Deadrise (Book 7): Bloodlust

by Brandt, Siara

  The sun was already sinking into the horizon. They had found a candy wrapper in the weeds. Eymann leaned over and picked up the shoe. There was no doubt in his mind that it belonged to Helice. But where was she?

  “She was here,” he said as he dropped the shoe. The heel was covered with some kind of gross, sticky slime and he didn’t want to touch it.

  All three men looked around. There was no sign of Helice anywhere. “It’ll be dark soon and we’ve looked everywhere, Eymann,” Caleb said. “I don’t know what to say.”

  Even Eymann saw the hopelessness of finding Helice tonight. But he knew from experience that she would only let herself be found when she was ready to be found. This was not the first time she had run off after one of her meltdowns. This was not the first time she had left clues behind. It had been almost a game with her for as long as he had known her. She would be holed up comfortably somewhere enjoying all the worry that she was causing. It was her way of controlling things. Controlling people’s time. Controlling people’s emotions. She wanted everyone’s attention to be centered on finding her.

  He had watched her once, years ago, when she wasn’t aware that he was there. He had seen the smug smile on her face, even heard her evil laughter as she devoured cookie after cookie, obviously relishing the fact that people were frantically looking for her. In the beginning he would even have the police out looking for her. Until he learned that this was just a game with her.

  So there was a reason why they hadn’t found her, just as there was a reason why they hadn’t found a body. When she was ready, she would come back. He could see that Caleb was genuinely worried, thinking that she might have run into some real trouble, but Eymann doubted that was the case. Self- survival was Helice’s top priority. She wasn’t going to take any unnecessary chances.

  “We can start looking again first thing in the morning,” Bogard said.

  First thing in the morning. Eymann didn’t tell him that Helice would probably be back by then. For now things were peaceful. Sure, he felt guilty for thinking that way and for giving up on the search. But what choice did they have? It would be dark soon, and the truth was that it was easier to deal with the guilt than with Helice sometimes.

  He might have changed his mind if he had gone a little further, beyond the boundaries of the cemetery, and seen one of the undead wandering around with Helice’s other shoe sticking out of its demolished eye socket. But the sun was going down fast and the only sensible thing for them to do was to head back to the camp.

  Chapter 14

  “Eymann?”

  Lauryn had just come out of the house. At first, she was stunned to see her brother standing before her in her yard. She almost didn’t recognize him. How many years had it been?

  Her next thought was that she needed to put out more alarms. Bells, cans, anything. If this group of people could walk right up to the house without alerting her, then anyone, or anything, could do the same.

  She looked at the small dog Eymann was carrying in his arms with some surprise.

  “Are you here alone?” Eymann asked her.

  “Maddy is here with me,” she answered him and then asked, “Where’s Helice?”

  “I don’t know. We had some trouble on the way.”

  Trouble. That could mean anything. But Lauryn was afraid to ask and she decided they could talk about it later.

  “Come inside,” she invited. “You all look like you could use something to eat and drink.”

  They hadn’t killed her today. Not today.

  She had been safe enough in the cellar but she couldn’t stay there forever. Her meager supply of food had already run out. So had the water. And she didn’t want to stay in such a dark and depressing place any longer, although depressing was definitely putting it mildly. The low ceiling and the thick stone walls were confining. There was only the one window that was so heavily coated with dust and grime that the daylight barely filtered through. The cloying smell of mildew was heavy in the air. She could smell and taste it with every breath she took. It was definitely not a healthy place to be.

  As depressing and as unhealthy as the cellar was, Helice had spent two days and one night hiding there, watching the dark corners that were crawling with spiders and mice and who knew what else. She didn’t have any choice since she had been abandoned, she thought bitterly. She still couldn’t believe it. The group had gone on without her. True, she had been gone almost a week, but she couldn’t help that. She hadn’t planned it that way, but there had been too many zombies around for her to make her way back. But they should have kept looking for her. They should have kept looking until they found her.

  She had already made her decision. She would make her way to Lauryn’s house, even if she had to walk all the way there. But first, she had to find some practical shoes. And something to eat and drink. In the dim light, her eyes grew positively vengeful. Eymann wasn’t going to be rid of her that easily.

  “I thought we were supposed to have each other’s backs.”

  “We will,” Rafe answered Ren. “But there isn’t much daylight left and that fire’s got the potential to start spreading fast. Before it does, I want to get in and out of that gun shop as quietly and as quickly as possible, which means I need you two to make sure that nothing comes at me from either direction.”

  There was nothing more to say. Rafe knew what he was doing when it came to military operations. He had far more experience at it than the other two men. So the three of them pulled their masks over the lower parts of their faces. Whether it would keep them from actually getting the disease, they still had no way of knowing. They weren’t even sure if it was a disease or if it was contagious for that matter.

  As soon as they had spotted the gun shop, Rafe had decided that he should check it out to see if there was weapons left worth taking. He didn’t feel comfortable being unarmed. It was likely that the store had been cleaned out a long time ago, but, hell, even a can of pepper spray would have been useful at this point.

  Ren voiced one last concern. “You don’t know what’s in there.”

  “No, I don’t,” Rafe agreed with him. “I won’t know until I look. But I’ll feel a lot better if I know both of you are out here watching my back. The wind is picking up,” he went on as he stopped and stared at the progress of the fire for a few seconds. “If the fire gets completely out of control, or something happens and we get separated, don’t wait around here. This place is crawling with the undead. You make your way to those silver silos we saw in the distance. When I can, I’ll meet you both there. All right?”

  Ren nodded. He didn’t have to like the plan, but he would go along with it.

  Helice brushed a hand over her face in confusion. Then she sat up on her blankets and blinked her eyes as she emerged from a deep and dreamless sleep. As her befuddled senses registered the sound of footsteps above her, she groped around for her glasses and put them on. The slow footsteps continued while she fought the panic that was tightening in her chest. But they were not slow or shuffling footsteps, she realized as she stared upward even though she couldn’t see anything through the floorboards. She hadn’t liked the thought of hiding and being trapped down here in the first place. Nor, she discovered, had she liked being completely on her own. And now, as something spider-like crawled across the back of her hand, she decided it was time to leave her hiding place and find out just who was up there, and, more importantly, whether they had anything to eat or drink or not.

  She cautiously climbed the creaking basement steps. When she almost reached the top step, the basement door suddenly flew open, startling her and throwing her back against the wall. As she instinctively grabbed for the handrail with both hands to keep from falling back down into the basement, the first thing her eyes encountered was a pair of well-worn army boots. Man-sized boots. Her gaze travelled slowly upward to a pair of camouflage pants and then an army shirt straining against a wide, masculine chest.

  She hadn’t expected the door to burst open
like that nor to be confronted so abruptly. She would have hidden herself again in the darkness of the cellar to first assess this new situation but it was already too late. Her head tilted even further back as her gaze locked with a pair of hard, narrowed eyes that were now staring down into her own. She hadn’t been able to hold back an exclamation of combined surprise and fear, and at first, before she could gather her startled wits, all she could do was to stare back up at the man as he loomed over her.

  But Helice wasn’t accustomed to letting anyone intimidate her, and now that her initial surprise had worn off, antagonism stirred within her as the man continued to glower down at her in silence. Obviously, just by the way he was standing there, he thought that he was an alpha male. Obviously, he thought that he could intimidate her. Well, he was mistaken, she thought. She might look like a helpless female cowering in fear at his feet, but that was about to change.

  He barked a deep-voiced order, which again took her by surprise. “Come on up out of there.”

  Her temper sparked at the brusque command. Just who did he think he was anyway? He had no right ordering her to do anything.

  When she didn’t immediately move or obey him, she saw a muscle jump in the side of his jaw. His eyes grew even harder as they flashed like quicksilver in the deep glow of sunset that was falling through the windows.

  “Listen lady. If you don’t want to die today, come up out of there.” He continued to look down at her like he thought she was some kind of imbecile. “Did you hear me?”

  Never in her life had a man ever talked to her in a tone like that. He was obviously used to giving orders, which was probably the reason he was wearing the army fatigues. He was a big man. Even though she was standing several feet below him, she guessed that he was over six feet tall. His shoulders were broad and muscular. A dark stubble of beard shadowed the hard, sculpted line of his jaw. His black eyebrows were still drawn together in a frown as those ruthless eyes went on assessing, calculating, probably trying to figure out what she was doing down there and why she wasn’t listening to him. Or jumping when he said jump.

  “Are you alone down there?” he asked suddenly.

  To her amazement, she still couldn’t seem to be able to find her voice. She swallowed hard and merely nodded, immediately resenting that he had such a powerful effect upon her.

  Without warning he suddenly reached down, grabbed hold of her arm and yanked her up the last few steps as easily as if she were a child. Ignoring her sputtering protests, he propelled her right through the basement doorway so that she was now standing in the gun shop.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” she huffed as she spun around.

  “Saving your life for one thing.”

  “What makes you assume I need saving? For your information, I was doing fine before I ran into you.”

  “For your information, you can’t stay here.”

  “Because you say so?” she asked in disbelief.

  “You can save the attitude, lady, because I’m not about to waste my time or my breath arguing with you. Part of the town is already on fire and its spreading fast. You get trapped in that cellar, you’re cooked.”

  At first Rafe had thought that she was probably too scared to come out of the cellar but he was quickly amending that thought. Now he just thought she was too stubborn and pig headed to admit that he was right.

  “You can come along with me to- ” he began, thinking he was being more than generous in offering to help her and take her with him.

  “With you? Why would I do that?”

  “Because you said you were alone,” he replied, wondering why he had to explain anything to her in the first place.

  “And because you are giving the orders here?”

  “Do you have a problem with that?”

  Oh, she had a problem with that all right. He could see it written all over her face.

  But right now the smell of smoke was getting stronger. A lot stronger. The red glow of the fire was lighting up the darkening sky outside. He could see glowing embers drifting past the window. There was no time for arguing with her.

  “You stay behind me and try to keep up,” he said curtly. With that, he turned his back to her and strode across the gun shop.

  He paused at the front door and, without looking back at her, said over his shoulder. “When we get to the grocery store at the end of the block, you wait in the bushes outside for me. Can you handle that?”

  She didn’t say yes, but she didn’t say no, either. It was probably the best he could expect from her. He had been lucky to find a single handgun hidden behind the counter. With ammunition. A little more luck and he might come across some hidden food in the grocery store. The food situation was getting critical again.

  Helice was wondering why she would even consider going along with such an overbearing man. But there was the fire. He was right. She couldn’t stay here. She decided she would let him lead her out of here. After that, she would make her own decisions.

  Rafe’s hand hesitated on the door handle when he heard her next question.

  “You can ask me to go with you, but in the future, I would appreciate it if you would refrain from ordering me to do anything.”

  The lines around his mouth tightened briefly before he answered her. “I can’t force you to do anything, but you look like a smart woman. Since I’m armed, I’m guessing you’re smart enough to have figured out that you have a better chance of surviving with me than without me.”

  Without saying another word, he opened the door and led the way out of the gun shop. They wasted no time heading for the grocery store.

  The wind had veered so that the smoke was now coming in their direction. It was thick, black smoke and there were moments when Helice could barely see anything around her. She was pulling the neckline of her shirt over her nose and mouth when she tripped over something as she was concealing herself in the bushes. She had to choke back a scream when she realized it was a body. But at least it wasn’t moving and for what seemed like an interminably long period of time, she crouched there obediently while the smell from the body combined with the acrid smell of smoke. That was bad enough, but when she heard terrible squelching noises coming from the grocery store, she knew she couldn’t wait. She had to do something.

  Oof!

  Something hit Rafe hard from behind. He spun halfway around, slammed into the empty shelves and ducked just in time to avoid a second blow. A two-by-four struck the metal shelves right beside him, leaving a huge dent. The woman, who was supposed to be hiding in the bushes outside, brought a board crashing down again with lethal force. Her intent was clear. She meant to kill him.

  He managed to avoid the next blow, but just barely. When he saw that she was raising the bat for another attack, he reacted fast and knocked her down with a leg sweep. She went down hard with a screech of rage.

  By now the initial numbness was wearing off and his shoulder felt like it was on fire. He clapped a hand to his upper arm and could not suppress a groan of pain as he stood over her. “What the hell are you doing?” he asked incredulously.

  “I thought I could help.” She looked around at the zombies that he had already taken care of. They were strewn all around them.

  “By hitting me?” he asked.

  “I couldn’t see because of the smoke. From behind, you looked like one of them.”

  “You could have killed me.” He clenched his jaw hard. “Give me a minute,” he said, leaning over as he fought the pain in his shoulder. She must have taken a good chunk of skin off, he thought, but he supposed he was lucky she hadn’t done worse damage. She could have dislocated his shoulder or worse, brought that board down on his head.

  When he straightened, Helice felt a jolt of fear go right through her middle. Lit by the red glow from the fires outside, he looked like the devil himself, especially when he fixed his angry gaze upon her. She was used to Eymann, who backed down and cowered before her at the drop of a hat. This man was a completely new entit
y to her. She was not sure what he might do.

  “You should have done what I told you in the first place and stayed outside.” As he flexed his injured shoulder, the pain made him draw a slow, hissing breath through his teeth. “You do something like that again and I’ll make you sorry you even thought about it.”

  The outright threat made her hold her tongue for once. She stared back at him, certain he meant every word of what he said.

  The shattering of glass somewhere in the back of the store caused him to jerk his head around and refocus. “We need to get out of here,” he told her. “Now.”

  The noise must have drawn more zombies because the street was full of them. In fact, they quickly found themselves surrounded. Alone, Helice might have panicked at that point. But Rafe shoved her into the passenger door of a car, then slid his body in right after her.

  “Now what do we do?” she asked him breathlessly.

  “As far as I have seen, they can’t break into a car,” he answered her. “We’ll wait until they thin out and then- ”

  “And then what?” she asked when he hesitated.

  “And then- ” He pointed. “We might not have to wait. Look.”

  She did look. The keys were in the ignition.

  “Try starting it,” he said.

  She flinched as one of the zombies slammed hard against the driver’s side window. She immediately reached for the key, turned it and was shocked when the engine turned over.

  “What’s the gas situation?” Rafe asked.

  “Almost half a tank.”

  With his profile starkly etched in red from the fire, she was certain she saw the faintest suggestion of a smile lift the corner of his mouth.

  “Let’s go,” he said.

  “You want me to drive?”