Lucien Grave

[cover is a work in progress]

Lucien Grave was never meant to leave the facility alive.

Raised in steel cages and stripped of his humanity, he was shaped into something that could kill without hesitation. The government called it "neuro-bonding" - a way to splice minds, to make pain and thought transferable. For Lucien, it was a lifetime of living inside other people's screams.

The day he escaped, he made sure no one else did.
At least, that's what he thought.

Years later, hiding in plain sight, he's perfected the art of silence - the quiet life of a predator pretending to be human. Until the phantom sensations start: a sting in the ribs, an ache in the jaw, a quickening heartbeat that isn't his own.

Then she walks into a bar.
Another survivor. Another bond. Another reminder of the life he swore he'd buried under ash and blood.

As their minds begin to pull against each other - not with torture, but with something far more dangerous - Lucien must decide whether to cut the last strand tying him to his past... or follow it into the darkness he thought he'd escaped.

In a world where pain can be shared and humanity is a liability, some connections are impossible to sever.