Chapter 5
CASSIE
A cool rush of air swirled around Cassie as the thick steel door slid open.
She shivered and her nipples went painfully hard behind the flimsy red silk nighty.
She wasn’t sure who she was going to see when she stepped into the bunker—would it be another Beast Kindred?
Or maybe a human man? And more importantly, would they let her stay?
Not if they find out you’ve been bitten, whispered a little voice in her head.
Surreptitiously, she tugged at the sleeve of her robe again, wishing it was longer.
There was some blood on the sleeve, which had dried by now, but luckily it didn’t show against the red silk except as a slightly darker patch, which was—she tried to convince herself—totally unnoticeable.
It’ll be fine, she told herself. Just stay cool and stick to your story—the Visskous put you out and you ran into the big guy before anything happened.
The big guy—who she’d heard the other man call “Ravik” was pushing her forward into a bare room that seemed to be made of entirely of stainless steel—floor, walls, and ceilings—with a few floor-to-ceiling plastic drapes.
A few instruments lay on a nearby stainless steel table—one of them being a syringe with a long, sharp needle and the other a piece of equipment that appeared to be some kind of microscope.
The scope was bolted to the table, which was, in turn, bolted to the floor.
She wondered why, but before she could say anything, the long plastic drapes parted and another Kindred warrior, this one wearing a white lab coat, entered the room.
He was a head shorter than the huge, burly Beast Kindred, but still so tall he towered over her. He had dark blonde hair and ice-blue eyes that seemed to flash like diamonds as he studied Cassie from behind his glasses.
She frowned—it wasn’t usual to see a Kindred with glasses.
They almost always had perfect eyesight, along with extremely sharp senses.
In fact, she’d heard it said that the average Kindred warrior had a better sense of smell than a bloodhound—maybe that was why the Beast Kindred had taken her with him. He seemed to like her scent.
“Hello,” the Blood Kindred said, nodding at her as he came forward. “I’m Severin and this is my best friend and partner, Ravik—since I doubt he told you his name,” he added, with a rueful look at the Beast Kindred.
“Uh, no—no he didn’t,” Cassie said. “I’m Cassandra Slisstik. Well, that was my name, anyway,” she added. “Back when I was married to a Visskous. Which I don’t consider myself to be anymore,” she added fiercely.
“Oh, is that how you came here to Visslick Prime?” The Blood Kindred raised one eyebrow inquiringly. “By Joining with one of the natives?”
“Yes,” Cassie said grimly. “I was working on the Kindred Mother Ship as an executive assistant to Commander Varn, the head of Communications, and my husband—ex husband, I mean—came to establish trade relations with the Kindred. He convinced me to Join with him and move here.”
“Oh, Commander Varn—I know him.” Severin nodded easily. “He’s a good male.”
“He was always a great boss,” Cassie offered, smiling.
She felt that the conversation was going extremely well so far.
The Blood Kindred named Severin hadn’t asked her again if she was infected and they seemed to know some of the same people.
Of course, the big Beast Kindred had actually seen her get bitten by an Infected, but he clearly wasn’t up to talking much, so hopefully she could keep her bite a secret.
“So how did you, er, come to leave your Visskous mate—if you don’t mind me asking?” Severin asked.
“Well, it was more like he left me—for a female Visskous who could lay him ‘a large clutch of eggs’ as he put it, when it comes time to ‘repopulate the world.’” Cassie rolled her eyes in exasperation.
“And since he had no more use for me—seeing as how my hormones are making me have hot flashes and I can’t lay eggs—he had the guards put me out of the Crystal City. ”
She tried to keep the rage out of her voice and couldn’t quite manage. After all, it had been barely an hour since Sskarth had abandoned her and broken pretty much all of their Joining vows at once. She had a right to be angry, she told herself.
“So…he parted with you because he found another female? Not because you were infected with the virus?” Severin asked, raising both eyebrows this time.
“Exactly,” Cassie said quickly, nodding her head. “I was safe inside the city walls before he had me thrown out. Nobody’s infected there—they developed a rapid-detection test months ago and nobody gets in without being tested. So everyone inside the Crystal City is free of infection.”
As she spoke, she heard her voice tremble and had to fight to keep from crying.
Being safe from infection was priceless—and she no longer was.
After all she might not be susceptible to the Hunger Virus because she was human and not Visskous…
but then again, she might be. She wouldn’t know for sure unless she started seeing the world in shades of gray and developed a taste for living flesh.
And what if you do develop a taste—is it fair to hide the bite on your arm from these two? whispered a guilty little voice inside her head.
If I start to turn, I’ll leave, she promised herself firmly. I won’t hang around until I attack someone—I’ll go voluntarily. Or, if I can find a gun, I’ll shoot myself.
It was an awful thought—one she didn’t want to even consider. She hadn’t seen her children for over a year at this point, since her last trip back to Earth on a Kindred transport vessel had been well before the outbreak. The idea of killing herself and never seeing them again was almost unbearable.
But death was better than being turned into a mindless killing machine—of that, she was certain.
“…have a rapid test too.”
“Hmm?” she asked, realizing that she’d missed something.
“I said, I’ve developed a rapid test too.” the big Blood Kindred said and Cassie realized he was coming towards her with the syringe. The needle at the end of it glittered with a kind of mute menace.
I know your dirty little secret, it seemed to say as he approached her. And I’m going to tell on you! Going to tell him YOU’RE INFECTED!
“No, wait—please!” She took a step backwards, holding up her hands in a “don’t shoot” gesture. “Please, I…I’m afraid of needles!”
“I’m very sorry, but you must be tested before I can let you into the bunker,” the Blood Kindred said firmly. “If there was any other way to get your blood, I would use it but there isn’t.”
“Please!” She took another step back and felt something hard and warm against her back. Looking up and over her shoulder, she realized that she’d backed right into the Beast Kindred.
“Ravik, hold her,” the one called Severin commanded.
At once, the huge muscular arms came around her, pinning her upper arms to her sides. Cassie struggled, but in vain—she might as well be fighting a huge oak tree or a brick wall—that was how immovable the Beast Kindred was.
“Don’t worry—I don’t need much blood,” Severin said, obviously trying to be soothing. “Just a little will tell me what I need to know and my test is accurate almost to the moment of infection. So if you haven’t been bitten or scratched, you have nothing to fear.”
Stepping forward, he took her by the right hand and stretched out her forearm so he could reach the veins in the crook of her elbow.
Cassie bit her lip, trying not to cry. At least he hadn’t gotten a good look at her left arm—which was where she’d been bitten.
But if his test was as rapid and accurate as he claimed, he was going to find out the truth soon, even if he didn’t see the ragged bite mark left by the sharp teeth of the Infected.
She hadn’t been lying when she said she didn’t like needles, though. Turning her head, she didn’t look as the Blood Kindred swabbed the inside of her elbow with something cold and then slid the needle into the big vein in her arm.
He had a surprisingly gentle touch but she still gritted her teeth as the sharp metal tip bit into her flesh.
“Almost done,” she heard Severin murmur. “You’re being very brave.”
“Don’t speak to me like I’m a child,” Cassie snapped, her voice coming out tight because she was fighting back tears. “I’m sure I’m older than you—I don’t need your pity or your condescension.”
Part of her was screaming that she shouldn’t be antagonizing him—that she ought to try and play nice—but another part just didn’t care. He was going to kick her out of the bunker as soon as he saw the virus multiplying in her blood anyway—so what was the point of trying to flatter him?
“My apologies if I offended you,” the Blood Kindred said, his voice growing cold. “But I am thirty-seven cycles old and Ravik, here, is thirty-nine. So I doubt you’re much older than either of us—even though your scent tells me you’re a Mature Elite.”
Cassie thought about telling him she was much older, but it was oddly flattering to know that he had mistaken her age and thought she was younger than she was.
Enjoy it, Cassie, she told herself. It’s probably the last compliment you’ll ever get.
Severin removed the needle from her arm and put a seal-all bandage on the small wound. Then he carried the syringe back to the microscope and began making a slide with her blood.
“Hey—why do you have the scope bolted to the table and the table bolted to the floor?” Cassie asked, voicing her question of earlier. She didn’t really care about the answer—she was just trying to distract him and herself from finding out the truth—that she was surely now one of the Infected.
“Back in the beginning of the infection when the virus was first spreading, we had some people get rather…violent, when they found out their results,” Severin said, as he slid the slide under the scope.
This equipment is expensive and hard to come by.
Well now, it’s impossible to come by,” he added dryly.
“I didn’t want to risk losing one of my best electron scopes when I knew I wasn’t going to be able to replace it. ”
Cassie could imagine a Visskous getting angry and sweeping everything off the table with his tail at the news that he was now one of the Infected—it was certainly something Sskarth would have done. So it made sense that the Blood Kindred had bolted his equipment down. In fact—
“Hmm, this is interesting.” Severin’s voice interrupted her train of thought and Cassie’s head jerked up.
“What? What is it?” she asked, unable to keep her voice from shaking.
“Well, it appears that you’ve been lying to me—you are infected with the Hunger Virus.” The Blood Kindred looked up from the scope for a moment, fixing her with an ice-cold stare.
Cassie’s stomach felt like she’d swallowed a fist-sized lump of ice.
“I’m sorry!” she babbled. “I swear, I wasn’t infected before they put me outside the city walls! I was just bitten not even an hour ago. I was clean until then—I swear it! Please, please—can’t you just—”
“Just what? Let you live here with us, anyway?” Severin demanded.
“Why not? You’re letting him live here and he’s clearly infected—or half-infected or something,” Cassie jerked her head up to indicate the big Beast Kindred, who was still holding her.
She expected him to say something, but Ravik was silent.
He did react to her in one way though—he bent his head, buried the side of his face in her hair, and inhaled deeply.
Since he had taken off the black respirator mask when they stepped inside, she could feel the warm stream of his breath against the side of her neck. It sent a shiver straight through her.
Her words about being “half infected” might not have moved the Beast Kindred to speak, but they certainly got a reaction from his friend. Severin winced as though she’d punched him and a look of deep pain fled over his previously stern features.
“Ravik’s infection is being controlled,” he said but she could hear the uncertainty in his voice. “However, you didn’t let me finish what I was saying.”
“Oh, by all means—go ahead and finish,” Cassie spat.
“Finish saying how you’re going to kick me out into the Dead Zone to be mauled and eaten alive by the Infected.
Or to turn into one myself, if I can hide long enough for the virus to work on me.
You know, the Kindred always present themselves as being so chivalrous—they’re all supposed to be feminists.
But you’ll kick me out without a second thought, just like my worthless Visskous husband! You—”
“Enough, woman!” Severin’s voice was like a clap of thunder. “Let me finish,” he growled and his eyes actually grew slightly red for a moment.
Cassie was stunned to silence by this sign of extreme anger and irritation—especially in a male who she could tell was usually cool, calm, and collected. Severin seemed like the detached, scientific type—which was the reputation most Blood Kindred had.
“Fine,” she said shortly, trying to ignore the way that Ravik was still sniffing her. “Finish.”
“I was going to say that the virus isn’t behaving like it does in either Visskous or Kindred blood.” He peered into the scope again and murmured, “Fascinating.”
Cassie wanted to scream.
“I’m not a science experiment, you know!” she snapped. “What’s so fascinating about me, anyway?”
“Well, I see the virus in your blood, but it isn’t multiplying.
Or at least, it isn’t multiplying yet.” The Blood Kindred looked up from the scope and stared at her speculatively.
“I think we need to keep you here to study this phenomenon. But first, we need to see where you were bitten or scratched. Ravik—strip her.”