The ruins were dead quiet. Too quiet. My boots crunched on broken glass as I moved through what used to be a strip of shops, rifle steady, eyes scanning every shadow. Command swore one of them had been seen here. A monster. Another purple fucker that slipped through the Rift and made our world hell.
My chest burned with every breath. Sweat slid down my spine under the Kevlar. I didn’t let my guard drop—not when I knew what those things could do. I’d seen men ripped in half, their screams cut short like someone had flipped a switch. If I found one tonight, it was dead. That was my job.
But the air felt wrong. Like it was pressing against my skin.
I turned a corner, flashlight sweeping the rubble, and that’s when the ground gave way.
“f**k!”
The concrete cracked, dropping out from under
