The line clicked dead, leaving only the hum of the office and the faint whir of the servers that fed into the walls around him. Victor didn't move for several breaths, his thumb resting against the cooled glass of his phone, Elias's last word, "yes," lodged in his chest like a blade he wasn't sure he wanted removed.
He set the device down on the desk with deliberate care and turned his attention back to the wall of monitors. The main screen had been looping the same sequence for hours, a grainy black-and-red tint spilling across the feed. Matteo's face filled the frame, pale under the harsh lighting, but stretched into something that no longer resembled a man.
Red ether.
It slicked across his veins like fire turned liquid, staining the whites of his eyes, peeling the edges of his mouth into that impossible grin. Victor's jaw flexed, the same muscle pulling taut every time Matteo tilted his head too sharply, too mechanically.
This wasn't a man anymore. This was a vessel.
