Deadrise (Book 6): Blood Curse

by Siara Brandt

  That wasn’t the only grievance Arlend had. The moralistic bastard had made him promise to burn all the porn before he was allowed to step one foot inside the fence, said they had standards they needed to abide by. Not only that, Cabot thought he was doing him a favor when he said he would let the cigarette addiction slide by. For now.

  Standards, Arlend thought with a bitter twist of his lips. When they were convenient, Cabot had standards, but he could imagine what went on behind closed doors.

  It was warm today and Arlend wiped the sweat from his upper lip with the back of his hand before he lifted his cigarette to his mouth again. He could not, would not, let it go. Who was Cabot to tell him how much he could or couldn’t eat? He was the man with the key to the food storage room. That was the only difference between them.

  He stiffened when he saw Cabot step out of the bus garage doorway and walk right over to him.

  “We’re going on a food run,” the man said. “You’ll be coming with us.”

  Arlend stared back at him for a long time without saying anything. He didn’t know what to say. His cigarette began to burn through his fingers and he quickly dropped it.

  “Me?” Arlend finally asked. He hadn’t expected this and his brain was quickly searching for a way out of it.

  “Yes,” Cabot said. “It’s your turn.”

  Nobody had told him that they had to take turns. The last thing he wanted to do was to go back out there beyond the fence. He didn’t see any need for it. He had seen the inside of the storage area. They had plenty of food here.

  “There are new people - like you - coming in every day,” Cabot told him. “That means more mouths to feed. That means more supplies of all kinds will be needed.”

  Arlend looked around but he couldn’t think of a good reason to get out of it. He was definitely panicking as his brain refused to come up with a plausible excuse.

  The only thing he could do was to stall until he could think of something better. “I need to use the bathroom. I’ve been in and out of there all morning.” He laughed nervously.

  The corners of Cabot’s lips tightened just the slightest bit. Cabot didn’t say anything, however, and for a moment Arlend was hopeful that maybe he had already found his excuse.

  But Cabot only said, “Hurry it up. We’ll wait for you out here.”

  Nearly twenty minutes later, Arlend emerged from the bathroom. He had hoped that they would get tired of waiting and leave without him. To his chagrin they were still standing there on the steps.

  “I don’t know how much help I’m going to be,” Arlend said, laughing at his own tasteless joke about having to constantly be using the bathroom.

  Cabot stared at him, listening with a cold politeness, but he didn’t crack even a hint of a smile and he didn’t tell Arlend to stay behind. He just said succinctly, “Ready?”

  Arlend was definitely not ready. He knew it was a different kind of world out there. No one had to follow the old rules anymore and he wasn’t sure he wouldn’t be abandoned out there, because that’s just what Arlend, himself, would have liked to do to Cabot.

  All the other men were armed. Arlend looked pointedly at the two guns strapped to Cabot’s body, and asked, “Aren’t you going to give me some kind of weapon?”

  Cabot glanced over his shoulder and one of the men behind him handed Arlend a baseball bat.

  “DAMMIT, EM, DON’T SNEAK UP ON ME LIKE THAT.”

  “I wasn’t- I- ” Emma began, but her words trailed off.

  Reyne was dressed in jeans that were still unbuttoned. He wasn’t wearing a shirt. The sight of that powerful male chest with the washboard abs, the muscular biceps, the thin line of dark hair disappearing into the jeans had taken her by surprise.

  She spun around so that her back was to him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were- ”

  She had the dog in her arms and she began fussing over him, rubbing her nose with his, trying to distract herself from her unexpected reaction at seeing a half-naked Reyne.

  She heard the soft sound of fabric swishing, then, “You can turn around now.”

  There was an uncomfortable moment when she stiffly turned and their eyes met, but her eyes quickly skittered away.

  “I saw an opportunity to take a bath and figured you’d sleep late if I didn’t wake you.”

  It wasn’t like Reyne to explain himself to her that way. And he was way too quiet after he had done so.

  “I’ll, uh, be your lookout if you want to take one, too,” he said.

  His usual teasing manner wasn’t there. He wasn’t smiling, either, not even with his eyes. In fact, there was a slight frown on his face without there being any reason for it as he fastened the buttons on his shirt.

  When he did glance at her again, Emma knew she had to say something to cover up the sudden awkwardness she was feeling.

  “You do this often? Take baths in swimming pools while I’m still sleeping?”

  “Can’t always wait for it to rain to take a shower. Keeping clean is even more important these days for keeping diseases away.”

  “You’re right, of course,” she said, chancing a look up at him.

  His blue-black hair, newly washed and still damp, was curling in disarray over his collar. He had shaved so the usual dark stubble wasn’t in evidence. He was a handsome man. Terribly handsome. Distractingly handsome.

  Sensual awareness and heat flared, taking her by surprise. She began to fuss over the dog again, hoping Reyne wouldn’t notice the flush creeping into her cheeks. Eventually, she was able to tamp it down into a place where, hopefully, he didn’t notice.

  It wasn’t until much later that she was aware of the same heat when he stood close to her, close enough that his shoulder lightly brushed hers. He was thoughtfully silent as he slowly lowered his binoculars.

  They had hoped that once they reached the outskirts of the city, there would be fewer of the undead to have to contend with. Unfortunately, not only had a large portion of the living population made a mass exodus, but hundreds, maybe thousands of the undead had spilled out of the confines of the city as well.

  “There’s just one way we’re getting out of here,” he told her grimly. “And that’s along that fence there.” He pointed to the area he was referring to.

  She eyed the fence dubiously. “But what about that group over there?” she asked, pointing to an area where some of the undead were congregated. “Won’t they be a problem?”

  “They could,” he commented absently, still studying the situation.

  “Wouldn’t it be better to keep to that grassy area? It seems like a straight shot.”

  “Yeah, well it might seem like the best way at first glance, but take my word for it, you don’t want to have to navigate either area east or west of that fence line. Here,” he handed her the binoculars which she promptly held up to her eyes. “You see what I mean?”

  Her answer was a resigned sigh. He was right. The safest way would be along the fence.

  “We get past that group there and we should be all right.” He nodded once at the group he meant.

  Should be all right. Not the kind of word you wanted to hear in a zombie apocalypse.

  “What do we do about the ones in front of us?” she asked.

  “You distract them, draw them to the park area there. There’s only five of them. I can handle that.”

  He looked down at her. “You think you can climb a tree with the dog in your arms?”

  “I’ll put him in the carrier you made.”

  Yeah, he’d forgotten about the carrier.

  “All right. That’ll work. You run as fast as you can and climb that big tree down there as high as you can go. They have trouble with stairs. They’re not coordinated enough to climb a tree.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Pretty damned sure,” he answered her.

  She didn’t like the idea of being zombie bait. She hadn’t known him that long and for a moment it did occur to her that he could use her to draw the
m off and then abandon her. She had seen that happen more than once before. Fear could make people do a lot of things they wouldn’t normally do. But this was Reyne, she reminded herself. He wasn’t like everyone else.

  He must have read her mind because he said, “I’m not going to let anything happen to you. I promise. Once I slam that gate, the fence should hold the rest of them. After that, we’ll have a clear shot.”

  “Out of the city,” she murmured.

  “Out of the city.”

  “How are you going to get to the gate?” she wanted to know.

  “I’m going to walk along that roof.”

  She turned and looked up at him. “The roof? You would have to be part mountain goat to walk across there.”

  “I’ll have to be careful,” he admitted as he eyed the steep roofline.

  That gate, she could see, would be all that would be standing between them and at least a hundred hungry zombies. An actual hundred this time. And once the dinner bell was rung, there would be no stopping them. The gate was wide open at the moment. They could come swarming through.

  “You’re going to be two stories up,” she said, something she really didn’t have to tell him because he obviously already knew that.

  “I’m not afraid of heights.”

  Yes, he had already proven that to her. On several occasions.

  “And you think you can climb up there and then drop down without breaking a leg?”

  “I’ve parachuted lots of times. A two story roof is nothing.”

  Of course he had parachuted. There wasn’t much he hadn’t done.

  “We’ll draw the attention of the ones along the building and the stragglers out in that area there, but it’ll take time for them to reach us. By that time I’ll have the gate closed. You stay up in that tree and wait for me.

  “I know I don’t have to tell you this, but if you have to stop one of them, hit them in the head. Hard. There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you. Have you had to actually kill many of them?”

  Not a single one, she thought.

  She shook her head. “No,” she admitted. He might as well know the truth now.

  “Okay, well, hopefully that’s what I’m here for. But just in case, remember what I said. Hit them hard. You ready to get this over with?”

  “Wait, Reyne. I- ”

  He waited.

  “Promise me you’ll be careful.”

  “That’s the plan, honey. I’m well aware of the fact that if something happens to me, it’s going to affect you, too.”

  That wasn’t it. It wasn’t what she was thinking at all.

  “It’ll be all right,” he said as he looked down at her. “You trust me, don’t you?”

  She nodded once and whispered, “Yes.”

  Ten minutes later, Emma was racing across the grassy open area, clutching the dog carrier close to her chest. By the time she reached the tree, her heart was pounding so hard it felt like it was going to burst right out of her body. By the time she started climbing up the tree, she was shaking and it felt like there was no breath left in her body.

  She climbed higher and higher, until she was reasonably certain that she was safe, then she turned to breathlessly watch Reyne run along the rooftop, heading straight for the gate.

  “Reyne,” she whispered desperately, watching tensely as she gripped the branches around her.

  She watched him climb down from the roof, slam the gate and lock it. Then he sprinted across the grassy area straight toward her, taking out all the zombies that had managed to follow him as well as the ones that were gathered beneath her.

  He was looking up at her through the branches, a little out of breath himself. “You okay?”

  Her heart was still lodged in her throat so she just nodded.

  When she jumped down, she fell a couple of feet, right into the strong arms that were reaching up to catch her.

  “That was- intense,” he said, still a little breathless. “I saw you trip and fall. I gotta tell you, my heart about stopped.”

  She didn’t say anything. She was still trying to recover from a moment of shocked awareness when her breasts had erotically brushed along his chest as she had slid down his body. Even with half a dozen corpses lying around them, she was still thinking about the intense sensation that the contact had aroused within her, was still causing inside her.

  They were still standing in each other’s arms when the questioning, concerned look in Reyne’s eyes faded and changed to something else. She wasn’t sure what.

  Desire? Maybe.

  Awareness? Yes, definitely.

  And open surprise? Absolutely.

  The fingers of Emma’s free hand were still clutching at the material of his shirt. She could feel the hard swell of muscles beneath it. She lifted her face. His mouth lowered . . . Slowly . . . Very slowly . . .

  Reyne stiffened and suddenly drew back. What the hell was he thinking? When she had slid down his body, his own body had leaped in wild response. Hot, hard, sexual response. Here he was trying to save her life. Both of their lives. There were zombies lying all around them, they weren’t out of the woods yet, and he had been about to do something that was completely reckless and irresponsible. He was acting like some sex-starved teenager reacting to the heat of the moment. He had to get a grip. He definitely had to get a grip.

  Emma stepped back on surprisingly unsteady legs. She had thought that Reyne had been about to kiss her, but she realized she must have been wrong. She didn’t have a lot of experience with men, so obviously she had been wrong.

  But that kiss that never happened? She felt the loss of it down to her very soul.

  When the dog stuck his head out of the carrier and started licking Reyne’s face like he was relieved to see him, too, it was the perfect distraction. It worked for both of them.

  Chapter16

  Kate gripped the steering wheel in both hands. She didn’t move. She didn’t say anything. Neither did the boys. They just stared out of the windows.

  No one asked the question that was on all of their minds. “What are we going to do now?”

  No one said a single word.

  The car had gotten this far before it had died. They were in the middle of nowhere. There were no houses around. There were no signs of life. Or death for that matter.

  It wasn’t even a matter of making good or bad decisions anymore. They were still a few miles from her mother’s house. They had no choice but to go on foot the rest of the way. They couldn’t stay here, especially with darkness coming on.

  When Kate opened her door, the boys did the same thing. They didn’t argue. They were too scared to argue, too scared to make any noise at all.

  How could the weather have changed so quickly? Kate asked herself as she looked around with a sinking sensation. Half an hour ago, there hadn’t been a cloud in the sky. Now it was overcast and a dense fog was rising off the ground. It lay like a shroud, obscuring the fields and the low areas. It was especially thick over that part of the road before them where the bridge began.

  There was nothing to do but to continue on to her mother’s house. They were so close. But if the fog got any thicker, they wouldn’t be able to see-

  The undead that were out there.

  Kate knew they were there. They had seen some of them as they drove. In fact, they had almost hit one of them that had run right in front of the car.

  She was not going to let herself think about that. They had to make it.

  They were climbing the steep embankment that led down to the creek when Athan stumbled over a rock and tumbled down to the water’s edge. Kate scrambled down to get to him.

  “My God, Athan, are you all right?”

  “I dunno,” he groaned. “It hurts.”

  “Where?”

  She quickly checked him over for any serious injuries, found only some bad scrapes and cuts, one on his knee and several on both hands. Thank goodness the boys had designed homemade armor to keep them, and her, safe from zombie
bites, so he wasn’t as badly hurt as he might have been. They also had a variety of weapons, a bat, her gun and the taser, of course. They could at least fight back.

  They still had a long walk with another creek, several deep hollows and who knew how many fences to get over. And the undead to deal with should they come across any.

  They got Athan back on his feet and set off again through the swirling mist. It wasn’t bad enough that Athan was limping now. The fog was getting thicker. How could they even hope to find their way if it got any worse? How could they know what was out there? For the first time Kate was on the verge of falling apart.

  But her faith remained strong, and so did her instinct to protect her sons, so she did the only thing she could do. She prayed. Even though she felt like they were three blind people feeling their way through the darkness.

  “We’re not far from the cemetery,” Athan whispered.

  He was right, Kate realized. They would have to pass close by it. She knew that Athan had always been afraid of the cemetery and what he called the cursed ground up there.

  “The fog is getting worse,” Caleb said.

  That’s when they heard the most blood-chilling wail they had ever heard come out of the wall of mist that surrounded them.

  Startled by the sound, Kate spun around trying to locate where it had come from, but the fog was disorienting.

  “What the hell was that?”

  She let Caleb’s profanity go.

  “I’m scared, Mom,” Athan whispered in a strained voice.

  “I am, too, Athan. But we’re going to make it to that fence line.”

  Both boys were looking to her to keep them safe. She couldn’t let them down, couldn’t let them know how terrified she was.

  Stay focused, she told herself.

  They all turned when they heard loud rustling in the leaves not far to their right. When a zombie emerged from the fog with no warning at all, she cried, “Run.”

  They ran, splashing through another shallow creek. They began to climb the bank on the other side, but Athan didn’t see the wire fence on the other side. He ran straight into it at a dead run. It caught him mid-chest and knocked him flat on the ground. Caleb got him back on his feet and then helped both Athan and his mother over the fence before climbing over himself. On the other side, all three of them lay on the ground panting heavily. The zombie was right behind them, but the fence kept it from going any further.