Smokes and Circuits (Veils of Kaizhun #1)

A Wolf at the Door

The aftermath of the raid left an eerie silence in the command center. The bodies were cleared from the alley, the equipment reset, and everyone seemed to have retreated to their own corners of the base. But there was no shaking the tension that now hung in the air.

Zac had been on edge since the attack, pacing the central room as he monitored the city's security grid on the main screen. Adira could see the subtle changes in him. His usual stoicism now carried a hint of something darker, an intensity that made the air crackle around him.

For Adira, the adrenaline from the alley fight had worn off, but the nerves were still there. She tried to make sense of the city's underground network, mentally piecing together what Zac had told her about Kaizhun's factions. It wasn't just gangs or petty criminals—they were up against a dangerous web of power players. People who had been running this city's shadows for decades.

That's what she was starting to understand. Kaizhun wasn't just a city. It was a living organism, and she was stepping into its bloodstream. Every move they made now had consequences.

The question was: who were they moving against?

A sudden alert pinged on Zac's console. He snapped to attention, his sharp gaze flicking over the screen.

"Ren, I need you to run diagnostics on the east perimeter," Zac called out, his voice tight. Ren, slouched in a corner, straightened up, muttering something under his breath as he approached the console.

"What's going on?" Adira asked, trying to keep the worry from creeping into her voice. The unease from the raid hadn't fully left her, and now this sudden tension didn't help.

Zac's eyes narrowed as he scanned the data. "I'm not sure yet, but something's coming. The energy signatures spiked outside the city limits, and they're headed straight for us."

"Who?" Ren asked, tapping into his terminal.

Zac didn't answer right away. His jaw clenched, his gaze hard as he stared at the data on the screen. Then he swore under his breath, something rare for him. "It's Kirxia."

Adira's breath caught. Kirxia. That was the vigilante group everyone whispered about, the ghost organization that supposedly controlled the darker veins of the city's underworld. But this wasn't just another faction—they had real power. And if what she'd heard was true, they weren't to be trifled with.

"What do they want?" she asked.

Zac's face remained grim, his eyes scanning the encrypted feed of Kirxia's movements. "That's what I'm trying to figure out. They're not subtle. If they're coming in this direct, they want something—or someone."

Adira's mind raced. Had the raid earlier been a distraction? Were they under attack again?

The sound of heavy footsteps echoed down the hall, snapping her attention to the entrance. Kai, wearing a thick dark coat that fluttered slightly behind him, strode in with his usual swagger, looking like he had just strolled out of a high-stakes poker game rather than into a potential war zone. His team of three women followed, each moving with silent precision, their eyes scanning the room for any immediate threat.

"Well, isn't this cozy?" Kai drawled, his smile playful but his eyes calculating as he took in the tense atmosphere.

Zac barely looked at him, focused on the screen. "We've got a problem."

Kai stepped up beside him, too close by normal standards, but it didn't seem to bother either of them. He leaned over to glance at the screen, his expression turning more serious as he read the data.

"Oh," Kai muttered, his tone shifting. "That's... interesting."

Adira watched them, feeling like she was on the outside of something deeper. These two had a strange, unspoken connection. She could see it in the way they moved around each other, the way Zac's otherwise impenetrable facade cracked just a little in Kai's presence, and how Kai's charismatic mask seemed more focused, more intense when they were in the same room.