Chapter 61 — Ghost Code

The world was red and screaming.Alarms shrieked through the smoke-filled lab, sprinklers raining sparks and water all at once. The acrid scent of burning plastic and ozone bit the air.Cole grabbed Sienna’s arm, coughing. “We’ve got to move—now!”But Sienna couldn’t look away. Jax — or the thing wearing his face — stood perfectly still in the doorway. Steam rose off his skin where the wires had burned through. His chest rose and fell like a machine regulating breath instead of drawing it.“Jax,” she whispered, her voice breaking. “If you can hear me, fight it.”His head tilted slightly, like a curious predator observing prey. “Your emotional responses are… fascinating,” he said, voice flat, unnervingly calm. “No wonder Subject Maddox’s neural pathways resisted so long. You’re the anomaly.”Cole shoved her toward the exit. “He’s gone, Sienna! That’s not him anymore!”But Sienna’s feet refused to move. Her mind screamed to run, yet her heart stayed rooted to the floor. “Dad—please, if

Last Updated : 2025-10-15

Chapter 62 — Shared Frequencies

They didn’t stop running until the city swallowed them whole.Rain slicked the cracked pavement as Sienna and Cole emerged from a drainage tunnel onto the outskirts of South District — the kind of place where no one asked questions, and the night air always smelled like oil and secrets.Sienna leaned against the wall, catching her breath, soaked to the bone. Her scrubs clung to her skin, streaked with soot. Cole’s face was smeared with grime, his breathing ragged. The world above them buzzed — the hum of distant power lines, the metallic drone of air transports patrolling the sky.They’d made it out. But it didn’t feel like escape.“Come on,” Cole said quietly. “We can’t stay out here.”He led her through narrow alleys until they reached a rusted steel door wedged between two abandoned warehouses. Cole punched in a code on a keypad hidden behind a loose brick. The lock clicked, and the door creaked open into darkness.“Welcome to the rabbit hole,” he muttered, ushering her inside.The

Last Updated : 2025-10-15

Chapter 63 — The Man at the Door

The knock echoed again, soft and unhurried.Cole’s body went still. His gun was raised, every muscle coiled tight. Sienna stood frozen behind him, her heart hammering so hard it hurt.“Jax?” she whispered.The voice on the other side came smooth, steady, almost gentle.“You know it’s me, angel. Open the door.”Every nerve in her body wanted to believe it. That tone, that rough warmth in the word angel— it was his. But something was off. A fractional delay, like the words were being dragged through static before they reached her.Cole mouthed, Don’t move.He crept closer to the steel door and pressed his ear to it. No sound but the soft drip of rain from the roof. Then a shadow passed across the narrow strip of light beneath the door — heavy boots shifting weight.“He shouldn’t know this location,” Cole muttered. “No one should.”Sienna’s throat tightened. “Unless he’s tracking me. Through the link.”Another pause. Then the voice came again, a little sharper now.“Sienna, it’s cold out

Last Updated : 2025-10-16

Chapter 64 — Echoes in My Head

The world tilted.Sienna’s breath came in shallow gasps, her back hitting the cold wall as the reality of what just happened sank in. Her hands were still glowing faintly, pale veins of light pulsing beneath her skin like a heartbeat that wasn’t entirely hers.Cole’s voice cut through the ringing in her ears.“Talk to me, Sienna. What do you mean he’s inside you?”She blinked hard, trying to steady her vision. The room was spinning slightly, the metallic taste of fear sharp on her tongue.“I—I don’t know,” she said hoarsely. “When he touched me, I felt… everything. His voice, his memories—something just slipped in.”Cole knelt beside her, checking her pulse, his hands steady despite the tension in his jaw. “You’re burning up,” he muttered. “Whatever Vale did, it’s still running through you.”“I can feel him,” she whispered. “He’s… here.”Cole’s gaze flicked toward the door, where rain still dripped in rhythmic beats. “Then we need to get the hell out of here before Vale sends more of

Last Updated : 2025-10-16

Chapter 65 — Ghost Code

Light.Everywhere.Blinding, endless, searing light.It felt like her skin had peeled away, like she wasn’t a body anymore — just raw energy and screaming code tangled in something that might have once been a heartbeat.Sienna couldn’t tell if she was standing or floating. Voices rose and fell around her like echoes bouncing through glass — fragments of memory, her own and not her own.“You can’t save everyone, Doctor Blake.”“He’s not your patient, he’s property.”“Sienna, run!”“Mine.”That last one wasn’t hers.It was Jax.And then — another voice, cold and slick, cutting through the chaos like a knife.“You’re awake.”Her stomach lurched. “Vale?”“Not exactly. Think of me as… a projection. The part of him your mind can comprehend.”The light dimmed enough for her to see a shape forming — Vale’s face, smooth and composed, but flickering around the edges like a bad hologram.Sienna tried to move, but invisible resistance held her in place. She was suspended in a vast, glowing space

Last Updated : 2025-10-17

Chapter 66 — Fractures

The power outage swallowed everything.One second, Sienna was staring into Jax’s split-colored eyes—one blue, one gold—and the next, the world went black.“Jax!” she shouted, her voice echoing off concrete walls. “Jax, fight it!”No answer. Just the hum of dying circuitry and the soft, rhythmic drip of water somewhere far away.She stumbled forward, heart pounding. Her foot struck something solid—his boot.“Jax.” She dropped to her knees, hands shaking as she felt for him. Her fingers brushed fabric, skin—then the hard tension of muscles locked in place.He was kneeling, unmoving. Cold sweat dampened his skin.“Come on,” she whispered, cupping his face. “Don’t let him—”He snapped his head up.Sienna jerked back, breath catching.Half his face was shadowed in the dark, but she could still see the faint golden glow in one eye, pulsing like a heartbeat.“Doctor Blake.”Her blood went cold. “Vale.”He smiled faintly—Jax’s lips moving, but the expression wasn’t his. It was too calm. Too p