Apart from the sharp voice of the girl, Zaya, no one spoke
No one dared.
His heart beat like it wanted out of his chest. The rage hadn't faded. It had just… shifted. Not gone, just buried. Caged behind whatever thin layer of control he still had left.
Zaya stood stiff when he did not attempt to respond, her silver eyes wide but steady.
Rafe's arms were crossed. Ready for a fight, but it did not look like he was asking for one either.
Fenn looked like he was mentally dissecting Eric with every blink. And Boss… Boss just watched. Calm. Almost impressed.
Eric breathed hard, then flexed his fingers. No claws now. They had retracted and gone back to wherever he'll hole part of him they came from.
All that was now left was just trembling hands, cracked and bruised where the transformation had split through.
He spoke first.
"What did you do to me?"
No one answered immediately.
Fenn tilted his head, studying him like an animal that'd suddenly learned to speak.Eric took a step forward and they all tensed. Even Rafe shifted his weight.
"I said," Eric growled, "What. Did. You. Do to me?"
"We didn't do anything," Zaya said, her voice was level. "We pulled you out of the forest before you torched and burned half the damn trees. You were already becoming… that."
"That?" Eric spat. "Say it."
Fenn muttered, "A monster."
Rafe shot him a look, but Eric didn't care.
He already knew. Felt it in every inch of his body. The power. The hunger. The barely contained violence crawling just beneath the surface of his skin. The way the room tasted, like iron and heat and fear.
Eric's eyes flicked to the far wall.
A door.
Closed.
He could smell what was behind it. He could smell her. Elara. Alive and breathing just behind that thin metal sheet. It calmed him down. Barely. He needed her here with him. She was his safe place and anchor to the real world.
Eric stepped back, and shook his head.
"I didn't ask for this," he muttered.
"None of us did," Boss said finally.
Eric turned toward him, eyes narrowing. "You're the one running this circus?"
Boss didn't blink. "I'm the one trying to end it."
"Could've fooled me. Drugging people. Kidnapping us."
"We saved you. From him." Boss's voice didn't rise. "Arthur would've put a bullet in your head the moment you stopped being manageable."
Eric flinched.
Hearing his adoptive father's name still triggered something bitter in his blood.
"Then tell me what you really want," Eric snapped.
Boss stepped forward, his limp obvious now. His metal leg scraped against the floor as he closed the gap between them. "You're not just another failed experiment. You're the only one that survived a full transition. You're the only one who didn't break."
Eric's fists clenched again.
"That supposed to make me feel lucky?"
"No," Boss said. "It's supposed to make you useful. Everyone here, this young people here were once part of that same experiment, until I risked my life all alone, went in there and I saved them. But in exchange, I lost this..." Boss tapped on the metal leg attached to his hip.
The room shifted. Not physically, but something in the air changed. Everyone's posture. The weight of it. The expectation.
"We're going to burn the whole program down," Boss said. "We've been gathering intel. Breaking the system apart from the inside. And now… we've got you."
Eric's jaw tightened.
"You want me to help you."
"I want you to tear it apart."
Eric looked around the room, at Zaya's wary stare, Rafe's unreadable silence, Fenn's cold curiosity. He looked back at Boss.
"I'm not your weapon."
"No," Boss said. "You're your own weapon."
Eric didn't respond. His breathing was calmer now. But the beast in him wasn't gone. Just… waiting.
He turned toward the door again. Toward Elara. The only thing that had pulled him back from the edge.
The only reason the others were still breathing. He stepped past Boss, slow and deliberate.
"If she's hurt," Eric said, "if she's even scared…"
He didn't finish. Didn't need to.
Because the threat hung in the air like smoke.
And they all knew he meant it.
Everyone walked out of the room in one single file, but Zaya returned a few minutes later with a small cup in her hands. She nudged the tin cup toward him obviously no longer scared of the monster he was.
Eric blinked. "What's this?"
"Goat's blood."
His stomach twisted. "You're joking."
She raised an eyebrow. "You're starving and twitchy. I'm not letting you chew through Rafe's arm."
He hesitated.
She folded her legs, settling across from him. "It's not poisoned. I even warmed it."
Eric sighed, took the cup reluctantly. "I don't want to get used to this."
"To drinking blood? Too late," she said gently. "You already are."
He stared into the dark liquid. It shimmered faintly under the overhead bulb.
"I didn't think I'd ever meet anyone like me," he said. "Or like you guys. I thought I was just… wrong."
Zaya gave him a crooked smile. "You're not wrong, Eric. Just rare."
Her voice was soft, but steady, like someone who'd been where he was and come out the other side. He liked that. Liked her calm. The way she had reached out to him first, her honesty.
How she didn't stare too long at his eyes when they shifted, or recoil when his voice dropped into that low, inhuman growl.
"Back when I first got here," she said, "I used to scream in my sleep. Boss made me punch bricks till I stopped."
Eric huffed a quiet laugh. "Sounds therapeutic."
"It was," she said. "They don't break. You do."
They shared a look. For a second, it felt… easy.
Warm.
Zaya stood, brushing off her hands. "Come find me if you feel like training later. We'll go slow. I won't break you in half. First session. Oh, and if you see another of us, always blending into the shadows and not speaking, don't be scared. His name is Run. He won't hurt you, just stay out of his way"
Eric raised an eyebrow. "Appreciated."
Then, she added over her shoulder, "You don't have to flinch every time you're not in pain, Eric. You're allowed to be okay."
And then she walked off, leaving him alone for the first time since he woke up on a lab table.