Chapter 22
CASSIE
“What’s that smell?” Cassie mumbled, not opening her eyes. “Smells like…burning popcorn. Ugh.”
“Hmm?” a deep voice answered her. “What’s popcorn?”
Cassie frowned. Her husband, Sskarth, didn’t have a deep voice at all. It was high and dry and hissing—like a snake’s voice would be if it could talk, she’d always thought.
So then, who was she in bed with if it wasn’t Sskarth?
Mitch?
No—she rejected that idea. She’d divorced her first husband years ago and she was never going back to him. Plus, he knew what popcorn was—it had been his favorite snack. So then who was in bed beside her? And what was that burning smell?
These questions cut through her drowsiness enough to wake her more thoroughly.
She opened her eyes a crack and saw a huge Kindred warrior with blond hair looking back at her.
At first she couldn’t place him and panicked.
Had she gone out and gotten drunk last night and cheated on Sskarth?
But how—there were nothing but Visskous males in Crystal City.
“Cassandra, are you all right?” the warrior said and then she remembered everything. Being kicked out of the city by her cheating husband, bitten by an Infected, then thrown over Ravik’s shoulder…wait a minute. Where was Ravik? He wasn’t in bed with them and the burning smell was getting stronger.
Suddenly, a hoarse yell echoed down the bunker hallway.
“Ravik!” she and Severin both exclaimed at once. And then the race was on to scramble out of the huge bed and find out what the hell was going on.