Demon Contract

They climbed back through the Forge's arteries, leaving the Mirror chamber behind. The heat clung to their skin like smoke after a fire, but it thinned the higher they rose. The oppressive violet haze was loosening its grip too, though the weight of it lingered — anger simmering, grief too raw, silence stretched too taut.

Max felt it easing with each step. The pulse that had hammered in his chest was fading, but the memory of it stuck. He still caught himself flexing his fingers around the chain coiled at his hip, the Soulfire whispering at the edges of his control.

Dan's knuckles whitened around the staff he carried, rosary still twined in his off-hand. Alyssa walked with her new gauntlets flexed, metal plates clicking softly as she adjusted her fists. Chloe's phasing sword hung low at her side, its blade shimmering faintly whenever her grip trembled.

Behind them, Victor stopped dead.

The scrape of his cleaver against the floor was loud in the silence. His head tilted. Shoulders tightened. The ridge of fur along his arms bristled through the skin.

"What is it?" Alyssa muttered, lifting her fists. The soulsteel caught the corridor light in a dull glow.

Victor's nostrils flared. His pupils had narrowed to amber slits, cutting the dark sharper than any lamp. A growl built in his chest.

"Flesh."

Dan frowned, shifting closer. "Flesh? You mean—"

Victor's voice was rough, almost a snarl. "Not metal. Not cameras. Flesh. Breathing. Above us."

The words froze them in place.

Chloe flickered, her form phasing at the edges. "Victor, stop. You're scaring me."

Dan's voice was taut, defensive. "Grimm's got surveillance everywhere—"

Victor cut him off, the growl deepening. "Not machines. Not lenses. Flesh."

Chloe's grip tightened on her blade until it flickered blue-white. "It feels like… someone's standing right over me."

The word echoed through the corridor, heavy as a curse. Alyssa planted her stance, gauntlets humming faintly with soul-reactive charge. Max shifted forward, chain sliding loose from his hand with a whisper of steel. The prickling sensation against his skin was back — that weight of being watched.

"Where?" Max asked, low.

Victor's gaze locked on the catwalk above, empty to the naked eye. His claws clicked out of his fingers as his body crouched low, muscles coiling.

Then he sprang.

The impact shook the catwalk, metal groaning. Claws tore through the air — until the air itself shattered. A veil collapsed like broken glass, light bending, shadows unspooling.

And Victor pinned something human beneath him. A figure. Female. Black braid streaked with white like a scar. Knives already in her hands before her back hit steel.

Alpha.

Her face was unreadable. Calm. Cold. Already moving.

The corridor floor shuddered under another impact.

Max whirled, chain flaring with Soulfire — and saw him.

Omega had landed like a falling boulder, shoulders filling the corridor, fists flexing as though the air itself resisted his movements. His visor glowed faintly, and the sheer weight of his presence fixed directly on Max.

Victor's growl deepened, blade and claws poised to strike.

The wolves weren't shadows anymore. They were here.

***

Alpha moved first.

Pinned beneath Victor's weight, she twisted with surgical precision — shoulder jamming into his wrist, forcing his claws to scrape past her throat instead of through it. A knife snapped into her hand from nowhere, blade kissing the underside of his jaw. Victor snarled and jerked aside, fur shaved from his neck instead of blood.

Max's chain lashed out, Soulfire hissing bright across the links. The strike cracked the knife from Alpha's grip and rang hard against the rail. Sparks spun through the dark.

Omega stepped forward, the corridor groaning under his weight. He raised one fist and slammed it into the floor. The shockwave rattled bolts and sent Max back half a stride.

"Stand down," Omega rumbled.

"Get fucked," Victor spat, driving his knee into Alpha's ribs. She exhaled once, sharp and measured, then hooked her knife against his forearm to keep his claws just off her throat.

Chloe's sword flickered half into phase, haloing pale blue. "Max—"

"Hold," Max barked, not looking back. His chain wound once around his forearm, fire crawling like it wanted out. "Nobody starts a war in a corridor."

A shimmer split the rafters. The veil peeled back with a hiss, and Kane staggered into view — pale, hood down, sweat streaking his face.

"Oh for— stop hitting my blind!" His voice cracked thin with strain. "You just tore a hole in the sheet."

Alyssa shifted, gauntlets alive with charge. "You've been following us."

"Shielding you," Kane snapped. "From the Mirror. From things you don't even have names for."

"From us," Victor snarled. He tore free, cleaver dragging sparks across the deck. Alpha mirrored him, knives low and hungry.

Kane exhaled through his teeth. "Finally. Someone with a brain." He flicked his fingers and the air thickened around Max — a shimmer like oil on water. The chain's glow dulled, fire smothered to an ember.

Max's jaw locked. "Drop that."

The chain twitched against his skin like a live thing. Fire licked for freedom. Every instinct screamed to let it go — to scour the wolves from the corridor and burn this place clean. He forced it down, jaw aching from the grind.

"It's a dampener," Kane said. "You light up too hard, you'll trip every failsafe between here and the lifts. Try not to be a beacon for five seconds."

Victor prowled sideways, cleaver humming. Alpha mirrored him perfectly, blades catching the dim light.

Alyssa stepped between them. Her gauntlets struck the floor with a sharp crack, and the plating buckled under Alpha's boots. "Back up," she said flatly. "You want to try me, you do it without knives."

Alpha's eyes flicked, clinical. "Alyssa Blackthorn. Aptitude: impact amplification. File suggests poor impulse control."

"You'll get a demonstration," Alyssa shot back.

Omega's visor didn't shift. "Orders were observation only," he said, tone iron-flat. "We break cover, we break protocol."

"You didn't break it," Victor growled. "I tore it up."

Kane groaned, hand twitching as his veil flickered in and out. "Because you can't keep your nose out of—" He winced, bloodshot eyes straining. "I'm holding three layers of field with a migraine from hell. Can we all agree not to explode for sixty seconds?"

"Then talk," Max snapped. "What are you here for?"

Alpha's knives didn't dip. "Grimm's directive. Monitor escalation thresholds. Intervene only if containment fails."

"And what counts as failure?" Dan asked tightly.

Alpha's gaze flicked to Max's chain, to the heat crawling under his skin. "You tell me."

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Chloe edged closer to the wall, sword flickering like a heartbeat. "You've been inside our rooms. Watching us sleep."

Kane's mouth twitched. "Not me. Logs don't keep themselves."

"Answer her," Max said, fire leaking through his clenched teeth.

Alpha didn't blink. "You are in a secure facility. Security observes."

Victor's mouth twisted into a grin that showed too many teeth. "So that's the game. Wolves wait, prey runs, and you call it security."

The air thickened. For a breath, the fight balanced on a knife's edge — until the sirens screamed.

***

The sirens cut through the corridor, shrill and unrelenting. Red light pulsed against the steel walls, strobing the stand-off into jagged frames — Max with his chain half-coiled in fire, Victor crouched low with his cleaver, Alpha poised like a blade in human form, Omega blocking the way forward like a wall of iron.

For a few breaths no one moved. The alarms howled and the floor shuddered, a deep metallic thump echoing through the Forge's arteries like something beating its fists against the earth.

Dan shifted his staff, voice raised over the noise. "What's happening?"

Alpha's head tilted, as though listening to an earpiece the rest of them couldn't hear. She didn't move like a soldier, but like a fencer — small, efficient adjustments, no wasted breath. The black braid down her back caught the light, its single white streak flashing like a scar. Slim, wiry, coiled muscle beneath the matte combat suit. Brown eyes steady, unreadable.
"Containment breach. Sublevel Four," she said flatly.

Victor spat. "Your mess, not ours."

Kane winced, veil shivering around him like heat haze. "Mess doesn't care whose side you're on. If the breach climbs this far, you'll wish you hadn't wasted energy on chest-beating."

Max tightened his grip on the chain. "Start making sense. Who the hell are you?"

Alpha's gaze flicked to him, appraising. "Designation: Alpha. Observation and containment." She tipped her chin toward the man beside her. "Omega. Heavy assault. Together — we are Grimm's bodyguards. And your leash."

Omega loomed forward a half-step, dwarfing the narrow corridor. He was bald, scalp shining in the red light, his thick black beard bristling against his jaw. Middle Eastern features, dark eyes burning steady behind a faintly glowing visor. Muscles like plated armour shifted under his combat harness — massive, deliberate, immovable.

"Leash?" Alyssa snapped, gauntlets sparking as she raised them again. "Try me."

Omega's voice rolled out low, steady, implacable. "Orders were clear. Observation only. Intervention if escalation thresholds are met. You escalated."

Max took a step forward, fire breathing brighter along the chain despite Kane's dampener pulling at it. "Observation? You've been ghosts in our walls. Watching us sleep. Waiting for us to what… break?"

Chloe's voice wavered, but the words came sharp. "Stalking us. Like prey."

Victor's growl rose again, claws flexing. "So that's the game. Wolves in the den."

Alpha's knives twitched, but she didn't strike. "Grimm required data. You provided it."

Her smile was a blade's edge, humourless. "Data doesn't lie. People do."

Dan pushed forward, staff planted, eyes narrowing. "Ferron — is he alright?"

Alpha didn't blink. "He's a capable operative. He'll manage."

Dan's jaw tightened, but he gave a small nod.

Another tremor rolled through the floor, harder this time. Dust sifted from the ceiling, and the klaxon's pitch climbed. Kane swore, fingers tightening in the air as his veil slipped again, showing his face pale with effort.

"Because containment just failed. And if you keep wasting time, it won't matter whose questions get answered."

Max hesitated, chain humming in his grip. The fire under his skin wanted release — wanted to burn these watchers down to ash — but something deeper clawed at his instincts. The alarms weren't bluffing. Whatever had broken loose below was coming closer.

Dan planted his staff, eyes fierce on Alpha and Omega. "Then we need to move. Together. You don't have to like us, and we don't have to like you. But none of us are walking out if that thing reaches us first."

Alpha's gaze lingered on Max, then Chloe, then Victor, cataloguing every weakness and every edge. Finally, she lowered one knife by a fraction. Not surrender. Not trust. An acknowledgement.

"Dorm-7," she said. "We regroup there."

Omega stepped back a half pace, making room without softening his stance. "Stay close. Stray, and you're collateral."

Max's chain slackened, fire dimming but not gone. He looked at each of them — his team first, then the wolves. His voice was steel.

"We run. But the second one of you so much as twitches wrong, the deal's off."

For the first time, Alpha smiled. Thin. Almost approving.

"Understood."

The sirens screamed on. The floor juddered again, harder still. Together — grudging, bristling, weapons still hot — they ran.

***

The corridor became a throat of steel, swallowing their footsteps in a drumbeat of urgency. Red light strobed in time with the sirens, painting every face in jagged, violent fragments — fire across Max's jaw, sweat glinting on Dan's brow, knives flashing in Alpha's hands.

They moved fast, but not together. The wolves padded at the edges of their formation, too close for comfort. Max kept his chain coiled loose, fire licked but leashed. Victor snarled low in his chest, every muscle wired for another pounce. Chloe flickered at the edges of phase, blade trembling blue-white with each flare. Alyssa's gauntlets clicked open and shut, knuckles sparking.

Kane stumbled once, veil distorting around him in a sickly shimmer. He looked like a man holding a storm inside his skull. "Keep moving," he hissed, more to himself than them. "Keep the field up, keep the lid on—"

Alpha's voice cut through, precise, unfaltering. "Contain your man," she said to Max without looking. "His instability will cost us the corridor."

Victor's head snapped toward her, amber eyes burning. "Say that again."

Her gaze didn't waver. "You are compromised."

Victor surged a half step before Alyssa shoved an arm across his chest. "Not now."

Max's voice was low, dangerous. "You don't give orders here."

Omega rumbled from the rear, his presence filling the space like pressure. "She doesn't. I do. Keep your claws down."

The words rumbled out of him like rockfall, and for a second it was easy to believe he could block the whole corridor with sheer mass alone.

Max swung a glare at him. The bald giant met it evenly, dark eyes steady beneath the visor's glow. Muscles bunched under his combat rig as if even his patience weighed tonnes.

Another tremor rolled beneath their boots, stronger this time, rattling pipes and shedding rust like rain. The alarms stuttered, shifted pitch, then climbed higher. The sound made the back of Max's teeth ache.

Dan gritted his jaw, forcing his voice steady. "We don't even know what's coming."

Alpha finally glanced at him. "Then pray it's not hungry."

That silenced him.

Dan's fingers brushed his rosary, lips moving on a prayer too low to hear, as if testing whether faith could still stand in a place like this.

Chloe pressed close to the wall, her voice a whisper frayed with panic. "It feels closer."

Kane groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose, veil flickering dangerously. "Because it is."

Max felt the fire in his chest strain against the dampener. His instincts screamed to cut loose, to burn the wolves and the Institute with them, to clear a path in soul-bright fury. But he forced it down. One fight at a time.

Ahead, a junction split the corridor — one path angling back toward Dorm-7, the other plunging deeper into the Institute's veins. The sirens seemed to roar louder from both.

Chloe's voice cracked as she looked at Max. "Liz is still up there… in the pod. What if the alarms are spiking her vitals again? What if she can feel this?"

Max froze, jaw tight. For a heartbeat, the fire under his skin flared as if it wanted to answer for him. Then he ground it down and shook his head. "She's not alone. The Institute won't risk their prize. They'll keep her alive."

Alyssa muttered, low. "That's what I'm afraid of."

The silence that followed hurt more than the alarms.

Max turned back toward the fork, chain coiling around his arm. "Which way?"

Alpha answered first, knives steady. "Dorm-7. If the breach spreads up through the Forge, that's where your survivors will rally."

Omega folded his massive arms. "And if they're already dead?"

"Then we confirm," Alpha replied, as clinical as a scalpel.

Max's eyes burned in the red light. "Then we fight."

No one argued. They took the left path, toward Dorm-7. The alarms screamed them onward, as if the Forge itself wanted them out.

***

The dorm block was half-lit, every other strip light stuttering between dim orange and black. Bunks stood in orderly rows, sheets still turned down, lockers half-open as if their owners had only just stepped out. The air smelled faintly of disinfectant and iron, and underneath it — something acrid, like singed bone.

Max's chain scraped the floor once as he loosened it, eyes sweeping the rows. No soldiers. No recruits. Just silence cut by the keening of alarms outside.

"Empty," Alyssa muttered, gauntlets still humming. "Too empty."

A mug still steamed faintly on one bunk-side table, as though its owner had vanished between one breath and the next. The sight made the silence worse — proof that whatever had emptied the dorm had done it fast.

Chloe's hand shook on the hilt of her sword. "This isn't right. There were people here. I saw them last night. They can't just—"

Victor growled low in his throat, the sound carrying through the hollow space. "They ran. Or were made to run." His nose wrinkled. "And something else walked through here after."

Dan's staff tapped lightly against the floor as he joined Max near the centre. "Is Ferron with them?" he asked, looking past Alpha and Omega.

Alpha didn't blink. "Ferron is alive. He's capable." Her brown eyes caught the flicker of a passing light, steady, unreadable. "But he won't protect you from this."

Victor took a step closer, cleaver still at his side. "Funny. You wolves didn't protect anyone either."

Omega shifted, massive arms folding across his chest, beard glinting with sweat in the failing light. His voice was even, heavy as stone. "Not our directive."

Kane flickered in on the dorm's far side, veil coughing static across the room. He looked haggard, every line of his face cut deeper by strain. "Directives don't matter if the cage is breaking," he muttered. "And it is."

The alarms seemed to hear him. They changed pitch, grinding lower, like gears seizing in a machine too big to see. The lights guttered, one by one, then flared back in sickly violet.

Chloe gasped, clutching her sword as its phasing edge sputtered. "Max—Liz. Her vitals." She pointed at the wrist-screen she'd jacked into Liz's pod feed; the line was spiking, jagged, as though she were convulsing somewhere miles above.

Max's fire shivered along his skin, every instinct screaming to break away and reach her. He gritted his teeth, forced the flame back down. "She's holding. We have to hold too."

For an instant, he swore he could feel her heartbeat thrashing inside his own chest — a frantic pulse clawing at him through fire and distance.

Alpha's knives flicked into a guard, body angling toward the door. "That's not the Mirror anymore. That pulse is wider. Deeper. Something has bled through the Forge."

Dan's grip tightened on his staff. "Containment?"

Omega's dark eyes narrowed beneath the red glow. "No. Breach."

The word seemed to drag the temperature of the room down a notch.

Victor bared his teeth, claws clicking out. "Then we stop waiting."

Kane's veil cracked, his silhouette blurring like torn film. "No," he hissed. "You don't understand. If it's breached here, it means—"

The wall shuddered with a sound like a fist hitting a coffin from the inside. Dust rained from the ceiling. Another impact followed, closer, carrying the stink of ash and old blood.

Max swung the chain into his grip, fire bleeding across its length in golden arcs. His voice was low, hard. "Talk later. Weapons up."

The lights blew out at once. Violet washed the room like a tide.

Something was coming through.