The dying city reeked of ozone, burning fuel, and raw, copper-thick blood. Below the rooftops, alarms screamed, then abruptly died.
Mari vaulted a concrete ledge, landing in a tight roll. Cassian hit the gravel behind her, his pulse rifle raised. Vesper cleared the twelve-foot gap with infuriating, predatory grace, while Kaelen simply stepped off the adjacent structure, his massive armored frame cracking the roof beneath his boots.
"Subtle," Mari hissed, her eyes already scanning the layout—fire escape, collapsed billboard, open gap.
"Fast," Kaelen grunted. He stepped in close behind her, his massive, heated presence radiating against her back.
Vesper sauntered up to her left, his dark eyes gleaming as he unholstered his twin sidearms with a metallic snap. Without warning, he hooked an arm around Mari’s waist, pulling her tight against his chest. "I like him," Vesper purred, his hot breath searing against her ear as his fingers dug possessively into her hip through her torn combat gear. "He breaks things."
"Touch me again while I'm tracking and I'll break your wrists," Mari rasped, though her core throbbed from the sudden, sharp heat of his grip.
Vesper gave her hip a hard, filthy squeeze before letting go with a wicked grin. "Promising."
"Focus," Cassian growled, his hand slamming into the small of Mari’s back—heavy, protective, and unyielding. He crowded her against the parapet, his body pinning hers against the stone as he raised his scope. "Street’s empty. Too empty."
"Second floor windows," Mari said, her breathing heavy as Cassian’s broad chest pressed flush to her shoulder blades. "Something’s watching."
Before Cassian could answer, the shadow beneath the rooftop water tower exploded.
A creature lunged—limbs unfolding at impossible angles, bone blades extending from its wrists. Mari twisted, but the monster caught her, slamming her back against the brick chimney.
"Mari!" Cassian roared.
The creature’s claws tore through her jacket, ripping a shallow line across her collarbone. The sting of hot blood hit her skin, but before the beast could strike again, Kaelen was there. The giant didn't use a weapon. He slammed his bare, massive body into the creature, crushing it against the brick with a sickening crunch of bone.
Kaelen pinned the thrashing monster with one hand while his other cupped Mari’s throat—not to choke, but to anchor her. His bare, calloused thumb swiped a smear of her own hot blood from her chest, dragging it up to press against her lower lip.
"You're bleeding," Kaelen growled, his dark, dangerous eyes searching hers with suffocating intensity as the creature convulsed beneath his fist.
"I'm fine," Mari gasped, her pulse spiking as his thumb pushed slightly into her mouth, tasting her.
"You're ours," Kaelen corrected, his deep voice vibrating through her ribcage. He snapped the creature's neck with a flick of his wrist and tossed the corpse aside. "Nothing marks you but us."
Vesper dropped to his knees beside the dead beast, slicing its chest open with a single flick of a trench knife. Black, steaming bile spilled across the roof, exposing a small metallic sphere pulsing beneath its ribs with a rhythmic, sickly light.
"That’s a tracking beacon," Vesper purred, his humor instantly vanishing. He wiped his slick blade on his thigh, his dark eyes flashing as he looked up Mari’s bare, scratched legs. "It’s calling a swarm."
From the streets below, a chorus of screeching tore through the quiet. Dozens of shadows burst from the overturned bus and shattered storefronts, scaling the sheer brick walls with terrifying speed.
"Too many," Cassian grunted, grabbing Mari by her tactical harness and hauling her against his chest. His mouth pressed hard against her jawline, ruthless and demanding. "We move. Now."
"The hospital cable!" Mari shouted, tearing herself from his grip.
She sprinted for the edge, grabbing the heavy steel cable strung across the alleyway to the opposite roof. She jumped without hesitation, her hands blistering as she slid down the line. Cassian and Vesper dropped right behind her, firing blindly into the climbing horde as they zipped through the air.
Kaelen jumped last. His raw weight snapped the steel line.
Mari hit the opposite ledge, spun, and dropped to her chest, throwing her arms over the edge. She caught Kaelen’s wrist just as he began to fall. The sheer momentum dragged her halfway over the brink, her ribs slamming brutally into the concrete.
Cassian slammed his weight over Mari’s legs, pinning her to the roof, while Vesper grabbed her shoulders, pulling both of them back.
For three agonizing seconds, Kaelen hung over the abyss, his massive fingers locked around Mari’s scarred wrist. He looked up, his dark eyes burning into hers. "Let go, Mari."
"Shut up!" Mari choked out, her muscles screaming as she pulled with everything she had. "I don't lose anyone today!"
With a combined roar from Cassian and Vesper, they dragged Kaelen over the ledge. The four of them collapsed into a bruised, gasping pile on the gravel.
Kaelen didn't stand. He instantly rolled over, pinning Mari beneath his massive frame. His hot, heavy breath washed over her face as his hands cupped her jaw, tilting her head back until she was forced to look at him.
"You caught me," he rumbled, a dark, terrifying devotion raw in his voice.
"I caught you," she rasped, her hands gripping his broad shoulders.
"Then you keep me," Kaelen growled, leaning down to crush his mouth against hers in a rough, bruising kiss that tasted of iron and smoke. Mari arched into him with a shattered gasp as Cassian’s hand clamped hard over her waist and Vesper’s fingers tangled into her hair from behind.
A sudden, sharp explosion killed the hospital lights four blocks away.
The kiss broke, Mari gasping for air as the four of them looked toward the darkened skyline.
High on the hospital roof, a single, slender figure stood beneath the dead moon. It raised one hand, a pitch-black blade materializing in its palm, and pointed it directly at Mari.
A heartbeat later, the figure vanished.
*CRASH.*
The brick structure behind them exploded inward. Dust and concrete shrapnel rained over them as a black blade punched straight through the wall, missing Mari’s throat by millimeter fractions.
Mari threw herself sideways, coming up on one knee with her knife drawn. A shadow lunged from the dust cloud, catching her wrist in a vice-like grip.
Cold, intelligent human eyes stared at her through the haze. A mouth curved into a sickening, familiar smile inches from her face.
"You remember me, little bird," a slick, raspy voice whispered into her ear.
Mari’s blood ran dead cold. The assassin from her first life—the one who had slaughtered her squad before the first reset—was standing right in front of her.
"Die," Mari screamed, driving her forehead hard into the creature's nose.
Bone cracked. The assassin staggered back, but before Mari could follow up, Cassian stepped past her, opening fire at point-blank range while Kaelen’s warhammer smashed through the wall, forcing the shadow to retreat into the dark void of the staircase below.
Mari stood trembling, her chest heaving as the three men instantly closed the circle around her, their bodies creating an impenetrable wall of armor, steel, and muscle.
Cassian chambered another heavy round, his bloodshot eyes fixed on the dark stairwell. "Whatever that thing is..." He reached back with his free hand, his broad fingers locking tightly with hers. "...it dies tonight."
"I'll peel its skin off myself," Vesper purred wickedly, clicking his pistols fresh.
Kaelen raised his massive hammer, his frame blocking out the burning city behind them. "Lead the way, Mari."
Mari looked at the three of them—lethal, ruthless, and completely possessed by her.
"Then let's finish it," Mari breathed, jumping into the dark structure ahead.
All three followed without a second of hesitation.