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)
“Well it wasn’t the zombies turning me on, if that’s what you’re implying,” Cassie snapped. “It’s the damn Hunger Virus. It makes me crave sex and seed instead of living flesh, but I guess you don’t remember that.”
Ravik shook his head.
“No, I don’t. But when we get somewhere safe I expect the two of you to fill me in on everything that’s been happening and what the fuck we’ve been doing together.”
Cassie exchanged a look with Severin, whose jaw tightened.
“We don’t have time for this right now,” he said tightly. “Fear and proximity may be triggering the viral pathway in your body again, Cassandra. We need to keep moving before it worsens.”
Cassie raked a hand through her hair.
“You know, I miss when my body only betrayed me with hot flashes.”
“I’m sure those were inconvenient as well,” Severin said.
“They were. But none of them tried to get me eaten by zombies because I was glowing like a sexy infected flashlight.”
Ravik barked a laugh and Severin’s mouth twitched despite everything.
It helped lighten the mood…a little, anyway.
They moved on again, faster this time. The communications tower was closer now, though still much too far for Cassie’s liking. It rose from a shelf of dark stone beyond the ravine, its base surrounded by broken fencing and shattered Visskous equipment. A long access ladder ran up one side, leading toward a platform with dangling cables and a dish-shaped transmitter that looked partially intact.
Cassie stared at it.
“Please tell me we don’t have to climb that.”
“We have to climb that,” Severin said.
“I said please,” Cassie said plaintively.
He shrugged.
“I heard you. But I cannot change reality for you, as much as I wish I could.”
Ravik grunted.
“I’ll climb first.”
“No,” Severin said at once. “You’re too large. The ladder may not hold your weight if the structural supports are compromised.”
Ravik gave him an incredulous look.
“Are you saying I’m too heavy?”
“I am saying the tower is damaged and you weigh considerably more than Cassandra.”
Both males turned to look at her.
Cassie immediately shook her head.
“Oh no. No, no, no. I do not like where you’re going with this.”
“You’re the lightest,” Severin said carefully.
“I am also the only one who’s not a big, scary Kindred warrior,” she pointed out.
“You wouldn’t have to fight,” he said. “Just climb to the first platform and attach the signal relay. I can talk you through it from below.”
Ravik growled.
“No. Cassie doesn’t climb alone.”
“She has to if the ladder won’t hold both of us,” Severin said.
“She is not going up there with Infected nearby.”
Cassie looked from one male to the other and felt annoyance spark through her fear.
“I’m standing right here, you know.”
Both of them stopped talking and looked at her.
“Thank you.”
She looked up at the tower and swallowed hard. The climb looked awful and the platform looked worse. The whole thing looked like something from a nightmare about falling.
“I don’t want to climb that thing. Just so we’re clear. But if I’m the only one light enough to do it, then I’ll climb it,” she said.
Ravik’s face went thunderous.
“No. I don’t like putting you at risk!”
Cassie planted a hand on her hip.
“Don’t say ‘no’ me. Someone has to go up there and send a message or we’re never getting off this stupid planet!”
“Cassie—” he began.
“No. I mean it.” Her voice shook, but she kept going. “I am not luggage. I am not bait. And I’m damn sure not your fragile little human package to carry around while you two argue over who gets to protect me the hardest. If climbing that horrible tower gets us off this planet, then I’m climbing.”
Severin gave her a look of approval and Ravik’s face showed reluctant admiration.
“Tough little thing, aren’t you, baby?” he rumbled.
Cassie lifted her chin.
“I have to be. Look at where we are.”
“We get you to the ladder,” he said, nodding. “Sev and I will stay below. If anything comes near you, I’ll kill it.” He patted the blaster in his belt.
“That sounds fair,” Cassie said, though nothing about this whole desperate journey felt remotely fair at all.
They crossed the last stretch of ravine in a crouched run. Severin led, pulse pistol in one hand and the med-kit bouncing against his side. Cassie followed, gripping the charge baton, while Ravik stayed behind her with his shock blade drawn.
The open ground made her skin prickle. There were too many shadows between the broken equipment and too many places for something to hide and jump out at them.
Then something did.
An Infected lunged from behind a collapsed support beam, moving so fast Cassie barely saw it before it was on her. Its mouth opened impossibly wide, teeth slick and black, and a scream tore out of her throat as it sprang straight for her glowing arm.
Ravik hit it like a thunderbolt.
He slammed into the creature and drove it into the ground with enough force to crack stone. The shock blade flashed once, twice, and the Infected shrieked, clawing at his arms. Cassandra stumbled backward, nearly falling, but Severin caught her around the waist and hauled her behind him.