Chapter 17
1237 Words
Kane’s POV
The moment Serena ordered the doors locked, something electric snapped alive in my chest.
Finally.
A controlled environment.
Equipment.
A living anomaly sitting ten feet away, breathing, mutating, stabilizing, unraveling all at once.
I wiped my palms on my coat. “Elara, check the west windows. Make sure nothing can crawl through the vents.”
Elara glared. “Don’t talk to me like I’m your assistant.”
“Then move faster like someone who wants to stay alive.”
Serena shot me a warning look. “Kane.”
“Fine,” I muttered. “Please.”
Elara rolled her eyes but went.
Asher sat on an overturned chair, tapping his fingers against his leg, his knee bouncing restlessly.
“Stop looking at me like a lab rat,” he snapped.
“You’re not a lab rat,” I said, already preparing a fresh slide. “You’re a miracle. Try to appreciate it.”
“That doesn’t make it less creepy,” he muttered.
Serena stepped between us. “Kane. Talk to him like a human being, not an experiment.”
I exhaled sharply. “Alright. Asher… can you give me a little more blood?”
“No.”
“It’s just a litt…”
“No.”
He folded his arms. “My veins are not your playground.”
I clenched my jaw. “If I can understand what triggers the mutation spikes, I might be able to stabilize you.”
“Or I might start growing a tentacle out of my neck,” he shot back. “Hard pass.”
Nia tugged Serena’s sleeve. “Why does he need more blood?”
“Because,” I said, grabbing a pipette, “his cells are doing something impossible.”
Asher snorted. “Wow. Thanks.”
I turned to him. “Do you want the truth or the comforting version?”
“Elara isn’t here,” Serena muttered. “So go ahead.”
I leaned forward, resting my hands on the desk. “Your human DNA isn’t just resisting the mutation it’s fighting it. Like two different species competing to dominate the host.”
Asher blinked. “So… I’m a battleground.”
“Yes,” I said plainly. “A walking, breathing battleground.”
Nia whispered, “That sounds painful…”
Asher looked away. “It is.”
Serena stepped beside him. “We need to understand it so he can control it.”
“Exactly.” I snapped on gloves. “Which is why we test because right now, when you feel strong? It feels random. Unpredictable.”
“It is unpredictable,” Asher muttered. “One minute I feel like myself. The next… I feel something crawling under my skin.”
Serena’s eyes met mine in a silent warning, Don’t push him too hard.
But we didn’t have time for sensitivity.
“Alright,” I said softly.
“Then tell me exactly when you feel it. What triggers it. Anything.”
He hesitated. Serena touched his arm reassuringly.
Asher exhaled. “Fine. It gets worse when I’m stressed… when I’m angry… when I remember the bite.”
“And better?” I pressed.
“When I focus. When I breathe. When someone touches me…”
He cut himself off quickly.
Serena blinked. “Someone?”
Asher cleared his throat loudly. “Just… grounding helps.”
Nia giggled. Elara returned just in time to raise an eyebrow. “Did I miss something?”
“No,” Asher growled.
“Yes,” Nia whispered.
I clapped my hands once. “Focus. That means emotional states affect the cellular dominance.”
Serena nodded. “So hormones?”
“Exactly. Epinephrine, cortisol… stress chemicals could be feeding the mutated cells.”
“That explains the spikes during fights,” Asher said.
“Yes.” I leaned in closer. “But calm might be empowering the human side. Which means”
A heavy thud shook the window.
Everyone froze.
Elara whispered, “What… was that?”
Another thud. Closer. Like something testing the glass… softly. Slowly. Intelligently.
Serena raised her rifle. “Stay focused. Eyes open.”
My heart hammered but not from fear.
Excitement.
“If something followed us,” I said quietly, “it must’ve sensed Asher’s scent.”
“That is NOT helpful,” Asher hissed.
The window cracked slightly. A long, jagged line.
Elara backed away. “We’re screwed.”
“No,” Serena said firmly. “We’re barricaded. They can’t break reinforced lab glass easily.”
“Not easily,” I corrected. “But eventually”
“SHUT UP, KANE!” everyone yelled.
I sighed. “Alright, alright. Back to the blood”
“No,” Asher snapped. “Back to explaining what the hell is inside me.”
I stared at him.
I lowered my voice. “Asher… listen carefully. Your human DNA is rewriting the mutation. But the mutation is also trying to overwrite you. It’s two codes battling. And whichever one wins defines who you become.”
“Define?” he echoed. “Define how?”
Elara swallowed. “Define whether you stay… you?”
Asher’s breath hitched.
Serena stepped forward. “Kane… tell him everything. No filters.”
I inhaled sharply.
“The mutation wants to turn you into a full Eclipseborn. But your human DNA is… adapting. It’s learning. It’s evolving.”
He stared at me, pale. “Evolving into what?”
I met his eyes.
“That,” I said softly, “is what we have to find out. And why I need more blood.”
“No,” he said quietly.
“Why?” I demanded.
He clenched his fists. “Because every time you take it… the mutated part of me gets excited. Like it wants to escape. Like it knows.”
We all fell silent.
A faint tapping echoed from the vents overhead.
Then another.
Then a long scraping sound.
The monsters hadn’t left.
They were circling.
Listening.
Asher’s breathing quickened, a tremor rolling through his fingers.
Elara touched his arm. “It’s okay. Stay calm.”
His breathing slowed almost immediately.
My eyes widened.
“That’s it,” I breathed. “Right there. Emotional regulation stabilizes human dominance, keep doing that.”
She glared. “I’m not a mood regulator.”
“You’re literally stabilizing his genome,” I snapped. “Just keep doing it.”
Asher stood slowly. “Kane… what do you want me to do?”
I felt a smile tug at my lips, unprofessional, inappropriate, impossible to suppress.
“Help me figure out what you are,” I whispered. “Help me understand the thing inside you.”
A loud bang rattled the entire wall.
Everyone jumped.
I grinned wider.
“Asher,” I said, voice trembling with a mix of fear and awe, “I think you’re evolving faster than they are. And they can sense it.”
Asher stepped back, panic rising. “What does that mean?”
Serena chambered a round. “It means we survive the night.”
“No,” I whispered. “It means Asher might be the key to ending them.”
As the scratching outside grew louder, the room fell into a tense, breathless silence.
And for the first time since the world collapsed…
We weren’t running.
We were studying.
Understanding.
Fighting back.
Together, locked inside a lab while monsters circled us like wolves
And Asher was transforming into something they feared.
- Writer
