“Chain her to the vehicle.”
Two Dwellers dragged her across the ground by her shackled wrists and wrapped her bindings around the roll bar again. The result was Kat, naked, sitting on the ground, with her arms painfully raised in the air.
“Everyone into the tents. We’ll have something to eat and drink and watch the little pussycat burn.”
She didn’t open her eyes, but she heard them all shuffle away into the safety of the canvas tents.
Trying to get comfortable, Kat shifted her body around so she was able to prop herself up next to the vehicle. Although leaning against the hot metal did nothing to soothe her already heated flesh. It was quite possible her mouth had finally gotten her into a situation she could not get out of.
The more she thought about that, the angrier she became. Sar would pay with pain for this. She vowed she would not make it quick when she destroyed him.
Soon the sun declared war on her skin, and she felt every inch of her body burn. She swore she could almost smell her flesh sizzling under the harsh ultraviolet light. Sweat poured down her face and over her form, but it gave her no relief from the sweltering heat. She felt faint and knew it wouldn’t be long before she passed out.
As she moved to a more comfortable position, her foot slipped under the vehicle. The relief from the burning rays was instantaneous. Maybe she wouldn’t die after all. She berated herself for not thinking of this sooner. But she found she was even too tired to reason.
Shuffling over more, Kat managed to slide almost her entire body under the vehicle and into welcoming shade. All that stuck out from under the transport, was her arms and hands. At least she could now feel some relief that she wouldn’t go blind.
Laughter bubbled up inside. Sar must be seething in the tent, powerless to stop her from finding solace from the sun. She would most likely pay for it later. But this round, she won. Barely, but she’d take it. The skin on her arms would be burned, agonizingly painful, but she still lived. That was what she cared about. She would live another day. Another day closer to killing Sar and avenging Hades’ death.
Relaxing her guard, she sighed and let the wave of drowsiness take her under. Thoughts of Hades wrapped her in a warm embrace, and she slept.
A
fter the sixth hour on the bike, Hades thought they were due for a break. Leucothea was leaning back into him, and he could tell by the way her head lolled back and forth that she was asleep.
Hades brought the bike down to a slow speed and started scouting for a decent place to make camp for the night. He wouldn’t risk riding in the dark without knowing what could be waiting for them farther along the road. Hungry wild animals, maybe, or worse.
As they neared a small clearing, Hades pulled on the brakes and took the motorcycle off the trail and onto the grass. The moment they stopped, Leucothea startled awake. She shook her head and looked over her shoulder at him.
“Why are we stopping?”
Hades dismounted and then helped her off. “Because the bike needs to rest, and I need to eat.”
Ignoring her indignant stare, he started to unpack their supplies. He didn’t want to admit the real reason for the stop. His injuries were worse than he’d thought. Constant pain shot up his side.
Bouncing around on the motorcycle wasn’t helping him any. Even his jaw ached with the vibrations of riding over uneven concrete and hard-packed dirt.
“We could keep going. You can eat and ride, can’t you? And it’s not as though the vehicle has any emotions. It can’t be tired.”
Biting his tongue before he shouted at her, Hades shoved a pack into her arms. “Make yourself useful, and pitch the tent.”
After several minutes of glaring at him, she finally turned with a huff to make camp near an outcropping of rocks and small shrubs. Shaking his head, he looked around for a good place to make a fire. After locating one, he started collecting small branches and mosses. Once he had enough for some heat and light, he bent down and made a small pit with various rocks.
By the time he was done and had the fire lit, Leucothea had accomplished her task of erecting the nylon tent and had wandered to the small fire where Hades was quickly making a small spit for their supper.
Leucothea held up the tracker, red light still, thankfully, blinking brightly. “They’re not that far ahead of us, we could still—”
He put his hand up before she could finish her sentence. “Don’t think you’re the only one who wants to get to Kat, kid. But the bike needs to cool down, or we won’t be going anywhere.” He handed her a piece of bread. “So sit down, shut up, and eat. It’ll be time to move again before you know it.”
With an angry sigh, Leucothea bit into the bread and sat down on the ground beside him. “I don’t know what she sees in you. You’re a barbarian. Always ordering people around.”
“Maybe that’s what she likes about me.” He grinned around his meal.
Once he was finished with the bread, he tore into a bit of dried meat. He offered some to Leucothea, but she shook her head. They ate in silence, and Hades thought about Kat and the situation with Leucothea. In some ways, he thought, Leucothea was a substitute for Damian.
Damian had been at Kat’s side, ready to die for her, fight for her, and heel to whatever she decreed. But he had found someone else, and so, Hades thought, had Kat. It never occurred to him that Kat needed that submissive dynamic with someone. Needed to be in charge over someone.
He just wished she would’ve understood that she
was
in charge—of him. He would’ve done anything for her, fought for her, died for her. Shit, he already had, hadn’t he?
“She talked about you, you know.”
He looked up and caught Leucothea’s gaze. Had his emotions been evident on his face? He smirked and took another bite of meat. “Yeah, I can just imagine what she said.”
“She called you an asshole.”
He grinned. Yeah, he could just picture her saying that with that sexy sneer of hers. His heart and lower regions clenched just thinking about it.
“But that you were the toughest, bravest person she ever knew.”
He turned to her then, surprise lifting his brow. “Really?”
“Yup—next to her, that was.” She snorted.
He chuckled and shook his head. Damnable woman! Lord, how he missed her.
“And despite all her bravado, I knew she loved you. She’d never say it, but I could see it in her face and in her eyes when she talked about you.”
Hades’ heart swelled. Grinning, he turned his head. He didn’t want Leucothea to see how much her words meant to him. How much knowing that Kat loved him squeezed his body with burning passion and aching emotion. But it did. More than he ever thought was possible. The way he felt about Kat seemed impossible, words and laments for a poem. But his feelings were real. As real as the blood pumping through his veins and the air circulating through his lungs.
“And so you know,” she continued as she dragged a stick through the dirt, “that night between us didn’t mean anything.”
Hades grabbed her hand and stilled it. “You helped her fight back the virus, kid. That means more than you know.” He released her and went back to chewing his meat. “And I thank God you were there for her. At least someone was.”
Leucothea continued to draw in the dirt without responding. Hades didn’t think she needed to say anything more.
They ate the rest of their meal in silence. When they were done, Hades stood and was about to suggest that Leucothea get some sleep in the tent while he bunked out by the fire, when he heard a loud yowl in the distance.
Leucothea jumped to her feet. “What was that?”
“Just a coyote.”
“Are you sure?”
His hand slid down to the knife strapped on his belt. “No.”
She reached out toward him. “Hades—”
Before she could finish her sentence, something burst out of the surrounding bushes and landed on four large paws right in front of them. It definitely wasn’t a coyote.
“Stay still, kid. If you move, it will go for you.” Hades eyed his shotgun holstered on his bike behind the beast. It wasn’t going to do him any good over there. Slowly he inched the knife out of its sheath.
The beast sucked in air through its large hairy nostrils, scenting the surroundings. Most likely trying to decide who smelled more delicious—him or Leucothea. Hades wouldn’t give the creature the choice. The kid would not survive an attack from this bulky, mutated beast. The jagged teeth sticking out haphazardly from its twisted muzzle were enough for Hades to fear. He didn’t even want to look down at its paws, knowing that most likely it had matching talons.
By the size, shape, and color of the animal, he suspected that most of its genetics came from a mountain lion. It still had a triangle-shaped head, but now it was twice the size—most of it mouth. A normal cougar could take out a man. This abomination was double the size and ten times as deadly. It could take out a whole fucking army. And it looked hungry. Ribs stuck out from its barrel chest, indicating that it hadn’t eaten in a long time. The way its eyes tracked Hades, and the way his nose twitched, the beast thought he’d come across the greatest meal of his life.
Once his blade was unsheathed, Hades took a step to the side, drawing the creature’s gaze. “Kid, my gun. It’s on the bike.”
He didn’t get a chance to hear her reply before the beast launched its hefty frame at him. While it sailed in the air toward him, all Hades could focus on was its gaping jaw and the lines of razor-sharp teeth. Crouching, Hades prepared for the attack, his knife hand down, ready to strike.
The impact knocked Hades backward with the animal dangerously on top. He braced his left arm against the beast’s jaw, keeping it from snapping around his throat. With his other arm he worked his hand down and slid the blade into the beast, nice and smooth, exactly where he had intended for it to go. He just hoped the creature had a heart and it was anatomically where it should be. Or he was in deep shit without a hope of surviving.
As he struggled with the creature, it made no indication that Hades had even touched it, let alone lethally wounded it in any way. The only sound coming from its mouth was a low, feral rumble that vibrated over Hades’ skin.
Finally he was able to roll it over and land a solid kick to its lower abdomen. The animal grunted and rolled off. But it was up and at him before Hades could even gain his feet. This time it hit him in the side. His injured side.
Pain, dark and penetrating, invaded Hades’ body and clouded his mind. If his ribs hadn’t been broken before, they were certainly busted now. The metallic tang of blood squirted into his mouth. The creature could probably smell his wounds. And knew where he was weak. He couldn’t hold it off much longer. Already his arms and legs throbbed from strain. Adrenaline raced through his system, giving him bursts of energy, but it wasn’t enough to keep him alive.
As he landed blow after blow to the animal’s head, trying to keep its deadly mouth away from his jugular, he noticed Leucothea behind them about five yards away, shotgun pointed. It shook in her hands, and he imagined she hesitated because she didn’t want to hit him. At this point he’d take his chances with the gun.
“Shoot!” he screamed.
She startled and lowered the weapon. “I can’t. I’ll hit you.”
“Do it, kid! This thing is going to kill me!”
As if the beast could understand their words, it paused and glanced over its shoulder at Leucothea. Hades could have sworn it grinned then, as if it were taunting her to shoot. Turning its attentions back to Hades, it opened its jaw wide and moved in for the killing blow. Pinned to the ground, Hades raised his arms for protection, but he knew it would be useless. The beast would bite right through his limbs and rip out his throat. It seemed to have at last finished playing with him.
The loud blast echoed around him, but it took several minutes before Hades registered the sound as outside his head.
As the creature’s head neared, thick, dark blood erupted from its open mouth. Its eyes rolled up in agony, and a noise almost like a baby’s cry sounded from it as it collapsed onto Hades.
Air expelled from Hades’ lungs in a sigh of relief while he felt the creature’s last twitches and convulsions as death finally took it. Pushing the beast off, Hades rolled away and glanced at Leucothea. She still stood staring with wide-eyed shock at the animal, the gun still smoking in her trembling hands. He looked down at the animal. It had a hole in its gut the size of a melon. A few inches lower and the shot would have pierced Hades’ leg.
Slowly gaining his feet, Hades stumbled to where she stood and pried the weapon from her clenched fingers. “It’s all right, kid. You’ve done well.”
She glanced up at him, tears welling in her eyes. “I didn’t hit you?”
He smiled and rubbed a hand over the stubble on her head. “No, kid, you didn’t hit me.”
She nodded and then bent at the waist and vomited. Hades patted her back as she retched violently, little groans escaping her each time her stomach roiled.
When she was done, Hades stumbled over to the tent and their packs and collapsed on his ass. He was very close to passing out from the agony that ripped through him. Maybe the beast hadn’t ripped his throat out and killed him, but he suspected that the creature had done enough damage to him that death was imminent regardless. It would just take a little bit more time.
Rummaging in the pack, he came away with the ointments Mary had made and packed for him.
Before he could take off his tattered shirt and remove the old bandages, Leucothea was there aiding him. She took the salve from him, set it on the pack, and helped him remove his ruined shirt. Using small scissors, she cut away the old bandages. When they were removed, she looked up at him. He could see all the morose answers on her face. He was definitely in bad shape.
“It’ll get easier,” he stated as she started to apply the healing cream onto his bruised and battered side.
“What will?”
“Shooting, killing.”
Nodding, she applied half the cream Mary had made and then started to wrap new bandages around him. “What if I don’t want it to?”