All Chapters of Once His, Now His Ruin: Chapter 11 - Chapter 14

(Anna's POV)The vault door resisted Jackson's strength, its rusted iron hinges shrieking like a wounded animal. I pressed a hand to my chest, feeling the unnatural flutter beneath my ribs. The serum in my blood recognized what lay beyond that door - I could feel it waking inside me, making the blackened capillaries beneath my skin writhe like living vines. "Stay behind me," Jackson ordered, his silver dagger already drawn. Moonlight from the narrow cellar window cut across his face, hardening the tension in his jaw. The smell hit me first as the door gave way - formaldehyde and something darker, like wet earth after a grave has been opened. My transformed senses recoiled, every scent magnified to painful intensity. The damp stone walls seemed to pulse as we stepped inside, our footsteps echoing through the chamber. Luna's small hand found mine, her skin fever-hot against my palm. "They've been waiting for us," she whispered, her wide eyes reflecting the eerie blue glow emanating f

(Harris's POV ) The Learjet bucked violently as it descended through storm clouds over Geneva. Harris Liam watched lightning fork across the Alps, its reflection warping in the rain-streaked window. His fingers tightened around the titanium briefcase handcuffed to his wrist—the one his mother had demanded he bring. The case he'd been warned never to open. "Dr. Liam?" The pilot's voice crackled through the cabin speakers. "We're being rerouted to Facility Seven." A chill crept down Harris's spine. Facility Seven didn't exist in any corporate directory. The mountain stronghold was where his mother conducted her most... controversial research. Where she'd taken him exactly once as a child, before he understood what the screams in the sublevel meant. The armored Maybach that met him on the tarmac smelled of gun oil and vetiver. His usual driver had been replaced by a silent woman with a neural implant pulsing at her temple—one of his mother's "enhanced" assistants. Rain drummed agains