Page 77 of Death Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

Greyson went quiet for a beat. Then his voice rose. “So it is tied to the relic.”

“Probably,” Faith said. “Can you break it?”

“I can,” Greyson replied, and I could hear him moving, tools clinking. “Not fully. But I can punch a viewing hole through it for a short window. Give me ten minutes.”

“We don’t have ten,” Faith snapped.

“I can put something together,” Greyson said. “But I’m not bringing you a miracle.”

Faith exhaled. “Understood. Where do you want to meet?”

Greyson gave a location, quick and specific, near the hospital’s service road. “Do not go into the shield zone without me.”

Faith ended the call. “He’s coming.”

Nishi’s gaze stayed on the hospital doors. “We still have to clear inside.”

Eve nodded. “We split. Small team goes in to stabilize, keep patients safe until Delia arrives. We hold the perimeter and wait for Greyson.”

Faith’s eyes narrowed. “No.”

Eve looked at her. “Faith.”

Faith’s voice went hard. “Salima goes in. Cal goes in with her. If she drops, the egg suffers. If the egg suffers, we lose time and options.”

Cal’s gaze flicked to Faith, then to me, then back to the hospital. “Agreed.”

I swallowed. “I’m not fragile glass.”

Faith gave me a flat stare. “Tonight you are a very important piece of fragile glass. Stop arguing.”

I had no good response to that, mostly because she was right and I hated that.

Nishi made the call. “Eve and Tegan wait for Greyson. Faith, you go inside with Salima and Cal. I’ll take point. We hold until Delia arrives.”

Eve did not look pleased about being left outside, but she nodded once. “Text me if you see Dagna.”

Faith muttered, “If she shows up, you’ll hear our confrontation.”

We moved inside.

The hospital hallway smelled like disinfectant and fear. The lighting was too bright, the kind that made everything look harsher, more real. A nurse ran past us with a tray clutched to her chest like a shield. Her eyes were wide, and her scrubs were smeared with blood.

“Security,” she choked out. “They’re in the east wing. They bit Dr. Clemons. They bit… oh god.”

Nishi caught her by the shoulders, voice controlled. “Listen to me. You are going to run to the front desk. You are going to stay behind the officers. Do not stop. Do you understand?”

The nurse nodded frantically and bolted.

We followed the sound.

Screams echoed down the corridor. A crash. A gurney clattering. The wet slap of feet that should not be moving so fast in a hospital.

We rounded the corner into the east wing and saw them.

Two undead in torn patient gowns, skin sallow, mouths smeared red. One moved with that old, stiff lurch, but the other was quicker, snapping its head toward noise with predatory focus. A third corpse staggered out of a doorway, dragging an IV pole that scraped the tile.

Two security guards tried to hold a line near the nurses’ station. One had a baton. The other had nothing but panic and a radio.