Page 141 of Afflicted

“They said you’d come with a feeder, and he had to go.”

“He wasn’t-” I cut off as I cough, holding the back of my hand to my mouth. “He wasn’t afeeder.He saved me. He was my… my… We were together.”

“Did he feed off you?”

“With my consent, yes.”

The woman regards me with a pinched expression, sympathetic as she nods. “I know some of them can be decent, but we can’t be sure.”

I lapse back into silence, because I’m not going to argue with these people. There’s no point. The woman continues on trying to engage me in friendly conversation. She tells me about the colony, about how friendly everyone is, how well set up they are. I don’t care about any of it. I know I should, I should be glad to be safe.

But I’m not.

“Is Sutton in charge?” I ask, cutting off the woman’s words.

“Oh, yes, she is. She and ten others started this colony a few years ago. She’s great, very strong.”

“Can I see her?”

The woman considers my words for a second. “Oh. I mean, yeah of course, I’ll ask if you can go speak to her.” She calls out for a man standing in the corridor. “Could you ask Sutton if she has time to talk to the new arrival?”

The man looks at me with a kind expression before nodding, and leaving the room.

“You’re going to be so happy here, sweetheart.” The woman squeezes my arm, smiling softly. “Wait here, Michael will take you to Sutton.” She leaves the room, and I gaze out the window.

The sun’s shining on the surrounding buildings, the remains of downtown Roanoke. I’d come here as a child, one of my aunts had lived here for a while and we’d visited her. It looks a little different now, half destroyed buildings, attempts at patching them up with wood and wire dotting the walls. They’re trying here, I can see that. The woman had said there were 800 people living here. Sutton said they even had children here.

Maybe I could have a normal life. Garden alongside everyone else, get older, meet someone, maybe have a baby.

My hand strays to my stomach, and I have a genuinely stupid thought.I hope Silas’s baby is in there. Then I’d have a piece of him with me forever. But would they accept a half-vamp baby? I don’t even know. I bite back yet more tears that threaten to start falling. I hang my head in my hands, wishing I could stop fucking trembling. I take some deep steadying breaths, and by the time Michael comes to get me, I’m almost calm. Mostly. Like 50 percent.

We reach Sutton’s office, which looks like it once belonged to an accounting firm. She sits behind a battered wooden desk, in a black folding chair, and she gives Michael a nod, dismissing him from the room. Her eyes are kind as they move back to me, and she gestures to a chair on the other side of the desk. I don’t sit down, standing behind the chair with my hands behind my back so she can’t see them shaking.

“Are you feeling better this morning?”

“I guess.”

She frowns sympathetically, like a worried aunt. “I’m so sorry they gave you that medication without your consent, I understand that would have been awful for you. But we were so worried.”

I shrug, swallowing hard. “It’s fine. You did what you had to do.”

She gives a gentle nod, leaning back in her chair. “You wanted to see me?”

“Yes, I did. Have the Afflicted passed?”

“They have.” She puts her clasped hands on the desk. “It was a rather large horde, it took them all night to pass. But they’re miles away now.”

I clear my throat, wincing a little as I swallow against the pain. “So, the gate can be opened again?”

Sutton’s brow furrows for a second. “If it needs to be, sure. We’d open it.”

“Great, I’d like you to open it please.”

“Why?”

I take a breath through my nose, summoning all my courage to actually enact what I came here to do. “So I can leave.”

Sutton’s eyebrows shoot up. “Leave?”

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