Arrows whizzed past Sanna on either side. The stage one jerked in a macabre dance and sank onto her side. A soldier surged forward and sliced her head off with single swipe of her sword. Others, their faces covered in metal helmets, looped their arms under Sanna’s shoulders and dragged her to the wall. Warmth rushed through her body, followed by the ache of her injured foot.
Her body was her own again, the voice and its strange hold on her had vanished, leaving her feeling hollow. Weak. She sagged against the strength of the soldiers hauling her to safety as the dark, sweet waves of unconsciousness lapped at her heels. Her eyelids dipped, her head bobbed. The last thing she saw was the headless body of the stage one being blotted out by the blizzard.
Darkness slipped over her as a cruel laugh echoed in her skull. I’m coming for you Sanna. And next time, I won’t let you go.
CHAPTER FIVE
Twig gasped awake and found himself suspended in pure white. Was he dead? No, his body was cold. It was that blasted snow. He was buried in it.
He dug his way out, bursting through the frozen crust. It was far deeper than he remembered and the branches of the pine tree above him bowed with the weight of it. It must be morning. The sky above was a smooth, dull pewter and the sun a silvery coin hanging in the East.
His shirt was stiff. Hard. The front was stained with black blood, long since frozen. He peered beneath the fabric and found three arrow-sized punctures in his chest and stomach that were slowly healing
Awarness flooded back to his body, pricking his flesh like a thousand needles. He crunched the fabric in his fist as agony from the wounds followed. A debt that must be paid for his carelessness.
After his brethern had freed him from the tree, he'd melded with them, using their eyes as his own as they scoured the forest for that cow who’d escaped his chains. He’d found that strange girl instead. Sanna. He’d zeroed in on her, embodying one of the Infected that was hounding her across a frozen wasteland. It was risky—any injury to the Infected would harm his own body—but the girl was unlike any other.
He’d felt the pull she had on the stage one, as if a tether connected them. The stage one was hungry—as they always were—but it wanted this girl specifically. Twig got the feeling it would climb over a million other corpses to reach her.
Why? What made her so special? Twig didn’t understand it, which filled him with such an intense loathing that he’d wanted nothing more than to rip out the girl’s throat right then and there. He could have, if not for those pesky soldiers. The blizzard had masked their presence until it was almost too late. He hadn’t even had a chance to study the area for landmarks. The snow had been so thick, obscuring everything behind a skein of white.
Was this Sanna creature the demon he was looking for? Could she be the one destroying all the crusaders? She seemed young. Weak. But Omegas were ageless and good at hiding their powers when needed. Either way, she clearly was a threat.
Her village had to be close. His psychic control over the Infected was limited to a few measely miles. He had to find her. Destroy her. Twig tugged his hood over his head and hunched his shoulders against the cold. He slogged through the snow, careful to keep his senses open as he quietly summoned the cursed ones sleeping under the snow around him. They would serve as extensions of his eyes and ears.
The wind whistled through the trees, carrying the scent of humans. Twig looked to the left, where two humans—a woman and a child—were rushing through the bushes. They seemed to be floating on top of the snow rather than plowing through. Contraptions were attached to their feet—wooden frames with nets in the middle that somehow kept them from sinking. He could use a pair of those. His fangs descended. He could use a meal too.
Twig double-checked that his hood and scarf were in place and scurried after them. He made no attempt to hide his movements, banking instead on his small, childish size to bring down their guard. The woman halted at the sound of his approach and shoved the boy behind her, scanning the forest. Her expression softened when she saw Twig, who kept his gait was smooth and steady, despite the too-tight skin over his knees.
“Hey there,” the woman’s voice was soft and sweet, like mother. “Who are you?”
Twig paused. He’d take out the woman first. He knew they turned vicious if their offspring was threatened.
“Where are your parents?” The boy asked, dubious.
“I don’t got any,” Twig mumbled.
The woman smiled. “You can come with us, if you like. Cerise will take you in. She took in all of us.”
Us? Twig’s fangs receded. Why eat a beggar’s meal now, if he could have a banquet later? Besides, Sanna’s home must be near their camp if the two of them were walking.
That cow who’d run away from him had been wrong. He wouldn’t starve after all.
ESME LOOKED SO SMALL, as if the illness had robbed not only her health, but years from her frame. Her raging fever brought a false blush to her sunken cheeks, and her shallow, rasping breath left Kai wondering if each one would be her last. He hated leaving her, and he hated Iris for making him.
He knelt down beside the cot and gently held her hand. He told himself that this wasn’t goodbye—it was just another day, another mission. He’d come back, and she’d be the feisty, stubborn sister who’d been a thorn in his side for the last twelve years.
Her eyes cracked open. ”I don’t...feel so good.”
”I know. I’m sorry.” Kai said, then drew in a deep breath. ”I’m leaving, Ez. I’ll be back soon, though, I promise.”
Esme whimpered, the cot creaking benath her. The fact that this hovel was the best he could do for her hurt more than when he’d been branded a traitor. She should be in one of those shiny New Hope hospitals, or at least in one of the walled colonies dotting the Midwest.
“Can we go back to the Inferno? Please? I wanna...I wanna see Dad.”
“He’s not your—”
“You’d better get going, Merrick, the Infected are getting more active by the day,” Iris said from across the stifling room.
She’s right. Kai swallowed the rest of the bitter words. Besides, it was no use. Esme was too young to remember their real father—a kind, generous man who was far too trusting. Nothing like Hayes, the leader of the Inferno, whom Esme’s idolized in his place. Kai stood, ready to leave.
“Wait,” Esme whispered. “Take Frankie with you.”
“He’s your dog Esme. He’ll just get in the way.”
“Please.” Esme caught his hand and held it with sudden, surprising strength. “I don’t—I don’t want to think of you being all alone out there.”
A weight pressed on his chest. He glanced back at her, a hard lump forming in his throat. She was looked so small, so frail. Was he making the right decision? Would she be alive when he returned? The last year had been one disaster after another for them, ever since he left the Inferno.
He squeezed her hand. “Love you, Ez.”
Her eyes drifted shut. Kai crossed to the front door, afraid that if he didn’t leave now, he never would. Iris met him there, her thin lips bracketed with worry, and eerie eyes luminous in the dim light.
“I would hurry.” She gazed over at Esme’s dark corner. “I will try to help, but she is...not well.”
“It will be a week at least. Maybe longer...” Kai hesitated, debating once more. “Why don’t I stay until her fever breaks? Then I’ll get you that girl—Sanna. I swear it.”
”No!” Iris shook her head. “No time. The longer we wait, the more active the Infected will become and the more dangerous the journey will be. You must go. Now.” She shoved an old canvas backpack into his arms, stuffed like a sausage. I find these things. Food, supplies. They will help, yes?”
“Thanks.” Though he loathed leaving Esme, Iris had proven to be strange but harmless over the past few days. She also knew far more than Kai did about medicine, and had plenty of food and water. It was clear that Esme’s greatest chance of recovery was here, and if all it took was so
me girl named Sanna, then by god he’d deliver her on a damn platter.
“He’d...take us...back. He didn’t mean...to hurt you,” Esme murmured, lost in another fever dream.
Kai clenched his jaw. She was talking about Hayes. Again.
He swung the pack over his shoulders and flung open the door, facing the howling wind and swirling snow with grim determination. He hoped that Esme would one day see that Hayes for the person he truly was, instead of the hero she made him out to be.
Kai entered the icy forest, the scars on his arms throbbing at the memory of the man who’d branded him.
THREE DAYS LATER, KAI stared down at the three stage twos waiting beneath him, their bony, sunken faces shining like putrid moons in the morning gloom. Scabs covered their eyes, and thick black veins pumped the virus all over their heads like fat, pulsing slugs. One snarled up at him. Venom streaked through the air. It splattered on the bark near Kai’s hand, burrowing deep.
He stopped, his breath so shallow, he felt lightheaded. He clung into the tree, and prayed the branch beneath him was strong enough. Seconds stretched into hours. Frankie barked in the distance.
Kai’s muscles ached. An itch tickled his nose. He had a few arrows left in the satchel tied to his hip, but he’d dropped his bow like an idiot as he clambered up the tree. If only the stage twos hadn’t taken him by surprise and treed him like a damn squirrel. If only they were still hibernating.
Silence settled over them. Kai peered down, and saw their heads cocking to one side, as if listening to some distant call. Weird...
They took off in unison, fading amonst the white pillars of birch that surrounded them.
Kai rested his forehead on the trunk, the tension draining from his muscles. That had been close. Too close. How long would they have waited for him? Probably until he froze. Thank God something—or someone had grabbed their interest.
He climbed down a few feet and jumped, landing in a puff of glittery snow. He snatched the bow and drew back an arrow, aiming for the bushes. His hands shook as he waited for more stage twos to spring forth like living nightmares, their claws reaching for his throat. They didn’t. Odd.
He wished Iris’s stage twos were still following him, as they had on his first day of travel. He’d had a sense that they’d kept the other Infected at bay. This morning, though, he’d awakened alone. Perhaps they’d reached the end of their invisible tether and had to return to their mistress.
The number of Infected he’d seen over the past three days unnerved him. He’d killed three stage ones already, and avoided at least a half-dozen more. They were slower than in the summer, but the frost coating their tattered skin served as excellent camouflage. How many more were waiting for him beneath their mantles of ice and snow?
Kai lowered his bow. Moving fast was more important. Picking his way through the trees, he headed for the old highway that traced Lake Superior all the way to Canada. Frankie barked ahead, as if telling him to hurry.
”Yeah? Well, where were you when those stage twos jumped us?” Kai grumbled. The waves crashed against the time-worn rocks behind him. He followed the dog’s path, the trees growing smaller and more splindly the closer he got to the wide ribbon of snow-covered pavement. The brilliant winter sun blazed overhead, nearly blinding him as he left the dark wood.
Frankie sat on the snow-covered roof of an abandoned car a few yards ahead as proud as a king. His wagging tail brushed off the snow. Even though the dog was generally useless, it was nice to be missed. Kai crossed the short distance, his breath steaming. His shins bumped hit something hard. He probed the snow and felt the ridge of a metal skeleton—a truck that must’ve careened off the highway in the final hours of Canada’s open borders.
Two chains of bumper-to-bumper vehicles lined the old highway, stretching all the way to the border. The rusty roofs poked out of the thick snow like an endless series of islands. Frankie bounded down to the trunk of another.
Not a bad idea. It would be faster than slogging through knee-deep snow and he’d have a better view of approaching Infected in the area. Kai scrabbled onto the nearest car, and quickly fell into an efficient rythmn while Frankie maintained his lead. Up down. Up down. If he had more time, he’d investigate each one for abandoned treasures, though most of them were probably little more than brittle shells after nearly two centuries.
A shadow glided over him, its wings spanning the width of the road. Kai froze, his mind going blank at the sight. It can’t be...an Alpha hasn’t been seen in years.
Frankie growled. Kai snapped out his stupor. The winged shadow swerved, heading straight for him.
Kai slid off the car and bolted for the forest, every cell in his body screaming to run. Alphas were like giant hawks, and the canopy would provide at least some cover. He was nearly there when he spotted a pair of ghostly figures probing their way through the trees, their black lips curled into permanant grins. Stage twos. If they heard him, he’d be a goner. Kai skidded to a stop, snow flying in the air and made a break back to the road.
Frankie barked from the roof of a car, looking to the south. Four stage ones were weaving their way through crowded road. Two were bald and nearly naked, their clothes rotting off their gangly frames and their bloodshot eyes rimmed with red. The others followed further behind, fully clothed and lurching about like puppets controlled by a drunken master. Newly Infected, they were as clumsy as toddlers but also the most contagious. A bite from them always led to full-blown infection.
One of the stage ones, a female, snarled at him from the hood of an ancient pickup. The stage twos near the forest’s edge halted, their faces, turning towards Kai.
I should’ve stayed up in the forest.
The female bounded off a trunk, sprinting towards him, as the stage twos broke from the forest, hoping to beat her to an easy meal. Above them all, the Alpha circled like an aerial shark. They’d fight over him, tearing him limb from limb like starving men surrounding a roast chicken.
Kai slipped an arrow from his satchel and nocked it, taking aim at one of the stage twos’ sightless eyes. He drew back and released the arrow. The stage two collapsed in a pile of limbs, tripping the other.
Kai wasted no time. He bolted for nearest car, sweeping the snow off the door. His fingers curled around the metal handle. He yanked, but the door was fused shut. He cried out, frustrated, and saw his stricken face reflected in the passenger window.
Dropping his bow, he rammed his elbow into the cracked glass. A fuzzy numbness shot through his bones. He tried again, grunting. The glass webbed. Once mor, and it shattered. He dove through the gaping hole. Glass shards crunched beneath his hands and knees, shredding his coat. A human skeleton sat in the driver’s seat, still clutching the steering wheel.
Shrugging off his pack, he unsheathed the knife from his belt. Wind whistled through the broken window. He waited. Held his breath.
Contorted, human silhouettes rounded the car. A long-fingered palm slapped against the window above him, then the hand dragged across glass, clearing the snow. A wasted face pressed into it, its sore-covered, lidless eyes glowing like amber spheres and rotted stump of a nose flaring. Kai squeezed the dagger, sweat rolling down his temples. The face disappeared.
Seconds edged by as Kai waited for the attack. Perhaps she’d moved on with the others. Kai inched up to the window, keeping low. The snow was coming down in earnest now, falling like tufts of cotton. He peered up the road and saw nothing.
Thump. Something heavy landed on the roof, rocking the car. Long, razor tipped fingers curled around the edge of broken window across from him. Kai pressed into the opposite door, his heart hammering in his chest. He reached behind him, yanking on handle. It wouldn’t budge.
Long strands of dark hair descended from the roof. A mottled, gray-green forehead lowered into view, along with yellow eyes brightened by hunger. The bony angles of her face were sharp and exaggerated, the skin over them smooth and tight to the point of tearing. Her mouth was wide as jack-o’-lantern a
nd stuffed with pointed teeth. The Alpha. Over time, the virus honed her body into a sleek killing machine capable of destroying whole colonies in a single night.
Kai rocketed forward, aiming for her eye, but she averted and he sliced her batlike ear instead. She shrieked, shaking her head as dark, viscous blood poured down the side of her face.
An arc of venom sizzled on the headrest just above him as he surged upward again, this time aiming for the all-important temple.
She lunged farther into the car, her long arms reaching for him. Twice the size of a usual infected, her wings caught in the open window, blocking her entry. Kai slid over the console and into the front seat, ignoring the brittle crunch of the skeleton beneath him. Desperate, he tried the driver’s side door. No luck.
The Alpha grabbed his boot, jerking it towards her snapping jaws. He kicked out with his other foot and smashed it into the side of her head. She reared back with an unearthly scream.
But her venom would regenerate soon, and if he stayed in such tight quarters, it would be just minutes before she killed him. And what about the other Infected? They’d be waiting for him outside, hoping to pick over his carcass.
He had to think of something. Anything. He lifted his dagger, ready to fight to the death.
The Alpha stilled. Her gaze rolled to windshield. She cocked her head to one side as if listening to some secret voice, then ducked out of the car.
What the hell? Kai watched as she stood, shaking her head. She racked her claws across her bat-like ear. She stumbled to the left, then swayed to the right, leaning against the car for balance. The hard ridges of her muscular frame stood out in stark relief, straining. One leathery wing half-lifted.
Was she having a stroke? A seizure? The other Infected took off, stampeding down the highway until they were dark pinpricks on the horizon.
The Alpha roared, arching her spine, and bared her teeth to the sky. Her wings billowed out like a leathery cape. She lifted off, whirlwinds of snow dancing beneath her as she followed the others north.
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