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Chills racked her spine and Dawn fought to still the chattering of her teeth. Her nails raked at the dirt and bramble on the ground beneath her. How long had she been sitting out here?
Her sense of time was off. Rationally Dawn knew she was growing delirious and her episodes of clarity were getting further and further apart. Where was Venik when she needed his no nonsense dry wit?
“Not worried about me, obviously,” she said in a sing-song voice as she slumped back against...what was it? Dawn sat up and twisted to see behind her. “Huh.”
She was leaning against a car with no wheels. The door was banged in on her side and someone or something had smashed out the windows. She fell back against it and stared at the fading blue sky.
If she was going to turn into a member for the horde and eat people it could at least be rainy. Maybe thunderstorms. Something to show her anger and fury for things ending this way.
She thought about the serum Venik would be sharing with the government. Dawn would most likely be turned into a mindless creature by the time anyone found her. Venik had said there was a window of time to reverse Vax. She didn’t remember how long that was. Clearly, some people weren’t going to make it no matter how fast the government reproduced the serum.
Dawn was gonna be one of them. A freaking zombie. She banged her head on the car behind her. “Sooo not faaair.”
Her words slurred a bit as her head lolled to the side on her shoulders. A dark, hazy image wavered into view. Squinting, she made out the shape of a man. Tall. Striding with confidence down the street in her direction.
Her breath stalled, then released on a whoosh. Only one person she knew walked with that level of arrogance. Venik.
“You found me.” She grinned up at his dour features when he reached her. At least she thought she smiled. By the way he glared at her, maybe she was licking her lips in anticipation of eating him.
“You were to rejoin the others and leave,” he said.
Right. The soldiers they’d teamed up with and Penny. “Seems silly now, but I wanted to say bye. Promised I’d meet the rest of them in the Carolinas.”
He huffed and squatted in front of her. “What happened? Why didn’t the others wait with you?”
Dawn frowned. John had wanted to leave right away. Something about Penny. The airport. All of it ran together in her head and she couldn’t make heads or tails of it. She stuck with what she did remember. “Zombies came. Fought. I got clawed, scratched or bit.”
A growl rolled from Venik.
“We made a good team, though, didn’t we?” she asked, her eyes growing heavy. “I’m gonna die and never got to ask for your boots.”
“My boots?” Venik repeated with an inquisitive twitch to his brow ridges.
Dawn’s head wobbled on her shoulder before she steadied it. “Yeah. They’re kickass.”
From his crouched position in front of her, it was easy to get an up close view of the footwear she’d admired from the first day she’d found him outside her house.
“Damn shame,” she mumbled, eyeing the large silver buckles that climbed up the back of his leather clad calves.
Venik snorted and reached for her arm. He held it lightly, extended full length between them. His gloved fingers probed the bleeding scratch left by the zombie.
Dawn idly wondered what he tasted like. “How long before I get hungry and start nibbling on people?”
Had she really asked that? The thought hazed away. Her stomach was a gnarled knot.
Venik’s lips twitched and Dawn had the odd feeling he was suppressing a smile. What would he look like if he gave in to an actual laugh? He was so good at the stern expression but a few times she could swear there had been humor glinting in his black eyes.
Did his people have a sense of humor? Probably not. Maybe that was why he resisted showing that emotion.
“You will not fall to Vax and lose your life, Dawn Reavers.”
He leaned closer and slid an arm behind her shoulders and under her legs. Knowing what to expect, she still gasped when he stood with her in his firm hold. “I lied before. That is way sexy.”
He glanced down at her as he turned and strode away from the car she’d declared her final resting spot. “What is?”
She mimicked a frown and lowered her voice. “You will not fall to Vax and lose your life, Dawn Reavers.”
Her impersonation was awful, yet it tickled Dawn silly, and she burst into manic giggles. Delirium must have set in. Seemed only right. She let out a few more chuckles and leaned her head against the crest of his upper arm. “No one uses first and last names together like that, but I think it’s kinda hot when you do it.”
His body stilled. “You are running a fever?”
Was that fear? She was the one who’d been bitten and should be terrified but strangely wasn’t anymore. Venik’s pace picked up and she caught a few growls in a language she didn’t understand. Then she caught the word seventy. Was he counting? Seventy what? Seconds until she died? That would be awful. The thought and fear slid away.
“Can I just say this is way sexy too?” Dawn said into the sudden silence. “If I die as a zombie, I’m gonna take with me the memory of being carried in a strong man’s arms. Or alien. I guess it doesn’t really matter. It’s the imagery and the feeling created by being carried that’s doing it for me.”
He didn’t answer. They came to an open clearing that didn’t look special to Dawn. More growls from Venik and then a fine sizzle poured over her body. Dawn gasped and clutched at Venik’s shoulders. When she glanced around again, she was in a small alcove with blinking lights, shiny walls and humming machinery.
Two armored aliens, who bore a striking resemblance to Venik, watched them. Dawn met Venik’s gaze and his upper lip curled in the snarl she was beginning to consider endearing.
“I will not let you die, Dawn...Reavers.”
His words sounded like a promise. Dawn closed her eyes on a weary sigh. If only that were possible. No one could save her. She’d seen how the infection worked. You got bit and then you frothed at the mouth, ate people until someone killed you to save themselves. And boom, you weren’t just undead. You were dead-dead.
Damn. That really sucked.
***
When Dawn closed her eyes and went lax in his arms, Venik’s sense of fear and loss returned tenfold. It was unusual for him to have this severe of a reaction to someone outside his extended circle of family. Not even for his friends did he suffer this level of terror.
“Commander Avar, we are pleased to see you returned.”
One of Sevanti’s uniformed men folded his arms over his chest and growled a low burr of welcome to Venik.
“I need to get to the medical ward. Notify Chief Medical Officer Miaji and inform him that his presence is needed immediately. I’ll meet him there.”
Nothing could happen to the human female.