Total pages in book: 165
Estimated words: 159487 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 797(@200wpm)___ 638(@250wpm)___ 532(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 159487 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 797(@200wpm)___ 638(@250wpm)___ 532(@300wpm)
“Stay back!” he barked.
Ravik fought like a wild animal—all coiled muscle and deadly fury.
For a few seconds, all Cassie could see was muscle and blade and snapping teeth. Ravik’s body blocked the Infected from her completely, his broad shoulders hunched, his growls tearing through the mist. He drove the blade into the creature’s throat and pinned it down, but another Infected burst from the shadows behind him.
“Ravik!” Cassie screamed.
He turned too late.
The second creature hit his side, claws raking across his ribs as its mouth snapped for his shoulder. Ravik roared and grabbed it by the throat, but not before Cassie saw its teeth sink into the meat of his upper arm.
The world seemed to stop and time slowed to a crawl.
“Nooo!” Severin shouted, reaching for his friend.
Ravik ripped the Infected away and crushed its skull against the stone. The first one was still twitching, so he brought the shock blade down again and again until it stopped moving. Then he stood there, chest heaving, black blood spattered across his bare skin, while the mist curled around him.
For a moment, no one spoke.
Cassie stared at his arm in horror—the bite was deep. Too deep.
Dark blood welled from the punctures, and beneath Ravik’s skin, a milky white sheen began spreading through the veins around the wound.
Severin went pale.
“Ravik,” he said, reaching out to his friend. “Oh Goddess…”
The Beast Kindred looked at him and Cassie saw that his golden eyes were already beginning to cloud.
She felt the bottom drop out of her stomach.
“No,” she whispered. “No, no, no.”
Ravik looked down at the bite, then at Severin. For the first time since she had met him, something like real fear crossed the big Beast Kindred’s face.
“Fuck,” he growled, looking down at himself and the blood streaming from his arm. His gaze moved to Cassie. “Get back,” he said hoarsely.
She shook her head, tears already stinging her eyes.
“Ravik—”
“I said, fucking get back!” His voice dipped into a growl, and the white haze spread farther across his eyes. His hand tightened around the shock blade, knuckles white. “If I turn, I’ll kill you.”
Severin stepped forward, one hand still outstretched to his friend.
“No,” he said. “You won’t.”
Ravik laughed once, harsh and broken.
“You wanted a reason to bite me, Sev?” His breathing was getting rougher now, his shoulders bunching as though something inside him was trying to claw its way out. “Well, here it fucking is.” He pointed to his eyes, which were changing from gold to milky white.
Cassie looked from one male to the other, her heart pounding so hard she could barely breathe. Was the big Beast Kindred finally going to take the cure?
Apparently so—Severin’s fangs were already out.
Ravik’s eyes flickered from gold to white and back to gold while his massive body trembled with the effort of holding himself still. He looked at Cassie one more time, and for a moment she saw him clearly—the male who had carried her out of the Dead Zone, who had held her at night so gently, who had risked his life to protect her.
Then the fog rolled over his eyes again and she knew he was losing himself.
“Do it,” he growled at Severin. “Bite me before I hurt her—bite me before I kill you both.”
44
SEVERIN
“I don’t like doing this here.” Severin looked around. They were almost to the base of the communications tower but the area was too open—too exposed. What if the cure he carried in his fangs overwhelmed his best friend? What if it weakened Ravik too much for him to fight if more Infected came?
But there was no time to worry about such things now. He and Ravik had been fighting about this almost from the moment Severin had stepped out of his lab and announced he had a cure. Now there was no more time to argue—the virulent Hunger Virus was already at work on Ravik. As Severin knew, a second exposure rapidly exacerbated the symptoms from the first exposure. And Ravik was right to be worried—he was about to become incredibly dangerous in a matter of minutes if he didn’t get the cure into his system right away.
“Lay down.” He tugged on Severin’s unhurt arm and his friend looked at him with barely a hint of gold left in his eyes.
“Lay…down?” he repeated, his deep voice hoarse and confused.
“I can’t do this with you standing. Lay down!” Severin pointed to a patch of grass, hoping a direct order would do the trick.
Ravik just stared at him but then Cassandra was there, tugging on his hand.
“Come on, big guy,” she said. “Let’s lay down together—okay?”
“Lay down with Cassie?” Ravik asked.
“Yes, exactly. Lay down with me.” Cassandra pulled until he got clumsily down on his knees, then lay flat on his back at her urging. She looked up at Severin. “Now what?”
“Now I need to bite him and we pray the cure works,” he said honestly. “If it doesn’t, we’ll need to run before he becomes aggressive.”