“At what point do we start deciding for him?” Artemis asked.
“Seems like we already have,” Macon said. “Starting the moment I grabbed him.”
We’d broken our own rule by preventing Cipher from doing what he wanted with his body, a violation of his consent, and we’d all gone along with it.
“Someone should be in charge of making decisions for him,” Artemis said. “Officially, I mean. How about you, Kitten?”
“Yeah. I’ll do it. Seems like I already have.”
“So, what do we do now?” Teresa asked, wringing her hands together. Her big blue eyes searched our faces, looking for a leader among us. Cipher was always the one with a plan, the one who rallied us together around one course of action, the best one.
“I’d like to monitor him overnight, see if he improves,” I said. I needed to be near him, especially right now. I already felt the loss with him being upstairs.
“He needs to stay strapped to that bed with round-the-clock supervision,” Artemis said.
“Yes, you’re right,” I agreed.
“No matter what he says, Kitten, you can’t release him,” Artemis warned, then glanced around the table at everyone else. “No one can.”
“I wouldn’t. I know how dangerous that would be to everyone else,” I said.
“What will we do if he turns Rabid?” Macon asked, grim-faced.
I thought about the promise I’d made to Cipher. “If it comes to that. If there is no cure, no treatment, and no other option, I’ll do it. I promised him I would.”
Us vs. them,Cipher had told me. He’d rather be dead than be Rabid. We all knew that.
“I’ll help,” Macon said, giving me a short nod.
“Listen, can you be in charge of the compound while he’s sick?” I asked Artemis. “Make sure everything runs smoothly around here? I think it will make him feel better to know that we’ve got it handled.”
“Yeah, I’ll do that, of course I will. You’re not alone in this, Kitten. We all love him and want what’s best.”
“I know. We’re his family.”
“So, let’s just take this one day at a time,” she said.
I nodded. Hour by hour, minute by minute. There wasn’t much more for us to discuss, and I was anxious to get back to Cipher, so we ended our meeting, and I headed toward the kitchen to fetch some supplies. Santiago stopped me on my way there.
“Joshua, listen to me. We were trapped inside the house. I pulled him out, he set off a grenade, then we both ran like hell. I didn’t know he’d fallen behind.”
The resentment I held toward my brother had been building, and at this moment, feeling the rage of all the times he’d let me down over the years, I wasn’t in the mood to forgive him, and his words felt hollow anyway.
“You always have an excuse, Santiago, some justification for your selfish behavior. You didn’t know he’d fallen behind because you never looked back, because you’re out to save yourself, always.”
“Joshua–”
“I don’t want to hear any more. I need to get back to Cipher now.”
I bounded upstairs to return to my favorite person, terrified of what I might find, resolved to do whatever I must.
“How’d it go?”Cipher asked. He was sitting up in bed, both bound wrists at his sides. His broken arm still had a cast on it, so we’d had to secure him at his elbow as well. He’d cut his good hand on some glass in his fight with the Rabids, so I’d cleaned and bandaged that for him too. I’d brought some broth for him to eat but he’d only sipped a little before asking me to set it aside because he wasn’t hungry. Beads of sweat collected on his forehead, and I dabbed at them with a cloth. Despite the antibiotics and ibuprofen, he was running a fever.
“We made a plan,” I told him. “We’re going to track down Captain Crenshaw, ask about some medicine and go from there.”
“I’m sorry, Kitten.”
“Don’t be sorry.” I grabbed his shoulder and gave it a good squeeze. “You did nothing wrong. My brother should have protected you. I should have gone with you. I should have never let him–”
