Page 115 of Afflicted

“Oh god, oh god,” she murmurs against me, shoulders shaking.

“It’s all over, angel, we’re OK.” I tip her head back and plant a soft kiss on her lips. “We’re safe.” Maybe. Maybe we’re safe.

I usher her back to the dorm, past the vamp standing guard at the door, who is completely uninterested in the crying human under my arm. Gina looks up with alarm as I guide Juliet back to her bed.

“What the hell?” Gina eyes me suspiciously, getting to her feet to take Juliet from me. “Where the hell have you been?”

“She needed to…” I trail off, out of lies, out of answers. “She’s alright, just had a fright.”

“Sure she did.” Gina shakes her head and wraps Juliet in a hug so maternal it makes me miss my own mother. Just for a moment.

I give myself a shake and hurry from the dorm, heading across the yard to Sam’s office. I tear open the door, to find Sam sitting at her desk, poring over some paperwork.

“Can I help you, Silas?” She doesn’t look up. She was fucking expecting me.

“Yeah, you can tell me why I was out there with no warning that there was a fucking perimeter drill planned for today.”

“Scared you, did it?” She still won’t look up, still calmly looking over her.

“I rushed back because I thought there was an emergency.” I stride across the room and slam my hands on the table, and she finally looks up at me. “I was out there, fucking stranded on my own and-”

“On your own?” She interjects, leaning back in her chair. “Were you now? On your own? You’re in my office pitching a fit because you were out there on your own?”

She fucking knows. “Sam, don’t ever pull a stunt like that on me again, do you hear me?”

“I’m not the one pulling stunts here.”

I growl, my hands balling into fists. “I swear to god, if you ever do anything like that again-”

“You’ll what?” Her eyebrows lift, and she swivels back and forth languidly in her chair. “What’ll you do, Silas? Same thing you did to Braun?”

“Try me.”

“Are you threatening a senior officer?” She leans on her elbows, tilting her chin up at me. “I’m going to give you some friendly advice. If you want people to cover your mistakes, don’t threaten them.”

I narrow my eyes. “My mistakes?”

“Your mistakes.Like the one I could smell in your cabin yesterday morning.”

“I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”

“This conversation is over.” She drops her gaze back to the paperwork in front of her, and waves me away. “You can go now.”

“Sam-”

“I said, you can go.”

I shove myself away from the desk and back out into the yard. Instead of heading to my cabin, I head for the gym. Once inside I tear off my shirt, casting it aside before laying into the punching bag with rage so acute I can smell it.

Sam knows. Of course she does. And today was just a little flex of power to let me know that she’s watching. She’ll use this to her advantage. I know she will.

As the punching bag goes flying across the gym, I realize I didn’t tell them about the horde of Afflicted, or about Savannah not answering their radio. I should tell them. That horde was massive. I move towards the doors, scooping my shirt up from the floor, but as thunder rumbles overhead, I pause.

I chew the inside of my cheek for a moment, before throwing my shirt over my shoulder and heading back to my cabin, deciding to keep that information to myself for now.

It could very well be useful to me, maybe even sooner than I think.

CHAPTER30

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