SERAPHINA’S POV
Jack Draven barely resembled anything natural anymore.
Darkness writhed under his fur, laced with crimson veins. His massive claws scraped deep grooves into the steel floor beneath his paws.
His body stretched unnaturally, warped by corruption, flesh and soul twisted into the monstrous being before us.
And his eyes…
Where there had once been fragments of Jack somewhere deep inside all that darkness, there was now…nothing.
They locked onto me first.
Then Kieran.
A low growl rolled from Jack’s chest, deep enough to vibrate through the walls.
His form dwarfed the elevator, shoulders nearly scraping the reinforced steel frame as he slowly emerged into the sterile laboratory corridor.
Darkness bled from him.
Not metaphorically.
Actual black flames crawled across his body in slow, living waves, curling between strands of fur and dripping onto the floor like burning oil.
Wherever they touched, the polished white tiles blackened instantly.
