This is the End (Book 2): Not Dead Yet (5 page)

“Ahh, we’re gonna go hang out in the shop while ya’ll work this out.”  Chloe picked up her pack and Roscoe’s leash as Ty opened the door and shone the lamp around the shop.  When they were sure the coast was clear, all 3 of them retreated to the safety of anywhere that wasn’t currently this hallway.

“You’re probably going to blame me for them leaving too, right?”  My sarcasm only slightly masked my fear and bitterness.  They couldn’t possibly understand what I had been through in the last couple of days and I didn’t see any of them racing out to get injected with shit just so they could get bitten and find out what they would turn into; nope, that was reserved for me.

Jack was still standing next to the wall he’d just assaulted, taking slow, deep breaths and rubbing his knuckles.  It was weird to see someone who was generally so calm get so worked up about an argument, but it appeared I had that effect on people. “Angie,” He started, turning to look down at me.

My eyes were still closed as I focused on my own breathing against the wall.  “Yeah, Jack?”

“I’m sorry.”  His steps echoed off the concrete as he walked over to me.

“For what?”

“What they did to you.  None of it would’ve happened if we hadn’t of stopped, and I’m sorry.”  I felt Jack slide to the ground next to me, and as he pulled me into his arms again, the world felt right for a split second as I settled against his chest.

“It’s not your fault any more than it’s mine.”

A deep rumble rolled through his chest with his next words.  “Tell me what they did to you.”

I knew I could tell him the truth, but considering they were all dead, it wouldn’t do any good as he couldn’t exactly kill them again.  “I already told you.”

Jack grabbed my chin and pulled my face up until I was looking up into his eyes.  “Tell me what they did to you.”  The desperation to not hear what I knew he most feared was so apparent in his eyes I had to look away.  I tried to turn my head to the right, away from him, but he just held my chin harder.  “I need to know, Angie.”

I squinted up and just stared at his eyes for a long moment.  “Think of the worst possible thing, and that’s what happened.” My heart broke watching the understanding dawn in his eyes.  I wanted to burn the whole fucking world down when a tear broke free and trickled down his cheek, landing with a salty splash on his lip.

He stared at me for another moment before grabbing my shoulders and pulling me all the way into his lap, holding me so tight I was almost concerned for the safety of my ribs, but I let him.  I had a feeling he needed to hold me more than I needed to be held and I wasn’t about to take that from him.

“Oh God, I’m so sorry Angie, I should’ve been with you, fuck me, I should’ve been there.”  He wasn’t crying, but I wasn’t convinced hysterical sobs were out of the question as he added a brisk rocking to the embrace.

“You can’t be with us every second, Jack.  Besides, if you’d been there they might’ve taken you too, and then who would take care of the kids?”  I let my throat relax so my words came out as what I was hoping was soothing.

A deep growl resonated in his chest as he acknowledged the logic.  “Did you kill him?”

I knew he was talking about the guard who’d raped me.  “Not exactly, but I did stay to watch a couple of zombies tear him to pieces before I escaped.”

Grunting his approval, Jack’s breathing started to slow and he shifted so that he was more sprawled out against the wall, using his own pack as a pillow and keeping me flush against him.  By the time he was done adjusting, he was flat on the floor with me still resting slightly on top of him.

“Thanks for telling me, Angie.  I know that must’ve been hard but I needed to know before I did something stupid like make a move.”

Shock pulsed through me and I peeled myself off his chest to stare at him.  “
A move?
What kind of move?”  I knew what kind of move; I just wanted to hear him say it.

Jack’s mouth curled into that ridiculously sexy half smile that made him millions as he grabbed my chin again, only this time it was to bring my mouth to his.  Our lips met and suddenly 20,000 volts of electricity was pulsing through me.  There was something about kissing Jack that made me feel like my whole body was humming and glowing. Like a florescent light bulb. 

It wasn’t a big intense kiss, just a slight brushing of our lips before he pulled away and laid his head back down, pulling his hat down over his eyes.  No, it wasn’t a big kiss, it was just enough to pull the earth off its gravitational axis for a split second, leaving me floating through the atmosphere.

“Jack?”

He mumbled back.

“Thanks for rescuing me and not killing me after you saw the bite.”

Pushing his hat up enough so one eye was focused squarely on me, he grunted.  “Remind me we need to investigate that tomorrow.”  He winked at me and pulled his hat back down, settling in to fall asleep.

I lay my head on his chest with a smile, glad to have the chance to fall asleep in his arms, even just one more time. 
“How was he planning to investigate my bite mark?”

Chapter 3

Something wet was running down my arm.  Groaning, I peeled an eyelid open long enough to see Chloe, Jack and Ty sitting in a circle around my arm with a bottle of peroxide and a Q-Tip.

“What the hell, guys?”  I moaned as they poked and prodded my bite.

“It’s completely healed…” Ty’s astonishment forced both my eyes to open as I struggled to sit up.

“What do you mean it’s…?” My voice died out as I looked at where the bite had been on my arm.  It really was healed.  The skin surrounding it was still angry looking, but the bite itself had closed completely and new skin had already grown over it.  There was bruising, but it no longer looked like a bite at all.

I looked up at the surprised faces around me, echoed back in my own expression.  Pulling my knees under me, I stood up, using the wall as a crutch.  My bones creaked in protest and my muscles were stiff from sleeping on concrete, but I didn’t feel like shit anymore.  I felt hot and my heart was beating out a fast staccato in my chest, but I didn’t feel bad…just weird.  Thoughts raced through my mind so fast I couldn’t snatch onto a single one before it flitted away, only to be replaced by a thousand more.  I was so…
aware
.  Not just the normal kind of awareness, but it was more somehow.  Like I could feel the molecules in the air and the vibrations stirred by the subtle movement of breathing from the people still sitting on the floor. 

Jack stood and came closer.  He stared at every inch of my face like he was trying to memorize it and put his hand on my forehead.

“You’re warm.  Hot, even.  Do you feel ok?”  There was so much concern in his eyes I wanted to smile, but behind the concern I could see the hesitation as well, and I heard his pulse quicken as he backed the tinniest fraction of a step from me.  He was scared.

Why was he so scared
?  “I feel fine, a little warm, but ok for the most part.  Why, do I look terrible or something?”  My voice came out low and smooth and it threw me off.  I sounded so calm it was starting to freak me out; it was my voice, but somehow it just…
wasn’t
. 

The 3 of them just stood there, staring at me.  I started to feel like an ant under a magnifying glass and it was creeping me out.  “Seriously, what the fuck, guys?!”

Ty and Chloe had stood up and were huddled next to Jack, all 3 looking concerned and confused.

Chloe stepped forward and ran her hand down my cheek.  “It’s amazing, you look like you, but different.  Not bad, but not good.”  The blood pulsing under her skin was singing to me to the point it was a loss when she pulled her hand back. 

Wait, what the fuck?!  How was it that I could
hear her blood?! 
Starting to panic, I turned away quickly, rushing over to the door with the glass window.  My reflection stopped me dead in my tracks.  My hair was still a tangled red mess and my face still looked tired and drawn, but the circles under my eyes were sunken in and I was paler than I’d ever been in my life, which was saying a lot.  I looked dead.

“I look dead! 
Why do I look fucking dead?!
”  The panic spilled out in earth-shaking waves from me and I thought I might faint.  Did I die?  Was I some sort of living zombie?!

Jack walked up behind me, grabbed my shoulders and turned me to face him.  He didn’t say anything, just stared at my face a moment before putting his hand on my chest.

“Jack, now isn’t really the time to cop a feel-”

“Shhh,” Jack whispered, effectively cutting Chloe off.  He just stood there; hand on my chest, staring into my eyes.  “You’re not dead.” He finally said after what I was sure was eternity.

“Heartbeat?”  I looked over at Ty as Jack nodded at him in answer.

Jack turned and looked back at me.  He looked tired, but he didn’t look dead, no, that honor was reserved for me.  Seeing the fear in my eyes, he smiled his crooked grin and winked at me.  “You’re not dead yet, kitten.”

“Pssh.  Says
you
,” I snarked back as I turned and stalked down the little hall to stretch my sore body.  It hurt, but nothing that would keep me from running and killing, which was likely to be the bulk of my day.

“Ok, well we know she isn’t trying to eat us, even though she looks dead and she has a heartbeat, which also makes me lean towards “She won’t try to eat us.”” I heard Ty say as I stretched my hamstrings.

Pressing one hand against the wall, I pulled my foot up towards my butt and felt the stretch all the way in my abs.  Looking down, it was hard to not notice how easy it was to see my foot compared to what I’d been used to.  I was losing weight, which had to be a good thing.

“Here’s the deal,” I started turning to face the group as I stretched out my other leg.  “I can hear your blood in your veins, hear your hearts beating and you all smell good.  I may or may not be a vampire at this point, but I will definitely not eat anyone, although I do need to eat something, and soon.”

I stood silent and evaluated the emotions playing out over the faces around me.  The shock of hearing what I could hear was wearing off and curiosity took its place.  I knew they all had questions and so did I, but we didn’t have any answers now and probably wouldn’t.  At least not for a while.

Finishing up my stretches, I walked over to my pack and pulled out a can of pears, some jerky and the can opener.  Peeking out of the corner of my eye, I breathed a sigh of relief as everyone dispersed to gather themselves to leave.  I looked back down and paused for a moment before grabbing the pocketknife from my pants and jabbing the blade into the can and dragging it across the metal like it was pizza.  The can split from the force and juice started to run down my hand as I quickly brought the can to my mouth and downed the whole thing in one gulp.

Reaching next for the jerky, I tossed back a few pieces and washed them down with an entire bottle of water.  The growling in my gut had ceased to the point I could think again.  We needed a plan.  Leaving the Hummer had been a bad break but we might be able to get another vehicle running long enough to get us to the coast.  I was so fucking tired of Texas I couldn’t wait to get out of here.

I pulled my toothbrush out and squirted some paste on before jamming it in my mouth and turned to watch the others.  Ty was taking inventory of his ammo and Chloe was playing fetch with Roscoe.  Looking to Jack, I could see him pouring over the maps, obviously thinking the same thing I had been.

He looked up when he felt me watching.  “I think we should get back on the overpass.  It’ll be tough with the cars, but it’s better than worrying about things coming at us from alleys and doorways as we get through the city.”  He traced his finger along the road on the map a ways before continuing.  “If we get to the city limits on foot, we can grab another car to get us through the less populated areas as we make our way south.”  Jack’s eyes reached mine, causing the toothbrush in my mouth to pause.

We both knew that shit was about to get real real, considering we were in a huge city and on foot.  I smiled through the paste before spitting in the corner and rinsing out my mouth.  “We’ll be fine.  Maybe me being dead will distract, ya know,
the dead
.”

“Angie, you’re not dead,” Jack countered while rolling his eyes and folding up the map.  Looking up at the kids, “Give us a minute?”

Ty and Chloe shrugged their shoulders and headed into the shop while muttering about the audacity of us having sex when we needed to be leaving.

I was pretty sure Jack couldn’t hear what they said as he walked over to me.  “Are you sure you’re ok?”  He ran his hand along my jaw and leaned into me, eyes tight with worry.

I stared into the hazel depths for a brief moment before rising up on my toes and capturing his lips gently with mine.  “Never better,” I whispered into his mouth while reaching up to run my nails lightly across the back of his neck.