He stood in the middle of the street. I stared at him for a second. The brother from my past disappeared. There was just Dex, the crazy Infected leader, who had taken on the Controlled and abused them all.
“Dexter,” I answered, pushing Dante’s arm to get him to step away from me. I didn’t want Dex turning his ire on any of my guys. I spoke to them directly. “Scatter.”
Carson shook his head. “Not going to happen.”
“I could fry him,” Isaiah supplied from down the street. “Well, I could try. I don’t aim really well yet.”
“Don’t miss.” John added. “I don't want to be struck by lightning.”
My fear was that the only people that would hurt were the Controlled that Dexter drew energy from. How many would be permanently dead from the experience? No, Dexter wanted my attention. For the moment he could have it.
I walked toward him slowly, keeping my back straight. “How are you?”
“Did you see what I’ve done?”
I nodded. “You’ve leveled Roanoke, one of the few remaining cities left in the world. This is quite a mess you’ve made.”
“This is a Controlled place now. My place.” He clapped his hands. “But that is not what I meant.”
I drew patience from somewhere. Maybe it was the guys. I wanted to scream, but I didn’t. That had to be Carson or Dante. Maybe even Isaiah. I wasn’t this patient on my own. “Then what did you mean?”
“Our father.” He motioned to his left. It took me a moment to register what I looked at but there he was. Isaiah had killed our father, and he was part of the horde. He was a Controlled. My hand went to my throat to stop myself from crying out. I hated my father. But that didn’t mean that in my wildest nightmares I’d ever expected to see him like that.
I forced words from my throat although they tasted like acid. “So you’ve won then. This was just what you wanted. There’s nothing else for you to do.”
“I’ve won?” Dex reared back like I struck him. “I killed Dad. Now he’s in my head, screaming at me. I thought I’d like it.” He hit his temples with both hands. “But he’s just as disapproving in death as he was in life.”
“Then let him go,” I whispered, approaching him slowly. “Think of the relief when they’re all out of your head.”
“And then I fall to pieces,” he said. “Look at them!” He pointed to my guys. “You brought them back to life. If I get enough of them, maybe they’ll start my heart, too.” His voice got quieter. “Maybe then I’ll have a chance to live.”
“The only reason they’re alive is because of how I feel about them,” I told my brother.
“Whitney,” Dante warned. He shook his head at me.
“No,” Dexter interrupted. “Is this what that doctor was blabbing on about? A ‘connection?’ ” He made air quotes with his fingers. “I’m special!” he yelled at me. “I was the first one to wake up, the first one to feel the pull toward the others. It’s not my fault they’re weaker than me. It’s not my fault!” He turned his back on me and grabbed my father’s blood soaked collar. “It’s not my fault!” he yelled in Dad’s face before shoving him back. My father ended splayed on the ground, rolling like a bug on its back trying to right itself.
“You’ll never be better,” Dante said. “Not from these Infected.” He waved his arm toward the Controlled dragging themselves toward us. “They don’t care about you.”
“Even if I wanted to, I don’t know how to let them go,” Dexter replied. “I don’t know how you escaped from me.” He took a step toward Dante. “Your voice. I’d know you anywhere. You say I don’t have a connection to you, but I heard every thought, every desire, every regret. Your guilt? I nearly drowned in it. That one?” He pointed to Brandon. “So much yearning.” One by one he pointed to my guys. “Anger.” Nick. “Doubt.” Carson. “And you, too?” He glared at Isaiah and John. “Both of you thinking about each other. Trying to find each other. It’s your fault this whole thing started.”
“End it,” I begged Dex. “Dante, how can we end it?”
“I don’t want to end it!” Dexter screamed. “I don’t want to be alone. I don’t want to die. Don’t you understand, Whit Whit? I let them go and there’s nothing to sustain me. I’ll lose my mind like all of them.”
“What about our father?” I asked. “What if you stayed connected to Dad?”
“He doesn’t want me,” Dexter said. “He never did.”
“I don’t understand, Dexter. Why go to all this trouble? You led a resistance. People trusted you.”
“Their mistake.” Dexter walked to a warehouse door and slid it open. Artificial light suddenly flooded the space where we spoke. Inside the building were people I recognized. People I’d grown up with like Dr. Robinson. There were others, people with guns who stumbled into the darkness, blinking as their eyes attempted to adjust. “What’s going on?” someone yelled.
Dexter ignored them. He ran toward another door, his hand fumbling at his belt. I didn’t know what he was grasping for, but I knew it was bad. As one, we all went after him, but he was too fast. I saw the remote in his hand, heard the beep, and then fire lit up the night.
The explosion shook the ground and fiery debris flew through the air. Ears ringing, I struggled to get to my feet.
Chaos.
Dexter had collected the Infected in a warehouse, and blown open the door keeping them inside. His Resistance and the last citizens of Roanoke screamed as the horde tripped and stumbled toward them.
I ran in their direction waving my hands in the air. “This way. Follow me and run. Run as fast as you can. Run. Follow me.”
It wasn’t the most wonderful idea in the world but it was the only one I could think of right then. Sometimes the only solution was to run as fast as possible and hope for the best.
A sharp whistle sounded, and as I tried to get the Resistance to run toward me and then direct them to make their way out of the city, I whirled around. John stood there, fingers between his lips as he whistled shrilly.
He did it again. This time it caught Dex’s attention which made all the Controlled turn as well.
I had a moment to worry about those guys before I screamed out, “Run!” This time everyone heard me.
With the crowd behind me, I ran to save their lives.
We made it outside.
“Where do we go?” A woman I didn’t know cried out, grabbing my arm. “They’re everywhere. Do they have my husband? I’ve lost him.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. Go into the woods. Five miles from here, if you keep going that way, you’ll run into a town. Go there.”
I hoped Isaiah would forgive me. I was about to make Zero everyone’s haven. But I had no choice. Where else were we to go?
Roanoke had fallen. I whirled around, staring at the burning city.
My guys were still inside. What should I do? Did I run back in after them? Did I stay here and wait? Would running back in put them in worse danger?
I closed my eyes. I was linked to all of them. Surely there had to be a way to see if they were okay. Why didn’t I understand this ability better? Why didn’t I ever slow down enough to insist that Dante teach me these things?
Lightning flashed, and I felt something. A tug. I reached for it, imagined it was a tether holding me to my guys. A hand touched my shoulder and I jumped, spinning. The fire illuminated Dr. Robinson’s face. “I’m going back,” he said. “My Elaina is in there.”
Thunder cracked above our heads and lightning flashed again. His face was drawn and his lips tight, but he stood straight.
I was going back, too. The earlier connection I felt was still there, but I couldn’t hold it tight enough. A million thoughts raced through my mind. What if one of them were hurt? What if someone had died?
“Me, too!” someone yelled. A woman held a child on her hip, bouncing and rocking him to soothe him. “My husband is Controlled. But I saw him. I won’t leave him to burn. I’ll kill him myself.”
Lightning
flashed again, and I nodded. “Zero is a community of Infected who are in control of their minds. Don’t hurt them.” I spoke to Dexter’s human Resistance and the remaining citizens of Roanoke.
I didn’t wait to see if they ran. I glanced at Dr. Robinson and sprinted toward Roanoke. The lightning was flashing like a strobe, and it made it difficult to see. Everything took on a surreal, halting nature. The shadows were more pronounced and nightmarish. One second, the way to Roanoke was clear, the next, a hulking form of a Controlled stood inches away from me.
I ran around them, zigging and zagging, when thunder crashed so loudly the entire metal wall of Roanoke shook. A second later, sparks flew through the air where lightning struck it. Static electricity lifted the hairs on my arm and the back of my neck, and the night filled with the scent of ozone and burnt flesh.
“Charles!” someone yelled, and then Dr. Robinson was streaking past me. He hit a Controlled, full speed. I expected him to tumble to the ground, taking the body with him, but he didn’t. He lifted it up in his arms like he was twenty and not seventy, spinning the person around. Rain began to fall around us, and I blinked to clear my vision.
There was a groan next to me, and I whipped around. A Controlled stood inches from me, but rather than attacking, he shook his head, as if to clear it and lumbered away.
I glanced back at Dr. Robinson, who continued to hold the Controlled against him. “Elaina.” The rain danced on the metal, and I thought for sure I’d misheard him, but then he said her name again. “Elaina.”
Through the smoke, figures began to emerge. They moved like the Controlled—jerkily and unbalanced. From within Roanoke, metal groaned and sparks flew into the sky.
My guys.
I ran past Dr. Robinson and Elaina, and pushed through the Infected. They didn’t grasp at me, or grab me. As I came through the doors, I expected to find chaos.
But that wasn’t what I found.
My mind struggled to make sense of what I was seeing. Why did John and Isaiah appear to be leading Controlled away from a collapsed warehouse?
Why did the Controlled appear to be listening?
Dante, Nick, and Carson lifted sheets of metal, studying the ground and then letting them fall.
“There she is!” Brandon yelled.
Like an idiot, I turned around to look behind me, and I realized, he meant me. He ran at me, full tilt, reminding me of Dr. Robinson when he saw his wife. In the next second, he had me in his arms, and I wrapped myself around him.
“Are you okay?” he asked. “I thought I lost you.”
“I led the people who were alive out of here and pointed them toward Zero. But I couldn’t go with them. I couldn’t leave without knowing you were okay.”
“Thank God!” Dante yanked me away from Brandon. “I was reaching for you, but I couldn’t feel you.”
I was surrounded in seconds. John and Isaiah. Nick and Carson. We stood together, arms clasped around each other. “What’s going on?”
John smiled and elbowed Isaiah. “Tell her.”
“Stormie,” Nick said. “Aka—The Rainmaker. Aka—The Thunder from Down Under. Aka—Lightning McLightningface…”
“I made a storm. To put out the fire, but when we couldn’t find you, I got a little angry.”
“You wouldn’t like him when he’s angry,” Carson interjected, surprising me.
It made sense. “You hit the building with lightning,” I said to Isaiah. “And these Controlled…”
“They’re not Controlled anymore,” Dante answered. “They’re Infected but free. Like the people at Zero. Like we used to be.”
The fire sizzled around us, hissing as the rain doused it. “What about Dexter?” I asked. “My father?” I glanced around and realized I’d asked an unanswerable question. At least for now.
“He may have gotten away,” John answered. “Or he may be under one of these buildings. We won’t know until the fires go out and we can clean it up.”
Behind us, someone began to cry. I looked over my shoulder, squinting into the night. The woman who’d run back with me stood against a Controlled. Her face was buried against his shoulder, and she was crying.
I gasped as the formerly Controlled lifted his arms, enfolding the woman in an embrace. I faced my guys and found them staring at the family.
“You did that,” I said to Isaiah. He glanced at me, and his golden skin flushed.
“Maybe,” he answered, reaching for me. He took my hand and lifted it to his face. His skin was warm beneath my fingers. “But you did this. You brought us back to life.”
“You gave me a reason to live,” I replied. I lifted up on my toes and kissed him. His arms went around me, holding me against him before letting me down.
As my heels touched the ground, I gazed at each one of the guys who’d changed my life. “I love you,” I said to them. “Thank you for choosing me.”
“Always,” Brandon answered.
“Always.” Dante touched my other hand, wrapping his strong fingers around mine. “You saw past what I’d become to who I truly was.”
“I may have been the last to realize it, but I’ll be the first to tell you—you’re the best thing I never saw coming.” John smiled at me, and through our link, I felt a burst of energy and joy.
“We’ll figure all this out,” Carson told me, arms gesturing to encompass Roanoke. All of us. The world. “And we’ll do it together.”
I met his dark eyes and nodded. A hum of energy floated through the ties that bound me to each of them. Maybe my brother was still out there, trying to gather lost Infected to keep him alive, and maybe the body of my father followed him around, screaming in disappointment.
But we would work all that out. Right now, we were together. Isaiah’s lightning had reset the Infected and given them a chance to be free.
So while the zombie apocalypse had come, we were still standing. And what’s more—we would live.
This is not the end for Whit and her guys. Please look for the next book in The Storm series called Thunder Rolling, (The Storm #2) coming soon. This series will be a trilogy. If you liked this book, we’d appreciate a review and please visit us on Facebook in our author groups: I Read Ripley: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ireadripley/ and Rebecca’s Randomness: https://www.facebook.com/groups/458490741256283/ to hear about these books and all our new releases.
Afterword
This is not the end for Whit and her guys. Please look for the next book in The Storm series called Thunder Rolling, (The Storm #2) coming soon. This series will be a trilogy. If you liked this book, we’d appreciate a review and please visit us on Facebook in our author groups: I Read Ripley: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ireadripley/ and Rebecca’s Randomness: https://www.facebook.com/groups/458490741256283/ to hear about these books and all our new releases.
About Author Rebecca Royce
As a teenager, I would hide in my room to read my favorite romance novels when I was supposed to be doing my homework.
I am the mother of three adorable boys and I am fortunate to be married to my best friend. I live in Austin Texas where I am determined to eat all the barbecue in town.
I am in love with science fiction, fantasy, and the paranormal and try to use all of these elements in my writing. I've been told I'm a little bloodthirsty so I hope that when you read my work you'll enjoy the action packed ride that always ends in romance. I love to write series because I love to see characters develop over time and it always makes me happy to see my favorite characters make guest appearances in other books.
In my world anything is possible, anything can happen, and you should suspect that it will.
I'd love to hear from you! Please visit my website at www.rebeccaroyce.com to sign up for my newsletter and learn about my books!
Here’s where you can find me online:
www.rebeccaroyce.com
Rebecca’s Randomness Reading Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/458490741256283/
Instagram: rebeccaroyce79<
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Cheers!!
Rebecca
About Author Ripley Proserpina
Ripley Proserpina spends her days huddled near a fire in the frozen northern wilds of Vermont. She lives with her family, three magnificent cats, and a dog she doesn’t deserve.
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Also by Rebecca Royce
Other books by Rebecca Royce…
Wings of Artemis
Kidnapped By Her Husbands
Rescued by Their Wife
Crashing Into Destiny
Meeting Them
Reclaiming Their Love
Loving Them
Ship Called Malice
Saving Them
Dark Demise
Light Unfolding
Still Waters (coming soon)
Last Hope (completed series)
Tradition Be Damned
Past Be Damned
Destiny Be Damned
Compassion Be Damned
Future Be Damned
Dragon Wars (completed series)
Forever
Eternal
Always
Evermore
Endless
Wards and Wands
Hexed and Vexed
Curse Reversed
Meow, Baby (novella, Coming Soon in Petting Them antho written with Ripley Proserpina)
Tragic Magic (Coming Soon)
Safe Haven
Everywhere and Nowhere
Dimension X (coming soon)
More coming soon….
Soul Bound
Prisoner of the Dragons
More coming soon….
Shadow Promised
Strange Days
Weird Nights
Lightning Strikes: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (The Storm Book 1) Page 22