Page 122 of Afflicted

Juliet whimpers loudly as bullets hit the back of the truck.

“They’ll stop in a minute, Jules, it’s alright.” The vamps won’t waste the ammunition on a runaway truck. Sure enough, after about 30 seconds, the pinging stops.

“It’s OK, angel,” I say, reaching into the back seat. My hand is met with cool, steely fingers, wrapping around mine. “We’re out. Just stay down for now, OK? Just until we’re clear.”

She does as I say, sniffling and crying softly. I try to come up with a plan, try to think what’s next. The light is fading, and we won’t make it all the way to where we need to go tonight.

Focus. Focus. Get away from the compound. Find shelter and keep her safe.

That’s all I can do for now.

CHAPTER31

JULIET

By the timeSilas reaches for me, beckoning me out of the back seat with a soft, “Come on, angel,” I’ve stopped crying, and mostly stopped shaking. I climb into the front seat, and Silas pulls me against him, one arm slung around my shoulders.

“Are you OK?” He keeps his eyes on the road, but his voice is so strained with worry.

“What happened back there?”

“Not now, angel.” He brushes a kiss against my temple. “I’ll tell you later, but not now.”

“I thought she’d hurt you.” I slump against him, relieved and scared in equal measure. “I was so sure she was going to drag you off somewhere, and they’d know and-”

“She won’t be hurting anyone. Not anymore.”

My head snaps up to look at his profile, his jaw ticking violently. “Did you kill her?”

He grinds his teeth for a second before giving me a terse nod. “Yes.”

“What did she say to you? Was she going to turn you in?”

“Angel, I said not now.” He squeezes my shoulders. “Not now. We need to drive and find some shelter, and then we can talk.”

Then we can talk. My curiosity almost has me wanting to shake him, because what the hell happened back there? I look out at the road as it meets us, the light becoming deep golden as the sun begins to sink low over the horizon.

“Will they look for us?” I ask after a while, gently brushing my hand over his chest.

“I doubt it.”

“You don’t sound very sure of that.”

He kisses my forehead, his fingers brushing lightly up and down the side of my neck, and any other questions I had melt away into irrelevance.

“Don’t worry, Jules. I’ve got you, alright? Now, let me do the worrying.”

I’m so overwhelmed with this feeling of freedom, this knowledge that he just busted me out, that he blew up half the compound if what I heard while hiding under that blanket was any indication. I snuggle up to him, breathing deeply as the evening breeze washes in through the window.

“I feel like I should be hysterical.” I laugh softly. “I feel like I should be a mess after what just happened.”

“It hasn’t sunk in yet, that’s all.”

“Where are we going to go?”

Silas checks the rear view mirror, shifting in his seat. “We’ll find somewhere, off the main roads, and bunker down there for the night. Then in the morning we’ll keep driving.”

“Where?”

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