Chapter 8 #3
There was something about him that slipped past my walls and smothered me in the gentlest, most comforting warmth every time he looked at me. Every time he spoke to me. Like I instinctively knew he wouldn’t hurt me. I’d never felt that with anyone before, and it was as calming as it was unsettling.
I took his hand and let him pull me to my feet, pushing away the disappointment when he let go.
I followed him inside, and when he glanced back at me, his eyes flew down to my feet.
“Oh, shit, you’re not wearing shoes. Damn it.
Okay, stay right there for a second.” He started walking away, and I took a step.
He whipped around and pointed a thick finger at me.
“I mean it. Don’t move, I’ll be right back. ”
He muttered something to himself as he turned and walked off down an aisle.
I glowered at his back until he disappeared, then looked down at my feet.
Shoes? I didn’t need shoes. I’d never worn shoes. It had never mattered before.
The crunch of his boots had me raising my gaze to his large form, and then my eyes dropped to his hands.
He was holding a ratty pair of shoes. They were brown, stained, and there was a hole in the toe of one.
“These’ll have to do for now, sorry. I can make you some that fit better when we get back.”
He got down on one knee in front of me, holding a shoe open near my left foot. His eyes were level with mine, and he nodded at the shoe. “Go on. Put your foot in.”
I didn’t want to—and I did. Because he’d found them for me.
I lifted my foot and immediately lost my balance, but Cain was there holding my arm, steadying me.
“Put your hands on my shoulders.” He slid his palm down my arm and placed my hand on his shoulder for me, the warmth of him searing into my skin.
I set my other hand on his opposite shoulder, curling my fingers over the hard muscle. “Good. Like that.”
He took his hand off mine and curved it around my ankle, guiding my foot into the shoe. It was a little big, and it felt really strange. Bulky. Scratchy. Heavy. I didn’t like the feel of the material scraping against my skin, smothering it.
But he’d gotten them for me. They were mine now.
I didn’t protest when Cain tightened the laces and tied them, didn’t say anything when he put the other shoe on and tied that, too.
When he stood and rested his hands on his hips, looking down at my feet with a soft smile, I decided I could put up with how strange it felt if it meant he was happy. That he would keep looking at me like that.
“How’s that? Feel okay?” His dark eyes searched mine, glinting in the dim light.
I nodded.
“Good. If your ankle gives you any trouble, call for me, okay?”
I nodded again, knowing I wouldn’t.
He let me wander around while he searched for what he needed. I didn’t find a stuffed rabbit, and there wasn’t much in here, but I did find a book. I flipped through the thin, worn pages and listened to the distant sounds of Cain rooting through stuff on the other side of the building.
I jumped when a triumphant “Ha!” rang out loudly from across the room. Heavy footsteps headed my way, and Cain was smiling when he turned the corner. He was clutching something shiny and orange coiled tightly in his hand.
“Found it. Fucking found it, I really wasn’t expecting there to be any left.
” He glanced down at the book in my hands.
“You can take that, if you want. Here, I’ll put it in my pack.
” He held out his hand for the book, and after a moment of hesitation, I pressed it into his palm.
He slung the pack from his back to put away the book and the coiled wire, cinching it tight when they were safely stored.
“Alright, mission accomplished. Ready to head back?”
I nodded.
When he held his arms open, I walked into them and let him pick me up.
It was windy when we got outside, dead leaves drifting across the broken pavement. Cain took us back the way we’d come, humming a song that vibrated through his chest into my legs.
We were halfway to the outskirts when a flash of that familiar, ugly sensation crept through my veins. “Cain. Stop. They’re here.”
He stopped walking and tilted his head up at me, raising a questioning brow.
The feeling slithered away, as quickly as it had come. Had I imagined it?
“Who’s here?”
“The Corrupted.”
“The…what?”
I frowned down at him. “The Corrupted.”
He shook his head. “I don’t know what that means.”
“Of course you do,” I said. Was he teasing? Everyone knew what they were.
He laughed, but there wasn’t any humor in it. “I really don’t.”
I thought he was teasing me, and irritation began to flicker in my gut. “Those things that are infected with the virus?”
His brows furrowed. “You call them the Corrupted?”
Didn’t everyone? “What do you call them?”
He shrugged, and my entire body lifted with the movement.
“Just…the infected. The dead. Dead walkers, dead runners.” Then he seemed to realize something, and his eyebrows knitted together as he stared up at me.
“Wait, what do you mean they’re here?” He tensed, his hand moving to hover over the machete hanging from his hip.
He scanned the street, eyes darting over every inch of the deserted landscape.
The furrow in his brows deepened. “I don’t see anything. ”
“I thought I felt them, but I don’t anymore.”
His gaze shot to mine. “What do you mean, you thought you felt them?”
“I’m a hound. I can feel them when they’re close.”
The muscles in his arms flexed as he tightened his hold. “What? That’s what you meant before when you called yourself a hound?” A muscle in his jaw started to tic. His eyes flashed briefly to my muzzle.
Had I done something wrong? Did he not like hounds? Or would he…would he take me back there? Chain me up again? Use me like Hunter and Hayes had—
“Hey, whoa, breathe. It’s okay. You’re okay. We don’t have to talk about this if it upsets you.”
His deep voice broke through the sudden panic, and his big palm on my thigh began stroking back and forth.
“Put me down,” I said, breathless, still on edge. I needed to be able to run if I had to, to—
Cain carefully set me on my feet, keeping his hands beneath my elbows, holding me steady. “I know you can walk, but if it hurts at any point, tell me, okay? I don’t want you doing more damage.”
I took a step back, suddenly feeling too small, too vulnerable.
It was quiet for a few moments, the only sound the hum of insects.
“Can you tell me what you meant?”
His voice was soft. Gentle. Careful.
I took another step back and met his gaze. A shadow passed through his eyes, something sad and dark.
“I have the virus inside me,” I told him, my voice faint.
He didn’t seem surprised at all—like he’d already known.
Of course he’d known. All you had to do was take one look at me to know there was something deeply wrong with me.
“Yeah,” he said after a minute. “I figured that was the case. But…I’ve never heard of a hound.”
I swallowed past the lump in my throat. “A bloodhound. Someone like me, who’s got bad blood. Someone who can sense the Corrupted. That was…”
That was what I was. All I’d ever been.
Cain’s gaze never wavered from mine, a quiet patience radiating from his being. I could tell he wanted me to continue, that he wanted to understand, so I told him.
Everything.
“There were a lot of us. They kept us all in cages. It was one big cage a long time ago, but that didn’t work because one of us would corrupt and kill a bunch of us, and Hunter and Hayes didn’t like losing their hounds.
We stayed in those cages most of the time, unless they took us out to do something and needed some of us to—to tell them when the Corrupted were near so they could hunt them. Or we had to protect them. Or be bait.”
He closed his eyes and drew in a long, deep breath. When he let it out, he opened his eyes and fixed them on me with an unwavering intensity. “But you’re not a hound anymore.”
It wasn’t a question. He said it so matter-of-factly that it struck me hard, right in the chest.
“I’ll always be a hound.”
He shook his head. “No. You won’t. You’re not. Not anymore. Now you’re just Bowen.”
My next breath got caught in my throat, a painful hitch that was accompanied by an awful sense of relief.
“Oh,” was all I could squeeze past the lump in my throat.
I took a step forward, not really sure what I intended to do.
I just wanted to be closer to him again, but the bottom of one of my shoes flapped open and I tripped.
Cain caught me with an arm around my chest, then crouched to look at the shoe. He took my hand and set it on his shoulder while lifting my foot up.
He frowned and said, “Damn it. I’m sorry, that’s my fault.
I thought those might last longer.” He glanced to his left, where a two-story building stood.
The roof looked like it had caved in somewhat, but the rest of it was fine.
“You know what…there might be some better shoes in there. We should check. You up for it?”
He smiled and looked down at me with a soft gaze.
I opened my mouth, ready to tell him I didn’t need any shoes, then clamped it shut.
I wanted everything he wanted to give me.
“Okay,” I said softly. “But I’m not staying out here.”
“Alright then. Can you still walk in those? There’s a lot of glass in there, I don’t want you going in barefoot.”
I nodded.
He smiled and helped me step through the frame of a door that had jagged glass around the edges. He cupped his big hand over the back of my head, protecting me from the glass.
My heart thumped as my eyes adjusted to the dark interior.
No one had ever looked out for me before. Protected me. Cared for me.
I glanced up at Cain, my chest filling with an immense warmth. I thought it might rip me open, and it was frightening how badly I wanted to let it.
“Alright, let’s see if anyone left some shoes behind,” he said, running a finger down my burning cheek. Glass crunched under his boots, loud in the stillness.