For once, I don’t scoff or roll my eyes. Instead, I lean into it, my eyes drifting shut.
“Going soft on me, Dev?”
“You wish.”
He chuckles, then slumps back on the bed, tugging the blanket up real high. He eyes me as if waiting for me to join, but I stand, then grab my pack.
“Where the hell do you think you’re going?”
“Hunting. Kitchen was empty, and we’re running low.”
“Won’t find much. Everything is going underground for winter.”
I shrug. “We’ll see ’bout that.”
I gotta be a little defiant or he might catch on to my lie. I don’t need him worrying about what I’m actually hunting—because like fuck am I going to let anything hurt him. Or have the bastard try to stop me.
He’s mine to protect.
Hopping out of the window and onto the porch roof, I climb to the ground, then head off toward the warehouse district, making sure to cover our earlier tracks to the house.
I take the long way, making sure I’m not tracked. I’m not making the same mistake again, not when Rex is in no shape to protect himself.
No one’s touching what’s mine.
Ever.
The warehouse we bunked in last night is empty, so I drop my pack down and settle outside near the entrance behind some stacked crates. Sooner or later those two pricks will show up. I just gotta be patient.
Something I happen to be good at now. Learned the hard way what happens when I rush things. My fingers run over the left side of my stomach, where I’d gotten stabbed once.
I was only thirteen.
Had been stalking a man one winter. He’d been traveling alone. At night I’d gotten too impatient, didn’t wait long enough for him to fall asleep. So, when I tried to steal some food from his pack he’d caught me.
When he punched me I’d taken out my knife and attacked him. But once the blood started to coat my hand, the blade slipped. The prick grabbed it and stuck me. But I’d picked up a nearby rock and bashed his head in with it.
It was the first time I’d taken a life. Thought it would bother me, haunt me, but it never did.
After I’d eaten some food, I patched myself up as best as I could. First Aid was one of the few helpful lessons my father ever taught me. Was lucky the wound never got infected.
The corner of my mouth starts to quirk up on one side as I recall the day my dumbass decided to take on Rex.
Still not sure what made me jump out from between the cars. Having seen him naked when he fucked that man, I knew he was dangerous.
But, fuck, I’d been hungry.
Voices cut through the chilly air, and it ain’t long before the two men come into view.
Patched clothes. Deep scars across their faces. A string of ears as necklaces.
Fuck!
Carrionites.
Luckily, it’s just two and not a pack—not sure I’d be able to survive if there were more of them.
One keeps watch while the other peers through the dirty windows.
