Page 11 of GlitchBorn Heart

Ash bumps my shoulder gently. “Relax,” he says with a smirk. “He only looks at people like that when he’s annoyed...or intrigued.”

My stomach twists. Intrigued sounds worse. Much worse.

“You know him?” I look away quickly, pulse pounding. “What the hell is happening right now?” I whisper.

Ash laughs softly, tossing his hair back. “Yes. He’s a friend. He’s intense, yeah? Welcome to STATIK,” he adds, “where even the shadows notice you.”

His hand brushes my arm in a friendly gesture, but my skin is already tingling from someone else entirely.

From across the room, he lifts his drink, just slightly, in a silent toast. I catch a glimpse of beautiful features behind his hoodie—dark, brooding, chiseled, like someone you should run from but find yourself stepping toward anyway. He’s beauty wrapped in the kind of darkness women ruin themselves for.

And for one reckless heartbeat, I realize I’ve always been drawn to the dark.

I feel it ⁠deeply, like a line weaving from his chest to mine: invisible, unwanted, and unavoidable.

I swallow hard as I glance back, only to find he’s no longer seated. He’s standing now and looking at the mess unfolding on all the screens around him.

5

PerfektStorm

Playlist: The Chase - Emmit Fenn

Kael

The whole scene becomes bitter like a dry pill on my tongue. Alarms and notices are running across my DataLINK. All the triggers I’ve put into the system to let me know when there’s a glitch or an anomaly are screaming across the screen. I’ve never seen the level of commotion that’s unfolding around me on the monitors that hang from the neon-veined walls. I ignore it all...can’t take my eyes off her...can’t stop looking at the beautiful wet mess that just walked through the front door of this shithole.

I glance toward the stage where Ash laughs and approaches her with that charismatic bedlam he gets when a woman has piqued his interest. Ash looks alive, challenged, intrigued, in a way I can’t remember feeling in...what? Forever?

It’s been years. Too many years. I don’t even remember the last time I was interested in someone, let alone let someone get close. Work...I tell myself...it’s the work. The long nights buried in data, the endless meetings with suits who think they own the city. Another lie I like to tell myself so I can keep walking into the corporate towers without choking on my guilt.

There’s no room for anyone else to swim when you’re already drowning.

I take another drink and allow myself to take all of her in. She’s tall, tall enough to match my presence without overshadowing me, yet perfectly curvy. Underneath her leather jacket and pants, she’s athletic but feminine, the kind of strength that comes from surviving, not gym aesthetics. I admire that she doesn’t try to blend in. Exactly the type of woman strong enough to make a man like me want to do better. She’s the whole package: high cheekbones, sharp jaw, full pink lips, a gaze that could slice through any man’s lies. Unfortunately at the moment she’s using those vivid golden eyes to undress my best friend.

Ash approaches her easily. He spills his charmed words, as she tosses her hair over her shoulder, coyly. Long dark hair with strands of deep electric pink and bright gold, like neon sunlight catching fire. What I wouldn’t give to run my fingers through it, give it a gentle tug opening her neck to me...

No, Kael. I quickly snap myself back into the real digital world. Of course she would like Ash, they all do. It’s better this way, I remind myself for the ten thousandth time.

No one to see how far I’ve fallen.

You can’t lose what you never let yourself have.

The mantras don’t comfort me. Not really. But it’s enough repetition to keep me sitting here, alone, as Ash settles back down beside me. He’s still grinning from talking to that perfect storm. I let out a breath, slow and controlled. She knows I’m staring, but I can’t help myself. Perfect storm. Yeah. That’s exactly what she is.

And I can’t shake it. The pull. The fascination. The way her presence hums in my veins like electricity; it should terrify me. It should make me want to hit the kill switch to shut it down.

Instead, all I want is to know more.

I drag a hand across my jaw, trying to smother the thought, but it doesn’t fade. It sharpens. She looks right at me hiding in the shadows, and when our eyes meet briefly it’s like the whole room tilts. Dangerous, magnetic, pulling my coldness into her heat. Her gaze hooks me, drags me closer even though she doesn’t move. Doesn’t have to.

Something in her, wild and unbroken, reaches straight through the air and takes hold in my chest.

And damn it...I still can’t look away.

“Met someone tonight. Name’s Lyra. She’s got fire in her veins, Kael. The whole club felt it.” He motions for the server to come over.

I don’t look away, I just continue to watch her from the dim corner. The way she moves like she doesn’t belong to this place, or this city. I feel my hand tighten around my glass and my pants tighten around my stiffening cock.