Page 44 of Curiosity Killed The Vampire

He tilted his head slightly, as though considering the accusation. “We call it evolution.”

Con’s jaw flexed. “You’ll call it extinction by the time I’m done.”

The man smiled, and then he raised his hand.

The enhanced soldiers moved.

Con was faster. He shoved me hard toward the nearest stack of crates. “Get down!”

The first volley of gunfire split the air, the sound deafening in the enclosed space. Sparks flew as bullets ricocheted off steel, splintering the wood near my shoulder. I ducked low, rolling behind cover, the satchel clutched tight against me.

Con charged straight into them, blade flashing like a streak of lightning. He moved through the smoke and muzzle flash with inhuman precision—one strike severing a weapon arm, the next crushing a throat. The augmented soldiers adapted quickly, spreading out to encircle him, but he was already inside their formation, too fast, too efficient.

I joined the fight with my daggers, my muscles still heavy from exhaustion but driven by adrenaline. I caught one soldier who broke rank, slammed my blade into the seam between his shoulder plates, and yanked. Sparks burst from the wound, followed by the sickly scent of burning circuitry.

The room became chaotic. Gunfire, firelight, the clang of steel against metal. The blaze from the lab below was climbing, smoke spilling through the cracks in the floorboards, wrapping the air in a choking haze.

The leader stood back, watching, assessing—until he saw me. His gaze locked on the satchel at my hip, and realization flickered across his face.

“The artifact,” he snarled.

He lunged forward, faster than I expected, but Con was there first. He caught the man mid-charge, their bodies colliding with enough force to rattle the crates nearby. Steel met steel as they fought, Con’s curved blade clashing against the other man’s short, jagged saber.

I could barely keep track of them, their movements blurring in the smoke and strobing light. Every strike threw sparks, every impact echoed through the warehouse like thunder.

The heat was rising now—the fire below creeping upward through the walls. The air shimmered, and a beam from the roof gave a low groan.

“Cass!” Con shouted between strikes, his voice cutting through the chaos. “The fire’s spreading—get to the exit!”

I hesitated, torn between the fight and the flickering inferno crawling closer.

“Go!” he barked again, shoving the leader backward with a brutal kick. “I’ll cover you!”

I turned, sprinting for the side door, the artifact’s weight heavy against my hip. Flames burst from the cracks behind me, licking up the walls in hungry orange tongues. The roar of fire and combat merged into one deafening sound.

We’d destroyed the lab. But now the whole damn place was burning⁠—

and we were trapped inside with the monsters who had built it.

The roar of the fire swallowed everything—gunfire, shouts, even the sound of my own breath. The air had turned molten, thick with heat and smoke. Every inch of the warehouse was alive with flame. Metal groaned, beams cracked, and the blaze painted the walls in frantic, flickering orange.

I was halfway to the side exit when two enhanced soldiers broke from the shadows, cutting me off. Their eyes gleamed red through the haze, their movements unnervingly precise, bodies humming with the electric whine of augments.

I twisted to avoid the first strike—a blow meant to take my head clean off. The man’s fist smashed into the steel beam beside me, denting it with a sound like thunder. Sparks showered us both. I countered fast, slashing upward with my dagger, the blade biting into his side where armor met skin. The hit slowed him, but it didn’t stop him. He came again, faster, angrier.

Before I could recover, the second soldier was on me. He grabbed for my belt—no, for the artifact.

The satchel tore from my hip.

“No!” I lunged, catching his arm, but he was stronger—augmented muscles turning his body into a machine of motion and precision. He twisted free, shoving me hard enough that my back hit the wall. Pain exploded down my spine.

I saw the first soldier closing in, a blur of black and steel. He caught my wrist, wrenching the dagger from my grip. I slammed my forehead into his faceplate—once, twice, until the glass cracked. He reeled back, blood streaming down the exposed edge of his mouth. I grabbed his own knife from his belt and drove it into the juncture of his shoulder. Sparks burst from the wound, lighting his armor like a faulty circuit.

He stumbled, twitching, but I knew he’d recover. These men didn’t stop until something burned them out from the inside.

Behind him, the other soldier was already running—racing for the loading bay, the artifact clutched in his hand like treasure.

The pulse of it flared inside my skull, a golden heartbeat calling out to me, alive, desperate.