Total pages in book: 165
Estimated words: 159487 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 797(@200wpm)___ 638(@250wpm)___ 532(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 159487 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 797(@200wpm)___ 638(@250wpm)___ 532(@300wpm)
Then Cassandra touched Ravik’s arm.
“Hey, big guy,” she said softly. “It’s okay—just focus on me.”
The shift in the Beast Kindred was immediate. His shoulders lowered slightly, and the haze in his eyes thinned as he breathed in her scent.
“I understand,” he said at last. His gaze flicked back to Severin, still wary but clearer. “But I’m still not letting you bite me.”
Severin almost laughed, though there was nothing funny about the situation.
“Do you honestly think this is the moment to keep arguing about that?” he demanded. “The power is out, the backup systems are down, and something just hit the bunker hard enough to shake the walls.”
“Then we deal with that first,” Ravik growled. “Afterward, you can go back to trying to get your fangs in me.”
Severin clenched his jaw so hard his teeth ached.
He wanted to shout at his best friend—wanted to tell him he was being an irrational, stubborn, over-muscled fool who would rather risk losing his mind than admit that Severin might know what he was talking about. He wanted to shake Ravik until the male understood that this was not about sex, not about pride, and most certainly not about the old rules that said a Blood Kindred should only bite his mate.
But underneath the frustration was fear…so much fear that it felt like a hand around his throat.
Because Ravik didn’t remember. He didn’t remember the worst of the fog…the vacant eyes…the broken words…the nights when Severin had locked himself in the lab and listened to his best friend growling through the door like an wild animal. Ravik didn’t know what it had done to Severin to watch him vanish piece by piece into the fog.
And now he was refusing the one thing that might save him completely.
Another boom rolled through the bunker, closer this time and Severin reminded himself of what he had just told Ravik—there was no time to fight about this now. They had to assess the situation and act quickly.
Cassandra flinched at the echoing boom.
“Okay, I hate to interrupt the male stubbornness festival, but what is that?”
Severin turned his light toward the far end of the corridor.
“Either the outer access hatch is under stress or the Infected have found the intake shaft. Possibly both,” he said, forcing himself back into useful facts because useful facts were the only thing keeping him from losing control.
“The Infected have found us?” Cassandra’s voice went tight. “How? We’re underground.”
“The beacon pulses,” Severin said, already moving toward the lab. “I’ve been sending emergency bursts toward the communications tower whenever we had enough power to spare. The tower is damaged, but it can still amplify a signal—I sent an especially long one this morning, explaining everything I knew about the Hunger Virus and the fact that we may have a cure now. The extra-long pulse may have drawn them, or the power surge may have burned through the external couplings.”
“You’re telling me the signal meant to save us may have led the zombies to our front door?” Cassandra demanded, following him with Ravik close behind her.
“I’m telling you the signal may have been the only reason anyone aboard the Mother Ship might know we’re still alive and where to find us,” Severin said. “Unfortunately, the Infected are still attracted to heat, movement, sound, and certain electrical frequencies. I had hoped the outer shielding would hold.”
Ravik gave a humorless grunt behind them.
“Looks like you hoped wrong, buddy.”
Severin bit back a sharp reply. It wouldn’t help the situation, he reminded himself. It would be satisfying, but it wouldn’t help.
When they reached the lab, Severin’s light swept over the equipment and the darkened monitors. Most of the samples were sealed, thank the Goddess, but the refrigeration unit had switched to passive insulation and would not hold indefinitely without power. The air was already beginning to feel heavier and warmer with the ventilation system dead overhead.
He used his light to scan the bunker’s control system on the far wall—several gauges were cracked and one of the electrical boxes was leaking a stream of dark, acrid smoke. When he pulled it open, he saw that every wire inside had melted and fused together. His stomach tightened—there was no fixing or salvaging that. The bunker was dead and they would be too if they didn’t get out quickly.
Cassandra hovered in the doorway, watching him with anxious eyes.
“How bad is it?” she asked, her voice quivering slightly.
“Bad enough that we can’t stay here,” Severin said. He grabbed the portable med-kit first, then the sealed case containing the altered honey sample, the anti-viral files, and the remaining compound data and shoved them all in an insulated pack. “The air recyclers are offline, the outer seals may fail, and if the Infected are at the hatch, they will eventually get in,” he added.
Ravik frowned.
“Then we fight our way out.”