by J. L. Weil
A scream caught in my throat as the beast sprang, expanding its jaw to twice the size of its head. All I could see were fangs and dripping saliva. Letting electricity hum through my veins, I arced the blade in my hand upward, aiming for its underbelly.
At the same time, Ember joined the fray. A ball of fire whizzed through the air, but the snake whipped its tail, knocking the swirling flames to the ground. Not the end of the world. I still had my dagger jutting straight for its belly. Any moment it would…
My hand went sailing past the beast, missing it completely.
What the—
How had I not hit it?
My aim could be questionable, but it wasn’t that horrible.
Shit. I would be devoured to death.
Dash moved like lightning. I didn’t know how he could reach me, but his hand clasped around the riper’s neck a nanosecond before the creature tore off my nose and god knew what else.
Crack.
He snapped its spine, the creature’s body going limp. Dash chucked it across the room, turning his dark eyes on me. “What were you thinking?”
Exhaling, I tried to get my heart beating again. “That I didn’t want to die.”
A muscle thrummed along his jaw. “What if you had passed out? Once a riper gets the upper hand, there is no stopping him.”
I squirmed under Dash’s scrutiny. “My ability didn’t work before, so I figured I still had one to spare. It was a chance I was willing to take.”
“Dammit, I’m not willing to take chances with your life.” He dragged me into his arms, holding me close. His heat instantly enveloped me, and sweet relief danced through me. “You’ve got to stop doing this to me,” he whispered against my cheek, his voice deep and raspy.
The emotion I heard in his tone hit me right in the chest. “I swear I’m not doing it on purpose.”
A tremor moved through his body. “I’ve never had to work so hard at keeping someone alive before.”
His hand came up to cradle the side of my face, tilting my mouth up to meet his lips.
Ember groaned. “Can we skip the near-death makeout session and get the hell out of here?”
Dash’s thick lashes lifted as he broke off the kiss, and the smile on his lips was nothing short of sinful. “Just one more,” he murmured, dipping his head again.
“Oh, for the love of God,” Ember wasn’t having it. “Don’t make me fry you.”
I ignored her, needing another second in Dash’s arms. My heart had more or less returned to a steady rhythm as we moved to exit the holding house. I shuddered, stepping over the tail of the riper on our way out. Climbing up the ladder and through the hatch, I gulped in a dose of fresh air.
Ryker was beside the ranger looking bored. He wasn’t alone. Three other Night’s Guards were chatting it up, presumably here to escort the awakened back to the towers. Too bad I hadn’t been able to deliver. Or was it a blessing in disguise? Ryker’s head turned at our approach. “I’m not sure if I should ask what happened.”
“Get us out of here,” I told Ryker.
He raised a brow.
“Just the usual. Charlotte almost died.” Ember filled him in as we walked to the ranger. “And she had performance issues, which you can sympathize with.” She poked Ryker in the chest.
Ryker rubbed the back of his neck and got into the vehicle.
I sunk into the back seat. It was sad no one had batted an eye when my life was in danger. Would this world ever cut me some slack? Or was it bound and determined to try and kill me every chance it got?
Dash was taking a shower as I sat on the end of the bed, my feet curled in a cross-legged position. I listened to the water from behind the bathroom door, unable to believe what I was contemplating.
Dash would imprison me if he knew the thoughts going on in my head, but once the idea was there, I couldn’t seem to get rid of it. After five minutes, I stopped trying and jumped off the bed. I didn’t actually think I could get to the basement and back before Dash got out of the shower, but it would take him time to locate me. Once he found me though… the fallout could be severe.
I had to do this.
It was the only way to shut up the annoying, curious voice in my head.
Slipping out of our room and into the hallway, I took the elevator to the first floor. Scanning the empty common area, I crossed to the other side of the room and down another hall, before going outside to the courtyard where the rusted metal door was hidden. I pushed open the entrance and peered into utter darkness.
I forced myself to breathe. It’s not too late to back out. With one long glance over my shoulder, I let the door close behind me. The only way I would get answers was by obtaining them myself.
My footsteps clamored as I descended deeper into the dungeon. There were guards assigned to patrol the halls, but as the daughter of the founding members, they didn’t question my presence. I wondered about the other inmates. What had they done to earn a sentence in the prison? Dash’s crimes had been killing the Institute’s guards. They hadn’t been random acts of murder, but self-preservation. Kill or be killed. And yet, he was expected to pay the price.
The farther I crawled into the maze of corridors, the more my flight senses went haywire. The grim and depressing nature of the dungeons urged me to run. I barreled down the dark hall in front of me, seconds away from flipping on my internal light switch. From around the corner came a bright glow, and I sighed, rushing toward it. Soon, I entered a room lined with metal bars. The prison.
I ground to a halt.
The thing I sought huddled in a corner of its cage. Its skin was radiant, covering the dingy room in a green glow. They had separated it from the other inmates—a good idea in my opinion—but now that I was here, alone, I was rethinking this spontaneous decision. If something happened, how long would it take Dash to find me?
I’d probably be dead before then.
At my less than quiet approach, the zombie’s head jerked upward and its black eyes bored into mine.
What had compelled me to see it?
Was my own interest in the Forsaken the same as my father’s—the need to dissect and understand the unknown? It was hard to admit I might have anything in common with Dr. Winston. The father I had adored and looked up to, was buried so deep inside him that I often wondered if he was there at all, or if I just wanted to believe he wasn’t lost to me—to the little girl with rose-colored glasses.
I had hope for Ember to change, Mom even, but Dad… I wasn’t so sure.
I twisted my head, surprised to see the zombie mimic the movement as if he was as curious as I was. The shimmer of its neon green skin was otherworldly. Everything my father had indicated about them led me to believe they were monsters, a threat, but I had learned my father was often misguided.
He had once thought Dash a monster, but I wouldn’t be alive if it hadn’t been for the Slayer. Dash might have a ruthless reputation, but whereas my father was truly callous, Dash had a soft center once you got past the defensive shield he worked so hard to sustain.
My father and I had very different opinions of right and wrong, and I wanted to know how his morals had become so skewed. I blamed it on the mist—a nuclear attack my father had helped design, but he wasn’t responsible for its detonation. Still, he was partially to blame.
How much of the Forsaken’s humanity had been stripped away by the constant exposure to the mist?
Moving closer, I poised for a feral attack that never came. Maybe leaving what had become its natural habitat had weakened it. A tinge of sadness gleamed in its eyes.
Emotions?
Were they capable of such a thing?
Right at that moment, I would have said yes.
What if we were wrong? What if they weren’t a threat? What if, like any frightened animal, its instinct was to fight?
In a way, I could understand my father’s actions—catching one to study it—but I couldn’t agree with his methods.
Time ticked by with me scrutin
izing it and it examining me—the two of us trying to figure the other out. Taking a risk that would have surely had Dash banging his head against a wall, I pressed my hand to the glass in between the prison bars. The being was hesitant at first, its gaze traveling to where my fingers rested, and then with sloppy motions, it moved closer, laying its hand directly in line with mine. There was nothing but shatterproof glass between us.
“What are you?” I whispered.
“Releassssse,” it hissed, answering me.
Stunned, my mouth dropped open. What was actually happening?
Was I conversing with a zombie?
I considered this an epic breakthrough. If they could communicate, did that mean not all hope was gone? Or was I just being an overzealous optimist?
“What is my father doing to you down here?” I muttered to myself, not really thinking the zombie would answer me.
Imagine the dumbfounded expression on my face when it spoke again. “Hurtttt.”
I swallowed hard. Was it—? Did it just—?
Astonishment struck me.
Just breathe.
My father was harming it.
Of course, he is. What did you think he was doing down here? Playing poker? You knew from the moment he captured one what evil and twisted tests he would put it through.
I had been able to cope with that when I thought of it as a thing without emotions or the ability to feel pain, but now…
Now I felt something other than fear. Tendrils of sympathy weaseled into my heart… for a zombie, my mind screamed.
Best to keep that to myself. No one would understand.
I found myself in an epic stare down with the zombie. My breath caught in my chest. I wanted to look away, blink, something, but I couldn’t.
Voices rose in volume to my left—guards and someone else. A familiar voice. The commotion sent the Forsaken into a hissing rage, morphing into the thing I’d feared. Eyes black as midnight. Skin glowing hot neon. And the urge to kill carved into its expression of pure hunger.
The zombie launched itself against the bars, scratching at the glass as if it wanted to tear my face off. I jumped back, startled by the sudden change, and I hit the wall, my heart racing like a bomb had been set off inside me. I froze against the cold concrete, watching the insanity unfold as the zombie continued to throw itself against the glass, time and time again.
Dash stopped in his tracks after rounding the corner. “Freckles?”
“Dash,” I answered and then bounded forward. It wasn’t a very badass response, but somehow, being down here alone with the zombie had raised a new level of fear in me I didn’t know I had. Seeing Dash, it all rushed to the surface in one big tidal wave, nearly knocking me down.
He caught me, tucking me into his arms. I could feel the tension in his muscles. He had been worried, and it was my fault. Stupid curiosity. “Hey,” he murmured into my hair. “I got you.” After a few moments of being against him, his fingers stroked through my red locks. He framed my face, lifting my gaze to his. “Are you going to tell me what possessed you to come down here? Alone?”
“Do I have to?” My eyes did a quick sideways glance to the zombie cage. It was still mad with hunger but had quit its body slamming, staring at Dash and me.
“I think you know the answer to that.”
My breath whooshed out. “I needed to see it.”
“And you couldn’t wait for me?” he asked, his knuckles grazing over my cheek.
I rested my hands on the girth of his forearms. “You would have said no.”
His brows knit together. “For a damn good reason.”
“Well, then, you see why I came alone.”
He wore his scary, murder face as he turned to glare at the zombie. “What is it you thought you would gain by coming here?”
Still in his arms, I shrugged. Just touching him had a way of comforting me. “I had this feeling that we had it all wrong, that they might not be the bloodthirsty, flesh-eating savages the Institute wants us to believe.”
Doubt creased his forehead. “This might be the one time your father is right.”
I took a step back, but he didn’t let me go far, his hands coming to rest on my hips. “Are you actually siding with him?”
“I’m just saying we don’t know what they’re capable of.”
“But does that mean we should immediately condemn them to death?”
“That’s why it’s here,” Dash replied in an argumentative tone, his head nodding in the direction of the zombie clawing and hissing at us from behind its bars.
“I guess,” I replied warily.
Dash turned us so my back was to the creature. His lips slowly morphed into a troubled frown. “When I couldn’t find you…”
I laid a hand over his heart, feeling his pulse beat wildly. “I’m sorry.” Lately, it seemed like all I did was apologize for the irrational decisions I kept making. There would come a point when I would go too far.
And it frightened me.
I could see in Dash’s eyes that it frightened him too.
He pulled me in for another hug, needing physical contact as much as I did, and tightened his arms. “I don’t want to lose you. My heart can’t take it.”
I buried my face into the space between his neck and shoulder. “I love you,” I whispered. It was a strange place to be professing our love, but it didn’t matter where I was in the world. In Dash’s arms, I always felt right.
Pounding against the cell glass forced us back to reality, fragmenting the moment. “We should go before your little nighttime visit gets reported to the council,” Dash advised.
“I can’t believe my father kept you down here.”
Linking his arm through mine, he steered us down the musty corridor. “Some memories are better left in the past, Freckles.”
I reveled in the warmth of his body as we left the frigid dungeon behind and the shrieking zombie with it. “But how do you forget?” I asked, the question popping out of my mouth.
His body became rigid at my prodding. “You find a way to lock it all up, so that it can’t hurt you again.”
Compartmentalizing. I got that. But at some point, we’d have to deal with all the crap we’d bottled up. Later. Much later. It wasn’t a healthy choice, I knew, but too much was at stake for an emotional breakdown. That would have to wait.
Chapter Seven
Sunlight poured into my room, waking me. I was curled up in Dash’s arms—a place I wasn’t ready to leave—and wished for just a few more hours of moonlight. He had kept me close all night, never letting me go. We had both needed the connection after yesterday, neither of us able to bear the thought of losing the other.
But that was our life.
Each day we never knew if it would be our last, for the dangers in the Heights were capricious, changing like the weather. And that meant we had to change with it. It did make me appreciate each day and the people who were important to me.
I rolled onto my belly, my wild curls tumbling over my shoulders, and pressed a kiss to Dash’s lips. Today was one of those days I wished I could call in sick. But there were no vacation or sick days allowed when the world was on the cusp of extinction. Again.
I went to wiggle out of bed, but Dash draped an arm around my waist, tugging me back down. “Need. More. Kisses,” he groaned.
“Can’t,” I said, but gave in and pressed my mouth to his anyway. As our lips locked, the bedroom melted away.
I was in the enchanted woods of Misty Grove, standing outside the gate of Hurst—the settlement where we had left Star, hoping she would be safe there. Moonlight streamed over the dirt path while I walked into the small town. The air smelled damp as if it had just rained. I stopped dead in my tracks. Cowering under a tree was Dash’s ex-girlfriend. She whimpered, dragging herself over the ground. Her leg hung limp, as if broken, and her eyes were wide with fear. Star seemed to stare right at me like she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. I moved closer. Could she really see me?
“Help me,” she cried out. Her eyes frantically searched the forest.
A twig snapped behind me, and I whipped around, finding myself nose to nose with a Forsaken.
Now I understood why she was so afraid. Hurst was under attack.
Screams came from within the town, bloodcurdling sounds that had Star panicking, and I could do nothing to save her. The zombie pressed on, drawn to her fear. She shook her head rapidly, backing up until she hit a tree trunk.
“Get up, Star,” I mumbled under my breath, knowing she couldn’t see or hear me. “Don’t you give up.”
The Forsaken moved with twitchy steps until it reached Star. She was crying now, tears streaming down her pale cheeks. I couldn’t watch my friend get killed. “Charlotte, I’m sorry,” she sobbed, and then the zombie lunged.
“Freckles?” Dash sat up, no longer sleepy.
A tear escaped from the corner of my eye. “Dash, it’s Star. Hurst is in trouble.”
His thumb came up to brush aside the salty streak running down my cheek. “You had a vision?”
I nodded. “The Forsaken invaded the town. Star was hurt, possibly while running away, and one of them trapped her.”
“Did she…?” He couldn’t bring himself to say it—Did she die?
“I-I don’t know. The vision ended before I got to see what happened.” A part of me was relieved. I didn’t know if I could have ever forgotten the image of my friend being murdered by a zombie.
“How much time do we have?”
My thoughts went back to the vision, searching for details I had overlooked. “It was nighttime, and the moon was full.”
Dash dragged a hand over his face. “The next full moon isn’t for a week. We have time to save them.”
A knock sounded at the door, jolting us from the morbid thought of what happened if we were wrong. “It will be okay,” Dash assured me, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear, only for it to pop back out again.