Page 154 of Afflicted

He doesn’t sound convinced, and I chew my lip, mulling over all the possibilities. Maybe we will be safe here. Maybe we won’t be. If it ends up like Milledgeville…

“Hey.”

I look up at Silas, and he smiles softly.

“It’s going to be OK.”

I scoff out a shaky laugh. “Yeah, of course it is.”

He pulls me down onto the bed with him, and I settle my head on his chest with a heavy sigh.

“Where are we going first, ey?”

“First?” I frown at him. “What do you mean?”

“When this is all over. When the world’s back to normal.” His fingertips stroke my cheek. “You get first pick. Where are we going?”

Indulging in the fantasy hurts more than I thought it would. Like spinning a globe in my mind, I lie there thinking of all the places I want to go, all the things I wanted to see, before.Before.

“Paris.”

Silas raises his eyebrows. “Oh, yeah? You ever been?”

“Yeah, when I was a kid. It was amazing.”

“Paris it is then.” He wraps his arms around me, holding me close, kissing the top of my head. “Perfect location for a honeymoon.”

A siren drones softly in the distance, and I hold on to Silas, quietly praying.Please let this all pass. Let the world go back to normal. I don’t even need Paris. I just need him. Please, let us get out of this alive.

CHAPTER40

SILAS

For a few hours,I dare to hope that maybe Sutton was right. I entertain fantasies that maybe the National Guard were simply herding the Afflicted into a death pit somewhere, exterminating the last of the vampires’ disastrous medical experiment with fire. Since we left Milledgeville, maybe something had occurred, some rebuilding effort. Maybe Boston had finally gotten their shit together.

But just as the sun begins to set, the wail of a siren breaks through the deep silence. Juliet had dozed off on my shoulder, but with a start she sits up, her eyes wide.

“Oh shit,” she murmurs, her hand over her mouth.

Before I can respond, there’s an explosion, distant, but close enough to have the ground beneath us quaking gently. The National Guard are indeed shooting first and asking questions later.

Juliet scrambles to her feet and goes to the window, pushing aside the curtains and looking out into the growing dark.

“Jules, be careful.” I’m at her back, looking out the window over her shoulder. Orange glows in the distance, over the tops of the buildings, and the siren continues to drone. “They’re trying to blow out the perimeter.”

“With a tank that won’t be hard,” Juliet says. “Dammit. She’s just killed all these people.”

“They might still not get in. If Sutton can communicate with them, they might stop the attack.”

At that moment, the loudspeakers whistle, and Sutton’s voice rings out over the colony.

“You are attacking a human colony! Halt your advance! I repeat, this is a human colony. There are no vampires here!” Sutton’s voice is measured and commanding, not a hint of a waver.

Juliet exhales heavily after a moment, as though she was holding her breath. “God, I hope they heard that. They won’t come in now, will they?”

I shake my head, but even as I do, I hear it. Dread rushes through me. I clasp Juliet to me, and she sucks in a breath.

“Silas?”

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