Chapter 43
CASSIE
Cassie had thought the bunker was terrifying when she first got there…she’d been wrong.
The bunker had been narrow and cold and full of strange Visskous equipment, yes.
It had smelled like metal, old air, antiseptic, alien food, and the kind of science Severin seemed to think made perfect sense even when it involved glowing honey samples and bite-delivered orgasm medicine.
But it had also had walls…thick walls. Not to mention doors, locks and a ceiling that didn’t’ show the bruise-colored sky above Visslick Prime or the jagged black ridges on either side of them, stretching away into the mist.
Out here, there was nothing between them and the Infected but distance, darkness, and two very large Kindred warriors who were both acting like they were perfectly capable of fighting off an entire planet full of zombies.
Which was at least reassuring.
Cassie walked between Ravik and Severin through the narrow ravine, trying not to slip on the wet black stone beneath her bare feet.
The stones hurt her soles and the air smelled awful—rot and ash and something sour that made the back of her throat want to close up.
Every breath tasted wrong—like she was inhaling the remains of a world that had died months ago and was rotting away.
The communications tower rose in the distance, thin and crooked against the gray sky. Cassie couldn’t help thinking it looked impossibly far away.
“Tell me again that’s less than two kilometers away,” she said, gripping the charge baton in both hands.
“It is less than two kilometers,” Severin said from ahead of her.
“Now tell me it’s going to feel like less than two kilometers,” she begged.
“I’m sorry but it’s not going to feel like less than two kilometers,” was the Blood Kindred’s implacable reply. “Not in this situation.”
Cassie shot a glare at his broad back.
“You could have lied.”
“I could have,” he said, glancing back at her. “But I didn’t think this was the best time to begin a pattern of false reassurance.”
Behind her, Ravik gave a low grunt that might have been amusement.
“Sev doesn’t lie well,” he remarked.
“Good to know,” Cassie said. “Though honestly, right now I would accept a few comforting lies. Something along the lines of, ‘Don’t worry, Cassandra, there are definitely no flesh-eating lizard zombies hiding behind those rocks.’”
Severin glanced back at her, his pale blue eyes sharp in the dim light.
“You should be careful—there are probably flesh-eating lizard zombies hiding behind some of the rocks.”
Cassie stared at him.
“Your bedside manner is terrible. You know that?”
He shrugged.
“I know.”
At any other time, she might have laughed. She almost did now, but she was afraid it might come out as a sob instead. The sound got trapped somewhere inside her chest and then something shrieked far behind them, somewhere near the bunker shaft they had just escaped.
The sound rose into the mist—high and hungry—and was answered by several more cries from different directions.
Cassie froze in fear, feeling like a rabbit with a hawk circling overhead.
Ravik moved closer behind her at once and put a big, warm hand on her back.
“Keep walking, baby,” he rumbled.
“I’m walking,” Cassie said, starting again, though her legs felt a little less reliable than they had a second ago. “I am very much walking. In fact, I’m walking so much my feet are probably never going to be the same after this.”
“Quietly,” Severin added.
“Right. Silent terror-walking. Got it.”
Cassie knew she was babbling and made herself shut up. Sarcasm had helped her through a lot, but sometimes—like say, during a zombie apocalypse—you had to shut the fuck up so the zombies didn’t hear you.
The ravine narrowed as they went, the black stone walls rising higher on either side until Cassie felt as though they were moving through a crack in the planet.
Strange crystalline growths jutted from the rock in places—dull and cloudy now but probably beautiful before the Hunger Virus turned everything into a nightmare.
Some were broken off, their jagged edges catching the weak light like teeth.
Cassie tried not to think about teeth…which was difficult because teeth had become a major theme in her life recently.
She glanced down at her arm and saw the bite wound glowing faintly beneath her skin.
It wasn’t too bright, thank God—it hadn’t gone back to the angry reddish-gold pulse that had meant her body was losing its mind and demanding sex and seed instead of flesh.
But there was still a faint shimmer there—a soft warning glow that waxed and faded in time with her heartbeat.
Severin turned to look back at her and saw her staring at her arm.
“Is it worsening?” he asked, his cool voice tinged with worry.
“No.” Cassie tucked her arm a little closer to her body. “It’s just doing its usual terrifying nightlight thing.”
Ravik leaned closer from behind and inhaled.
“Cassie smells scared,” he remarked.
She looked over her shoulder at him.
“That is because Cassie is scared.”
His golden eyes softened.
“Ravik protects Cassie.” He shook his head as thought to clear it. “I mean, I’ll protect you, Cassie.”
“I know you will, big guy.” Her voice gentled despite the fear knotting her stomach. “Thank you.”
His eyes were clearer than they had been earlier, but there was still a faint haze around the edges. She could see it when he turned his head—a milky shimmer that came and went like fog over sunlight.
Severin kept noticing too. He tried not to be obvious about it, but every few minutes, he glanced back at Ravik with that tight, worried look on his face.
Ravik noticed his friend noticing and he clearly wasn’t happy about it.
“Stop checking my eyes,” he growled after the fourth time.
“I’ll stop checking your eyes when I’m no longer concerned about your neurological stability,” Severin replied.
“That was a lot of words to say you don’t trust me,” Ravik grumbled.
“It was the precise number of words I needed to say I am trying to keep you alive,” Severin shot back.
Ravik made an angry sound low in his throat and Cassie sighed.
“Boys, I know this is a stressful zombie hike, but could we maybe not have another fight about the bite-delivered orgasm cure while we are actively in zombie country?” she asked.
Both males went silent.
Well, that was something, she supposed.
The problem was, the silence between them was almost as bad as the arguing. Cassie could feel it like static in the air—the tension…the frustration…the hurt neither one of them wanted to name.
Ravik was angry because Severin wanted to bite him.
Severin was hurt because Ravik wouldn’t trust him.
And underneath all of it was the thing neither of them seemed willing to look at directly—what had happened between the three of them in the bunker had changed something between them.
But there was no time to deal with all that now—no time for therapy in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.
Cassie kept walking.
The ravine opened suddenly onto a wider stretch of broken stone, and Severin lifted one hand sharply.
Cassie stopped so fast Ravik nearly bumped into her from behind. Before she could ask what was wrong, Severin turned and pressed a finger to his lips.
Then she heard it…a wet clicking sound. Then another and another. There was more than one Infected out there.
There were several of them, probably—dozens. Maybe even a whole herd.
The clicking sounds were coming from somewhere ahead and above, drifting down through the mist like insects scraping their legs together.
Cassie’s skin crawled and her fingers tightened around the charge baton until her knuckles hurt.
Severin motioned toward a shadowed overhang in the ravine wall. Ravik moved instantly, one arm curling around Cassie’s waist as he guided her backward beneath the jutting stone. Severin came in close on her other side, pressing her between their bodies and the cold rock.
Then the three of them froze and Cassie tried very hard not to breathe too loudly.
Above them, shapes moved through the mist.
The Infected passed along the ridge in a loose, shuffling pack.
Cassie could see their long Visskous limbs through gaps in the stone—too thin and too jerky—and their gray-green scales, now dull and crusted with dark stains.
Their mouths hung open, lipless and wrong, showing thin, needle-like teeth and black-red gums. Some crawled on all fours.
Others lurched upright, shambling along with their heads twitching periodically as though they were scenting the air.
Then one stopped directly above them and started sniffing. It was huge, with flesh hanging off it in clunks and one eye socket that was horribly empty. In fact, it looked a lot like the one that had bitten her in the first place.
Cassie felt like someone had dumped a whole gallon of ice straight into the pit of her belly. Her whole body started to tremble and Ravik’s arm tightened around her waist.
Severin’s hand came gently over her mouth—not hard or frightening—just firm enough to remind her not to make a sound.
Of course, Cassie knew she had to be quiet—she absolutely did. But when the huge Infected lowered its head and sniffed in their direction, white eyes rolling blindly in its skull, a tiny panicked sound tried to escape her anyway. Luckily, Severin’s hand held it in.
His body was pressed against her side and Ravik was against her back.
The two of them were so close that their scents filled her head.
Ravik smelled like leather and smoke and warm male skin and Severin smelled like cold ocean wind with something new beneath it—something faintly golden and sharp that made the bite wound on her arm pulse.
And when the bite wound pulsed, other parts of her pulsed too.
Cassie squeezed her eyes shut.
Oh no—not now! she begged her body. Now is not the time to start getting horny and demanding male seed again! Please, calm down—we can’t do this right now!