Thicker Than Blood (Thicker Than Blood #1)(117)

I shook my head frantically, my pounding heart nearly bursting in my chest. “Never,” I spat through my tears. “I will never, ever leave you!”

“You have to,” she wailed. “You f*cking have to!”

Taking a deep breath, I stepped forward and reached for her other hand. Threading my fingers through hers, I tugged her closer to me. “Let’s go back to the bed and breakfast,” I suggested, my voice shaking. “We’ll clean you up. We’ll think of something, Eve, we always think of something.”

Still crying, Evelyn lifted her eyes to meet mine. I could tell she wanted to say something else, to tell me what I already knew, that there was nothing to do, not for a bite from an infected. To tell me that this was all hopeless. That she was going to die and once she died, she would turn. But instead, she closed her mouth as more tears fell from her eyes, and she simply nodded.

Truth be told, I didn’t have a clue what I was going to do. There was only one thing I knew for certain—that I wouldn’t leave her here or anywhere, not now, not ever. Especially to die alone. Because without Evelyn it didn’t matter anymore, nothing mattered anymore. She was my everything, and there wasn’t anyplace else that I’d want to be but right here, with her.

I squeezed my eyes closed. There had to be a way out, there had to be, there was always a way out. Evelyn had proven that to me time and time again. We survived, that was what we did. This couldn’t be the end. Not now, not after everything.

But then, I opened my eyes and looked over at her, looked at my beautiful, strong friend with her ruined face, all bruised, bloody, and beaten down. Then my gaze fell to her leg.

She’d been bitten. And as the bitter realization of that truth finally sank deep inside me, it tore to shreds everything it touched on. There was no way out of this. There would be no surviving this. No matter what, Evelyn was going to die from the infection that was now burning its way inside her, eating away at every part of her that I loved, and taking away the very last thing that I had left, the only person I loved in this godforsaken world.

Feeling sick, shaking from head to toe, I forced my body to move. Picking up our weapons, I handed Evelyn her gun and she took it from me, staring down numbly at it like she had no idea what it was or what to do with it. I tucked mine into my pants and sheathed my blade with shaking hands, then once again I grabbed her hand and turned us toward the exit doors, pushing blindly through them, not seeing what I was passing by.

My only thoughts were on getting her back to the bed and breakfast, getting her back to our room, cleaned up and tucked in bed. Whatever happened next would happen, but I wasn’t going to think on that yet. Because I couldn’t. If I thought about it, I’d lose it. And I couldn’t lose it, not now, not when Evelyn needed me the most.

“Always together, Eve,” I mumbled as I continued to half carry her through the market. “Always.”

As we stepped through the broken entranceway, the streets were quiet, seemingly even more so than before, as if the entire town had stilled along with my heart, everything frozen in fear of the doom to come.

We walked slowly down the walkway, Evelyn leaning lightly on me as she limped along. Needing to focus, I tried not to get lost inside my thoughts, tried to stay alert to our surroundings. Yet I couldn’t help but think of Thomas and Shawn. How long had they lived after being bitten?

Thomas had been ravaged, bites covering both his arms, his stomach, and his back, large chunks of skin and muscle having been torn from him, and he’d perished rather quickly as a result. But Shawn, just as Evelyn, had been bitten only once, and had lasted three days.

Three days…that was more than likely all the time Evelyn had left. And, God help me, it wasn’t nearly enough time for me. Not even close.

? ? ?

“Lei… Stop fussing.”

Propped up in bed, the bite on her leg now cleaned and bandaged with gauze I’d pilfered from the first aid kit I’d been lucky enough to find in the bed and breakfast’s office, Evelyn wearily waved me away from her. “Just come sit beside me,” she said.

I glanced down at her calf, blood already seeping through the fresh bandage, and shook my head. I couldn’t just sit, just do nothing. If I did, I knew I was going to lose what little sanity I pulled together while taking care of her. Without that, the edge of the cliff I was precariously hanging on to would crumble, and I would free-fall into a pit of sorrow and grief.

“Leisel?”

I looked up into her bloodshot eyes, noting how flushed she appeared, and the sweat glistening all over her body, all reminiscent of anyone I’d ever watched die from the infection. Swallowing hard, I attempted to school my features, not wanting to give Evelyn the added burden of my own fears, not when she had enough of her own to contend with.

“Please come sit with me,” she said, her voice small and afraid. “Please, Lei.”

Swallowing again, I nodded quickly and stood, uselessly smoothing the wrinkles in my clothing. Slipping my bottom lip beneath my teeth, I kept my eyes wide and trained on the floor as I slowly made my way to the other side of the bed. I wanted to cry, I wanted to cry my heart out, but I fought the welling emotion inside me, knowing that it would be selfish of me to lose myself.

“Are you thirsty?” I asked as I climbed into bed beside her, careful not to bump against her injured leg. “Hungry, tired, cold—”