Page 68 of North

“You worried the hell out of me.”

“Sorry.” I couldn’t stop myself. I smoothed some of her hair back from her face. “I was worried there for a bit too.” I lowered my voice. “Thinking of you kept me steady.”

She looked at me, her face softening. She cupped both my cheeks, then went up on her toes and kissed me.

And everything felt better. With a low groan, I slid my arm around her waist, pulled her close, and kissed her back.

Marc hooted. “Well, well, you two are sneaky.”

I ignored my friend and finished kissing my woman. I reluctantly set her down.

“Don’t do that again,” she said.

“Kiss you or get trapped in a monster cocoon? Can’t say that second one is high on my to do list.”

“Get hurt and worry me.”

“Okay.” I pressed another quick kiss to her lips and nuzzled her.

“I’ve got something that belongs to you too,” she said.

I smiled. “You.”

Her lips twitched. “Apart from that.” She held up a small white object.

I saw the small robot and my smile widened.

“It helped me find you. We had no idea where you were or what had happened, then I saw this.”

“Hudson was right, it did help protect me.”

“Make sure you keep it on you all the time.”

“I will.” I slid the toy into my pocket.

“All right, everyone, let’s get out of here,” Jameson ordered.

Dodging torn cocoons and dead monsters, we stepped outside. The faint inklings of sunrise were coloring the eastern horizon in faint gold and pink.

“It’s a shame we didn’t find some cider,” Marc said.

“I did,” Zeke said. “There are some barrels inside.”

“What? You didn’t mention it. You should’ve grabbed a couple.”

“Was kinda busy fighting monsters.”

“Ah, guys,” Sasha said. “I’m picking up something inside the warehouse. A large heat signature is flickering in there.”

Jameson frowned. “There were no monsters left.”

“Something is lighting up my scans. I —”

There was a deafening roar. We spun, just in time to see the roof ripped off the warehouse. Dirt sprayed into the air.

A giant black leg broke through the top of the warehouse. Then another.

“It came out of the damn ground,” Kai said.

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