Page 113 of Afflicted

“Ditto.” Her grin turns sassy. “That’s from an old movie, right?” She shrieks as I swat her ass.

“You seem pretty happy to fuck an old man, you cheeky little bitch.”

She laughs out loud, curling herself around me, and the moment feels so wholesome and normal that I could almost forget where we are and what we’re meant to be doing.

Almost.

With a sigh, I press a kiss to her temple. “Alright you, we need to get moving.”

“Dammit.” She huffs out a warm breath against my chest, then sits up. “I’m getting dressed now though.” She gives me that sassy grin again. “Can’t risk us stoppingagain.”

I nod, running my hand down her chest, splaying it gently over her stomach. The image of that swollen belly floats in front of me, and my fingers flex. “You need to get dressed and eat something. I need to be careful taking too much blood from you.”

She climbs off me with a shrug, retrieving her clothes and pulling her tank top over her head. “They haven’t drained me in months. It’s really weird.”

“Well they wanted you stronger, going to the gym and all that. Which you haven’t been doing.”

She shakes out her hair, giggling. “Because you’ve been working me out the last few days, in case you hadn’t noticed.”

“True. But we should start going again.” I gesture to the front seat. “Now, eat. There’s food in the bag there.” I pull my clothes back on as she scrambles into the front, rifling through the bag. “I’d make you chips and eggs to get your weight up, but-”

“What and what?” She asks, apple in hand.

I let out a laugh, buttoning up my shirt. “Chips and eggs, with a big mug of milky tea. Meal of champions.”

She wrinkles her adorable nose. “It sounds disgusting.”

“Wait til I tell you about pie and liquor.” I climb out of the truck and get into the driver’s seat, and see her eyeing me out of the corner of my eye. When I turn to look at her, she almost looks sad. “What’s wrong, angel?”

She shakes her head, sighing, looking down at the apple in her hand. “We both had lives, and we can’t share them with each other. We can’t… I can’t take you home to meet my family, you can’t fly me to England to meet yours.” She swallows hard. “You’ve made it hard to accept that my life isn’t normal. I tried not to care. All these years I tried not to care. But with you… I do.”

“I hate that.” I reach across and take her hand. Her slender fingers curl around mine, and her touch makes the ache worse. “I told you, I’d never regret this, and I won’t. Ever. Because even if this hurts, it’s worth it to me.”

She dashes away a stray tear from her cheek and nods. “I don’t regret it either. I never will. But I’ll always wish for more. Because I want everything, but only because I want it with you.”

The ache turns into a visceral pain.Only because I want it with you. I curl my hand around hers, hating god and the world and every other thing keeping me away from her, from theeverythingshe wants. The pain sends red into the corners of my vision, and I have to swallow down the grief for the life I can’t give her along with all the love my fractured soul will bear until we’re nothing but dust.

With a final squeeze of her fingers, I let go and gun the engine of the truck. If she wonders at my silence, she doesn’t say anything, just settles back into her seat and crunches her teeth into her apple.

We coast along the highway, the damage from the storm evident all around us. We pass towns that look like a tornado swept through them, the crumbling buildings now mostly collapsed. A car is overturned on the road ahead of us, and I’m surprised the storm became that strong.

Juliet squeaks suddenly, sitting up in her seat and tapping against her window. “Oh my god, Silas!”

I look out her window, and my stomach turns to ice. There’s Afflicted out in a field in the distance, a huge horde of them. They’re aimlessly roaming, but there’s got to be at least 200 of them. I slam on the brakes, and we both stare out at them.

“Silas,” Juliet whispers. “We can’t keep going.”

“They might have already gone through Savannah.” I grab the radio, flipping the dial to Savannah’s frequency, and give her a pointed look. “Stay quiet.” She nods, wrapping her arms around her legs as she turns to look back out the window. “Savannah, do you read me?” Nothing but empty crackling answers. “Savannah, do you read?”

No response.

My smart watch pings at that moment. The perimeter alarm has been triggered.

Juliet eyes me with alarm. “Oh god, Silas.”

I replace the radio and throw the truck into reverse, turning around the trees on the other side of the road before flooring the accelerator.

“They’re going to find out, oh god.” Juliet starts to cry,

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