“I just… need some space.” Kass’s hands were loosely curled in her lap, perfectly still. Too still. “Go away, Velira.”

  Like silver daggers to her chest.

  Velira Nocturne stood frozen in the doorway, all she could see was Kass sitting on the edge of the bed, shoulders rigid, refusing to look at her. The takeout container cooling on the table. The bloody bandages that should have been changed hours ago still clinging to her tightly. The careful distance Kass had put between them, measured in more than just physical space.

  “I brought food,” Velira said quietly, gesturing toward the container. “You should eat something…”

  “I said I’m fine.” The words came out flat, but there was heat underneath now. A slow burn starting to kindle.

  “You haven’t eaten. You haven’t changed your bandages—”

  “I don’t need you to take care of me.” Kass’s voice was still quiet, but sharper now. She finally looked up, and her eyes held a cold fire that made Velira’s chest tighten.

  “I was perfectly fine before you.”

  Velira stayed perfectly still, every instinct screaming that she was walking into dangerous territory. But she couldn’t leave. Wouldn’t.

  “I’m not trying to—”

  “Aren’t you?” Kass stood slowly, deliberately. “Aren’t you trying to fix me? Make sure poor broken Kass doesn’t fall apart? Because I don’t fucking need it! I don’t fucking need you!”

  The anger was building now, feeding on itself. Velira could see it in the way Kass held herself, coiled and ready to strike.

  “That’s not what I—”

  “What you what?” Kass took a step forward, and Velira had to force herself not to step back. “What you meant to do? What you wanted?” Her voice was getting louder, hotter. “Because from where I’m sitting, it looks like you think I’m some helpless victim who needs protecting.”

  Velira opened her mouth, then closed it. Anything she said would be wrong. Whatever she said would make this worse.

  “See?” Kass’s laugh was bitter, sharp. “You can’t even deny it.”

  The fury was building to a crescendo now, white-hot and desperate.

  “You just come in, all immortal and shit. And I let you. I let you fucking do it! Didn’t even try to stop you!”

  Cold dread coursed through Velira, and she was powerless to stop it.

  “I knew I shouldn’t have trusted you,” seething rage. “I should have walked away. Should have let you handle Harrow all by yourself. You didn’t need me. And I sure as fuck didn’t need you!”

  Velira’s communicator crackled to life.

  “Velira,” Skiv’s voice. “I found something. About what they shot you with, about Red Memory’s research—”

  “I don’t care about the fucking bullets, Skiv!” The words tore out of Velira, raw and desperate.

  The communicator went silent.

  Kass’s eyes narrowed. “What bullets?”

  Velira felt cold settle in her stomach. “Kass, it’s nothing—”

  “What. Fucking. Bullets.” Each word came out like a blade. “What aren’t you telling me?”

  “It doesn’t matter. You need to rest, you need—”

  Kass moved faster than someone with her injuries should be able to. She closed in on Velira and snatched the communicator from her hand.

  “Don’t you fucking dare,” Kass snarled, already finding Skiv’s contact. “Don’t you dare decide what I need.”

  “Kass, please—”

  The call connected. “Skiv, it’s Kass. Tell me about the bullets.”

  Skiv’s voice was cautious, confused. “Uh, Kass? I thought Velira was—”

  “Velira was protecting me from big scary information because apparently I’m made of fucking glass now.” Kass’s eyes burned as she stared at Velira. “So tell me what’s so dangerous that fangs here thinks I can’t handle it.”

  A pause. Then Skiv’s voice, resigned: “Silver tipped ballistic. Carries a colloidal silver payload, designed specifically for what I’m guessing is Velira’s physiology. They’ve got a stockpile at the old medical facility in Sector 18.”

  “The place where they held me.”

  “Yeah. VantaCorp's moving to secure it tonight. If they get their hands on that research, on those weapons…" Skiv trailed off.

  "VantaCorp?" Kass's voice went sharp. "What the fuck is a megacorp doing in the Undercity?"

  "Same thing they always do," Skiv replied. "Taking what they want."

  Kass looked at Velira, pieces clicking together. "The silver bullets. They weren't just Red Memory's idea, were they?"

  "Corporate funding. It always comes back to corporate funding."

  "And you knew." Directed at Velira. Kass's voice was deadly calm. "You knew they had a stockpile designed specifically to kill you, and you didn't think to mention it?"

  “It doesn’t matter,” Velira said quietly. “None of it matters if you—”

  “If I what? If I can’t handle it? If I’m too broken to fight?” Kass’s voice rose, anger crackling through every word. “I can take care of this myself, Velira. I don’t need you to—”

  “That’s not what I meant—”

  “Isn’t it?” Kass stepped closer, and Velira could see the pain beneath the rage. “You think I’m some helpless victim now. You think finding me on that floor changed something fundamental about who I am.”

  The words hung in the air between them like a challenge. Velira stared at Kass, seeing the fury and pain and desperate need to be seen as strong, as capable, as more than just someone who needed saving. But it was more than that. She was hiding terrible pain behind that anger.

  Velira was quiet for a long moment, her pale eyes distant.

  “I need you,” she said finally, the words coming out raw and unguarded. “When you were gone, I couldn’t even leave the safe house until the sun went down. I wasted hours just trying to figure out how to call Skiv properly.”

  Kass’s anger faltered.

  “I have a contact in my communicator labeled ‘Emergency’ and I don’t even know who that is,” Velira continued, her voice getting quieter. “I spent three hours trying to figure out how to be human with Jeks and Lita, and it felt wrong. Hollow. Because...”

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  She moved toward the gear table, but her movements were uncertain, not the efficient precision Kass was used to.

  “I’m not protecting you because I think you’re weak. I’m protecting you because without you, I’m just…” She paused, searching for words. “I’m just a monster pretending to be something I’m not.”

  For a moment, Kass just stared at her. Then something shifted in her expression—not forgiveness, but understanding. The rigid anger in her shoulders began to ease.

  “We get there before VantaCorp does,” Kass said, her voice steadier now, falling back into tactical mode. “We destroy everything they can use against you.”

  Kass looked at the communicator, then back at Velira. There was still hurt in her eyes, still anger, but also focus. “Skiv? You still there?”

  “Yeah, I’m here. Look, you two need to move fast. My sources say VantaCorp’s got a recovery team mobilizing. Military contractors, not corpo security. They’ll be there within hours.”

  “Then we leave now.” Kass “Riot” Vex grabbed her jacket, wincing slightly as the movement pulled at her bandaged shoulder. “And Skiv? Next time someone’s hunting my partner, I want to know immediately.”

  Skiv didn’t bother to mention that Kass’s comm had been shut off. “Copy that. And Kass? Be careful. VantaCorp doesn’t send military contractors for routine asset recovery.”

  The line went dead.

  ———

  The medical facility squatted against the Sector 18 skyline like a cancer on the city’s flesh. Three stories of reinforced ferrocrete and broken promises, windows dark except for the soft glow of emergency lighting bleeding through cracks in the security shutters.

  Kass crouched behind the same concrete barrier Velira and Jeks used less than twenty-four hours ago, studying the approach through her rifle scope. The place looked exactly as they’d left it that morning—abandoned and silent.

  “No movement,” she said quietly, not bothering with the comm when Velira was right there.

  Velira, a dark shadow among shadows, kept more distance than usual. “The scavengers haven’t come.”

  “Smart of them.” Kass’s voice was flat, professional. “Usually they’re faster than this.”

  “Word travels.” Velira’s response was equally clipped.

  In the plaza before the main entrance, ashes of the synth’s body lay scattered about his empty armor. The sun had finished what Velira started.

  “Oh shit!” Kass exclaimed. “The med tank is here!” The medical vehicle sat nearby, driver’s door still missing from when Kass had blown it off in her desperate run to save Velira. That seemed like a lifetime ago.

  “This time we sweep it for trackers,” Velira said.

  “Better get down there and find what we came for.”

  Kass shouldered her rifle, wincing as the movement pulled at her bandage. The familiar weight of Drujment was reassuring, but everything else felt wrong. The easy rhythm they’d built, the unspoken communication—all of it strained now.

  “Research lab’s in the lower levels,” Velira said, already moving toward the entrance.

  “I know.” Kass followed, but the space between them felt like a chasm.

  Kass’s communicator crackled to life as they approached the facility. “Kass, Velira, you there?”

  “We’re here, Skiv,” Kass replied, her voice still carrying that professional distance.

  “Listen, the onsite servers are going to be your target. If you’ve got a data spike with you, I can patch in remotely and pull everything we need, then wipe it. Otherwise…” A pause. “Otherwise we need to destroy them before VantaCorp gets their hands on whatever’s in there.”

  Kass checked her gear. “Got the spike. What about the silver ammunition? Any idea where they’d store it?”

  “Should be in the same area as the servers. High-security storage, probably climate controlled. Look for reinforced vault doors or biometric locks.”

  “Copy that. We’ll find both.”

  “And Kass? Be careful in there. Whatever they were researching, VantaCorp wants it bad enough to send contractors. That means it’s either very valuable or very dangerous.”

  “Probably both,” Velira said quietly.

  “Probably you,” Kass said with a quick glance. A chink in the armor. Might have meant both valuable and dangerous. Might have meant that Velira was what they were researching.

  The line went dead, leaving them alone with the mission and the weight of everything they weren’t saying.

  ———

  The facility’s interior was a maze of sterile corridors and abandoned medical equipment. Backup lighting cast everything in pale yellow, adding to the sterile atmosphere.

  Kass moved through the halls with tactical precision, Drujment ready, while Velira flowed beside her like a shadow. Their movements were synchronized despite the tension—muscle memory from their partnership overriding their current strain.

  “Server room should be this way,” Kass said, checking the facility map she’d found at the reception desk.

  They found it behind a reinforced door marked with corporate security warnings. Banks of humming servers lined the walls, their LED indicators blinking like electronic heartbeats in the dim light.

  “Skiv, we’re in,” Kass said, pulling the data spike from her gear.

  “Good. Look for the main terminal—should be the biggest console in the room.”

  Kass located it easily enough, a workstation surrounded by multiple monitors. She slotted the spike into the primary data port.

  “Connected.”

  “Their encryption is military grade, but not impossible. It’ll take time,” Skiv’s voice carried the focused intensity he got when diving deep into systems. “And Kass? You’re not going to believe what I’m seeing here.”

  “What kind of what?”

  “Project Hemovite files. Dozens of them. Personnel records for someone called Dr. Thorne. And the funding…” A pause. “VantaCorp and SynTech logos all over everything.”

  Velira moved closer to the terminal, studying the scrolling data. “SynTech?”

  “Synthetic technology corporation,” Kass said absently, watching the download progress. “They make most of the high-end cybernetics.”

  “Why would they be interested in vampire research?”

  “Good question.” Kass checked her watch.

  “This is just the surface level. There’s terabytes of data here—medical files, research notes, something called ‘Subject Analysis Reports.’”

  Kass felt something cold in her stomach. “Subject analysis of what?”

  “That’s what I’m trying to figure out. The file names are coded, but I’m seeing references to ‘Wraith’ and ‘Riot’ in the metadata.”

  Velira went very still. “They were studying us.”

  “Looks like it. For a long time.” Skiv’s voice was grim. “I’m pulling everything, but we’ll need time to sort through it all.”

  “We don’t have time,” Kass said, noting movement on her watch’s tactical display. “VantaCorp’s ETA is getting tighter.”

  “Then we grab what we can and get out. I’ll let you know when the download is done.”

  Kass shouldered her rifle. “Velira, let’s find that ammunition while Skiv finishes up.”

  She slapped a couple magnetic charges on the terminal. “Just in case.”

  They left the server room and moved deeper into the facility, following signs toward high-security storage. The corporate logos Skiv had mentioned were everywhere once they started looking—VantaCorp medical equipment, SynTech processing units, research documentation bearing both company seals.

  “Storage vault’s down here,” Velira said, indicating a corridor lined with reinforced doors.

  They found it at the end of the hall: a heavy security door marked with biohazard warnings and corporate safety protocols. The lock was biometric, but someone had already bypassed it—probably during the evacuation, when a certain vampire was on the rampage.

  Inside, military-grade storage cases lined the walls. Kass opened the nearest one, revealing foam-lined compartments filled with silver-tipped ammunition.

  “Jackpot,” she said, examining one of the rounds. “This is high-grade stuff. Custom manufactured.”

  “How much?” Velira asked, surveying the room.

  “Enough to outfit a small army.” Kass started counting cases. “Or fight a war against you.”

  “Copy that. Let’s load it up.”

  They worked quickly, carrying the ammunition cases back toward the facility entrance where the medical vehicle waited. The loading process was efficient despite their personal tension—they’d done this kind of extraction before.

  “Last load,” Kass said, hefting a particularly heavy case. “Let’s set the last charges and blow this place.”

  ———

  The safehouse was quiet.

  Not peaceful. Just…quiet.

  The kind of silence that filled the gaps between conversations never finished. Between people who still didn’t know what to say.

  Kass sat on the edge of the bed, shirt off, half-unwrapped bandages in her lap. The exposed wound on her shoulder looked angrier than before—pale skin marred by angry red, stitched with field care and stubborn refusal to rest.

  Velira leaned against the doorway, watching.

  Not hovering. Not intervening. Just present.

  Kass tried to reach around with her left hand, awkwardly pulling the gauze over her shoulder. It didn’t work. The tape curled. Her jaw tightened.

  Another attempt. The bandage slipped again.

  She sighed—quiet and sharp. Then looked up.

  Not a glare. Not a surrender.

  Just a look.

  A small, tired lift of her chin.

  Velira didn’t speak. She just stepped forward, crossed the room with that quiet grace of hers, and took the gauze without asking. Her hands were steady as she wrapped the bandage around Kass’s arm, her fingers brushing bare skin with clinical precision—but not indifference.

  When she was done, she stepped back.

  Kass flexed her shoulder slightly, then nodded. “Thanks.”

  Velira gave a nod in return. “You’re welcome.”

  A silence settled between them again—but this time, it wasn’t as strained. Mostly tired. Worn down like old armor.

  Kass glanced at the gear table, then at the small takeout container still sitting unopened on the shelf where Velira had left it earlier. The food was cold now, but it hadn’t been touched.

  She stood up, crossed the room, and brought it back.

  “I’m starving,” she said, her voice dry but softer than it had been in days.

  Velira watched her for a moment, then said quietly, “When I walked into that room, you weren’t helpless on the floor. You were already saving yourself. Two more hours and I would have found you at the Socket, ordering a drink while dragging your legs behind you.”

  Kass laughed in spite of herself, flecks of food flying out.

  They didn’t talk more after that. They didn’t need to.

  The silence remained—but now, it felt like the kind of quiet you could rest in.