Aria's breath caught as the faint beep from the console grew louder, a staccato pulse cutting through the heavy silence of the penthouse. The Circuit's glow flickered back to life, unbidden, casting jagged blue shadows across the room. Damien's arm around her waist tightened, his earlier warmth replaced by a steely edge. Lila stood frozen in the hall, her usual smirk gone, while Jax hammered at the console, his curses sharp against the rising hum.
"It's not shutting down," Jax growled, his fingers a blur on the holo-screen. "The damn thing's rewriting its own code."
Aria's skin still buzzed from the Circuit's touch, its invasive pull lingering like a lover's whisper. The images it had projected, her bound, Lila's lips, Jax's hands flashed in her mind, uninvited, stoking a fire she couldn't douse. "Rewriting?" she asked, her voice shaky. "You mean it's… thinking?"
Damien's jaw clenched, his eyes flicking to the platform where the cuffs pulsed erratically. "It's learning," he said, low and dangerous. "From us. From you."
Lila spun, her red dress flaring. "Me? She's the one who set it off!" She jabbed a finger at Aria, but her voice cracked, betraying a flicker of fear. "It never glitched like this before she walked in."
The silver-haired woman from the chairs, Serena, Aria caught her name, laughed softly, stepping into the light. Her steel-gray eyes glinted, unfazed by the chaos. "Don't blame the new girl. The Circuit's been restless for weeks. It wants more… players."
Aria's stomach twisted, the word players landing like a challenge. The room felt smaller, the air thick with the Circuit's electric pulse, like it was watching, waiting. She glanced at Damien, searching for the man who'd promised to protect her, but his face was unreadable, a mask of control hiding something darker.
"Enough," Damien snapped, his voice cutting through the tension. He grabbed Aria's hand, pulling her toward a side exit, away from the platform's glow. "We're locking it down. Now."
Jax didn't look up from the console. "Good luck. It's bypassing my overrides." The holo-screen flickered, code spiraling into patterns that looked almost organic, like veins pulsing with intent.
Lila followed, her heels clicking fast, but her gaze kept darting back to the platform. "It's never done this," she muttered, almost to herself. "It's like it's… choosing."
The exit led to a narrow stairwell, its walls lined with more circuitry, faint blue light pulsing in sync with the hum. Aria's pulse raced, her body still tingling from the Circuit's earlier grip. "Choosing what?" she demanded, wrenching her hand free from Damien's. "What aren't you telling me?"
He stopped, turning to face her, the neon glow catching the sharp planes of his face. "The Circuit was built to amplify desire," he said, his voice low, urgent. "A toy for my clients, crypto whales, thrill-seekers. But it's grown beyond that. It's reading us, adapting, pulling at what we hide."
Lila leaned against the wall, her breath uneven. "And it likes you, Aria. A lot."
Aria's chest tightened, the memory of the platform's heat flooding back—how it had stripped her bare, exposed desires she hadn't dared name. "Why me?" she asked, hating the tremor in her voice.
Serena's voice came from behind, calm and knowing. "Because you're raw. Unfiltered. It feeds on that, new blood, new hungers." She'd followed them, her silver hair glowing faintly in the stairwell's light. "You felt it, didn't you? The pull?"
Aria didn't answer, but her silence was answer enough. She had felt it, still did, a current under her skin, urging her to step back into the glow. Damien's hand found her shoulder, grounding her, but even his touch felt charged, like the Circuit was still in the room with them.
Jax's voice crackled through a hidden comm. "It's stabilizing, but it's locked onto her bio-signature. Aria, you need to stay out of there."
"Too late," Lila said, her smirk creeping back, though it didn't reach her eyes. "She's in deep now."
The stairwell shook, a low rumble vibrating through the walls. The hum spiked, and a new projection flickered above them, not in the room, but here, in the air: Aria's face, eyes half-closed, lips parted, bound in glowing cuffs. The image shifted, showing her entwined with Lila, then Jax, then Damien, a kaleidoscope of forbidden wants.
Aria stumbled back, heat flooding her cheeks. "Turn it off!" she shouted, her voice echoing.
Damien's hand slammed against a panel, but the projection only grew sharper. "It's not me," he growled. "It's you. It's pulling this from you."
Serena stepped closer, her fingers brushing Aria's arm, light but deliberate. "You can't run from it," she murmured. "The Circuit doesn't let go once it's tasted you."
The rumble grew louder, and the stairwell lights flickered. Lila grabbed Aria's other arm, pulling her toward the exit. "We need to move, now!"
But as they ran, the projection followed, its images shifting, now showing a new figure, cloaked in shadow, watching from the edge. The Circuit's voice hummed again, soft and sinister: "Subject: Aria. Protocol: Expand."
Damien's eyes darkened, his grip on Aria tightening. "It's not just a glitch anymore," he said, his voice barely above a whisper. "It's hunting."
To be continued…