sprinted, carving his own path through the soldiers. His blade served well to decapitate some of them. The shield did well as a weapon, but the only guards that cared to fire at him were shot down by Rotoya before they could take their aim. The rest were focused on the real threat mowing through their defenses.

Eric sliced and bashed the soldiers. Three nearly fired at him, but a spray of bullets from Rotoya’s officers shredded them.

Lance showed no sign of stopping, no sign of tiring himself out. The soldiers were nothing but obstacles. He looked different. Like a beast that had been trapped for too long and was finally free, snapping at anything it could.

Eric sliced at the leg of a nearby soldier. Before he fell, Eric kicked him into another soldier. He whirled and threw his shield into their heads. They dropped like bricks.

Eric flipped the scythe from his cane, holding it in one hand and his blade in the other.

With Rotoya and Lance covering him, Eric whirled and danced on his own stage, slicing and stabbing.

Purple blood painted the floors.

Lance turned, and a soldier raised his gun to fire into his back. Eric threw his blade, and it found the officer’s neck. He fired anyway, and a bullet penetrated Lance’s back.

Time froze, and Eric shook his head. But Lance turned and rolled his shoulder in pain then continued fighting, his veins glowing brighter. The bullet fell from his back as if something had pushed it from him.

With a roar of anger, Lance threw his weight into a bash with his shield, knocking a soldier down. He raised the shield and planted it in the soldier’s chest. Blood splattered across the floor, but somehow, the shield held. Lance swept up two more pistols and took cover behind the planted shield, firing shots from each side of it.

Eric dropped to the ground, out of breath, and watched as the men fell like flies. The chief ordered her men to fire until they were out of ammo, and they did. The chief firing from one side while Lance fired from the other rendered their shields useless, and in a matter of seconds, every single soldier was on the ground, either dead or dying.

Eric ducked as bullets whizzed over his head and bodies fell around him. Their empty gazes stared at him.

Groans of pain traveled across the lobby. Before Lance’s veins returned to normal, he shot each of the groaning soldiers until Eric could hear nothing besides the ringing in his ears.

He coughed and sputtered as the smell overwhelmed him. A gag climbed to his throat, but he hid it with another cough.

Lance was breathless, painted with purple blood. He fell to his hands and knees.

Eric was at his side in an instant. “That was one hell of a distraction. Are you okay?”

Lance gulped down air. “Yeah… yeah, I just used up a lot of energy.” He rolled his eyes at apparently nothing. “Okay, he used up a lot of energy.”

Eric raised an eyebrow. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Forget it.”

“Rotoya,” Eric said. “Get whatever ammo you can from these soldiers. Revive and take control of the ones that belong to you.”

Rotoya stood, and her officers moved forward, guns still pointed. “If you decapitated any of my people—”

“Then it was an accident,” Eric snapped back.

Rotoya scowled. She and Rachel began removing helmets from bodies, reviving any that were officers.

Eric turned his attention to Lance. “What did Caleb do to you?”

Lance shook his head. “It’s not as bad as you think… He put me in this cell that… It blocked the nanobots from doing anything. They just shut down.” He took another few seconds to catch his breath. “When I got out… the beast, it woke back up, and… it was like it had been building the whole time I was in there… I saw the fighting, and I just… snapped.”

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The beast? What was that supposed to mean? “Well, try not to snap on us next.”

“No promises,” Lance said, but he flashed a sarcastic smirk. “I just… lost control a little bit.”

Eric scanned the sea of bodies around them. Several of Rotoya’s men and women rose, their wounds healing. Even the chief seemed surprised by the bloodbath.

Eric sighed. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

Lance nodded. “Did George make it to the Rose?”

“Yes, he’s—”

“Eric,” Rotoya said. Her tone held a warning. Her gaze was pointed out the few remaining windows of the entrance.

Armored cars, multiple of them, were driving up to the building.

Rotoya’s eyes glazed over. “We have a problem.”

Eric opened his mouth to ask Lance if he could still fight, but Lance shook his head, as if he already knew the question before it came out.

“I don’t think I can do that shit again.”

Eric helped Lance to his feet and guided him back to the break room, away from the awaiting battle. He turned to ask the chief how many of her officers she could bring back, but twenty men were already standing from where they’d been taken down, their wounds glowing through their armor as they healed.

Rotoya yelled, her voice deep and commanding. “I need five of you to go to the back entrance. Each of you grab a shield, a gun, and as much ammo as you can carry.”

“We’re dead,” Lance said. “We’re dead, we failed. I failed.”

“Shut up,” Eric hissed. “You just took out a couple dozen men. I think you’ve earned your rest.”

“Maybe I can… Maybe I can control some of my own.”

Eric shut him up once more. This time, Lance listened. Eric grabbed a gun and helped Lance to the bathroom inside the break room, locking them both inside.

“This is stupid,” Lance said, sitting on the floor.

Eric chuckled. “Stupid but effective.”

“My whole body is sore.”

“Will be for a few days, too.”

Lance groaned as he sat up straighter, leaning against the wall. “How did you know I needed help?”

Eric chuckled again. “Would you believe Caleb told us? He set a trap, and you were the bait.”

“Doesn’t seem to be working as well as he hoped, from what I’ve seen… Where are Kaela and Derek?”

“Looking for you.”

Lance’s eyes flashed with worry. “Shouldn’t we go get them?”

Eric waved a hand. “They’re fine. I’m not about to leave you alone here.”

Lance opened his mouth, probably to protest, but he shut it when he tried and failed to stand.

They both sat silently as gunfire filled the lobby once more.

* * *

Kaela’s plea didn’t leave her tongue as she looked up at Amari, her eyes devoid of any sympathy, any warmth. With uncharacteristic strength, Amari tossed her onto a long wooden table in the center of the room. Kaela’s ribs and back screamed in pain. Her side burned and stung. Bile rose in her throat as she tried to crawl away. The table shook. Blood pooled around her. Her blood. Oh God.

Kaela was flipped back over. Amari stood over her with a wicked smile. She leaned down to Kaela’s face, caressing her cheek with the blood-soaked blade. “This gift… It feels amazing. Shame you’ll never get to feel it.” Amari raised her dagger, the tip of the blade aimed at Kaela’s heart.

Caleb’s voice rang out. “Stop.”

A simple order—not a shout, just a single calm word. Amari paused then lowered the knife, stepping off the table.

“I control her,” Caleb continued. “Consider her a souvenir from your admittedly impressive establishment. She gets to live for much longer than any normal person, thanks to a healthy dose of the beta strain. I can offer you similar treatment. You and that Derek fellow are quite the survivors. You’re like cockroaches, constantly finding ways to escape imminent death. He’ll be given his own special dose soon enough.”

Kaela tried to curse him, but the words didn’t rise to her mouth. The pain darkened her vision and fogged her thoughts. More blood pooled beneath her. Her vision blurred for a moment, but she blinked it away.

Caleb leaned forward in his chair. “I wonder how you managed to escape the Rose… It baffles me… but I’d rather you not tell me. The mystery keeps it interesting.” He smoothed out a crease in his pants. “You know, if you accept my generous offer, you can spend the rest of your life with your friend, Amari. Derek can spend the rest of his life with, um… Rob. You’ll all be a family… and you can all kill Eric together. Poetic irony, Eric being killed by his own people.”

Kaela forced the word out. “No.”

Caleb sighed. “Your crusade is over. I called in all my reinforcements from Agni. The chief doesn’t stand a chance.” When Kaela didn’t respond, he continued, “Just take the drug, and not only will you survive… you’ll be healed. Surely someone as desperate as you were to escape that burning building would choose life over death. After all you’ve fought for, why throw your life away?”

She glared at him. Hellish wrath stewed in her bloody gut at the man sitting so calmly in the corner of the room, watching her die on the table like some slaughtered pig. Her dagger was still hidden in her clothes. If she could get a good aim on him, maybe, just maybe, she could take him down.

She looked Caleb in the eye, tears dripping into the puddle of blood. The word tasted like poison as it left her lips. “Okay.”

Caleb grinned and removed a syringe from his coat pocket. The liquid inside was blue. He slipped the plastic cover from the needle.

“This is the alpha strain of the drug, mixed with just enough of the beta strain for you to follow my orders. Other than the one your friend Derek is about to get… this is the last dose. I hope I’m not wasting this on you.”

Kaela nearly spat at his words and the sick, twisted way he viewed the world. But she would let him get close to her, just close enough to make her move.

Her plan shattered when Caleb didn’t get up from his seat. “Amari, would you be so kind as to inject our new friend?”

Amari hummed. “Of course, Mr. Landreau.”

Mr. Landreau. It took everything in Kaela not to groan in disgust. Amari’s light steps closed in on her. Kaela found her and followed her with her eyes.

Kaela tried to suck in a deep breath, but she couldn’t. Tears streamed down her face as Amari clambered onto the table.

Kaela kicked Amari’s legs out from under her. She fell back with a shout, and the syringe flew from her hands. Kaela rolled off the table, unsheathing her knife. It was coated in purple blood.

Caleb’s arm grew to twice its size. Kaela barely dodged in time as he slammed his fist into the table. It splintered in half.

Kaela spotted an opening and stole it. In a blind lunge for Caleb’s neck, she sliced. The blade carved halfway into his throat and stopped. Caleb choked and sputtered, clawing at his neck. He ripped the dagger out and stood, throwing a punch at Kaela. It slammed into her chest and knocked her to the ground, her ribs cracking. She ignored the pain and rolled back to her feet just as Caleb slammed his fist into the floor.

Pride. The man had let his pride lure him into a false sense of security. Kaela felt Amari’s warmth behind her and dodged the knife aimed at her back. Kaela ripped the dagger from Amari’s hand and sank her elbow into her nose. A small crunch, and purple blood gushed out.

Caleb’s neck slowly began to heal, the wound and his veins glowing a brilliant amethyst.

Kaela lunged a second time, swiping at his neck again. The dagger sliced deeper into his throat. Kaela gasped, looking down as the blade in Caleb’s hand pierced her stomach. He twisted it, and Kaela dropped to her knees.

Caleb dropped with her, grasping at his lacerated neck as the nanobots began to heal the wound again. He tried to speak, but the cut was too deep.

Kaela couldn’t speak either as blood filled her mouth. The words she wanted to say, the hate she sought to spew, she couldn’t.

She spat her blood in his face, and he gurgled out a yell of disgust. He released his grip on the dagger. Kaela screamed and pulled the dagger out of her stomach. Stars speckled her vision as searing pain consumed her body. She plunged the bloody blade into the remnants of his neck, then thrust the other one in next.

Caleb’s eyes flooded with panic, and in a desperate attempt, he shoved Kaela away.

Kaela’s grip on the knives held strong, and she felt the tearing of blade through flesh as she flew back.

The pain and excitement melded together in a cocktail in her heart as time slowed down.

Kaela landed on the ground, raw pain drowning her senses. She tried to gasp, but her lungs wouldn’t listen. Her vision blurred then cleared again just in time to see Caleb’s head roll across the floor and his body land next to it.

She scoffed out a laugh, but blood splattered out instead.

She’d done it.

Tears stained her eyes as she thought about her girls at the Rose.

At least she’d avenged them. Or most of them.

Amari leaned down and picked the blades out of Kaela’s hands.

Kaela tried to swallow down air, but blood took its place. A sick copper taste saturated her mouth. Her body begged for air, but her lungs refused. Her skin crawled, and a sweet smell flooded the room as Caleb’s blood pooled on the floor.

“How dare you?” Amari yelled. She raised the knives above her head.

Kaela’s vision blurred again, and she closed her eyes. So tired… She waited for the knives to come. For the sweet release from the pain.

Amari gurgled as if she was choking, then after a long pause, she spoke. “Kaela… Kaela, oh my God!” she sobbed.

Though her vision was blurry, Kaela opened her eyes again.

Amari’s eyes were riddled with panic and guilt. Her face twisted into a sob. “Kaela. Kaela, I didn’t mean it. He… he made me, I—”

Kaela put her hand over Amari’s, and Amari opened her mouth as if trying to force more words out, but her own broken sobs interrupted her.

Kaela tried to speak, to tell her that she was okay, that she understood. But she couldn’t say the words. Couldn’t even breathe. The world became fuzzy, the pain a distant memory.

She was content… She’d done what she needed to do and had sacrificed the only thing she could give in return for the deaths of her people.

Amari spoke, but it was distant. Forgotten.

She didn’t have long. But it was okay. It would all be okay.

Something broke through the ceiling—a pinprick of light that slowly started to grow. It spread until it covered the whole ceiling.

It was so bright. So blinding. She tried to blink it away, but she couldn’t. Despite the brightness, the beauty of it surpassed anything she’d ever witnessed. It was crystal clear. Peaceful and quiet. A flood of wind rushed past her cheek, warm like a summer breeze.

She sent a final request to her lungs, and they obeyed. She filled them with air one last time. Her final breath.

Something distant disturbed her peace, but it was no more than a ripple in water.

Shouting.

She ignored it.

Peaceful, content, Kaela released that final breath, and suddenly she was floating toward the light. Something pricked her arm, but she disregarded it. It didn’t matter anymore. The light grew closer and brighter. Its warmth tickled her face, and strands of her hair quivered in its breeze. A smile crept across her lips, and she reached out to touch the light, to cross over and meet whatever awaited her on the other side. She gasped as a cold wave dug into her back, and she fell.

Ungracefully, she plummeted to the ground but felt no pain. The light shrank until it disappeared. The cold bite of the room returned, yet the pain in her stomach dwindled. Amari was crying next to her, then she wrapped her arms around Kaela’s neck.

Kaela lay there, her head spinning. Where did the light go?

“I’m sorry,” Amari said. “It was the only way.”

Kaela didn’t understand. But then she looked down at her hands. At the veins glowing purple beneath her skin. Her chest constricted, and she looked back up at the ceiling.

Come back! Take me back!

She looked at Amari and opened her mouth to speak. Whether it was a thank-you or a curse, it didn’t leave her mouth. She froze.

Pain surged through her, through every inch of her veins. Her body burned, and she screamed, screamed at nothing. The pain burned and singed everything inside her. She laid a hand on her stomach, her side. Nothing—no wounds where there should have been.

Then something snapped inside of her, an audible snap from somewhere within her body, then the pain stopped. A growl rumbled within her.

A voice whispered to her, promising to stop the pain if she allowed it to move, to breathe.

Screaming at the top of her lungs, her body scorching and aching, she accepted the offer. The pain eased, but a presence moved and shifted inside of her as if it was alive.

She reached out and felt it. Felt that power.

Another snap, and a wave of calm washed over her.

The world clicked into place, and she breathed for what felt like the first time.

Amari was gone. Caleb knelt in her place, a worried look crossing his features.

Kaela flinched back in fear. She swatted at him with her hand, and he flew back into the wall. She looked down at her palms, her glowing hands, then back at Caleb. He stood with a groan. But… I didn’t even touch him.

A voice whispered to her, bone dry.

Destroy him.

Kaela’s mind was shrouded in fog. Her brain felt lost and empty. She looked to her left, and Caleb’s body was still there, headless and limp.

“What the hell?” Kaela said, her voice drowsy and slurred. She looked back at the other Caleb, fear and sadness in his eyes as he stared at her.

Where’s Amari?

Destroy him. Kaela didn’t think. She followed the orders of the voice.

Caleb shook his head. “Kaela, what are you doing?” he asked, his voice higher pitched than before. “It’s me.”

Ignoring him, she held her hand out and felt the blood, the nanobots coursing through his veins. So this was what it felt like to control every bot in the bloodstream—an overwhelming power. Caleb’s heartbeat turned rapid.

He was afraid.

Good.

A flick of her wrist threw him against the wall. Kaela ordered the blood to solidify, just as Caleb had at the Rose.

Caleb tried to make another plea, but he choked on his own solid blood. Guilt twinged her stomach, but she shoved it aside. He would pay for what he’d done to Amari.

She bent her fingers into the shape of a claw, and his body broke. The crackling of his bones turned her stomach. Kaela held Caleb in the air from across the room, those grisly sounds filling her head as every bone broke and every muscle tore.

The moonlight shone on Caleb’s warped face. His crooked body floated in front of the windows. A smile crawled across Kaela’s face though she didn’t mean for it to. She could speak now. She could say anything she wanted, any curse, any snide remark she could think of. But she sealed her lips. No words would express the hatred she had for him. No words could ever do that.

She threw her arm out, and his body flew through the glass.

For a moment, as the glass shattered and the body flew into the outside air, her mind cleared. The fog lifted, and Caleb changed.

Kaela gasped.

She hadn’t thrown Caleb.

Caleb’s body remained lifeless to her left.

Amari’s broken body stared back at her. Sadness and despair painted her face, her lifeless face, as her body plummeted to the ground.

Cold air rushed in, raising goosebumps on Kaela’s skin. The floor tilted.

Kaela couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move as she stood there, looking at the broken window. There was nothing she could do. Even if she grabbed onto Amari’s body again, it was too broken. Every inch of her had been shattered to dust. The ground would be a mercy.

Her stomach twisted and turned, and she dropped to her knees, sobbing into the floor.

“No.” She looked at Caleb’s body. She screamed and swiped her hand. His headless corpse shot through the glass of the office and flew across the entire level, shattering every glass pane in his way before dropping like a brick to the ground.

Kaela fell to the floor and curled into a ball, crying into the carpet.

That bone-dry voice spoke to her again. She died at your hands.

Every part of her being screamed, No!

“Shut up,” Kaela said.

The voice growled somewhere within her then made to speak again.

“I said SHUT UP!”

Rage boiling in her blood, Kaela shut her eyes and reached down inside herself. She clawed for the source of the voice until she latched onto it. The moment she gripped it, the growls turned to snarls. She ripped and tore at it until, finally, she wrapped invisible hands around its neck.

As she smothered the voice, it cursed her, her family, her friends. She tightened her grip.

She squeezed harder until the growls became desperate whines, pleading for its life. Kaela waited until the voice fell silent then smothered it more. A sigh left her as the voice disappeared into nothingness and faded away like ash in the wind.

Kaela caught her breath and put a hand to her chest. The drug flowed through her body, humming with an energy that radiated power. She searched inside herself until she found them. The beta strain, swimming uselessly in her blood until some other bastard with the alpha strain could try to control her. Her fingers danced, controlling the beta strain and ordering them out of her bloodstream. Nausea punched her stomach, and her mouth stretched open. She retched, vomiting purple liquid all over the carpet. She coughed and gagged and sucked in breaths between new bouts of vomiting.

Finally, it stopped. She wiped her mouth.

It was gone. She couldn’t feel any beta strain left in her body. She glared at the puddle on the floor, and the purple blood glowed brightly then crackled like a firework. Then it was gone.

Kaela crawled underneath the long wooden table, the cool night air blowing in from the broken window, and she lay there. Her mind cleared. The voice was gone. The beta strain was gone. Amari was gone… Her tears fell, and Kaela sobbed into the carpet.

Amari’s name slipped off her lips repeatedly, asking—begging—her for forgiveness. Forgiveness that she didn’t deserve, never would deserve. The wind blew in mercilessly, and her body shivered from the cold. The nanobots inside her moved. They were alive, just like the voice she’d smothered. Just like the betas she’d removed.

Amari’s face burned into her vision, her heartbroken stare etched into her mind forever.