oom to a stifling, punishing temperature. Kendall woke with a sharp, unnatural th

is fingers brushed against a dull, tender point where the ne

ive mattress was empty. The

serted. Nothing left behind but the faint, lingering scent of c

paper fluttered from his foreh

ick words burned into his retinas like a b

rehead pulsed visibly, a thick b

ow and dangerous. His fingers curled inward, cru

crypted phone from the nightstand. He neede

n breaking news alerts flooded the d

from TMZ. A picture of his own scr

. The word jumped ou

d to ice. His reflection in the black screen of the

sistant, Chancey Fisch

ethal it sounded demonic, a growl scraped from the bottom of his chest. "And take over the hot

d his white dress shirt from the floor and shoved his

d stared down at the tiny cars crawling through

wore to himself, right then, that he would te

shed in, wiping sweat from his forehead with a crumpled tiss

servers were physically wiped at 6:00 AM by a top-tier hacker. There is n

his chest twisted into something else-something darker, shar

nce network," Kendall commanded, his voice ha

o blocks away had caught a grainy glimpse of her face-thos

ing as he read from his tablet. "Public records and social media chatter show she violently broke her engagemen

more dangerous and focused. "Dig deeper. I want to know everything s

urned. His face was pale, the

her name early this morning. It seems she strong-armed her own father and stole a core formula. And..." He paused, his hands shaking slightly as he handed the

e information. Three hours. She wa

slammed it directly into t

m that resonated through the entire room. Blood blo

completely black, burning w

, his voice dropping to a lethal whisper