by Tera Shanley
“Jack and Brock.”
A redbird landed on a low-hanging branch farther up the trail, and Soren tracked it as they walked. They were pretty little creatures. “I don’t know either of them.”
“You wouldn’t. They’re new to the guard training program. Came here just to get a crack at Finn’s training camps. He’ll make men of them yet.”
“Did they come here together?”
“Of course. They’re brothers.”
Soren had been right in the middle of swallowing and choked, coughing until she could breathe again. “You’re date-banging brothers?”
Adrianna shrugged and waved to Mrs. Williams, who was having a time of it trying to corral her three children.
“Hi, girls!” she greeted them. “Soren, aren’t you a sight for sore eyes. It sure is good to see you back here again.”
“It’s good to be back,” she called. Really good. Perhaps she’d stayed way too long at Dead Run River without visiting home. She was actually starting to feel sane again, but maybe Kaegan had something to do with that too. She had an overwhelming urge to show him exactly where she came from when he was around. To show him how she’d grown up and what made her…her.
The closer she walked to the gates leading to the shooting range, the more her stomach did uncomfortable little flip-flops. He’d seemed at ease with her yesterday, but maybe he’d see things clearly this morning—see how wrong she was for him.
At the cinder block fence, she smiled at the guards as they opened the gates. Adrianna kissed one of them, but Soren hadn’t any idea if it was Jack or Brock. Maybe it was neither.
Shots sounded from down the fence line. They were set up close so the guards at the front could help them pick off Deads attracted by the noise. Colten looked to be passed out in the sun without his shirt on, lying on his back on a burlap sack. Kaegan was on his stomach, firing a long-range weapon and taking instructions from Finn and Guist.
Adrianna was still talking to the guards behind her, so she stopped to watch. Sunglasses shielded his eyes from her, but his arms moved and flexed as he reloaded and took aim again. A target clung to a tree some two hundred yards off, and a tight grouping had been blasted in the bull’s-eye.
“We’ll have to put a target farther back and see what you can really do when you come back,” Finn said with a toothy grin. He and Guist gave each other a loaded look, like they were impressed, and pride swelled in her. His skill with weaponry surprised her and made her realize that she only knew a tiny bit about the man her heart had latched on to.
“Soren,” Guist called. “Come on over here, and we’ll get you started with that pistol.” He pulled a box of ammunition from a stack beside Colten’s snoring form and started pulling bullets.
Kaegan’s gaze arched to her, and the slightest smile stretched his cheeks. He lifted his sunglasses and said, “Hey. I was wondering if you were going to make it out.”
“Is he still drunk?” Soren asked.
“As a skunk,” Finn said. “Best he doesn’t handle firearms right now.”
Soren approached and stood over Kaegan so her shadow protected his eyes where he’d been squinting against the sun. “Are you okay?”
“I don’t drink moonshine.” He hefted himself up and dusted dry grass from his shirt. “That stuff will make you go blind.”
“Smart man,” Guist said with a frown at Colten.
His chest rose and fell deeply like he couldn’t hear a word they were saying, but already his shoulders were showing signs of too much sun. “He’s going to get sunburned laying out like that.”
“It would serve him right, now wouldn’t it?” Finn asked.
She kicked an empty burlap sack over him, then pulled at it until it covered all but his forehead. “Yeah, but I don’t want a teammate favoring another injury out there. You both already have gimp legs.” She picked up a large leaf and started shredding it.
“What are you doing?” Kaegan asked, watching her.
When she had the perfect shape of a penis and balls torn out, she licked it and plastered it to Colten’s exposed forehead. “Revenge for the stabbing and constant barrage of insults.”
Kaegan snorted and Finn covered a booming laugh with the back of his hand.
“What did I miss?” Adrianna asked, looking from face to face.
“About an hour of target practice, ladies,” Guist said in a stern voice. “What does ten o’clock mean to you? To me, it means be here at nine fifty waiting for me to arrive. I’m not here for my own health. I know how to shoot a gun, and Finn sure as anything has better things to do than wait around for you to finally show up. Surely you can see what a time suck this has been.”
“Don’t bust my balls,” Adrianna said, punching her fists on her hips. “I was here, remember? Soren was the one who ignored pew-pew time.”
“Damn it, Adrianna. Yes, sir. All I was looking for was a yes, sir, like every other trainee in the entire colony can manage.”
Swatting at a pestering fly, Adrianna stared at him like he’d lost his mind. This—this was why Adrianna hadn’t completed guard training. Oh, she knew her weapons as well as any guard and had practiced extensively. She could handle a blade as well as Soren or any other fighter, but she didn’t take authority well.
“Dead,” Soren said.
“What?” Guist said, swinging an irritated gaze to her.
“I smell a Dead. A ripe one coming from that direction.” She pointed west with the barrel of her handgun.
“Oh.” Guist handed her a fistful of bullets and said, “Well, load your clip, and let’s start you on moving targets.”
Chapter Thirteen
MOVING TARGETS TURNED OUT to be much more difficult to hit than stationary ones, but maybe it was a good thing they’d tightened up their aim on the creatures they’d actually be fighting. Each hit gave Soren a sick feeling in her stomach, but it was the way it would have to be. Deads weren’t people anymore, and they’d eat the ones she cared about in a precious heartbeat. She just had to remember that.
She’d spent the afternoon with her parents, and by dinnertime, the nerves had kicked in. She’d be leaving this place tomorrow, possibly for the last time. Drinking in every detail of her stay, she hoped it would be enough to draw on if she met disaster at the end of this.
“Hold this. And this,” Mom said, stacking storage containers of beans and creamed corn in her arms.
The weather was perfect for eating outside, and Vanessa had suggested they take advantage of one of the giant fire pits for their last dinner in the Denver colony.
The smell of cooking meat turned her stomach as she followed Mom out the front door, and like a compass pointing north, her eyes were drawn to Kaegan. His back was to her as he flipped steaks. The aromatic meat sizzled on a grate a small distance above the simmering embers of the fire. Kaegan’s shoulder muscles moved under his blue thermal shirt, and her fingers itched with the desire to trace the striations through the thin fabric. Memories of his smooth skin under her wet fingertips in the river slowed her progress, and as if he could read her thoughts, he turned stunning gray eyes on her. Everything faded—the noise of Dad and Sean’s banter, Finn dropping tinder and branches onto the small woodpile, Guist and Eloise tossing clanking horseshoe irons at a metal stake. Laughter died to nothing but a murmur as Kaegan’s partially hidden face stretched with a languid smile, spreading until it reached his eyes, brightening them somehow. God, he was the most beautiful thing she’d ever laid eyes on.
“You gonna eat him?” Colten asked from right beside her. “It looks like you’re gonna eat him.”
She turned narrowed eyes to Colten, who seemed quite pleased with yet another jab. His eyes were bright as if he was waiting for her to snap at him, and his forehead sported the tan line of an impressive cartoon erection.
Apparently, no one had felt inclined to enlighten the idiot.
“Colten, I can’t take anything you say seriously when you have a dick on your forehead,” she said.
“Three hours,” Adrianna sang from her seat on a tree stump that had been carved in the shape of a crude chair.
Colten fingered his forehead with a frown. “Three hours for what?”
“Three hours before anyone spilled the beans that you have the tan line of a tiny wiener on your face.” Adrianna held up her pinky and wiggled it.
“Wha—” He swung a cold gaze to Soren. “You?”
“Yup.”
His eyes narrowed to slits. “Nicely done,” he conceded as he stalked off.
“Here, let me take those,” Kaegan said.
Stretching her neck back to take in his full height, she released the containers of food to his care and thanked him. The warm, sweet smile from earlier still clung to his lips, and she wanted to lick it off.
Lick it off?
What was wrong with her? She needed to put the damned muzzle on again and save herself temptation. The way he leaned forward when she handed over the food with his mouth slightly parted did nothing to sway her sudden need for more from him. Nor did the attractive stubble that shadowed his jaw, or the riveted attention he gave her as the words, “Thank you,” left her lips.
“Hey,” he said, leaning so close, she could feel the warmth of his broad chest. His fingers gripped her waist, and her stomach clenched with longing. “I saved a couple of steaks to the side for you.” He twitched his head to a plate of raw beef that sat near enough the fire to warm up, but not to cook. Breath tickled her ear, and a curious warmth emanated from her stomach, lower and lower until it reached the deepest places within her, simmering until the heat surely matched the smoking remnants of the fire.
He accepted her. Here he was, declaring he didn’t care what she ate or that she was different. Before she had time to think or change her mind, she turned her head and brushed her lips lightly under his jaw, reveling in the feel of his stubble against the tender flesh of her mouth for a moment before pulling away. She shouldn’t have done it. Even if he couldn’t be turned like this, she was tempting them both to get too close.
Sidling around him, she looked back once she reached the fire, but he stood frozen, looking after her with wide, serious eyes and animated dark eyebrows that had drawn together like she was a puzzle he hadn’t all the pieces to.
Heart pounding, she sat next to Mom, who was shoving potatoes into the charred logs of the fire. She tried to help, but really, her focus was on Kaegan as he knelt beside the fire pit again and checked the steaks. He seemed to be having the same problem, because his eyes drifted to hers twice.
“Soren!” Mom yelped, yanking Soren’s fingers away from the flame. “You have to be more careful. Look there, you’ve burned yourself.”
The tips of her fingers were indeed red and angry looking. “Sorry, I didn’t feel it.”
Mom sighed, and shot Kaegan a troubled look. “You can’t afford to lose your head,” she said softly. “It’ll be different for you, more dangerous. You have to think when you’re around him, or neither one of you will survive this.”
Soren opened her mouth to answer, but Adrianna whistled a catcall. “The dream team is here.”
Three figures emerged from the trees, two men and a woman, all around her age.
Colten came from behind, wearing a baseball cap that covered his forehead. “Who are they?”
“They,” Adrianna said with a Cheshire cat smile, “are the second half of our team. This is Ben Cavenagh, recruited for his brawn.” Adrianna pinched Colten’s bicep and made a squeaking sound. He yanked it away, and Ben laughed.
“She really recruited us because we’re the only ones dumb enough to join the crusade.” His voice was friendly and his smile easy. He was handsome, with chestnut brown hair and dark eyes. Only a few inches taller than Soren, his muscular arms threatened to cut through his T-shirt like glass. Brawn indeed.
“This is Lauren,” Ben introduced the blond haired girl next to him as she shifted her weight uncomfortably, like she didn’t like the attention. “She don’t talk, but she understands just fine.”
“And,” Adrianna drawled as she stepped behind a tall, lanky man with glasses, “you probably recognize this guy from before.”
He did look familiar now that she mentioned it. His mouth was set in a grim line, and his hazel colored eyes were hard as he stared back, unblinking.
“Adrianna,” Sean warned. “I don’t think Mark is a good fit for this mission.”
Mark. Why did that name sound so familiar?
“Surely you remember me, Dead,” the man said. “You killed my best friend. Or are your victims so easily forgotten?”
Mark. Mark Greenfield. Her mouth suddenly went dry as a desert in the wind, and she took a step back. “Why would you want to come with us?”
“It’s not to play power squad with you, princess zombie. It’s for the research.”
“Mark’s a scientist,” Adrianna explained in a bland tone. “Or tech groupie? I don’t know. He likes to study shit, and he wants to come along for the learning side of things. Plus he might come in handy if we need something fixed up in a hurry. Plus he knows first aid.”
Sean stood to the side of their little group, shaking his head. “We’ve been burned bringing an unprepared civilian with us before. Can you shoot?”
Finn cleared his throat and handed him a Glock he pulled from a holster tied to his leg. Mark pulled it back as Finn chucked a log far into the abyss in front of them. Pulling the trigger, a crack echoed through the clearing as a chunk of wood exploded from the spinning propellant. In one smooth motion, he clicked the safety into place and handed the weapon back to Finn, grip first.
Well, fantastic. If the hordes of Deads they were about to fight didn’t kill her, Mark-freaking-Greenfield would surely finish the job.
Mark glared at her, and Kaegan at him as she withered under his hateful stare. Lauren shoved Mark in the shoulder and mouthed, “Stop it,” and to Soren’s unending surprise, he softened, if just slightly.
“Dinner is on,” Eloise called in a sing-songy voice, breaking the spell of utter discomfort.
Turning, Soren bit her lip and shot Mark one more sidelong glance. Well, this is what they’d come here to do. Stock up on supplies and weapons and find a larger team. She just hadn’t imagined a team quite like this.
The sound of the subtle slide of leather filled the dark as Soren checked each of her blades and sheathed them. She’d sharpened every one of them on a wet stone in the night and now stood in the crisp, early morning air waiting for the rest of the team to meet her at the front gates. She’d said her good-byes, and the flutters of sadness at leaving home after such a short time were replaced by dragon wings, flapping around inside of her as her thoughts turned to the uncertain future. Only a vision of Kaegan, smattered in blood and looking ferocious as he had the day she’d first seen him, calmed her nerves. Whatever was going to happen would happen beside him.
Adrianna slid out of the trees, then Lauren, quiet as hunting cats. Soren bent to secure the holster of her pistol more securely on her waist and tied it steady around her upper thigh. She wasn’t used to the weight yet, but she would be soon enough. Her battle swords clanked against her back with the movement, bringing her comfort. Lauren carried an assault rifle across her shoulder blades and a foot-long bowie knife was perched on her hip. Adrianna’s belt housed the smaller throwing knives that she’d grown most comfortable with growing up, a gift from many hours of lessons from Vanessa, no doubt. Soren hadn’t checked the satchel that rested against her hip yet, but she would when they made camp later that night. She trusted Guist to have packed everything just the way she needed. The man had an instinct for it.
She heard the men before she saw them thanks to Colten’s voice, which seemed to carry for miles when he was riled up.
This morning, the argument seemed to be about her wearing the muzzle or not.
“Look, we voted, man, so suck it up,” Colten said. “She wears the muzzle or this thing doesn’t work. We have enough to worry abou
t surviving the trip to the coast without wondering if one of our own will eat us. You heard what Mark said. She killed his friend. What’s the difference between that boy and us? I’ll tell you what it is. Nothing.”
“Colten, if you don’t drop this, I swear—”
“You swear what?” Mark asked. “Three against one. The vote was fair, so get over it.”
“She’s already wearing it, you dunces,” Adrianna called testily. “And, Mark, your argument is ridiculous. A fair vote would’ve included the entire team, which it didn’t. Lauren, did you get a vote?”
Lauren shook her head.
“I know I wouldn’t vote for something so ridiculous,” Adrianna said. “We haven’t even left yet, and you’re bickering. Kaegan, you’re awesome. You others can jump in a lake of piranhas, or I’ll push you in one myself if I have to hear you bashing on Soren the entire way to Mexico.”
“She’s not a morning person,” Soren explained in a muffled voice.
“I wish you wouldn’t wear that,” Kaegan said, worry swimming in the gray depths of his eyes as they raked over her covered face.
She shrugged. If it were just the three of them and Adrianna, it would be different. But the new team members, Mark especially, changed things. She didn’t want him hating her any more than he already did, and if wearing the muzzle took the sting off teaming up with the murderer of his best friend, then it was a burden she could bear.
The black of night had relinquished the horizon to the deep blues and subtle oranges of sunrise, and Soren nodded a good-bye to one of the night guards she recognized. When they were outside of the colony gates, she turned and inhaled, pinning to memory the smell of home.
The others had set out, but Kaegan lingered. “I’ll bring you back here,” he promised. “When this is through, you’ll see it again.”
She smiled sadly at the promise he had no control over keeping, but his face, heavy with the shadows of the lingering night, stayed focused on her, serious. “You kissed me yesterday.”
“On the cheek.”
“Don’t diminish it. The kiss counted. Does it mean you care for me?”