“It was the precise number of wordsIneeded to sayIamtryingto keep you alive,”Severinshot back.
Ravik made an angry sound low in his throat andCassiesighed.
“Boys,Iknow this is a stressful zombie hike, but could we maybe not have another fight about the bite-delivered orgasm cure while we are actively in zombie country?”she asked.
Both males went silent.
Well, that was something, she supposed.
The problem was, the silence between them was almost as bad as the arguing.Cassiecould feel it like static in the air—the tension…the frustration…the hurt neither one of them wanted to name.
Ravik was angry becauseSeverinwanted to bite him.
Severin was hurt becauseRavikwouldn’t trust him.
And underneath all of it was the thing neither of them seemed willing to look at directly—what had happened between the three of them in the bunker had changed something between them.
But there was no time to deal with all that now—no time for therapy in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.
Cassie kept walking.
The ravine opened suddenly onto a wider stretch of broken stone, andSeverinlifted one hand sharply.
Cassie stopped so fastRaviknearly bumped into her from behind.Beforeshe could ask what was wrong,Severinturned and pressed a finger to his lips.
Then she heard it…a wet clicking sound.Thenanother and another.Therewas more than oneInfectedout there.
There were several of them, probably—dozens.Maybeeven a whole herd.
The clicking sounds were coming from somewhere ahead and above, drifting down through the mist like insects scraping their legs together.
Cassie’s skin crawled and her fingers tightened around the charge baton until her knuckles hurt.
Severin motioned toward a shadowed overhang in the ravine wall.Ravikmoved instantly, one arm curling aroundCassie’swaist as he guided her backward beneath the jutting stone.Severincame in close on her other side, pressing her between their bodies and the cold rock.
Then the three of them froze andCassietried very hard not to breathe too loudly.
Above them, shapes moved through the mist.
TheInfectedpassed along the ridge in a loose, shuffling pack.Cassiecould see their longVisskouslimbs through gaps in the stone—too thin and too jerky—and their gray-green scales, now dull and crusted with dark stains.Theirmouths hung open, lipless and wrong, showing thin, needle-like teeth and black-red gums.Somecrawled on all fours.Otherslurched upright, shambling along with their heads twitching periodically as though they were scenting the air.
Then one stopped directly above them and started sniffing.Itwas huge, with flesh hanging off it in clunks and one eye socket that was horribly empty.Infact, it looked a lot like the one that had bitten her in the first place.
Cassie felt like someone had dumped a whole gallon of ice straight into the pit of her belly.Herwhole body started to tremble andRavik’sarm tightened around her waist.
Severin’s hand came gently over her mouth—not hard or frightening—just firm enough to remind her not to make a sound.
Of course,Cassieknew she had to be quiet—she absolutely did.Butwhen the hugeInfectedlowered its head and sniffed in their direction, white eyes rolling blindly in its skull, a tiny panicked sound tried to escape her anyway.Luckily,Severin’shand held it in.
His body was pressed against her side andRavikwas against her back.Thetwo of them were so close that their scents filled her head.Raviksmelled like leather and smoke and warm male skin andSeverinsmelled like cold ocean wind with something new beneath it—something faintly golden and sharp that made the bite wound on her arm pulse.
And when the bite wound pulsed, other parts of her pulsed too.
Cassie squeezed her eyes shut.
Oh no—not now!she begged her body.Nowis not the time to start getting horny and demanding male seed again!Please, calm down—we can’t do this right now!
Heat flickered under her skin, low and dangerous, andCassietried desperately to ignore it.Herbody, which apparently had no sense of timing whatsoever, continued to react to being trapped between the two bigKindred.Hernipples tightened and her pussy gave a soft, treacherous throb.Thebite wound brightened beneath the sleeve ofSeverin’suniform shirt, which she was still wearing as a kind of jacket over her red nighty.Itshowed a faint reddish-gold glow that she tried desperately to hide against her side.
