When he’d told me where he was taking me, it was too good to resist. I was under no illusion that Paradise was safe. There were probably creatures hidden in every nook and cranny.
It meant too much to me to try and do it alone, guns blazing and the promise of pain getting me through. If I could actually have this—if I could makethis placegood?
Well, shit.
Maybe that was all I’d ever needed to do from the beginning. Maybe this was how I made everything that had happened to me, all the pain and loss,worth it. The thought made emotions creep in slowly, a painful little trickle that I knew would grow roots and choke me if given the chance. I bit my cheek hard enough to taste blood, but it wasn’t enough. All I could see behind my eyes was the way Bishop had smiled when he’d mentioned this place—all I could hearwas the sound of Ben telling me the blood on my letter was the same as the blood on my hands.
God damn it.
I stepped forward as Phoenix strolled through the gates like he owned the place, and something in my stomach clenched.
Vines… the sound of animals… it wasn’t quite right. Something was off.
“Down,” I shouted without thinking, darting forward before the syllable left my lips. Phoenix was already dropping as the sound of gunfire started, though I could see the tension in his shoulders slowly fade away.
I couldseethe grin that crossed his face as soon as he realized where the bullets were coming from.
“You like fighting, right, Killer? Come on.” He jerked his head toward the sound of people shouting. “Time to show me what you’re made of.”
I could already feel my body tingling in anticipation. The emotions I’d been drowning in moments ago, the overwhelming, all-consuming pain of my loss, at what this place meant… it all faded away on the promise of a fight, at the promise of danger.
It dissolved into nothing as I looked at Phoenix and nodded. “Okay.”
As we stepped toward the sound of shouting and gunfire, the roots that had tried to twist between my ribs to break me snapped and fell to the ground at my feet.
I was faintly aware that the sensation ofneedtearing through me was dangerously close to what I’d felt whenPhoenix let me slide to my knees for him in that dirty building where he’d caught me, and it didn’t matter.
None of it mattered except the feel of metal in my hand and the knowledge that I was going to get to fight.
I was going to get to kill.
And the vicious joy on Phoenix’s face as he kicked in the door that the raiders had obviously blocked was enough to swallow me down and let me drown in the knowledge that he felt the same excitement as me.
It was almost sinful how we moved in perfect sync. He glanced back, and I jerked my head to the right—Phoenix didn’t question it. He just took off at a run to the left, pulling the axe I’d seen him use earlier from his back and catching the raider holding a gun with an upward swing that split his chin wide open, forcing his jaw to part like it was made of clay instead of flesh and bone. The river of blood that followed when he jerked his weapon free soaked the ground, because Phoenix was already moving. I nearly took a knife to my shoulder watching in awe at the pure brutality and strength of his body.
He was more animal than man as he tore through the people in front of him, and the wicked grin on his face told me helikedit, even when one of them sliced his shoulder open.
It was almost infuriating howefficienthe was, and dangerous howdistractingit could be. I barely managed to swing my arm out and catch another man as he charged toward me—I took him by the wrist and shivered at the sound of his arm cracking as I jerked it behind him.
A broken arm wasn’t enough, though. I shoved him awayfrom me, using his momentum and the pain he was in to send him to the ground. My boot came down on his face once, twice, three times, until a loud crunching sound and small gush of blood told me I’d done enough.
He was still twitching, but he wasn’t going to be a threat anytime soon.
Fuck, sometimes I wondered whether I’d killed more humans than I had infected at this point.
I added another number to the count when a woman charged at me and I pulled my knife, thrusting it between us as she lifted what looked like a makeshift mace. I had to force myself forward to drag the blade up in a sharp jerk, and I shoved her back before her intestines could spill all over me.
I didn’t want to have to clean my boots.
I didn’t want to have to see how young she was when the light faded from her eyes.
I turned to look at Phoenix instead, who had a man by the throat, lifted into the air.
Those oceanic eyes turned to me as he threw him, and we were both left standing in silence and bloodshed for a second—a breath—a moment that felt like it spilled across time and made me realize…
We worked well together.
Fuck.
