Page 146 of Afflicted

“P-please.” The guy weakly lifts his remaining hand. “Please-”

“I don’t negotiate with anyone who hurts my wife.”

Silas lifts his foot and smashes his boot down into the guy’s head. His skull gives way with a loud crack and the sound of wet flesh. Silas takes two steps away from the inert corpse, spitting on the ground, his shoulders heaving.

He turns to look down at me, his face splattered with blood. He shakes his head, his face crumpling into an expression of tortured relief. He rushes to me and drops to his knees, pulling me into his arms. I don’t care that he’s covered in blood and carnage, I wrap myself around him and sob.

“What the fuck are you doing?” He cradles my head against his chest. “You absolute fucking idiot, what the fuck are you doing out here all on your own?”

“Looking for you.” I gaze up at him, my lips trembling. “I came to find you.”

“You’re meant to be safe, angel.” He strokes my cheeks. “You’re meant to be safe, not out here.”

“I don’t want to be safe, I want to be with you.”

He clenches his eyes closed before clutching my face in his hands and bringing his mouth down on mine. His kiss is hard and punishing, punctuated with sweetness and desperation as I feel him quivering with barely restrained rage. Or maybe it’s love? Maybe it’s both?

He pulls back from me, his eyes still glowing red, and he places one soft kiss against my forehead before hauling me to my feet. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

“Are there more of them?” I ask, averting my eyes from the bodies strewn over the rickety old truck.

“I don’t know, but we’re not sticking around to find out.” His fingers entwine with mine as he pulls me along after him, a sign of tenderness even as I can feel his anger rolling off him. I don’t even care, he can be angry with me if he wants to be. I’m so glad to be back with him that I can’t focus on anything but the warmth of his hand.

The truck is parked on a narrow dirt path that leads off between the trees. I squeeze past overgrown shrubs and climb up into the seat, Silas slamming the door shut behind me. He climbs into the driver’s seat, putting the keys in the ignition but not starting the engine yet.

He looks over at me, his eyes finally dimming back to the usual rusty brown. His face is twisted with emotion, his jaw set as though he’s biting back words.

“You OK?” I ask after a moment, and he shakes his head.

Without another word, he tears his gaze from my face and onto the road ahead, gunning the engine and turning right onto the overgrown remnants of the old highway.

CHAPTER38

SILAS

Juliet sits opposite me,her knees drawn up under her chin, the dancing light of the fire reflected in her eyes. The old house we find ourselves in is hardly a house, more of a shell, but it’s the best I could find before night fell. There are bandits out here, as she bloody well found out. I don’t know how many, but I know they’re probably scouting out the colony, hoping to attack an incoming supply run. We’re tens of miles away, but I still don’t trust our surroundings.

“You done being mad at me yet?”

I look over the fire, meeting her bright eyes. I can’t tell her the truth. Instead I grit my teeth and shake my head. Because it’s not a lie. I am still angry with her. I’m fucking furious.

But I’m also so relieved I could weep.

She sticks her chin out, her knees dropping so she’s sitting criss-crossed, and crosses her arms over chest. “Well I’m mad at you, too, so that’s fine with me.”

“You’re mad at me?” I scoff. “What the fuck for?”

“Leaving me.” Her lip wobbles. “For fucking leaving me there, with people I didn’t even know.”

I run a hand through my hair. “God, you’re impossible.”

She throws something at me, a stick or a pebble, I don’t know. It strikes me in the chest, and her eyes are wild now.

“Fuck you!” She hisses through clenched teeth, her finger darting through the air at me.

I rise to my knees, pointing a finger right back at her. “I wanted you to be safe. I broke you out of that compound so you could besafe,not bloody out here and exposed to the fucking elements and getting yourself raped and beaten by a bunch of hillbillies!”

“Fuck you!” She’s on her feet now, her hands balled into quivering fists by her sides. “You don’t get to decide for me like I’m a child!”

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