Redemption (Book 4, The Redemption Series) (25 page)

He had to have been around my age when he was converted. He was lean with a freckled, pointy face, like a fox, and small dark beady eyes. His short red hair stood out on top of his head like needle sharp spikes.

“You people never seem to learn,” he said with a shake of his head, like he was disappointed in me. “Don’t you know it takes more than a bullet to kill one of us?”

I tried to struggle out of his grasp but found it an impossible task. His body was about as moveable as a steel beam.

His thin lips stretched into a malicious smile as he looked me up and down.

“You should be young enough to have at least a dozen babies for us before your organs become too old to be of any use. Maybe we’ll even let you breed with your boyfriend over there, if he’s still alive. Or,” his eyes caressed my face with undisguised lust, “sometimes the Queen lets us keep one of you as a personal pet. How would you like to share my bed for a little while?”

He snatched the knit cap off of my head, spilling out the long brown strands of hair I had hidden beneath it. I had wanted to cut my hair short once, since washing it took so much water, but Ash stopped me from doing it, saying we could afford the extra water.

“You have your mother’s hair,” he had said. “It’s the one thing she gave you that the Harvesters can’t take away.”

I had always been grateful Ash had stopped me, until now.

The Harvester ran his long, sickly pale fingers through my hair.

“It’s clean,” he said somewhat surprised. “So many of you don’t take care of your bodies properly.”

I squirmed harder to get his hand out of my hair. “Let me go!”

“Be still,” he ordered, pushing me firmly against the wall while he brought a handful of my hair to his face and inhaled deeply, closing his eyes as if in ecstasy.

“So much life,” he whispered with unexplained longing.

From out of nowhere, a large chunk of concrete slammed into the top of the Harvester’s head, instantly releasing me from his grasp. His body slumped to the floor in front of me in an unconscious heap.

I looked up to see the naked stranger standing just behind the now incapacitated Harvester with a bloodied chunk of concrete in his hands. His eyes shifted from the male Harvester to me before he too collapsed onto the floor, having used his last bit of strength to save me.

I ran over and grabbed him by the shoulders before his head hit the floor. As the tips of my fingers touched his skin, I felt something like static shock. I tried to keep the stranger propped up, but he was too heavy for me. I cradled his head in my hands and helped him lie back on the tiled floor. When I looked at his face, I saw tears streaming from the corners of his eyes as he stared at me intently, causing me to suddenly feel self-conscious about my appearance.

He raised a shaky hand to my face, gentle in his caress of my cheek as if he were afraid I might disappear.

“I found you,” he said in a raspy voice filled with relief.

“Who are you?” I asked, confused by his reaction to me. Did he think I was someone else?

“I found you,” he repeated before closing his eyes, falling into unconsciousness, his hand dropping to the floor at his side.