Page 125 of Afflicted

“Thank you,” I murmur. “I needed that.”

“Yes, you did.” His fingertips stroke down my stomach. “And I did too. But we need to be careful.”

My eyes flutter open, and I frown up at him. “Careful?”

“I can’t take too much blood if we don’t have food for you.” His hand splays over my stomach. “So, no more biting until we get you some protein.”

“OK.” I push the hair out of my face. “I guess you can always just give me an orgasm the old-fashioned way.”

He laughs softly. “Trust you to have a panic attack and then be thinking about sex two minutes later.”

“It’s not my fault sex with you is like therapy.”

“Well, as your therapist I’m going to prescribe you daily sessions.” He chuckles as I lay my head back against his chest. “At least once a day.”

“That sounds good to me.” I sigh as his hand strokes my stomach. “So this colony in Roanoke, they’ll let us both live there?”

Silas probably thinks I don’t notice the split second hesitation before he answers, but it may as well have been a year.

“Sure, that’s how it sounded.”

“So you don’t know?”

“Angel, you need to sleep.” He strokes my hair again, brushing his fingertips against my scalp, and any protest I was about to utter dies on my tongue. “Now, we’ll spend the night here, and drive the rest of the way to Roanoke tomorrow. Sleep.”

And because the day was so overwhelming, I do.

CHAPTER32

JULIET

The sunshine isbright the next morning, and Silas has the solar panels set up with the generators on the porch when I walk outside.

“Good morning,” he says with a smile. “You slept like a log.”

I rub my eyes. “Yeah, well, when I get to sleep with you, I guess I sleep better.”

“I’m glad to hear it.” He looks up at the sky, and his expression shifts for a moment. “I don’t much like these clouds.”

The clouds swirling above us are thick and dark, almost green. The air is sticky with humidity, and the wind is blowing through the tops of the tall trees. I look back at him, and he sets about packing up the generators.

“We should move.”

“OK, but have they charged enough to get us to Roanoke?”

He lifts one generator and pushes it into the bed of the truck. “I don’t know, we’ll try.”

“But what if we don’t -”

“It’s alright, angel.” He cuts me off with a wide smile as he picks up the second generator and deposits it back in the truck. “You have nothing to worry about. I’ll keep you safe no matter what happens.”

We drive away from the crumbling house just as the first crack of thunder sounds in the distance.

“Maybe we’re driving away from it,” I say, gazing out the window at the clouds that just keep getting darker and darker.

“Yeah, maybe.” Silas sounds as unsure as I do.

I try to ignore the impending storm, playing with my fingers as I try to think about something to talk about other than the uncertainty of our situation, but Silas beats me to it.

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