Severin kicked hard—felt lizard bones crack under his heel—and then he was out on cold stone withRavikdragging him back from the opening.
Cassandra slammed the charge baton down onto the first hand that reached through the grate hole and blue energy cracked.
TheInfectedtrying to claw its way up shrieked and fell.
“Nice work,”Raviksaid, breathing hard.
Cassandra stared at the smoking baton in her hand.
“I thinkI’mgoing to throw up later, but thank you.”
“No time,”Severinsaid, rolling to his feet and grabbing the broken grate.WithRavik’shelp, he shoved it back over the opening, then jammed two flash mines into the hinge gaps and activated the proximity triggers.
“That won’t hold it long,”Raviksaid.
“No,”Severinagreed.“Butit will punish the first ones through.Maybethe others will think twice before trying to come after us—if they still have any capacity for thought left.”
The three of them got clear of the grate and looked around.
They were in the maintenance ravine, just asSeverinhad thought.Itwas a narrow cut between black stone ridges running under a sky the color of old bruises.Farabove, the crystalline spires of the city glimmered faintly through drifting mist.Inthe distance, barely visible through the haze, stood the communications tower—a tall, skeletal structure rising from the ridge like a broken needle.
It looked much farther than two kilometers.
Cassandra must have thought the same thing, because she stared at it and then atSeverin.
“That’swhere we’re going?”
“Yes.”Henodded.
“Through zombie country.”
“Yes.”Henodded again.
“With my arm glowing,Ravikonly half-cured, and you carrying some kind of bite-delivered orgasm medicine in your fangs.”
Severin looked at her.Whenput that way, it did sound absurd.Butthere was no other way.
“Yes,” he said again, at last.
Cassandra nodded slowly.
“Great.Justchecking.”
Ravik lifted his shock blade and rolled his shoulders.
“Come on—we need to fuckingmove.”
Severin studied him in the gray light.TheBeastKindredlooked strong— almost fully himself—but there was a faint haze in his eyes and tension in his jaw.
Luckily,Cassandrawas right beside him, her scent still stabilizing him.
Severin’s altered essence pulsed behind his fangs, demanding use, demanding delivery, demanding that he finish what he had started.
ButRavikstill wouldn’t take the bite and even if he would, this wasn’t the place or the time.Theyneed to be someplace safe—someplace where, even if his bite and the cure overpowered the ones he bit—they wouldn’t be helpless and vulnerable to the zombie hordes.
Severin swallowed his fear and frustration, forcing both down into the hard place where he kept everything he couldn’t afford to feel.
“All right,” he said.“Wemove fast, we stay quiet, and no one breaks formation.”
