Page 58 of Glass Rose
The blade scrapes against bone, sliding home with that sickening give. The creature stiffens, a final hiss escaping its rotting mouth before it slumps against me, deadweight, and I shove it away, yanking my knife free.
“That’s four.” I wipe the blade on my pant leg, leaving a dark smear. “Getting better at this.”
Gavin’s by my side in three long strides, eyes scanning me for injuries. “You didn’t hesitate.”
“Can’t afford to. Not anymore.”
His gaze lingers on my hands. They’re steady. No trembling. Not like two weeks ago when I’d thrown up afterward, heaving until there was nothing left but bile and self-loathing. I’m not sure what that says about me anymore.
“You’re getting good at this.” He sounds almost disappointed?
“Don’t sound so thrilled about it. What did you expect? Me scrambling and dying?” Although to be fair, it wouldn’t be unlikely.
“I—”
“Expected me to keep needing you to save me?” I step over the corpse. “Sorry to disappoint.”
He catches my wrist, stopping me. “That’s not it.”
“Then what?”
“I liked…” He drops my arm. “Forget it.”
“No. Say it.”
“I liked being needed.” The confession comes out rough, like it’s being dragged from somewhere deep. “By you.”
Oh. Oh… “You think I don’t need you anymore because I can kill these things?”
He shrugs, eyes on the forest floor.
A distant crack echoes through the trees. Branch breaking? Footstep?
Gavin tenses, head cocked. “At least five, coming from the east.”
“How can you—” I stop myself. Enhanced senses.
Two other men in park ranger uniforms, a woman in bloodied business attire, a teenage boy with half his face missing, and something that might have once been a child but now moves on all fours like an animal, emerge from the treeline in a staggered group.
I clutch the knife handle harder.
“Back to back.” Gavin positions himself against me. “Remember what I taught you. Brain stem or through the eye. Nothing else stops them.”
The infected advance, drawn by our movement, our scent, our life.
Or worse… just mine.
The woman reaches us first, and Gavin’s machete takes her head in one clean stroke. The teenage boy comes for me, and I sidestep, driving my knife into the soft spot at the base of his skull. He drops like a stone.
The park rangers converge on Gavin. Normally, they’d ignore him… It seems like they attack him if he shows hostility. Do they?—
The child-thing scuttles toward me unnaturally fast. I slash at it, missing as it darts between my legs. Sharp teeth sink into my boot, tearing at the leather but, luckily, not reaching flesh. I kick hard, sending it tumbling back, then pounce, pinning its writhing form with my knee as I thrust my knife through its temple.
I turn to see Gavin grappling with one ranger, the otherdead, and another appearing out of nowhere, circling behind him, jaws snapping.
Without thinking, I throw myself between Gavin and the approaching infected, my knife slashing across its throat. Black blood sprays across my face, hot and viscous. The creature stumbles but doesn’t fall.
Shit.
