Evelyn slamd into again, harder this ti.
I staggered backward, boot sliding over the smooth tile. My heel clipped a piece of broken chair fra, but I caught myself just in ti to duck under a savage, clawing swipe that would’ve torn through my throat.
Her movents weren’t coordinated. They weren’t tactical. It was just pure, desperate violence wrapped in a body I knew too well.
I couldn’t fight her.
Not properly.
Not when every bone in my body scread to save her, not break her.
She lunged again, shrieking.
Her nails ripped down the front of my jacket, slashing through cloth and skin alike. I yelled for a mont, pain flaring across my chest, but I didn’t retaliate. I couldn’t.
"Evelyn!" I choked out. "It’s !"
No answer.
Just another savage, mindless swing. One that had no hesitation or humanity behind it.
My hands shot up instinctively, grabbing her wrists. She thrashed like an animal, feral, wild, trying to tear herself free, trying to bite at , trying to kill. I could feel her muscles twitching under my grip, unnatural, enhanced by jobs she didn’t normally have.
I wouldn’t last long if I played passive.
She slamd her forehead forward, I jerked sideways just in ti. Her skull grazed my temple, a glancing blow that still blurred the edges of my vision.
"Dammit," I gasped, fumbling my burner phone out with one shaking hand while wrestling her with the other. She bucked and snapped like she wasn’t even human anymore.
I didn’t care who was listening.
I didn’t care about this tightrope ga anymore, about whatever stupid balance of information between and the governnt kept us from fully exposing each other to the public.
I pressed the call button.
Anthony’s line blinked green.
"Get in here!" I barked into the mic, raw panic and fury scraping my throat. "Facility, third floor, west wing, Isolation! Evelyn’s—"The words nearly caught." She’s been turned into a subject of the Cain Protocol! You hear ? She’s been turned!"
The chat exploded in my peripheral vision as I lowered the phone.
@masksofficial: WHO IS ANTHONY???
@grayfox42: CAIN PROTOCOL WHAT DOES THAT AN???
@undercitybuzz: IS HE SAYING THEY TURNED HER INTO A SUBJECT LIVE
I didn’t have ti to explain anything more to him.
I barely had ti to survive.
Evelyn tore one arm free and drove her elbow toward my jaw. I twisted, the strike grazing my shoulder and numbing my arm instantly. Electricity crackled along my nerves. She moved with speed that wasn’t hers. Power that wasn’t natural.
They did this to her.
The governnt did this to her.
And for the first ti in a long, long ti, I felt sothing new burning through :
Rage. The sa rage from when Sienna had been kidnapped.
A rage that could have torn the walls apart if I let it.
Not the cold, strategic fury I used during the District Inferno or the mafia tournant.
This was raw.
This was personal.
They took Evelyn.
They broke Evelyn.
She lunged again.
I twisted her montum, throwing her into the wall. Not to hurt her—God, no—but to buy myself even a second to think.
"EVELYN, STOP!" I roared.
My voice cracked with everything I’d buried, fear, grief, helplessness.
She turned, disheveled, wild-eyed, her bare feet slapping the ground as she rushed again.
The intercom crackled.
"Cain sees Abel."
Again. Again.
As if mocking . As if daring to believe I could undo what they had done. Even If I sohow turned her back into normal, they would simply play that ssage and force her to attack again.
She charged.
I ducked, pivoted, catching her from behind, locking her arms to her sides, but she was stronger than I had initially expected, she was at least at the strength of a B-Rank firefighter. She thrashed, elbows slamming into my ribs, my kidneys, over and over.
I gritted my teeth. Held firm.
Stay with , Evelyn.
She threw her head back, striking under the chin so hard my teeth clicked together. Pain splintered up my jaw. My arms loosened. I stumbled.
She tackled .
We crashed to the floor, her fists raining down.
I caught the first one, barely, fingers locking around her wrist.
Held it inches from my face.
Her strength...Her rage...
It wasn’t hers.
It wasn’t her choice.
She wasn’t even here anymore.
And that realization shattered sothing deep inside .
My breath hitched.
My vision blurred.
I fought off her other arm, straining, my body screaming at to retaliate.
I could knock her out.
One punch. That’s all it would take.
She was still human. Fragile.
I could end this right now.
I raised my fist, heart hamring.
I hesitated.
Just for a heartbeat.
I couldn’t.
I couldn’t hurt her.
Even if it ant dying here, bleeding out alone in a governnt hellhole.
And Evelyn...seeing the hesitation in .
She drove her knee upward into my ribs.
A sickening crunch. Pain exploded across my torso.
I gasped, falling off her, clutching my side.
She was already up, moving, face twisted in blind fury.
She swung.
I barely managed to block, the force behind it rattling my bones.
She wound up again, aiming straight for my temple.
I knew I wouldn’t stop it this ti.
I braced.
Waiting for the blow—
And then—
A blur slamd into her from the side.
Anthony.
He was fast, controlled and precise.
He hit her like a freight train, locking her arms, dragging her down in a brutal, professional takedown.
Before Evelyn could recover, he yanked a thick cloth sack from his belt and jamd it over her head, yanking the drawstring tight.
She scread, thrashed, kicked.
Anthony wrestled her arms behind her back, cuffed her wrists together with sharp, practiced movents.
"Easy now," he muttered under his breath, wrestling her into submission. "Nothing personal, sunshine."
I lay there, gasping, seeing double.
The rage still burned inside . A wound with no clean edges.
Anthony looked over his shoulder, grinning that reckless, lopsided grin that looked like he was saying that we’d just gotten away with murder or were about to attempt it.
"Boss," he said, panting, likely due to running 3 straight floors without break, "next ti you wanna do a rescue mission..."
He yanked Evelyn upright, holding her steady as she still struggled against the bag and cuffs, before eventually it goes silent, not from passing out, but from lack of vision on .
"...don’t hesitate when your life and everything is on the line!"
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