Page 99 of Afflicted

This girl. I regard her slack-jawed for a moment, before sweeping her into my arms. I clasp her to me, drinking in her scent, the taste of her blood as it buzzes on my tongue. I can’t help but laugh. Accosted by a vamp in the middle of an episode of bloodlust, and my sinful, dirty girl is justsurprised. I tip her head back and kiss her.

My girl. Mine. Mine.Mine.

She giggles against my lips, and licks her own as she pulls back from me. “I can taste myself,” she says, her eyes sparkling with all that filth her angelic appearance keeps so well hidden.

The wind begins to howl above us, and a loud clap of thunder reminds me that we need to get back to the compound as quickly as possible.

“Come on, the storm’s setting in. Let’s go.”

“What about the guy?” Juliet asks as she adjusts her clothes. “Do we just leave the body?”

I consider for a moment. “Yeah, no point dragging him back with us.”

Juliet shivers on the way back to the truck, thoroughly soaked through. As I hold her trembling frame under my arm, as I remember the bullets flying past her, another burden of reality weighs down on me. Danger is coming at us from more and more corners. How much longer would the compound be safe?

How much longer would I be able to keep her safe from all of this?

As the truck bounces back towards the compound, as rain bursts against the windshield and through the shot-out window, it crashes down on me, as it has a million times before - I have no idea how to stop any of this.

CHAPTER27

SILAS

Anderson regardsme with raised eyebrows and an open mouth.

“The National fucking Guard is sabotaging our alarms?” He leans back in his creaking leather chair, steepling his fingers in front of his mouth. “And you said there was only one of them?”

“Yes, just the one, thankfully. He shot at us without a second’s thought.”

Anderson huffs out a breath, wincing as a crash of thunder sounds above us. “Jesus, this storm.” His eyes move back to me. “What do you think? Can we keep the bloodbags safe out here?”

I consider my answer for a moment. I honestly don’t think we can, I think we’re in danger. I think we need to move to Savannah, we’re too isolated out here. Where once being out on our own was considered safer, making us less of a concentrated target for attacks of Afflicted, things have changed now. Our weapons stores are finite.

But all I can think about is Juliet. In a large compound like Savannah, like Boston, I’ll never see her. We won’t have the freedoms we do here.

And it’s with that singular, selfish thought in my head that I meet Anderson’s gaze, and shrug.

“I don’t think we’d have better chances elsewhere right now, if I’m honest. It’s better if we wait to see what Boston says about it.”

Anderson seems pleased with this answer, his lips pulled into an expression of approval as he nods. “Great, that’s what I hoped to hear.”

Rain batters the roof, and the wind howls through the cracks in the windows. Lightning flashes heavily beyond the blinds, and Anderson swivels in his chair to crack them with his finger, gazing outside.

“We’ll be lucky if the power stays on,” he mulls quietly.

“Well, fingers crossed, ey.” I rise to my feet. “If that’s all, sir.”

“Yeah, thanks King.”

I head for the door, my hand on the knob, when Anderson’s voice stops me.

“King, just a question.”

I half turn back towards him, looking over my shoulder at him. “What is it, sir?”

“You were out there alone, weren’t you? Today, I mean?”

“Yes, sir. I was.” I nod emphatically. Hopefully not too emphatically.

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