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“Are you teasing me, Andie?” he asked softly.
“Maybe.” I shrugged slightly. “Better go stop those showers so you can find out after our group talk.”
He blinked down at me then disappeared.
“Uh, what did you say to him?” Roni said, walking toward me.
I waved at the drivers as they left and motioned to her that I didn’t know.
“Yeah, right,” she said.
We walked into the house to the sound of Roland swearing somewhere inside and Steve laughing.
“What happened to the water?” Katie called from a bathroom.
“Group meeting first,” I called back.
Roland appeared before she did. He had soap in his hair and a towel wrapped around his waist.
“Molev shut it off, didn’t he?” he asked.
“Sorry,” I said. “I didn’t think you’d be at the soap stage already.”
“Turn it back on, Molev,” I called. The shower started spraying down the hall. “Hurry up and finish.”
Everyone else gathered in the living room. Roland reappeared a few minutes after Molev joined us.
“All right, what’s going on?” he asked.
I looked at Molev. “Are we good to talk openly?”
“Yes. No one has replaced the listening devices yet,” he said.
My gaze swept over the others, noting their dried sweat and impatience.
“The vaccine trials aren’t working. Molev’s blood is changing the volunteers. Grey patches of skin. Pupils like his. They aren’t surviving it.”
“Shit,” Brandon breathed.
“Yeah. The way I see things, we’re still okay. But we won’t be for long. Once they decide his blood isn’t going to work, they’ll go one of two ways. They’ll ask for samples of something else from him, or they’ll start messing with the hound corpses. Molev and I explained to Waurlyn why using the hound isn’t an option, but we know what desperation does to people.”
Sid swore this time.
“The current resource allocation indicates they still believe Molev is our best hope. We need to make sure they see him as more than a donor. And we need to plan like a vaccine won’t be found.”
Molev’s hands settled on my shoulders.
“This is why I am relentless in your training,” he said. “We will need to leave Irwin with or without Waurlyn’s support. I’ve been away from my people for many days already.”
“Six weeks,” I said.
He grunted, his fingers smoothing over my shoulders.
“Okay. So, planning time,” Roni said. “We saw what it’s like out there. I think our best bet is still to leave in military vehicles. We know the Stryker can clear roadblocks and protect against the hounds, and our group is small enough to fit into one. It wouldn’t be hard to take one.”
Roni’s answer was one I’d anticipated. Roland’s wasn’t.
“Rather than go that route, why not tell Waurlyn that Molev wants to check on his people? If his blood isn’t working, she’d be more than willing to airlift us there on the off chance someone else’s will.”
