To Death and Back
by Alexis Steinhauer
Nightshade is a Hybrid: he was born human, but now he is more machine than man. They extracted his heart years ago and replaced it with clockwork. He lives as less than a person, taking orders and poison both as commanded, and has never questioned his role before.
That is, until the day that he meets Artemis Southerland, a man who seems determined to turn Nightshade's stoic life inside out . . .