Killing the van shut down the heater, too. I opened the door, and goose bumps formed from the cooler desert air. I’d had the temperature up extremely high in the van, higher than the ninety-two degrees of the Las Vegas night. The rasp of a zipper called out in the darkness. Some of the guys had opted to wear jackets instead of sweatshirts. We got cold so easy, especially if we hadn’t eaten.
A loud whisper turned into a shout from the other side of the van. “I said give it to me.”
Rounding the bend, I stopped midstride. They fought over a street rat – a rodent – sick.
And yet, part of me wanted to jump in and take the rat for myself and another part worried about noise. I licked my dry lips at the dark red blood speckling the winner’s face. I pointed his way. “He won it. Now shut up.” The loser growled but lowered his eyes. I was the leader and pissing me off meant pissing off Dominic. Not that I would tell.
Gathered into a group, we huddled together, our shoulders touching. I was the oldest in terms of being changed the longest. Everyone else had joined within the last week. The group I’d joined with hadn’t survived long. They’d given in to the hunger and eaten each other while I’d been out back collecting wood for the stove. I’d returned and they’d all been moaning – ripped out throats or not. Dominic had stormed through the door, clapping. He’d congratulated me for surviving and ordered me to shovel the still moving bodies and fragments out to the incinerator. Oh, the smell of burning flesh and the sounds of shrieking bodies. Nightmare worthy.
So these men were mine. I led them. But to steal girls? The mission seemed inconsistent with the heroic perception I’d been given to believe. Yet the disillusionment shouldn’t have surprised me. Everything I learned about Dominic only added to my regrets. Better I should just duck my head and get through my service. The sooner the better, right?
“Five girls. That’s it. That’s all we need. Older than twelve, but I’m guessing not over twenty. Bring them my way to okay them before adding them to the van, okay?” Serious nods met my gaze. They’d do it. Hunger wasn’t more important than what they’d seen.
Yet.
We shifted to face out from the group. Our senses were on hyper-drive, both from our conditions and the overwhelming hunger eating at us.
As close as we were to the university, we should only have to wait for unsuspecting females to walk by. According to the cell phone’s display, it was a Friday night. Some kind of party or dance or sporting activity should end soon. We just needed to wait.
Low mumbling from the back of the circle grabbed my attention. I tilted my head to hear better.
“I don’t care what he says. How would he know if we ate something? No one even cares in this part of town. Let’s get him the girls he wants then eat something. There has to be something around.”
Freaking idiots. Yeah, they’d eat something and then we’d get tossed in the damn basement. Over my shoulder, I growled, “If any of you step out of line, we all get locked up. Do you understand? Not one, not two, but all of us. Keep that in mind.”
The idiot’s voice was cut off by someone else’s snarl. If he couldn’t keep himself in line, the others would do it for him.
I closed my eyes against the darkness. Not much could be seen anyway in the shadows.
I inhaled. And choked on the most delicious scent I’d ever smelled.
“Do you smell that?” Someone behind me whispered with excitement.
“What is that?” Another.
“Holy crap.” John closed his eyes beside me and inhaled as if to make sure he hadn’t imagined it.
Oh, man. I wasn’t the only one drooling over the smell. A giggling symphony reached my ears. I opened my eyes and whispered, “Hold on, guys. We don’t know how many there are. If there are too many, we’ll grab the stragglers.” Women always traveled in packs with an innate knowledge that safety was in numbers.
Dominic was an idiot. Pure and simple. Sending out starving zombie-like teenage boys after human, delectable girls wasn’t the smartest command. He’d be lucky to get an untouched arm, neck, or leg. Oh, legs. My favorite.
The men pushed on my back and outstretched arms as the girls traipsed down the road, close but still an easy twenty yards away. Our path riddled with empty cars and vacant spots wouldn’t slow us a bit.
One by one the girls came into view, twelve total. Long legs… I licked my lips… bared by short shorts. Mid-riff tops – some with sleeves and some without. Most of them had long hair brushing past their shoulders.
“Son of a —” I turned and grabbed the neck of a newer member, dislodging his teeth from my shoulder as I moved. Asshole had bit me to get to the girls. Unfortunately, moving out of the way of the other guys released the dam and they took off in a stumbling sprint across the dirt lot. Pushing and growling, the mass of boys drew immediate attention from the girls. I hadn’t had time to teach them to be sneaky like Tom had taught me.
At first the females froze, watching the rumbling spectacle move toward them. But as the realization dawned they were the targets, the girls’ faces changed from smiles to gaping mouths and wide eyes. If I had to choose between an eternity of rotting in a basement and these girls coming with me, I’d choose the girls. They may be human, but crap, they were delicious – I mean, gorgeous looking.
Four girls bolted which ensnared the attention of my crew. We had the strength and mentality of predators and we loved the idea of a chase. Six guys followed. I shook my head. The girls didn’t stand a chance.
Screams filled the air. I hopped in the van. Turning the engine over, I glanced out the window.
John jogged up, one body slung over his shoulder, the pert backside poking into the air. At the passenger’s side, he popped the door open and dropped the body on the front seat. Panting, he looked past me, worry tightening the skin around his mouth. “I think they might have hurt a couple. I’ll go back to check but I’m worried. The screams stopped when I grabbed this one. Two went into an alley and Steven followed them. He still hasn’t come out.” John met my narrowed gaze. He slapped a hand on the arm rest of the door. “What do you want me to do? I brought you one.” He pointed at the unconscious girl.
“She better be alive. I need four more, untouched. Get them. And make sure you don’t bring any that are hurt, okay? Remind the guys why we’re here and let’s go.” I sighed. Seriously, what a bunch of nimrods. He closed the door and I breathed in.
The smell of the girl sitting next to me saturated my nose and tongue. She smelled of honey, butter, and a dash of coconut.
I leaned over her petite body which I’d somehow arranged face down on my lap. I just wanted a closer sniff. Up close, her skin had a silky texture and the soft skin between her shoulder blades was exposed where her tank top had slid down. Damn it, just one taste. Oh, hell. And I hadn’t tasted anything sweet – or any flavor – in days.
I bit, fast and oh. She tasted like – I moaned and licked my lips. “Honey.” The sound of my voice jolted me back to reality.
Dragging a sleeve across my mouth to remove the drool, I looked out the window to see if I’d been spotted. The guys gathered up their finds. I hoped they couldn’t see me in the dark cab.
The girl hadn’t whimpered. Maybe she was dead. I pressed my fingers to the warm spot where I’d had my lips and hot blood pulsed from the wound I’d given her. Nope, still alive. I wiped the blood from her back.
And so help me, I couldn’t stop myself. I licked every particle from my hand. I even wiped again to gather more – as much as I could. I leaned down to see if I could lick more from her back – and, let’s be honest, maybe even nibble at more of her skin – but the sliding door opened.
I dumped her back on the front seat, this time face up and had only a second to register the small features surrounded by a mass of dark brown curls.
“We got seven. Do you think Dominic will care if we went over?” John’s pointy teeth worked on his bottom lip. A few of the guys wiped at dark specks on their arms and fa
ces.
I lowered my shoulders and smacked the steering wheel. Between my slip up and the guys’, we were going to be in chains before the next morning. “How many are unharmed, guys?”
“All seven. The other five… well, they… won’t be joining us.” Steven adjusted his pants while another guy giggled and wiped at his mouth.
Sometimes I wondered if we really were superior or if that was another one of Dominic’s lies. “Are they dead? That’s unnecessary attention and Dominic won’t like it.” I frowned, but shifted the van into reverse. I wasn’t as worried about the possible deaths, more what Dominic would do if we pissed him off. And I’d dropped our untouched number to six, but hell if I’d tell them that.
Steven smacked the butt of the girl he’d tossed onto another guy’s lap. She didn’t make a sound. Steven laughed and climbed in. “No. We roughed them up, had a little fun. Don’t worry about it.”
I rolled my eyes and waited for the door to slide shut. “Get their phones and shove them in the bag.” The girl next to me didn’t stir. I glanced at her legs. Why couldn’t I have bitten one of her supple thighs instead? My one chance at a solid taste and I wasted it on her back. Not that it was a waste, but – I licked my lips. Better change that mindset.
Raping and pillaging. Not my idea of superior in the least. Lord of the Flies epidemic. Little bastards.
Chapter 3
Dominic paced behind the desk in his office, his features ruddy and sweaty with anger. He splayed his fingers in the air. “I said five, Paul. Five. Did you guys forget how to count?”
Straight posture and looking forward, I shook my head. “No, sir.” The tone of his voice suggested it didn’t matter what I said or did, he was hell bent on finding fault with my actions. I was doomed to fail. He always won.
He slapped the back of his chair, the pop in the room loud against the cement walls. His office was feet from Tom’s cell. I didn’t know how Dominic could stay down there – a human with zombies everywhere – locked up or otherwise.
Dominic moved toward me, got in my face. What if her blood was on my breath? I breathed through my nose and flinched at his scent. Even though he was meat, the smell had an oily tinge compared to the honey-coconut of the girl’s. He’d lost all appeal.
“Pick out the five prettiest and then give the other two to the boys or to Tom. I don’t care.” Dominic stood abruptly and waved his hand toward the door. “Go. I want them ready within the hour. Get that done and you can eat the steak I ordered – if the guys left you any.” Which meant I wouldn’t get anything. Damn.
But the girls? The five prettiest… crap. The rest to Tom? What the hell was Tom supposed to do with them? If not Tom, then the other guys? Hell, no, they’d had their fun in town, but I didn’t say anything. If he found out we were leaving trails, we’d all end up like Tom. Hm. Maybe he’d heard about the mishaps the groups under Tom had gotten into and that was why Tom had ended up in eternal damnation.
Dominic paced around his desk and sat down. A pile of boxes labeled with Travis Duncan, Ph.D., M.D. in permanent marker leaned against the corner of the room. Dominic had a game show face with slicked curls off his forehead and square jaw. Something wasn’t right with the shape of his eyes, like he’d had work done to lift his lids.
He typed into his small laptop and waved his fingers at me. “Go away.”
What did I care? Two less humans to cause trouble. He didn’t care. I wouldn’t care.
I left the office. Closing the door, I turned down the hall. I had to pass the cell doors to get to the stairs. I held my breath and sprinted as fast as I could. The smells were contained, but I couldn’t be certain scents didn’t linger in the hall from before.
I’d locked the girls in a closet off the cafeteria-style kitchen both for their protection and to keep them from escaping. Screams penetrated the door in short spurts. I sighed. They’d be moving and wriggling and there’d be fresh flesh all over the place. They weren’t unconscious and I had to handle them… famished.
Great.
I shoved a jelly-filled donut into my mouth to hold off the cravings. Memories of what donuts tasted like taunted me. Stupid dust-tasting food. Angry, I unlocked the door and swung it open.
My appearance didn’t calm their panic, in fact, it increased and three of the girls covered their mouths and released screams that clotted my marrow with their sheer force.
Now, I know I’m a good looking guy. In high school, before I’d left for spring break, I’d been asked by seven girls and two guys to prom. Football and I got along great, basketball and track for the other seasons kept me in shape, and I had to field ten to fifteen calls from chicks a night. My thick brown hair hadn’t started to thin with the virus yet. My muscles were still intact and hadn’t begun atrophying, and according to the mirror this morning, my brown eyes were still coffee brown with new yellow rings from the virus which, if I do say so myself was not a bad addition. It looked cool.
The gray skin was just on the edges. I was too new for it to affect my limbs, face, or core. The capillaries of my fingertips and toes still functioned but how well, I didn’t know. The lack of oxygen reaching the nerve tissues enhanced their capabilities. I could distinguish between dust and dirt with one minor swipe of my finger.
“Stop screaming. I’m not going to hurt you.” What the heck was the problem? I reached up and wiped at my mouth, a bad habit I wished my mom could hound me about again. Bright red jelly smeared across the back of my hand. Ah. I probably looked like a monster who’d just devoured a whole girl. Well, as pretty as they were, I wasn’t into them that way. Okay, yes I was, but I’d rather eat them instead of have sex with them. I was that hungry. After I’d eaten would be a different story.
The one with honey for blood sat in the back. She watched me from under thick brown bangs with blue eyes I couldn’t compare to any others I’d seen before. Her smooth features and fearless mouth intrigued me. Humans were weak… wasn’t I one once? She should be freaking out like the other six crybabies.
But she watched me, and it unnerved me more than the screaming, the possibilities of what I had to do with the extra two, and what would happen with the five. Like she knew what I was and she didn’t care. But that wasn’t possible, because what I was hadn’t been discovered yet by scientists – just the research assistant Dominic had been before he’d started his gang.
I had to focus and staring into her eyes wasn’t helping me do my job. Eying each girl, I took in their scanty clothing, long smooth limbs smudged with sweat, dirt, and dust, a few with blood, and their faces streaked with tears.
“Let’s get into the showers. I need to be able to tell what you chicks look like and I can’t if you’re covered in grime.” I stepped back and motioned them to walk past me. “If you try to run, I’ll let you go and you can deal with the boys who grabbed you, or you can do what I say and we’ll see how far I can get you.”
The brunette, the only one in the group of fake blondes and redheads, stood, striking a figure that I ground my teeth at. Slim but rounded at the hips and butt and, of course, the chest, she looked to be made of athletic womanhood.
Something my dad had once told me about steak sprang to mind, “The range animals are good ‘cause they get their exercise and have more muscle.” Her bare thighs tightened with each step toward me and I couldn’t help but wonder what type of marbling women had.
She stared me down. What the hell? She had some nerve meeting my gaze. Didn’t she recognize superiority when she saw it? But a part of me had started wondering if Dominic was right. If we were superior, why hadn’t he injected the virus into himself?
Abreast of me – oh, man, breast – I tried not to blink or let my eyes stray downward to the tanned skin peaking from the fitted V-neck tank top she wore. Hell, I was dying. I wasn’t dead. Uh, I lost my train of thought. I was really hungry.
She stopped in front of me and spoke with words coated in her scent. “If you didn’t want us dirty, you shouldn’t have taken us.
She looked over her shoulder and motioned the other girls to their feet. “Come on. We can’t fight from the floor.” Yanking her head in my direction, she spoke calmly but with heat. “He’s just one. I think we can take him.”
Huh? Take me? She couldn’t be serious. I was so strong I scared myself. And I was hungry. They had no idea what I was capable of. I laughed.
The wench shoved me.
I stumbled back into the counter, taking a sharp edge in my spine.
She grabbed a knife from the sink inches behind her. Arms in the air in an MMA fighting stance, she calmly spoke to the girls over her shoulder, eyes steady on me. “Get to the door. I’ll lock him in the closet. We can get out of here.”
The other six moved with the speed of cold motor oil.
I held my grin and watched. At least I was entertained. Legs paraded past. One girl leaned toward my wannabe captor and whispered, “Thanks, Heather.”
Heather, hm? She didn’t look like a Heather with her tan skin and dark hair. I would have pegged her with a more exotic name like Roxanne. Maybe I’d call her Roxi while she still lived. Not out loud of course – she wanted to do damage with that knife, her eagerness to cut me evident in the movement of the blade. She held it like she knew what she was doing. Even through my annoyance, I was impressed and didn’t want to let on how dull the knife was. Like a spoon.
I righted myself and crossed my arms. The other girls waited by the door, glowing against the dark backdrop of the night. If they went any further over the threshold, they’d trip the motion sensors and flood the yard with light.
Heather followed my gaze to the girls and looked back at me. She jerked her arm toward me as if she wanted me to move back. Her lip curled up. Even angry she had the appeal of honeysuckle to a hummingbird. A graying, dying hummingbird.
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