My teeth hurt from clenching my jaw so tightly. “You need one more night. We’ll go in the morning.”
Ash stares at me over the flickering flames. “You got it bad for her, huh?”
“She tried to kill me,” I scoff. But I nod in answer to his question.
“What? Did she know you can…do what you do?” His mouth twists as he runs his tongue over his lips with a sour expression.
“Yea, she does.” I should regret telling her. Yet it got me one night and a lifetime of memories.
“Then she probably knew you’d be okay. I saw one Grade A get his whole fucking head cut off and it rebonded to the body. He was completely fine.” Ash shrugs like it was just a regular damn Tuesday when he saw it.
And it was very likely an experimental surgery done in the earlier days after the virus.
No wonder Jenny wanted the hell out.
With all of the organs and blood they’ve harvested from her through the years, they could have built twenty more of her.
Maybe more?
That makes my chest hurt. I’ve been there when she was suffering, those brief hours after every surgery when she had to endure the pain of the loss…and regrowth.
Over and over.
Anyone like her has turned into cattle. A product.
I hate it.
“Ash?” My tone drops as I fight the emotions threatening to pull me under. “I’m not taking her back there.”
His eyes flare open. “Why not? Do you have any idea how many people she’s saved?”
“At her own expense!” I snap. “I’ve watched her in agony fordecades. Does she deserve that?” I don’t wait for his answer. “No. She fucking doesn’t. It’s done.”
He stares at me, his features mottling. “Then you should take her place. You’re Grade B. You could still help. Think of all of the—”
“Absolutely not,” I grunt.
He pushes to his feet, leaning over me as he points furiously. “I would have died without you! There’s not many humans left, you have to—”
The shot echoes in the small clearing, ringing in my ears as I watch his body collapse onto the embers of the fire.
His mouth opens and closes soundlessly under the gaping hole where his nose used to meet his brow.
“No, Ash,” I whisper over him as I holster my pistol. “I don’t.”
Chapter 14 - Lash
If she fed onmy frustration, she would have long been sated.
Instead it rolls in my guts like rotten meat, souring every breath as I lope through the humid night.
My nose leads me to an abandoned grove, smothered in the scent of smaller prey.
“Here. Eat. I will as well.” Crouching, I let her slide off my side.
Her naked body nearly glows in the dim light of the half-hidden moon. A beacon to the lust throbbing in my loins.
“Don’t even think about it,” she grumbles, moving to a heavily laden plum tree. “Remember what I said.”
