25. Emily

25

EMILY

E veryone I know is dying.

The colony’s on fire.

Chaos spins around me in a whirlwind of fear and blood, and there’s no end in sight. It’s like that horrible night all over again, except this time, instead of fighting only rotters, we’re fighting a more deadly threat added to the mix.

Nathan’s men are here, slashing through anything and anyone in their path. A few of his men go so far as to spin rotters around and push them toward the nearest colonists.

People I’ve lived alongside for almost a year are dropping left and right, falling to the cruel hands of Nathan’s soldiers, and the teeth of rotters. Their soul-piercing screams fill the air.

Most of the bodies I stumble past are Richard’s men, but that thought escapes me—right now, I need to focus.

I don’t know where my guys are, and that terrifies me.

Max and William were with me when this fight started. They’d closed in around me when Griffin took off, but then we got separated in the chaos. I trust they’re still out there somewhere, fighting. They’re fully capable of taking care of themselves, so I’m not worried. If anything, I pity Nathan’s men who have to go up against them. But right now, I have to find Zoey.

I scan my surroundings and catch a glimpse of blonde hair before it disappears behind a building. Zoey.

I sprint after her, dodging past attackers and running straight through the chaos.

Gunfire cracks around me, mixed with the sounds of shattering glass and people screaming.

My heart hammers. My blood thunders through my veins.

I’m still moving through the fray when I collide with someone, and we tumble to the ground in a mess of limbs. He cries out in pain when I land hard on his ankle.

“Sorry,” I say automatically, reaching out a hand to pull him up. When he lifts his head and I can see his face for the first time, I realize this isn’t one of the colony’s people. The man staring back at me, with anger flashing in his eyes, is one of Nathan’s goons.

“Big mistake, sweetheart,” he sneers, twisting my hand and pulling me closer. The cold tip of his knife presses against my neck, his hot breath brushing against my ear. “You should be sorry. Although…” The knife trails down the side of my throat, touching the collar of my shirt. “Maybe you’d like to come back with us.”

I force a saccharine smile and twist my hand enough to slip my knife from its sheath. “Tempting. But…yeah, that would be a no.” With a swift jab, I bury my blade into his gut, rolling away while he doubles over in pain.

His knife clatters to the ground, his face twisting into a raging scowl of pain and ferocity. I reach down to pick up his knife. I’m about to finish him off when a lone rotter lifts its nose into the air and then turns toward us with vacant, hungry eyes. “Well, it’s your lucky day. I’m feeling generous.”

“Bitch,” he sputters out. Oh, he’s angry .

Fantastic.

“Awe, your compliments warm my heart. Too bad for you, sweet-talk isn’t going to work today. But please, try again tomorrow. Or you could file all your complaints with the rotter that’s about to eat your face off.” Without waiting for his reaction, I leap over him and take off running without looking back. Hopefully, Zoey hasn’t gone too far.

This is insane. It’s impossible to find anyone in this chaos.

Around me, the colony’s defenses are crumbling. Even those who hid inside their locked homes are being forced to fight. Men, women, even children and elderly. Nobody is safe.

Nathan’s men hack away at the weak barricades, throw rotters through glass windows, and even set the food stores ablaze. Panic grips the colony as smoke billows up, thick and black.

Some of the townspeople are forced from hiding to try to contain the blaze. I spot one of the bakers standing in the street, his hands clasped over his head as he stares in disbelief at the flames, watching them consume everything. A rotter stumbles behind him, and I drive my knife into its skull before I dart off again.

The town is devolving into a maze of disarray, and I feel like a rat trapped in a labyrinth. I duck into a few buildings in my search for Zoey, checking every dark corner behind every door, and yell her name. She has to be somewhere around me. I keep telling myself I’ll find her soon; the colony isn’t that big. But the longer I search, the more frantic I become. I only hope she’s doing alright. Maybe my guys found her, and they all made it to safety.

I slip into a nearby building to catch my breath and get my bearings. After closing the door behind me, I peer out the window to make sure no one followed me.

The dim light from the open blinds reveals a figure crouched against the wall, and I raise my gun, knife ready. “Show yourself,” I demand.

The figure has his back to me, and he’s crouching over the body of a towns person who I used to go on supply runs with. He turns to face me, and a mixture of fear and hatred creates a lump in my throat. My palms become sweaty, and I sheath my knife in favor of holding the gun with both hands.

“I’m impressed, Emily,” Nathan drawls, his voice smooth and calm. “You’re tougher than I ever gave you credit for. I should have kept you around longer; you’d be a valuable asset.”

Disdain drips from his every word, and I take a step closer, feeling confident I have the upper hand. My finger slides to the trigger. “And here my only regret is not shoving a knife into your eye when I first saw you a few days ago.”

Nathan rises and turns to face me, palms out, with a smirk on his face that chills my bones. “You gonna kill an unarmed man?”

“Absolutely.” I pull the trigger, and nothing happens. I glance down and see the safety is on. “What the fuck?”

Before I can flick off the safety, a rotter crashes through the window behind me and claws at my back. I spin around and aim the gun at its head, but it flails around and smacks the gun out of my hands. It’s still stuck in the window with the front half of its body dangling inside. The broken glass on the windowpane cuts into its gut, dripping blood onto the floor. It reaches its decaying hands toward me, and I yank my knife free of its sheath and drive it through its skull, stabbing it until it goes limp. I’m gasping for air when I stop, the weight of the situation weighing heavy, tears threatening to spill over.

By the time I turn back around to deal with the other threat, Nathan appears in front of me, slamming my back against the wall and pressing a knife to my throat. This seems to be the theme today.

“Such a disappointment,” he murmurs, his knife grazing my skin while he looks me over with a twisted, mocking smile. “I could have had such high hopes for you. You could have been so much more, but my idiot brother poisoned your potential. You used to be so trusting, so…pliable.”

My upper lip pulls back in a sneer. “Sorry to disappoint. Guess I can’t bring myself to worship scum like you. Too bad I don’t drop to the ground and kiss your boots, right? I might accidentally cut off your dick on the way down.”

His hand gripping my shoulder pulls forward and then back again, slamming me back against the wall with force. A slight high-pitched noise fills my ears and my vision blurs for a moment. “Watch yourself, Emily. I’m still the one holding the knife.”

“Didn’t quite catch that. I was busy daydreaming about your brother, and how he’s so much better in every. Single. Way.” I grin at him. At least, I think that’s what my face is doing. My head hurts too much to think.

His face contorts with fury, and the knife pierces my flesh. I can feel a single drop of blood travel down my skin, disappearing beneath my shirt.

Nathan removes the knife and replaces it with his hand. His fingers curl around my neck, his palm pressing against my throat. I ram my knife toward his gut, but he swats it out of my hand, grips my wrist, and holds it above my head. His fingers tighten in their quest to wrap completely around my neck. He leans in close to whisper in my ear. “Still as pretty and feisty as you were the day I first saw you. It’s a shame you turned out the way you did, filthy mongrel.”

Just as his grip tightens around my throat, stealing my breath, he’s yanked backward, torn from me with a violent force that sends him sprawling across the floor. Air rushes into my lungs and I cough, gasping for air. Looking up, I see Max standing over me, rage simmering in his eyes as he surveys me.

“Are you hurt, pet?” His voice is low, but heavy with worry and drowning in a level of coldness I’ve never heard before. His hair is wild, sticking out in all directions, having been pulled from the hair tie at some point. The orange glow from the fire outside streams in through the window, making him look like an ethereal savior. Beautiful yet deadly.

I glance past him in time to see Nathan’s shape vanish into the shadows. Damn it. “I’m fine, but you interrupted. I was about to finish him. Had him right where I wanted him.”

Max looks over his shoulder and, seeing the room is empty now, looks back at me before kneeling down and lifting my chin with one hand. His eyes turn into deep black pits when his thumb runs along the spot where the knife nicked me. Then he runs a gentle fingertip along my throat. I know I’m going to bruise.

“I’m okay, Max,” I whisper, my voice soft.

The blackness in his eyes recedes a little when he looks at me, but they’re still not the vibrant green I like to see.

His hand reaches behind my head, fisting my hair before crashing his mouth against mine in a kiss full of heartbreak and pain. As though he can’t find the words he wants to say, so he shows me instead. Then he pulls away, resting his forehead against mine and leaving me breathless. “I’m sorry I took away your fun, but I’m more worried about protecting than killing him. I promise you’ll get to kill someone soon. There are plenty of assholes to choose from.” A smidge of the green returns to his eyes. “Actually, speaking of assholes, you can kill them that way. A knife up the ass. Some of them may even enjoy it before they die. Wow, what a way to go.”

He runs his tongue along his lip in thought, making me laugh. “You can promise that? I mean, I’ve already killed someone, but I really want to see Nathan dead. I don’t even care who does it.”

“You can have anything you want. I’ll rip out his heart with my bare hands and place it in a pretty box with a bowtie for you if it’ll make you smile.”

I lean in and kiss him again. “You really know how to charm a lady.”

“Anything for you, pet.” His fingertips brush along my throat before he pulls back to look me over again. “There are still enough bad guys out there for us to massacre, but I’m more worried about you. His hand was around your throat. I should have killed him myself for that alone.”

“Yeah, he didn’t seem to like what I had to say.”

He tilts his head, reminding me I also need to find Buddy. “What did you say?”

“Wait, what happened to Buddy?”

“He’s fine. He makes an amazing sidekick and is out there protecting people to his heart’s content. Without ripping their legs off. Now, what did you say that he didn’t like?”

I give a sheepish grin. “That his brother is better than him, in every single way.”

The orange light streaming in through the window pulses, growing larger. Sounds of gunfire and chaos filter in through the broken window. Yet the most deafening sound is the silence from Max.

Between the growing shadows, I can’t make out his facial features. The colony’s disintegrating around us, but my only concern is the man in front of me.

He gets to his feet, and I follow. I squint up at him, but I can’t get a read on him. Not until he pushes me up against the wall—in a way I actually like—and covers my mouth with his in a fierce, possessive kiss. It’s the kind of kiss that makes the noise, the smoke, and even the threat of Nathan all fade away until we’re the only ones left in the world .

My body melts with his touch. I lean into him, savoring the safety he brings for a second longer, letting my fingers clutch the back of his jacket.

He pulls back, breathless, his voice rough. “We’re in the middle of hell, and you still find a way to make the worst scum alive jealous by calling me better. You upset the bane of our existences by complimenting me. I’m so fucking wild about you, pet.”

His hand slides down and squeezes my ass, pulling me against him so I grind against his erection. Then the smoke reaches us, and I press my hands against his chest. “We might have to pick this up later.”

His eyes return to a vibrant green, and he kisses me once more before pressing his forehead against mine. “You bet your sweet, perfect ass we will.”