Chapter 59
Seraphina
Tristan sat shackled to the reinforced chair in the center of the room, his face battered, lip split, but still wearing that smug, useless grin. I'd seen him train a hundred operatives to mask pain with arrogance. Pity for him I learned more than he thought.
"You’re not going to talk," I murmured, pacing slowly in front of the terminal, "but you don’t have to."
Callum leaned against the far wall, thigh wrapped tight, eyes hawkish. He hadn't said much since the doc patched us up, but I felt his presence like gravity.
I moved to the console, slipping in the secure drive I'd yanked from the lab before it went to hell. A biometric lockscreen popped up—retinal scan required.
"You gonna cooperate, Tristan?" I asked, not turning.
"You’ll never—"
"Didn’t think so."
I rolled the chair back, walked straight to him, and without a word, pried his eye open with practiced fingers. He struggled, of course. But pain and leverage were persuasive.
The scan registered. The lock released .
I moved fast, scanning file after file, bypassing further encryption with his thumbprint, his voice command, every piece of security that had been uniquely his. He tried to squirm. I didn't let him.
That’s when I felt it.
A shift. Not in the system—but in the air. I glanced at Callum, who was no longer leaning, his entire body taut.
Tristan chuckled.
I turned my head to find his trousers... tight. The bastard was enjoying this.
That’s when Callum’s boot came down with brutal, unflinching force.
"FUCK!" Tristan screamed, folding forward with a choked sob.
I blinked, startled only by the noise.
"What did the fucker do now?" I asked, brows furrowed.
Callum’s voice was steel and fire. "He had a fuckin’ hard on while watchin’ you!"
He stepped in, grabbed Tristan by the hair, and spat directly in his face.
"SHE. IS. MINE."
Tristan whimpered, full-body trembling.
I stood slowly, stepping close, but not looming. My voice was calm. Lethal .
"If your dick so much as twitches at me again, I will cut it off and shove it down your throat so you die choking on your own pencil dick, you fucking pig."
He whimpered something unintelligible. I didn’t care.
I went back to the system.
Each file I cracked open bled truth.
Names. Locations. Experiments. Proof.
Then I found it—the failsafe they built into the neural biotech. A code, buried deep in the framework, meant to override will, suppress emotion, rewrite obedience into the bones of anyone injected.
But they'd made a mistake.
Because I understood the language. And I could invert it.
"Callum," I said, fingers flying across the keys. "They meant this to enslave minds. I'm going to use it to free them—and torch the whole goddamn system while I’m at it."
He gave a tight nod. "Do it, love. Make the bastards burn."
I grinned, teeth bared, and typed the final line of code.
Send.