Aura maintained her rigid position. Her arms hung perfectly straight at her sides.

Blair recovered from her shock. The blood rushed back to her face.

"Who the hell are you?" Blair screamed, her voice cracking. "How did you get in here?"

Axel took a slow, deliberate step forward. The air around him dropped ten degrees.

"How did you bypass my security detail?" Axel demanded. His voice was dangerously quiet, a low threat that vibrated in the chest.

Aura ignored Axel's question. Her optical sensors focused entirely on Blair. She registered the rapid expansion and contraction of Blair's chest.

Blair stepped forward, closing the distance. She raised her hand high, aiming a vicious slap directly at Aura's face.

Aura tracked the movement. In her heightened perception, Blair's hand was moving through thick molasses, every micro-expression and muscle twitch magnified to an agonizingly slow crawl.

Aura shifted her weight slightly to the left. Just half an inch.

Blair's palm slapped empty air. The missed momentum caused Blair to stumble forward, her high heels twisting on the marble floor.

Aura raised her right hand with clinical, terrifying precision.

She extended two fingers and struck the nerve cluster at the base of Blair's neck.

Blair's eyes rolled back into her head instantly. The whites showed for a fraction of a second before her eyelids fluttered shut.

Blair collapsed, her body going completely limp, falling face-first toward the hard floor.

Aura reached out and caught Blair by the collar of her silk blouse. She calculated the exact force needed to prevent a skull fracture.

Aura gently, almost mechanically, lowered the unconscious woman to the carpet.

Axel stared at the scene. His jaw was tight, his teeth grinding together. The breath trapped in his lungs.

He stepped toward Aura. His posture shifted instantly from a corporate CEO to a combat-ready stance. His center of gravity dropped.

Aura stood up straight. She turned her attention fully to Axel.

She reached up and unbuttoned her trench coat. She let it slide off her shoulders, falling to the floor in a heap.

She stepped over Blair's unconscious body without looking down.

Aura approached Axel. She stopped exactly six inches from his chest, invading his personal space with absolute disregard for human boundaries.

She tilted her head back to look up into his eyes. Her expression remained completely blank.

"I have been instructed to stay close to you," Aura stated bluntly. "I am not permitted to leave your side until my mission parameters are met."

Axel's expression morphed. The defensive tension in his face shattered, replaced by deep, visceral disgust mixed with utter confusion.

"Instructed by whom?" Axel demanded. "What mission? What the hell are you talking about?"

"The parameters were set by my handler," Aura replied, offering no further clarification. Her tone was flat, as if she were reciting a weather report.

Axel stared at her, his mind racing. Handler. Mission. The woman spoke like a military operative, but her dead eyes and unnatural movements suggested something far more unsettling.

"You're out of your mind," Axel spat.

He reached out and grabbed Aura by the upper arm, intending to physically throw her out of his suite.

His large hand clamped down on her bicep.

Axel froze.

Beneath the thin fabric of her shirt, there was no give. No softness of human fat or normal muscle. It felt like grabbing a mass of hyper-compressed, unyielding tissue, dense as solid rock, completely defying the natural limits of human biology.

He paused for a fraction of a second. His brain struggled to process the unnatural, rock-hard density beneath his fingers.

Recovering quickly, Axel gritted his teeth and used his entire body weight to forcefully drag Aura toward the suite entrance.

Aura did not resist. She let him pull her, her internal sensors actively analyzing his physical strength, heart rate, and adrenaline output during the exertion.

Axel shoved her roughly out into the hallway. She stumbled slightly but caught her balance with perfect symmetry.

Axel glared at her, his chest heaving.

He slammed the heavy double doors shut in her face.

Aura stood in the hallway. She heard the sharp, metallic clack as Axel engaged the manual deadbolt from the inside.

Aura stood motionless in the quiet hallway. She stared at the closed mahogany doors.

She heard the heavy metal deadbolt slide into place.

Her processor instantly pulled up the architectural schematics of the hotel. She calculated the tensile strength of the standard-issue brass and steel locking mechanism.

It was insufficient.

Aura reached out. Her pale fingers gripped the brass door handle.

She did not pull. She applied a sudden, massive amount of rotational torque directly to her wrist joint.

A loud, violent metallic snap echoed like a gunshot in the empty hallway.

The deadbolt broke clean in half.

Aura pushed the doors open. The broken pieces of the lock mechanism rattled pathetically against the splintered wood.

She stepped back into the marble foyer.

Axel was standing by the minibar in the living room. He had just finished directing two hotel security guards to carry the still-unconscious Blair to a spare suite down the hall, her limp form finally removed from his sight. Now he needed a drink. He was pouring a glass of cold water, his hand shaking slightly from the adrenaline of the encounter.

He heard the door open.

The crystal glass slipped from his fingers. It hit the floor and shattered, joining the mess Blair had made earlier.

Axel spun around. He stared at the broken, splintered door frame in absolute, paralyzing shock. His breath hitched in his throat.

Aura walked past him. She completely ignored his reaction, her face an unreadable mask.

She headed directly down the short hallway toward the master bedroom.

Axel quickly recovered from his stupor. The shock morphed into blazing anger. He chased after her, his long legs eating up the distance.

"Stop right there! Get the hell out!" Axel yelled, his voice echoing off the walls.

Aura entered the bedroom. She stopped at the foot of the massive king-sized bed and assessed the mattress.

She reached out and pulled back the heavy, down-filled duvet with a single, sharp motion.

She turned to face Axel as he stormed into the room.

"I require sleep to function optimally," Aura stated.

Axel shoved his hand into his slacks, grabbing his phone. "I'm calling hotel security. You're going to jail, you psycho."

Aura ignored the threat. She climbed onto the mattress.

She lay down perfectly flat on her back. She placed her arms straight at her sides, her ankles touching. She looked like a corpse arranged in a coffin.

She closed her eyes, mimicking the human sleep mode she had observed in her database.

Axel dialed the security number. His thumb hovered over the call button.

He stopped.

He looked back out the bedroom door, his mind flashing back to the image of the broken metal deadbolt hanging from the front door's splintered wood. The sheer, unnatural destructive force she possessed sent a cold chill down his spine.

He looked back at the strange woman lying rigidly on his bed.

A cold realization washed over him. Normal hotel security guards were just men in suits. They would be useless against someone who could snap solid steel with a flick of her wrist. Calling them would just result in a bloodbath in his living room.

Axel slowly lowered his phone. His mind raced, calculating the threat level.

He walked over to the leather armchair in the dark corner of the bedroom.

He sat down heavily. He kept his eyes locked on Aura's unmoving form.

He crossed his arms over his chest. He decided he would sit there all night. The moment she opened her eyes, he would interrogate her until he broke her.

On the bed, Aura's internal sensors registered his intense gaze. Her processor noted his elevated vigilance.

She remained completely still, her breathing simulated to a perfect, rhythmic twelve breaths per minute.