The Glass Room

The elevator doors hissed shut, cutting off the sound of the alarms for a few seconds. Adrian stood with his back to Lydia. He was breathing hard. The fabric of his shirt was scorched where the dark marking on his arm had flared. Lydia looked at her own hands. They were shaking so violently she had to tuck them into the pockets of her thin paper gown.

"You saw it," Adrian said. He did not turn around.

"I saw you break a man's arm like it was a dry twig," Lydia whispered. "I saw your skin glow. Adrian, what is happening to me? What is inside me?"

The elevator jolted. It didn't go up to the suite. It went deeper.

"The Voss inheritance is not money, Lydia," Adrian said. He finally turned to face her. The violet light in his eyes had faded, leaving them a dull, haunted grey. "It is a genetic mutation. My father has spent forty years trying to stabilize it. He thinks he can create a version of us that doesn't burn out. He thinks your child is the key."

The doors opened. They were in the extraction lab. It was not a room. It was a cage of reinforced glass. The air smelled of ozone and harsh chemicals.

Julian Voss stood on the other side of the glass. He tapped his silver cane against the floor. The sound echoed like a gunshot. Beside him stood a woman in a lab coat. She did not look at Lydia. She looked at a monitor that displayed a glowing, pulsing image of Lydia’s womb.

"The heart rate is too fast," the doctor whispered. "The Subject’s body is rejecting the acceleration."

"Adjust the sedative," Julian commanded. "The legacy does not care about her comfort."

Two guards stepped forward. They were the same type of men Silas was. They had no expressions. They moved with a synchronized, predatory grace. Before Adrian could react, one of them pressed a button on a wall panel.

A high-pitched frequency tore through the room. Adrian collapsed to his knees, clutching his head. He screamed, a sound of pure agony that made Lydia’s ears bleed.

"Adrian!" Lydia lunged for him, but the guards caught her.

They dragged her toward the cold, white table in the center of the glass room. Lydia fought. She bit the hand of the guard holding her. She kicked at the monitors. She thought of June. She thought of the neon lights of the Lower District. She refused to be a harvest.

"Lie back, Lydia," the doctor said. She held a long, curved needle. The liquid inside was a deep, bruised purple.

"Get away from me!" Lydia screamed.

Julian watched from behind the glass. He looked at her like a scientist looking at a rat. "You are lucky, girl. Most women die in the first month. You have lasted three. You are a miracle of biology. Do not waste it by struggling."

Lydia looked at Adrian. He was still on the floor, twitching as the frequency scrambled his nervous system. She realized then that Julian didn't just want the baby. He wanted to replace Adrian. He wanted a son he could control.

The doctor leaned over her. The needle hovered above Lydia’s abdomen.

In that moment, Lydia felt the pulse again. It was the same vibration she felt in the basement. It started in her gut and moved outward. It felt like heat. It felt like a roar.

The monitors in the room exploded.

Glass shattered. The lights blew out, plunging the lab into red emergency glow. The guards were thrown back by an invisible force. Lydia gasped, falling onto the table as the energy drained out of her.

Adrian stood up. The frequency had stopped when the power cut. He looked at the chaos, then at Lydia.

"The child," he whispered. "It’s protecting itself."

Julian was shouting through the glass, his face twisted with rage. "Secure her! Now!"

Adrian didn't wait. He moved. One second he was by the door. The next, he was standing over the guards. He didn't use a weapon. He grabbed the first guard by the throat and flung him against the glass wall. The reinforced panel cracked. The second guard reached for a taser, but Adrian caught his wrist and snapped it with a sickening pop.

Lydia scrambled off the table. She watched Adrian. He didn't look human. His eyes were burning violet again. He looked like a god of destruction.

"You are interfering with the succession!" Julian screamed, slamming his cane against the cracked glass.

Adrian turned toward his father. He walked to the glass and placed his glowing hand against it. The reinforced material began to melt. "The succession ends with me, Father."

Adrian turned to Lydia. He looked horrified by his own hands. He reached out to her, his fingers still sparking with a dying light.

"Lydia," he said.

Lydia looked at the broken guards. She looked at the melting glass. She looked at the man who had just saved her by becoming a monster. She thought of Silas in the alleyway, hunting June. She realized the Voss family was a plague.

"What are you?" she asked. Her voice was a ghost of a sound.

"I am the mistake my father spent his life trying to fix," Adrian said. He gripped her hand. His skin was burning hot. "We have to go. Silas is coming, and he won't be as easy to stop as these men."

Lydia looked at Julian. He was already reaching for a silent alarm on the wall. She realized she had two choices. She could stay and be harvested, or she could run with the man who was half-beast.

She took Adrian’s hand.

"If you lie to me again," Lydia said, "I will kill you myself."

"I count on it," Adrian replied.

They ran. Behind them, the alarms began to wail. The estate was waking up. In the distance, the sound of a dark sedan tearing up the gravel driveway echoed through the night. Silas was back.