Chapter 9
CHAPTER
NINE
AUbrEY
Paradise was bigger than I expected, though there was a part of me that couldn’t help but compare it to the pictures I’d seen.
They’d been faded in the pamphlets that Bishop and I had managed to find like we were on a scavenger hunt through the city.
It had been amazing then, maintained and gorgeous.
There was even a fake lagoon in the center of it with a little house you could rent, surrounded by wildlife kept safely at bay in cages.
It was picture perfect on paper, but as we rounded the corner and the gates came into view, I realized…
It was just as run-down as the rest of the world. It was broken, and there were vines crawling up along the gates. The welcome sign had been ripped down and replaced with crude words smeared across dilapidated wood with red paint.
And …
“Wow,” I breathed. “It’s perfect.”
The excitement buzzing through my chest was new . I hadn’t felt it in… fuck, it had been way too many years since I’d felt excited about anything. But there it was, in front of me.
The resort I’d been wanting to get to since I’d met Bishop and we’d found the letter. A place that looked wild and untamed. Untouched, really. There were supposed to be tigers here.
It was all there, waiting for someone to take it by the hands and make it theirs.
“Perfect, huh?” Phoenix sounded almost unsure, but I nodded, my gaze flicking to his with all the determination I felt building in my chest.
“Yeah, it will be by the time we’re through.”
I didn’t miss the way his eyes lit up again at the word we .
I did ignore it, because I didn’t have time to think about what it meant.
Instead, I followed him as he stepped forward and pressed his hands against the gate.
I had a second to appreciate the way his broad shoulders flexed as he pushed, the loud squeal of rusty metal giving way shooting through the air.
We’d spent the better part of a week walking here, and I’d spent that entire time making sure I didn’t have a repeat of what had happened with Phoenix the night before he’d taken me to the train station.
I couldn’t pretend that my lips around his cock had no influence on him coming here, and I couldn’t erase the way it had felt when he’d put his hands around my throat and I’d wondered if I was going to die while drowning in the ocean of his eyes .
It had been…
Fuck.
It had been something I didn’t need to think about. He’d hurt me, he’d bitten me. The bruises had almost faded already, but the memory of it still lingered in the back of my mind.
Phoenix had been the first person in a long time who hadn’t treated me like I could break.
And he was a raider who killed and ate people, so it was a nonfactor. I could use him to get here. I’d been planning on killing him the moment he turned his back on me, even though I knew I’d probably end up dying while fighting the rest of his group, but…
Well…
When he’d told me where he was taking me, it was too good to resist. I was under no illusion that Paradise was safe. There were probably creatures hidden in every nook and cranny.
It meant too much to me to try and do it alone, guns blazing and the promise of pain getting me through. If I could actually have this—if I could make this place good?
Well, shit.
Maybe that was all I’d ever needed to do from the beginning.
Maybe this was how I made everything that had happened to me, all the pain and loss, worth it .
The thought made emotions creep in slowly, a painful little trickle that I knew would grow roots and choke me if given the chance.
I bit my cheek hard enough to taste blood, but it wasn’t enough.
All I could see behind my eyes was the way Bishop had smiled when he’d mentioned this place—all I could hear was the sound of Ben telling me the blood on my letter was the same as the blood on my hands.
God damn it.
I stepped forward as Phoenix strolled through the gates like he owned the place, and something in my stomach clenched.
Vines… the sound of animals… it wasn’t quite right. Something was off.
“Down,” I shouted without thinking, darting forward before the syllable left my lips. Phoenix was already dropping as the sound of gunfire started, though I could see the tension in his shoulders slowly fade away.
I could see the grin that crossed his face as soon as he realized where the bullets were coming from.
“You like fighting, right, Killer? Come on.” He jerked his head toward the sound of people shouting. “Time to show me what you’re made of.”
I could already feel my body tingling in anticipation. The emotions I’d been drowning in moments ago, the overwhelming, all-consuming pain of my loss, at what this place meant… it all faded away on the promise of a fight, at the promise of danger.
It dissolved into nothing as I looked at Phoenix and nodded. “Okay.”
As we stepped toward the sound of shouting and gunfire, the roots that had tried to twist between my ribs to break me snapped and fell to the ground at my feet.
I was faintly aware that the sensation of need tearing through me was dangerously close to what I’d felt when Phoenix let me slide to my knees for him in that dirty building where he’d caught me, and it didn’t matter.
None of it mattered except the feel of metal in my hand and the knowledge that I was going to get to fight.
I was going to get to kill.
And the vicious joy on Phoenix’s face as he kicked in the door that the raiders had obviously blocked was enough to swallow me down and let me drown in the knowledge that he felt the same excitement as me.
It was almost sinful how we moved in perfect sync.
He glanced back, and I jerked my head to the right—Phoenix didn’t question it.
He just took off at a run to the left, pulling the axe I’d seen him use earlier from his back and catching the raider holding a gun with an upward swing that split his chin wide open, forcing his jaw to part like it was made of clay instead of flesh and bone.
The river of blood that followed when he jerked his weapon free soaked the ground, because Phoenix was already moving.
I nearly took a knife to my shoulder watching in awe at the pure brutality and strength of his body.
He was more animal than man as he tore through the people in front of him, and the wicked grin on his face told me he liked it, even when one of them sliced his shoulder open.
It was almost infuriating how efficient he was, and dangerous how distracting it could be. I barely managed to swing my arm out and catch another man as he charged toward me—I took him by the wrist and shivered at the sound of his arm cracking as I jerked it behind him.
A broken arm wasn’t enough, though. I shoved him away from me, using his momentum and the pain he was in to send him to the ground. My boot came down on his face once, twice, three times, until a loud crunching sound and small gush of blood told me I’d done enough.
He was still twitching, but he wasn’t going to be a threat anytime soon.
Fuck, sometimes I wondered whether I’d killed more humans than I had infected at this point.
I added another number to the count when a woman charged at me and I pulled my knife, thrusting it between us as she lifted what looked like a makeshift mace. I had to force myself forward to drag the blade up in a sharp jerk, and I shoved her back before her intestines could spill all over me.
I didn’t want to have to clean my boots.
I didn’t want to have to see how young she was when the light faded from her eyes.
I turned to look at Phoenix instead, who had a man by the throat, lifted into the air.
Those oceanic eyes turned to me as he threw him, and we were both left standing in silence and bloodshed for a second—a breath—a moment that felt like it spilled across time and made me realize…
We worked well together.
Fuck .
“Come on, we should keep moving.” Thankfully his growling demand interrupted me before I could spiral, and I nodded, following him as he led me out of the room. I hadn’t had to use my gun yet—I had ammo, but I didn’t know when I’d find any more. It had been easier to get when I was in the Order .
But now…
Well, now I needed to be careful.
The sound of something roaring and a sharp shout that sent Phoenix running told me that maybe careful was over, though. I pulled my pistol and checked that there was ammo in the clip before I chased after him.
By the time we got into the square, I realized what the issue was. I realized where the roaring had come from.
The raiders who’d been here before us had obviously been here for a while, because they’d had time to set up a trap.
And this one…
Well, this one was one of the rabid animals. Infected. Dangerous.
Crazed.
And it had one of Phoenix’s raider buddies cornered. Judging by the wide-eyed expression on her face, she knew she was no match for the beast.
And I knew she was right.
It had no fur, and its skin was mottled and almost grayish. The teeth in its mouth were so elongated that it couldn’t close its jaw. There was a madness in its gaze that told me it had been infected its entire existence.
How many generations had the creatures been breeding while carrying the virus?
I think once upon a time it had been a bear .
“Cora, move .” Phoenix’s voice should have distracted the beast, but it stared at the woman in front of it with a singular purpose, and her scream cut off in a groan as the bear swiped at her chest, throwing her across the plaza we were in like she was nothing but a rag doll.
If I’d wondered how much he cared about his group, I was about to see. The near roar that tore from his throat as he ran forward and buried his axe in the back of the thing’s skull told me it was more than I’d anticipated.
I didn’t know raiders could care—I’d never seen it from them before.
Then again, when had I ever taken the time to get to know one?