Severin looked down andRavik’sjaw worked.Foronce, neither of them had anything to say, which was good,Cassiethought.
She sat up slowly withSeverin’shand under one elbow andRavik’sbig hand on her back.Herhead hurt and her pride hurt and her heart hurt most of all, because the look on both their faces made it clear they were horrified by what had happened.Theywould never have hurt her on purpose—she knew that.
But they had hurteach otheron purpose…and somehow that felt almost as bad.
Ravik rose to his feet first, breathing hard.Hishands were clenched at his sides and his gaze moved fromCassie’sface toSeverin’sbroken oculars lying in the grass.Forhalf a second, shame flickered over his features.Thenhe pushed it down and looked back atSeverin.
“We’ll table this for now,” he growled.“Butyou’ve got a hell of a lot of explaining to do later.”
Severin wiped blood from the corner of his mouth with the back of one hand.Hisbroken oculars were gone, and without them his pale blue eyes looked strangely exposed.Maybeit was only becauseCassiehad gotten used to seeing them on him, but without them he looked less like a cold scientist and more like a wounded man trying desperately not to show how much the wound mattered.
“If thereisa later,” he said quietly.
Cassie’s stomach dropped.
“What does that mean?”she asked.
Severin didn’t answer.Heonly turned and pointed toward the horizon.
Cassie followed his gaze.Atfirst she didn’t understand what she was seeing.Themist along the ravine floor seemed to be moving—rippling in a long gray-green wave.
Then the wave resolved into shapes—too many shapes.Dozens—no,hundreds—ofVisskousbodies were lurching and crawling and running in that horrible jerky way theInfectedmoved…
And they were coming straight toward the tower—straight towardthem.
“Clearly we’ve been scented,”Severinsaid in his cool, practical way, as though he was discussing the weather and the possibility of light precipitation later instead of the fact that a zombie hoard was headed their way.
Cassie looked around wildly, but there was nowhere to hide.Thetower rose behind them, skeletal and exposed.Theravine stretched to either side, black stone and broken fencing offering no real cover.Thebunker was far behind them and already lost.TheInfectedwere ahead—pouring out of the mist like a nightmare made of teeth and hunger.
Ravik picked up his shock blade andSeverinretrieved his broken oculars from the grass.Helooked at them once, then discarded them and drew his plasma pistol.
Cassie forced herself to stand, though her legs shook and her head throbbed.Noone spoke because there was nothing to say.
They were trapped with no way out.
47
RAVIK
Ravik stared at the herd ofInfectedcoming across the broken ground and tried to make his mind work like it used to.
Count the enemy.Lookfor weapons.Lookfor cover.Lookfor high ground.Protectthe female.ProtectSev, even ifSevwas a lying bastard who had just bitten him and pumped his essence intoRavik’sbloodstream likeRavikwas his fucking mate.
The thought made his jaw clench so hard his teeth ground together.
No.Notnow,he told himself.
Now was not the time to think about that.Nowwas not the time to think about the way his body had arched and bucked underSev’sbite, or the way pleasure had ripped through him so hard he’d come in his trousers like some untried youngling with no control over his own fucking shaft.
Now was also not the time to think about the fact thatSev’sessence was still in him—moving through his blood, warm and strange and not entirely unpleasant.
Fuck!
He hated that part most of all.
The cure had worked—he could feel it.Thefog was gone now, burned away by whateverSevhad injected into him through those sharpBloodKindredfangs of his.Hismind was clear for the first time in what felt like forever, and that should have been a reason to thank theGoddessand maybe even thankSev.
Instead, all he could feel was rage and shame and a sick twist of humiliation.
