Ravik glanced at him.
“And no one gets left behind.”
The old words madeSeverin’sheart thud.Itwas somethingRavikhad said to him in half a dozen war zones, usually right before doing something reckless and heroic and deeply inconvenient.
“No one gets left behind,”Severinechoed.
Cassandra looked between them, her expression softening despite the fear in her eyes.
She seemed about to say something but just then a muffled explosion shook the grate behind them, followed by the shrieks of theInfectedbelow.
Severin tightened his grip on his pulse pistol and started toward the communications tower withCassandrabetween them andRavikat her back.Thebunker was lost, the cure was untested, and the argument they still needed to have hung between him andRaviklike a blade.
But for now, survival would have to come first.
43
CASSIE
Cassie had thought the bunker was terrifying when she first got there…she’d been wrong.
The bunker had been narrow and cold and full of strangeVisskousequipment, yes.Ithad smelled like metal, old air, antiseptic, alien food, and the kind of scienceSeverinseemed to think made perfect sense even when it involved glowing honey samples and bite-delivered orgasm medicine.Butit had also had walls…thickwalls.Notto mention doors, locks and a ceiling that didn’t’ show the bruise-colored sky aboveVisslickPrimeor the jagged black ridges on either side of them, stretching away into the mist.
Out here, there was nothing between them and theInfectedbut distance, darkness, and two very largeKindredwarriors who were both acting like they were perfectly capable of fighting off an entire planet full of zombies.
Which was at least reassuring.
Cassie walked betweenRavikandSeverinthrough the narrow ravine, trying not to slip on the wet black stone beneath her bare feet.Thestones hurt her soles and the air smelled awful—rot and ash and something sour that made the back of her throat want to close up.Everybreath tasted wrong—like she was inhaling the remains of a world that had died months ago and was rotting away.
The communications tower rose in the distance, thin and crooked against the gray sky.Cassiecouldn’t help thinking it looked impossibly far away.
“Tell me again that’s less than two kilometers away,” she said, gripping the charge baton in both hands.
“Itisless than two kilometers,”Severinsaid from ahead of her.
“Now tell me it’s going tofeellike less than two kilometers,” she begged.
“I’m sorry but it’snotgoing to feel like less than two kilometers,” was theBloodKindred’simplacable reply.“Notin this situation.”
Cassie shot a glare at his broad back.
“Youcouldhave lied.”
“I could have,” he said, glancing back at her.“ButIdidn’t think this was the best time to begin a pattern of false reassurance.”
Behind her,Ravikgave a low grunt that might have been amusement.
“Sev doesn’t lie well,” he remarked.
“Good to know,”Cassiesaid.“Thoughhonestly, right nowIwould accept a few comforting lies.Somethingalong the lines of, ‘Don’tworry,Cassandra, there are definitely no flesh-eating lizard zombies hiding behind those rocks.’”
Severin glanced back at her, his pale blue eyes sharp in the dim light.
“You should be careful—there areprobablyflesh-eating lizard zombies hiding behind some of the rocks.”
Cassie stared at him.
“Your bedside manner is terrible.Youknow that?”
