Emery went into her bedroom without another word. I shrugged and set the alarm on her door before going out on the immense deck as the sun peeked up over the mountains.
I decided to stay on a night schedule so I could be around when Emery was awake. After helping myself to a beer from the fridge I went upstairs to bed.
That afternoon when I woke I checked the perimeter, unlocked Emery’s room and went to make breakfast. Was the lock really necessary? If someone had asked me that a month ago I’d have said no, but after running into the queen and talking to Colonel Arder, I’d be lying if I said part of me didn’t think “better safe than sorry”.
I cooked up eggs and sausage. Mr. Mitchell had gone crazy with the supplies. Enough fresh food for the next couple of weeks, enough canned for the next couple of years. I wondered if he’d been like that before the invasion. Maybe he was one of those people who’d gone survivalist after the Bugs left. Preparing for a second wave. I’d seen a show about it.
Emery came out of her room and took a bag from the refrigerator.
“Good morning,” I said. She said nothing back, just took her food and left. “Good morning, Dillon,” I said to myself in a snooty tone. This was shaping up to be a long three months.
I spent a little more time on the deck, looking up at the stars. They seemed so close, like a dark veil just out of reach with a bunch of tiny pinholes poked through it. The night was clear. It was getting a little chilly so I went inside to find something else to do.
I wandered down the hall to the lab and found Emery getting things set up. I knew it wasn’t a good idea to hover, but I was bored. I hoped she’d let me help so I had something to do. Not to mention we could use something to get us past the awkward silence.
She turned to me with her eyes narrowed, then with an exasperated sigh she started pulling off her shirt.
“Can we just get this over with? Let’s deal with your creepy Haunt fetish and then you can hit the road or at least stay out of my hair,” she sneered and walked closer to me in just her bra.
The hell? I backed away, unable to say anything. Then the anger caught up and threw me into action. Leaving the lab, I went up to my room and slammed the door.
“How could she think that?” I said to myself. Haunt fetish? Jesus.
I wanted to pack up everything I’d just unpacked and leave, but I couldn’t. She was here alone. What if there was a fire? Or an earthquake? Or if some redneck found her here during the day? What if they figured out she’d left OBX and tracked her down? The only way I could protect her was if I stayed there.
Of course, I didn’t know how much protecting she could possibly need, being that she was clearly made out of stone.
I turned on the TV and stayed in my room all night. I went downstairs only to get something to eat and grab a beer, and then quickly went back upstairs.
In the morning, after she fell asleep, I went down. After checking to make sure she was in bed I punched in the code to secure her room. When I couldn’t find anything on TV but talk shows, I decided to go back to bed.
I set my alarm for fifteen minutes before Emery would wake, but I didn’t need it. I hardly slept. I was too busy tossing and trying to convince myself to leave.
Did I owe her my protection anymore? I’d gotten her out. I did my job. I could take my money and go start a new life. Let her dad find someone else to watch over her.
My mind started flipping through other men guarding her. Guys like Bobby or those men at the convenience store. Obviously, her father wouldn’t pick someone like that, but if the person he picked had any kind of temper at all, Emery was the type of woman who would bring out the worst in them.
I decided I would be a Hunter because I didn’t trust other people like Bobby to do it. Now I felt the same obligation to see this through.
I went down and unlocked her room, and after a quick breakfast went back up to shower and continue laying low. I could protect her well enough from the confines of my room. The building’s indoor and outdoor security cameras all fed to my entertainment center. I didn’t need to see her.
By midnight I was hungry again, and there was nothing on TV so I went down to get a snack and choose a movie from the large collection in the living room.
The sounds of smashing glass made my instincts kick in. I ran down the hall toward the noise, gun drawn.
In the lab, Emery was crying. A pile of glass lay on the floor against the wall below a dent in the once pristine drywall. She had thrown something, but aside from the crying she seemed fine.
I holstered the gun and retreated from the room, but not before she heard me.
“Dillon,” she called.
“Sorry. I heard the glass…” I shook my head. “I’ll go.”
“Dillon, please?” I stopped but didn’t turn. I felt I needed to say something, but I couldn’t look at her.
“I made the arrangements with your father before I knew you. I felt that if I was going to break someone out of OBX, the only way I could square that with my conscience was if I had them under supervision. If I didn’t, and something happened, I’d blame myself.”
She said nothing, so I continued. “I know you’re not a danger to anyone. I just don’t want you to be up here alone. If you want me to leave, I will. Just have someone you trust come to take my place and I’ll go. I told your father I’d give you three months before I took you back, but you don’t need to worry about that. Not anymore. And, I would never, ever expect…” I started walking again. I didn’t want to talk about that.
“Dillon,” she said again. “Wait.”
I stopped and turned on her, ready to be angry now. “I can’t believe you think I was only interested because… What have I done that would cause you to think the worst of me? Because I kissed you? I backed off when I saw you were uncomfortable. I don’t get you.”
“I want to apologize.”
“You can’t just say you’re sorry, Em. That wasn’t a misunderstanding. I could see you believed I was capable of—”
She moved toward me, wrapping her arms around my waist. I tried to back away, but she squeezed tighter.
“Please don’t go. You’re the only person I trust besides my dad. I’m sorry. I just can’t figure you out. You treat me like I’m normal, but I keep thinking that’s got to be some kind of twisted kink, not that you actually see me that way.”
“Was that your idea of an apology?” I asked.
She released me and looked up into my eyes. I smiled a bit to let her off the hook. I couldn’t stay mad at her. She had every reason in the world to be angry and scared. But she said I was the only person she trusted and that got to me.
“It’s not good enough?” she asked, her black eyes glistening.
“Do you still think I’ve got some kind of twisted kink?” I asked.
“I’m still not sure what your intentions are,” she said with a shake of her head.
“You know for a smart person you’re pretty stupid.”
She frowned at the floor. “Yeah, this isn’t the first time I’ve realized that.”
“My intentions…” I stood up straighter. “…are to protect you, and keep you company while you work on a cure. And if you find yourself ingratiated enough to name it after me when you’re done, so be it.” I gave her a wink and she smiled. “I won’t even demand royalties. Just an honorary doctorate, maybe.”
She smiled. “I’m sorry I doubted you. I’ll beg you to stay if you want. You’ve earned some begging.”
“In just the bra?” I joked. She looked away in embarrassment. “Hey, I’m kidding. I’ll take a rain check on the begging. I’m guessing you have these little episodes a lot so I’ll wait for the next one.”
She nodded. “That’s probably a good idea. I’m sorry I’m such a pain.”
“You are under a lot of pressure, Em. I’m not surprised you snap sometimes.”
“Still, I shouldn’t snap at you. That’s not fair. I’m truly sorry.”
“I’m the only one here, so unfortunately the responsibility of being snapped at falls solely on me.”
“I’ll try to direct it toward an inanimate object next time.”
“Like whatever you threw against the wall?” I raised a brow.
She covered her face again. “Yes. Like that.”
I went to the kitchen to get the broom and the dustpan.
“I can do that.” She quickly took them off me as I followed her back into the lab. “In my defense it was already broken when I unpacked it so it wasn’t like I wasted anything useful.”
I smiled. She didn’t need to justify a mismanagement of financial resources to me. I could easily be considered a freeloader.
I looked around at the clean white walls, ceiling and floor. “This room is so white. It’s a bit off-putting. It’s no wonder you feel like snapping.”
“I wish I didn’t need to sleep so long. I used to be able to work around the clock when I was developing something. Now my brain shuts down whether I want it to or not. It’s so frustrating.” She continued unpacking and setting things up. “Thank you again for staying. I am sorry you have to share a house with a crazy person. I thought you would want to go home. Or maybe you had another job waiting.”
“No,” I answered steadily. “I don’t.”
“You don’t what? Want to go home or have a job waiting?”
“Hunters work for Homeland Security, but we’re independent contractors. I can take as few or as many jobs as I want. As far as anyone’s concerned, I’m on vacation.” She smiled a little.
“It will be nice to have company.” She smiled a bit more.
The lab was mostly set up by the time she started to wind down. She gave me a few projects to finish while she was sleeping, after asking me several times if I minded. I didn’t.
The next night she went to the lab as soon as she was awake. Everything was to her liking. I could tell the way she inspected my work and thanked me over and over.
“Hungry?” I held up a bag. “There is a stash in this little refrigerator here.” I pointed under the counter. “At least until you need it for something else.”
“Thank you,” she said yet again.
“So what do you normally do when you’re trying to come up with something?” I asked, wanting to help. “You know, a big idea?”
“Aside from staying awake, I used to take long baths. I also ate lots of junk food.”
Baths were easy enough. Junk food? Not so much. “What else inspires you?”
“When I came up with the base for Zentricol I was getting my hair cut. I left the salon with my hair wet. I was still wearing the cape.” She laughed at the memory and then turned sad. “Can’t do that either.” She shrugged.
“No. We can’t leave, and trust me, you really don’t want me cutting your hair.”
She sat on the stool and put her elbows on the counter.
“We’ll think of something,” I said. “Don’t worry about it.”
“Don’t worry about it?” she raised her eyebrows. “I’ve been worrying about it since I had to dig myself out of the ground.”
I nodded, feeling stupid.
“I wish I had the notes from my hotel room.”
I frowned. “I didn’t see a notebook or I would have packed it.”
“They weren’t in a notebook. I have a kind of organic chaos process when I’m following up an idea. They were cross connected on the walls.”
“Damn. I totally forgot.” I pulled my phone from my back pocket. “I took pictures.”
“Are you serious?” She seemed excited. I did something right for once.
“Yeah. I didn’t know what it all said, but I thought it might be important.”
She laughed when she looked at the screen then started writing down some key notes in a notebook. Later we could print off the lot of them on the lab’s printer. “Well that’s a good place to start. You are amazing, Dillon.”
I tried to hide my embarrassment. I stayed for a few hours while we talked about non-science related subjects. What classes I liked in school. How many grades she had skipped because she was so freakin’ smart. It was a lot.
We also talked about how much trouble we got into. I wasn’t surprised to learn she had been grounded a lot.
She was laughing at a story about my first dog when the new cell phone her father gave her rang. I watched as she checked the caller ID and the smile fell from her face.
“Damn it, Daddy,” she huffed, but didn’t answer the call. “I guess I need to get ready for sleep.” She was winding down, even though she seemed to want to ignore the feeling. She was so stubborn.
“Yes,” I nodded, checking my own phone for the time.
When I walked into her room later to make sure she was sleeping safely, I saw her phone lying on the stand next to her bed.
Part of me wanted to see who had called and upset her, but I didn’t want to betray her trust after I had finally earned it. Besides, I had a feeling I already knew.
I also wanted to sit next to her, but once again the trust thing kept me from doing what I wanted. This was a job. We had to be professionals.
I sat out on the deck and eventually trudged up to bed to go to sleep. It was becoming my new routine.
When she woke up, Emery had sent me to town with a list of ingredients. She thought compiling a three course meal might spark an idea.
“It’s all about letting the mind wander,” she said as she worked in the kitchen. If she was as much of a powerhouse in the lab, she really was a genius.
I felt guilty eating the amazing meal she’d prepared when she couldn’t enjoy it with me.
“Go ahead and eat,” she prodded while pointing to the salad and homemade rolls. “Don’t worry about me.”
I was about to dig in when my phone rang, startling me.
“Yes?”
“Dillon?” Corey’s voice came through.
“Yep.” I looked at Emery who glanced over at me. “What’s up? You okay?”
“I need to ask you something and I want you to tell me the truth,” he said.
“Okay. There is no Santa Claus. Sorry, but that’s the truth. Pretty sure there’s no Tooth Fairy, either. Jury is still out on the Easter Bunny.”
“Shut up.” He didn’t even laugh.
“What’s wrong?” That was gold. He should have at least chuckled.
“You remember the last time you were here?”
“Yeah.”
“You asked me to talk to someone on the street.”
“Right.”
“Well, I went to find her the other night. Maybe put in a good word for you. She’s gone.”
“I see.” I didn’t know if I would need to keep this a secret from Corey. “What kind of good word were you going to put in?” I asked.
“The point is she’s not here anymore. I asked a guard and he said she probably baked herself on the beach, but I’m not sure.”
“If the guard thinks that’s what happened to her then that must be what happened,” I said.
“You’re sure? I mean, you didn’t…”
“I don’t know what I can say.”
With that, Emery came over to the table and took my phone.
“Hi, Corey. How’s the rash?”
“Oh my God,” I heard him shout while Em laughed.
Shit. That was not smart. What if someone was listening?
“Don’t worry about Dillon. He’s a good guy. He wouldn’t hurt anyone.”
“I didn’t think he would. I just…”
“Sure. Take care of yourself.” She handed my phone back with a wink.
“Does that answer your questions?” I shook my head as I got back on the line. What was done was done.
“You dog,” he chided me.
“It’s not like that.”
“Wow. I have never wanted to be a hot, blonde chick more than I do right now.” He snickered.
“It’s a job,” I said with a wince. “She’s a doctor. She’s giving us hope.” Not that I could say what that hope was.
“I didn’t really think you would have done anything bad to her.”
I rolled my eyes. “Thank you.” Such high expectations I was living up to.
“So no Santa, huh? That’s harsh.”
“Sorry to break it to you.”
“Well, have a good time with the doctor.” I gave up. There’d be no convincing him there was nothing was going on here. “Guess I’ll talk to you later.”
“Later.” I disconnected the call and picked up a roll. “That wasn’t smart, but thanks for reassuring him,” I said to Emery as I pulled off a piece of the soft, warm bread and popped it in my mouth. “At least he’s not thinking the worst.”
“He looks up to you. We couldn’t very well have him doubting the ethics of his hero.”
“I’m no hero.”
“You’re not a hero or a prince? What are you, Dillon McAllister?”
“Not much. Just a guy with a van.” I shook my head and looked down at the table.
She raised her brow. “I don’t believe that.”
Before I was finished with my second roll, the baked ziti came out of the oven and was placed on the table. I watched as she put a berry cobbler in the oven next.
“Em, I feel bad.”
“You don’t like ziti?”
“It smells delicious, though I’ve never had it before. It’s just hard to appreciate it when you can’t eat it too.”
She laughed at me. “I don’t want any of this. I just enjoy cooking it. I sure don’t want to go to all this effort just for it to be thrown away. I’ll enjoy watching you enjoy it.”
I tilted my head. “Join me.”
“I can’t—”
“No. I know. I mean, with something that is more appealing to you.”
Emery made a face. “I can’t drink blood in front of you while you try to eat your dinner. That’s disgusting.”
“It’s not disgusting, Em. I’m fine with it.” I shrugged and looked at the dish. “Please eat with me so I can enjoy my amazing meal without the guilt.”
“Oh, fine.” She threw her hands in the air and went to the refrigerator. She got out a bag and then retrieved a wine glass from the cabinet. After pouring the blood into the glass she came to sit with me.
I got an extra plate and put it in front of her with some food on it, and then served myself.
“What is this?” She pointed down at the plate in front of her.
I smiled. “That’s my seconds. You’re just looking after it for me.”
“So, sitting with someone who isn’t eating bothers you, but this,” she tapped her wine glass, “doesn’t?”
“That’s right.” I dug in. I didn’t even try to suppress how good it tasted.
“I can’t tell you the last time I’ve had food that hasn’t come from a fast food joint or a microwaveable box. This is spectacular.”
“I’m glad you like it.”
“So… Any big ideas yet?” I almost whispered.
“Nope.” The “P” came out like a popping sound.
“Maybe we should try again tomorrow?” I suggested. “Maybe steak would be more inspiring.” I raised my brows, making her laugh.
We talked for a while as we cleaned up from dinner.
“I’d better go do some work,” she sighed once the kitchen was clean again.
“All right, good luck.” I looked around the living room for something to keep me occupied.
“Do you want to watch?” she asked sheepishly.
“I won’t be in the way?”
“In the way of what? I haven’t done anything yet.” She snorted and started back down the hall. “Though you do take up a lot of room.” She looked me up and down. “You’re big.” She pointed out.
“Slightly larger than average,” I corrected.
“Uh huh.”
I took her up on her invitation to sit with her. After-midnight television sucked anyway.
I pulled one of the stools over to the wall and sat out of the way while she chuckled and shook her head. It might have seemed silly, but I sure didn’t want to be the reason three hundred thousand people didn’t get a cure.
She washed her hands with antibacterial gel, put on gloves and laid out a thick paper towel. She opened a drawer, pulling out a few more things. I couldn’t really see from over by the wall. I probably wouldn’t have known what it was anyway.
She wrapped a large round rubber band around her left biceps and pulled it tight with her teeth. Uh oh.
I sat up straighter, and looked at the counter. A needle.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m taking a fresh blood sample so I can study the alien fluid. Despite what you might have heard, it’s not all alien—there are traces of human blood left throughout the ichor. We think it’s used as a kind of map to let the fluid mimic key functions in our organs.”
“Does it have to come out of your body?”
She made a show of looking around the barren room. “I don’t see any other candidates. However, I could use some of your blood too if you don’t mind. Tons in the fridge, but fresher is better.”
“Uh… I guess so.” She pulled the needle out once the syringe was full of dark black goo.
She arranged another set of supplies and turned to me with a fresh needle and syringe.
“Your turn.” She twitched her finger for me to come closer. I cautiously obliged. “I’m a doctor, Dillon. Relax. It’s not going to hurt.” She tied the tourniquet around my arm.
“That’s a lie right there,” I mocked. “It’s a needle, going into your skin. Of course it’s going to hurt.”
“You’re done.”
I looked down to see her holding a cotton ball over my tiny wound. The syringe in her hand was bright red. “You big baby.”
“Huh,” I said in surprise as she rolled her eyes.
I went back to my stool and watched as she prepped a few slides and put them in the microscope.
She stood up and looked at the ceiling as if the answer was written on the tile. I even looked up to make sure it wasn’t.
“Hmph,” she grunted and went back to the microscope again. She switched slides and then put drops of our blood on the same slide.
I remembered being eight, and making a blood bond with the boy next door. Tim was his name. He moved away two months later and I never saw him again, but it had been a sacred moment of friendship. This kind of felt similar. Stupid, I know, but it’s how I felt.
I started to get sleepy and when I looked at the clock on the wall, I realized why. It was close to daybreak.
“Time for bed, Dr. Mitchell,” I announced.
“I was just about to—” The alarm on my phone went off.
“It doesn’t matter what you were about to do,” I interrupted. “It will be here waiting for you when you wake up.”
“I can finish this,” She looked at me and then back to the microscope.
“You can fall face first in a petri dish is what you can do. Come on. I know you can feel it, stop pretending.” I held my hand out toward the door. “Let’s go,” I ordered.
We didn’t make it. I reached for her just as her eyes closed and her face dropped to the table. She was out cold.
“Shit.” Thankfully, I was able to carry her to bed. I closed the drapes in her room. The windows were UV protected, but it still made me nervous to see the sun shining on her skin.
Once I made sure she looked comfortable, I left and locked the door.
As I passed the lab I went in and checked the slide in the microscope. The slide that contained both our blood.
I was no expert, but it appeared as if her blood was consuming mine, making the entire sample black. That was disturbing. No wonder transfusions alone didn’t work.
I backed away from the equipment and went to my room. It was perhaps the first thing about the Haunts that truly creeped me out, though I would never tell Emery that.
It took me a long time to fall asleep. I kept seeing the black cells in my mind. I turned on the TV and the talk shows put me under in minutes.
When I got up I had a bowl of Cheerios, watched some TV and did a load of laundry. I unlocked Emery’s room and went on the deck to watch the stars come out until she woke up. A little while later my phone rang. I recognized the area code. Corey.
“Don’t start,” I greeted him with a warning.
“Hey, Dillon.” His voice was strained.
“What’s up?” I could tell the answer wasn’t going to be good from his tone, but it seemed reasonable to ask. “What’s wrong?”
“I got beat up—” The phone cut out as expected. It was that time of night.
“Are you okay? Did they try to take your game? I told you to just give it up. I didn’t want you getting hurt over it.” I stood up and started to pace.
“I’m fine now. They didn’t get it. I hid it. The batteries are dead because I couldn’t charge it, but I still have it. It’s mine,” he said firmly.
“Sorry,” I offered, covering many different things. I was sorry I ever took him there. Sorry I’d given him something that made him a target. Sorry he was too stubborn to see it wasn’t worth getting beaten up over.
“When do you think you’ll stop by next?”
“Probably not for a while.”
“You’ll be hangin’ with the doctor?” he said, his voice full of scandal.
“Yes.”
“Ooooh. Dillon and the doctor,” he sang.
“I told you not to start.”
“So how’s it going with the whole hope thing?” he said. Maybe he did have a clue what I’d meant by that.
“Slow.”
“Figures. By the time I get the chance to eat real food again, I’ll need dentures.”
“I’ll see what I can do about speeding up the schedule.”
I rolled my eyes for my own benefit as Corey chuckled. He was family. Distant, yes, but it still meant something.
“Later, Dillon.”
“Later, brat.”
Emery came out a bit later. Her hair was in a ponytail and she was wearing workout clothes.
“Going for a run?”
“More like a fast paced walk. You want to come along?”
“I probably should.” My protective instincts were at play. I knew CPR. I sure didn’t want to have to use it on Emery.
“Sometimes ideas came to me during my runs.”
“All right, well, let’s go see if we can chase one down.” I smiled. “Give me a minute to change.”
When I came downstairs she was already outside looking up at the stars.
“Ready?” she asked.
“Yep.”
“Try to keep up,” she joked and took off.
She did pretty well, managing a jog rather than just a fast paced walk. She was faster than any Haunt I’d seen before. Not that it lasted very long. She needed to stop for a break after just a few minutes.
“This sucks.” She kicked the stones by the side of the mountain road. “I hate being like this!” she screamed. Her voice echoed back to us, multiplying her anger.
She sat on the dirt road and put her head on her knees.
“Emery?”
She looked up at me.
“Everyone faces challenges in their lives. They can be used to defeat us or make us stronger.”
“Are you saying I need to stop feeling sorry for myself?”
“I tried to make it sound a little nicer.” But she was right. There were plenty of uninfected people who couldn’t go out for a run either. Look at that Hawking guy. She needed to focus on the things she could do instead of what she couldn’t.
“I still don’t have a clue. What am I supposed to do, Dillon?”
“Relax. I think maybe chasing an idea is the wrong approach. Maybe you should lie in wait, ready to ambush it when one comes out of hiding.”
Her brows rose. “Where do you suggest I lie in wait?”
“Where every brilliant idea lurks. In front of the television, of course.” I sniffed, making her laugh.
“I guess I can give it a try,” she conceded as we walked back to the house at a leisurely pace.
We sat in the living room together for the first time, watching some brain dead sitcom rerun. I got up during a commercial to get a snack.
As I walked behind the sofa I saw a shelf lined with photos. I recognized Emery when she was a teenager, looking way too cute with the braces. I saw a picture of a baby that could have been Em or any baby. They all looked the same to me, really.
There was a photo of Emery and her dad skiing. That looked more recent. The last was a professional portrait. It was of Emery and a man sitting on the ground. Smiles on their faces. The shiny diamond on her left hand was obviously being showcased. An engagement picture.
I continued walking to the kitchen. When I opened the refrigerator I saw the blood inside next to the beer. What a combination.
“You need anything?” I called.
“No thanks, I’m fine.”
I got a beer and some chips and went back to my spot at the other end of the sofa. There was enough room for three people to sit between us.
“So your dad mentioned you were engaged. Is that right?” I looked down at her left hand which was empty. She caught me looking.
“I traded my ring for some of that lab equipment you saw in my room at OBX. And my father shouldn’t be sharing my personal information with the hired help.”
Ouch.
“Sorry,” I said with an edge. I finished my beer and went back to my room without saying good night, or good day or good whatever.
“Hired help?” I muttered to myself. “What a bitch.” That was it. I was angry at myself for ever being smitten with her. It had blinded me to the kind of person she really was.
I continued to grumble as I brushed my teeth and changed. By the time I came back out to my room I had half talked myself into leaving with my money as soon as she went to sleep. This was the last straw.
“Hired help. Who says that anymore?” I continued my rant as I gathered my things for a quick escape. “She wasn’t human even before the Bugs came.” I wasn’t going to let her just say she was sorry and then do this to me again and again. It just wasn’t worth it.
I heard a light knock at my door and froze. Was it too late to pretend I was asleep? She could probably hear me muttering and see the light under the door.
Fine. She was rude. I could be rude too.
I opened the door brusquely and she jumped back in surprise.
“Can I talk to you?” she asked.
“As long as it’s not personal.” I turned my back on her to continue gathering my clothes. It was only then I realized I was only wearing shorts and no shirt.
“Are you leaving?” she asked.
I shrugged again. I still wasn’t sure. I might have just been throwing a fit.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know why I keep saying horrible things to you. I keep having to apologize.” She held her hands out.
“You don’t need to apologize. I am the hired help. It’s not my business.” I calmed down and threw my clothes on the dresser. This was the truth. I wasn’t acting like a professional, I was acting like a friend. And if she didn’t want a friend, fine. I didn’t have to be one.
I had no right to be mad at her. I should have been mad at myself for being attracted to her in the first place. It kept getting in the way.
“Dillon?” She said my name quietly, causing my heart to skip. How did she do that? “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have spoken to you that way. I was rude. I know what you risked to bring me here, yet you did and now I’m being so mean to you.”
She covered her face and slid down the wall by the door.
“The answer to your question is,I don’t know if I’m engaged.”
She looked up at me and I don’t know what she saw. I didn’t respond.
“When Trevor found me at the hospital after I’d changed,” she gestured down her body. “He acted like the same person I knew. He was always a little clinical, but we were scientists and it worked for us. But at that point, I needed someone to hold me and tell me everything was going to work out. I wanted to hear that he didn’t care what I looked like, he would love me anyway. He didn’t. He started talking about how we should focus on finding a reversing agent, where the best place would be to set up a lab, who to recruit for the team.
“He acted like nothing had changed and this was just another problem to solve. At first, I appreciated it. It kept me focused. But at some point I forgot to go to the clinic for food. I could feel sleep coming so I asked if he would go for me. He said something about being uncomfortable around those people.” She took a deep breath.
“It shouldn’t have bothered me, but it did. As you are well aware, I’m not one to keep my mouth shut when something bothers me. We got into an argument. He said he didn’t mean me. Eventually he went, but I was asleep before he got back.”
I knew this story was about to take a tragic turn.
“When I woke up, he had a bag waiting along with an apology. I didn’t hear him because the hunger took over. I don’t know what happened. After I ate and was calm again, I saw scratch marks on his face and a cut on his hand. He was terrified.
“He suggested I surrender myself. He came up with the idea of me working from inside the facility in OBX where I would be safe and have better access to volunteers while he worked on a cure from the outside with the company’s resources. We were supposed to coordinate once a week.
“After a few weeks he stopped answering my calls. Then things went bad in the lab, I was in general population and I ended up writing on my walls and hating everyone.”
She shook her head.
“It wasn’t his fault. I attacked him. He’d fallen in love with a different person than I am now. I’d fallen in love with the person I thought he was.” Her head tilted up slightly. “He’s working on another project now. I wish him the best.”
This was crap. You don’t just give up like that. If the woman I loved was infected I would take her somewhere she could be safe and protect her with my life.
“He’s called me a few times since my father filled him in on our operation here. I don’t know what to say to him.”
I opened my mouth to give her a few suggestions and then shut it. She wouldn’t want to hear them.
She gave me a weak smile. “You’re a good person, Dillon. I don’t know why I keep treating you so badly. You don’t deserve it. Please forgive me, and please stay. I don’t know if I would be scared here alone, but I would be lonely if you left.”
“You should go to bed. It’s almost time to sleep,” I said. I hadn’t decided anything yet.
“I can’t go to sleep not knowing if you’ll be here when I get up.” She shook her head. “If you’re angry and you leave and I don’t get to fix this…”
I sighed. “I’ll be here. I’m not going anywhere.”
“Do you promise?” Her black eyes were fixed on mine.
“Really? You need me to promise?”
“Yes. You said you were a man of your word. I need you to promise you won’t sneak out while I’m asleep because you’re mad at me.”
“Okay, I promise.” I shook my head. Smitten again. Such an idiot. I grabbed a shirt and pulled it on while I followed her downstairs.
She paused at her door before going inside. “Dillon? Would you sit with me until I fall asleep?”
“Sure.” I followed her inside and checked over her curtains while she got in bed. She was wearing shorts and a very thin T-shirt.
“If you’re still here when I get up you’ll get a reward,” she teased.
“I don’t need a reward, Em. I’d just like you to stop trying to scare me off.”
“Okay. I’ll stop trying to scare you off and you’ll get a reward.” She took a deep breath and fidgeted with her blanket uneasily.
“Are you scared?” I asked, wondering why she would need me to stay in here with her.
“Kind of.”
I went over to the chair by her bed and sat down. She reached for my hand.
“In case you’re lying, and you’re not here when I get up. I just wanted to see you for as long as I—”
She was sleeping.
I brushed her hair back from her face.
“Why do you do this to me?” I asked her. I didn’t know what there was between us, if anything, but I did know I wished she’d let me in.
I sighed and got up from my seat. I would be sitting there again when she woke.
“Have good dreams, Emery,” I wished her, knowing it wasn’t possible for her to dream at all. I typed in the code to lock the door.