The Truth is Contagious (The Contagium Series Book 4) (52 page)

“Why would we trust you?” Hayden asked.

Samael smiled, dark eyes glowing. He tipped
his head. “You don’t have a choice, do you? You’re pawns in my
game. I determine your next move and right now I’m curious. Who are
you? How did you get here? Who did you talk to? We took careful
measures to keep this place hidden.”

“What difference is it to you?” I
snapped.

Samael shrugged casually. “Not much. But I
like to punish those who break the rules.” He narrowed his eyes.
“Lower your weapons, and I’ll send out my men.”

I looked at Hayden, chest rapidly rising and
falling. Samael had the upper hand…for now. Hayden tipped his
weapon down and I lowered the bow. The guard stepped back and
another came from across the floor. As promised, Samael waved them
out of the room.

He moved away from the desk, going to a thin
table. He picked up a glass pitcher. “Lemonade?” he asked. “Freshly
squeezed.” He poured some in a glass and drank the whole thing.
“Reminds me of summer.” He set the glass down and smiled. “Which is
something you’ll never see again.” He crossed his arms. “I’ll make
you a deal. Tell me
exactly
what you know about this place
and your death will be quick. If not…” he plucked a grape from a
vine and popped it into his mouth. He raised an eyebrow and looked
at Hayden. “I’ll kill her first, nice and slow. And you’ll
watch.”

Hayden sprang forward. I put my arm out,
catching him. Samael chuckled.

“Just as I suspected,” he said. “Love makes
you weak, makes you not able to do the things that need to be
done.”

“Funny,” I said. “Because you love yourself
an awful lot.”

He pointed at me. “I like you. Maybe I’ll let
you live for a while, see what other tricks you got up your sleeve
while I dismember your lover.”

I swallowed hard. Sweat dripped down my face,
rolling over the splattered blood. My eyes went to the lemonade. I
still had a weapon, one more deadly than my bow, one Samael hadn’t
taken away from me.

Samael clapped his hands together. “Where are
my manners? Please, introduce yourself.”

“Orissa Lynn Penwell,” I said proudly.

“Soon to be Underwood,” Hayden added.

“Oh!” Samael sat on a couch, putting his feet
on a marble-topped coffee table. “I love a good love story. Tell
me, did you meet before or after I released the virus? And speaking
of the virus, the zombies…couldn’t have planned that better
myself!” he laughed. “We had no idea, you know.
That
wasn’t
supposed to happen.” He wiped a piece of lint from his pants.
“Ironic isn’t it? America’s youth was obsessed with the undead.
Little good that did.”

My heart sped up. I had to do it. It was my
only option. “I want some lemonade,” I said, my voice too tight for
my liking. I crossed the room, taking the little vial from between
my breasts. I twisted the cap.

“It’s great!” Samael said. “Be a doll and
pour three glasses.”

I hesitated, having second thoughts. No, I
had to do it. I thought back to all the times I had been exposed to
the virus. I knew I had gotten blood in my mouth when the crazy
holding the Molotov cocktail exploded. There was no way I
hadn’t
. I had just been too scared to entertain the thought.
I blinked and thought of Hayden. My heart thumped in my chest. I
had to do it. If I died, Samael would too.

I dumped the vial in the pitcher, making sure
to be discreet and fast. The green liquid dispersed in the
lemonade, its color unnoticeable. I gave it a shake and poured
three glasses. I set the glasses on a tray and carried it over,
grabbing a glass and giving it to Samael.

He took it, smelled the drink, and laughed.
“Nice try sweetheart.” He extended the glass to me. “Just can’t
play with the big boys.” Then he thrust the lemonade to Hayden. “Go
on, bottoms up.”

Hayden’s eyes flicked to mine. The slightest
smile flashed on his face. He put the glass to his lips and took a
drink. Samael made him take drinks from the other two glasses. Then
he turned to me.

Hayden tensed, and even I felt a little
nervous. But it was ok…it had to be. We had already talked about
it. Hayden wasn’t convinced when I’d told him Wade’s theory of me
being resistant too, even though the more we thought about it, the
more it made sense. Hayden was infected, and I’d been exposed to
the virus from him more times than we could count. And I was still
okay. I was resistant, just like Hayden.

I finished my lemonade, a little annoyed that
it was really good, the perfect balance of sweet and sour,
reminding me of the lemonade my grandma used to make.

“There,” Samael said and picked up a glass,
taking a drink. “Now tell me. Who told you about this place.”

“A brave man,” Hayden said.

Samael didn’t look amused. “Who. Give me
names.”

“Colonel Henry Fuller of USMC. Remember
him?”

Samael’s face flashed. “Henry? No. He
died.”

“Sure about that?”

Samael pressed his lips together and leaned
back. He took another drink of lemonade. “What did he tell
you?”

Hayden spent several minutes telling him
everything we knew so far, all the while keeping the location of
the compound a secret.

Samael rubbed his forehead. He blinked
several times, glaring at the lights above us. I inhaled and ground
my jaw. It was working.

“Now you tell us something,” Hayden said.
“When everyone finds out you’re a mass murderer, how will you
rebuild the country?”

“They won’t find out. I’ll send my guards
in—my own personal guards—to kill the zombies that got in. And I’ll
tell them the unfortunate story that one of our very own double
crossed me, trying to get off the island. It will show them what
happens when they doubt me.”

“They will never buy it,” I said.

Samael rubbed his temples, blinking several
times. He wrinkled his nose and shook his head. He finished his
glass of lemonade and set it on the coffee table, flicking his eyes
to me. “Maybe I underestimated you.”

Hayden turned to me. “You should never
underestimate her.”

Samael’s face went white. “You both drank
it,” he reasoned, thinking there was no chance it had been
poisoned.

“How much do you
really
know about the
virus,” I asked, running my finger over the lip of the glass.

“I know that it did exactly what I wanted and
then some,” Samael said. He was being completely honest with us
thinking we would soon be dead. Why lie to a corpse? “This country
will start over and I will rise to power again. I’ll bring the
United States back then go to the aid of the other struggling
countries. They will worship me.”

“Do you have a cure?” I asked, still making
circles on the top of my glass.

Samael leaned forward, bringing his hands
together. “It was purposely made to be incurable. Once
infected…”

Hayden finished his lemonade and set the
glass down, smiling at it. He shook his head, and chuckled. “You’ll
be sorry about that.”

Samael gave him a half smile. “I doubt
that.”

It was my turn to smile. “Want to bet?” I
slammed the little vial on the coffee table. “I’m sorry to tell
you, President Samael, but you’re infected.”

He took the vial, face drained of color.
“No…no you-you both drank it.”

“I poured it in the pitcher,” I told him.
“All three glasses were contaminated the whole time.”

“Then you…you’re infected too,” he
stammered.

I looked at Hayden. “No. We’re immune. Didn’t
come across
that
in your controlled studies, did you? Not
everyone can get the virus. Serious flaw in your plan, isn’t
it?”

Samael stood and faltered. “You…you poisoned
me!” He reached out, grabbing the vase of flowers on the coffee
table. His fingers wrapped around the stem of a tulip and he tipped
back, pulling the vase over. “Guards!” he yelled. “Guards!”

Three men burst into the room, guns turned on
us. “He’s infected!” Hayden shouted, taking my hand and jumping
back. “Look at him!”

Samael’s face was white and red spots covered
his cheeks. He struggled to get up. The headache intensified. He
shut his eyes, unable to stand the light. “No…no,” he said, holding
up his hand. “There’s a cure.”

“No sir,” one of the guards said. “You just
said it yourself.” He was young, staring down at Samael with
disgust. “And I have orders—strict orders from you—to shoot anyone
infected.”

Samael fell to the ground, pulling the table
runner off the coffee table. The glasses of lemonade fell across
him.

I stepped over, looking down at him. “You’re
right, President Samael. This country is going to start over. Just
not with you leading it.”

I pulled the arrow back, narrowing my eyes in
the bright sun. I let out a breath to steady myself, aimed, and
fired. The arrow hit the gummy right between the eyes. He fell to
the ground, lifeless and still. He was so deteriorated that he was
nothing more than skin—flesh so old it looked like antique leather
stretched over brittle bone. He didn’t pose a threat; I shot him to
put him out of his misery.

I turned, looked at Hayden by the water’s
edge, and smiled. I set my bow down and grabbed the hem of my
t-shirt, yanking it over my head. I unbuttoned my jean shorts and
shimmied out of them, having already kicked off my flip flops. I
skipped on my tip toes through the hot sand.

“Nice shot,” Hayden said, reaching inside a
cooler.

“Thanks, baby,” I said and took the cold beer
from his hands. I popped the top and settled down, stretching out
my legs on the towel. Hayden lay down next to me with a satisfied
sigh, closing his eyes and tipping his head to the sun.

He held his arm up and I knocked my beer
against his then took a long drink. I was unable to keep the smile
off my face and set the beer down, pushing it into the sand. I put
my arm across my face, blocking the blinding sun from my
eyelids.

We were here, at that beach. Granted, it
wasn’t the sunny ocean beach we had always imagined, with white
sand and crystal clear water. What we were at was nothing more than
a glorified swimming hole in Kentucky. But my ass was in the sand,
a cold beer was in my hand, and the love of my life was next to me.
I couldn’t complain. We were at that beach.
Our
beach.

“Don’t let me fall asleep,” I said, turning
to Hayden. “I want to get an even tan.”

He tipped his head, grinning. “You should
take your top off then.”

I smiled and rolled my eyes. “Well, I do hate
tan lines.”

He rolled over, playfully pulling at the
bikini top strings. “You could use some sleep too, Riss.”

“I know,” I said, closing my eyes. “Wake me
up in an hour then.”

“I will if I don’t fall asleep,” he laughed
and stretched out.

We left the beach around sunset, pulling into
the driveway of my Kentucky farmhouse. We paused on the front porch
before we went inside, looking through the screen door.

“Put that down!” I heard Raeya shout. “You do
not eat dog food!” I took a step closer as she chased a rowdy four
year old boy through the room, holding a sleeping baby in her arms.
“You’re going to wake up your sister!”

I couldn’t help but smile. I wanted to rush
in and help her, but she was determined to do it on her own. The
little boy let out a shriek of joy and tipped the dog bowl, sending
pieces of kibble rolling across the floor. I put my hand over my
mouth to keep from laughing.

“Benjamin Rider Underwood!” she scowled.
“What did you do?”

“You said put it down,” Ben told her. “Sorry,
Aunt Ray. Are you mad?”

I moved up the remaining stairs and knew the
exact
innocent smile he was giving Raeya…and I knew it would
work on her. Ben was the spitting image of Hayden, from his defined
cheekbones to his hazel eyes. We hadn’t meant to have him. Finding
out I was pregnant was one of the scariest events of our lives,
even with all we’d been through.

* * *

It had only been six months since we’d
returned from New York. Nothing had been fixed yet. The world was
still the same, still just as dangerous as before. We were still at
the compound, desperately working on expanding our little community
into a real village.

I hadn’t felt well for days and was just so
damn tired all the time. I knew, deep down, but held off on taking
a test for another week. It terrified me, right down to my core, to
bring a brand new, innocent life into this harrowing world. Hayden
was nervous but excited. Ever since we had Pastor Jim marry us, he
had been dropping hints that he eventually wanted a family. I just
hadn’t expected ‘eventually’ to come so soon.

Everyone shared in Hayden’s excitement. Raeya
openly admitted that she had been hoping for this for a long time.
My grandpa was over the moon knowing he would get to meet his first
great grandchild. He confessed he wasn’t sure he’d live long enough
for that day to come.

He did, and was the doting great grandfather
he had always wanted to be. Holding that sweet baby eased my
grandpa’s paranoia. Two years later, my grandpa passed peacefully
in his sleep. It had always been his wish to be buried next to my
grandmother. When we brought his body back here, Hayden suggested
we stay. So we did.

No, Ben wasn’t planned…but he was the best
thing that ever happened to us.

* * *

“Rissy,” Raeya whispered so she wouldn’t wake
the baby in her arms. “What are you doing back so early? I told you
guys to spend the whole day together!” She used her foot to push
the dog food into a neat pile.

“I wanted to make sure Ben wasn’t driving you
crazy,” I said. Really, I missed my children too much to be away
from them for that long.

“I got this, really,” she pressed, going to
the closet for a broom. Ben ran wild through the house, stomping
with each step. “You need some time for yourself.” She turned
around, raising an eyebrow. “You and Hayden haven’t been alone
since Zoe was born. And that was what…five months ago?”