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)
Severin glanced back at her, his pale blue eyes sharp in the dim light.
“You should be careful—there are probably flesh-eating lizard zombies hiding behind some of the rocks.”
Cassie stared at him.
“Your bedside manner is terrible. You know that?”
He shrugged.
“I know.”
At any other time, she might have laughed. She almost did now, but she was afraid it might come out as a sob instead. The sound got trapped somewhere inside her chest and then something shrieked far behind them, somewhere near the bunker shaft they had just escaped.
The sound rose into the mist—high and hungry—and was answered by several more cries from different directions.
Cassie froze in fear, feeling like a rabbit with a hawk circling overhead.
Ravik moved closer behind her at once and put a big, warm hand on her back.
“Keep walking, baby,” he rumbled.
“I’m walking,” Cassie said, starting again, though her legs felt a little less reliable than they had a second ago. “I am very much walking. In fact, I’m walking so much my feet are probably never going to be the same after this.”
“Quietly,” Severin added.
“Right. Silent terror-walking. Got it.”
Cassie knew she was babbling and made herself shut up. Sarcasm had helped her through a lot, but sometimes—like say, during a zombie apocalypse—you had to shut the fuck up so the zombies didn’t hear you.
The ravine narrowed as they went, the black stone walls rising higher on either side until Cassie felt as though they were moving through a crack in the planet. Strange crystalline growths jutted from the rock in places—dull and cloudy now but probably beautiful before the Hunger Virus turned everything into a nightmare. Some were broken off, their jagged edges catching the weak light like teeth.
Cassie tried not to think about teeth…which was difficult because teeth had become a major theme in her life recently.
She glanced down at her arm and saw the bite wound glowing faintly beneath her skin. It wasn’t too bright, thank God—it hadn’t gone back to the angry reddish-gold pulse that had meant her body was losing its mind and demanding sex and seed instead of flesh. But there was still a faint shimmer there—a soft warning glow that waxed and faded in time with her heartbeat.
Severin turned to look back at her and saw her staring at her arm.
“Is it worsening?” he asked, his cool voice tinged with worry.
“No.” Cassie tucked her arm a little closer to her body. “It’s just doing its usual terrifying nightlight thing.”
Ravik leaned closer from behind and inhaled.
“Cassie smells scared,” he remarked.
She looked over her shoulder at him.
“That is because Cassie is scared.”
His golden eyes softened.
“Ravik protects Cassie.” He shook his head as thought to clear it. “I mean, I’ll protect you, Cassie.”
“I know you will, big guy.” Her voice gentled despite the fear knotting her stomach. “Thank you.”
His eyes were clearer than they had been earlier, but there was still a faint haze around the edges. She could see it when he turned his head—a milky shimmer that came and went like fog over sunlight.
Severin kept noticing too. He tried not to be obvious about it, but every few minutes, he glanced back at Ravik with that tight, worried look on his face.
Ravik noticed his friend noticing and he clearly wasn’t happy about it.
“Stop checking my eyes,” he growled after the fourth time.
“I’ll stop checking your eyes when I’m no longer concerned about your neurological stability,” Severin replied.
“That was a lot of words to say you don’t trust me,” Ravik grumbled.
“It was the precise number of words I needed to say I am trying to keep you alive,” Severin shot back.
Ravik made an angry sound low in his throat and Cassie sighed.
“Boys, I know this is a stressful zombie hike, but could we maybe not have another fight about the bite-delivered orgasm cure while we are actively in zombie country?” she asked.
Both males went silent.
Well, that was something, she supposed.
The problem was, the silence between them was almost as bad as the arguing. Cassie could feel it like static in the air—the tension…the frustration…the hurt neither one of them wanted to name.
Ravik was angry because Severin wanted to bite him.
Severin was hurt because Ravik wouldn’t trust him.
And underneath all of it was the thing neither of them seemed willing to look at directly—what had happened between the three of them in the bunker had changed something between them.
But there was no time to deal with all that now—no time for therapy in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.
Cassie kept walking.
The ravine opened suddenly onto a wider stretch of broken stone, and Severin lifted one hand sharply.
Cassie stopped so fast Ravik nearly bumped into her from behind. Before she could ask what was wrong, Severin turned and pressed a finger to his lips.
Then she heard it…a wet clicking sound. Then another and another. There was more than one Infected out there.