Thicker Than Blood (Thicker Than Blood #1)(15)

“You can do it, Eve,” he whispered, his eyes shining brightly, reflecting his own excitement. He kissed his palm, and then lifted it up to me.

It was the first time Jami had ever shown me that he cared, and it took me by surprise. He’d never kissed me good-bye, never before shown me that I was worth something to him. Fluttering in my chest, my heartbeat was erratic at this newfound knowledge. My charming, cocky Jami had just shown me that he gave a damn about me, something he’d sworn to never do again, not after he’d lost everything. But he’d finally let someone in—me—and I felt privileged and happy, trapped in a blissful bubble of hope for our future.

I was still smiling at him when my gaze caught on something moving behind him, and then my world slammed to a halt, everything suddenly moving in slow motion. The guards were nearly upon us, their lanterns lighting the area all around Jami. Men were yelling, running toward us with their guns drawn, shouting for us to drop our weapons and stay where we were.

And Jami, oh my God, my brave and cocky Jami, he turned and raised his gun.

“No!” I screamed. “Jami, no!”

“Go!” he shouted back. “Go, Eve!”

Jami didn’t look back at me as he let loose the first bullet, and while I should have been dropping down to the other side and scrambling for my own safety, I couldn’t move. I was frozen, caught in this horrifying, devastating moment.

Gunfire lit up the small space, small orange explosions of bullets being expelled at inhuman speed, and then suddenly, as if the wind had been knocked out of him, Jami dropped to his knees. My following cry was lost to the sound of gunshots and shouts, and still I could do little more than stare in horror as Jami continued to fire his gun, even as they fired back, riddling his body with bullets. He fired until his gun was empty, though his finger continued to click the trigger in hopes of more until his hand fell limply to his side, the gun falling from his fingers. The gunfire stopped then, the small space seeming smaller and darker than before.

I didn’t even realize that I was still crying out until my throat began to burn. Just as Jami slumped forward, falling silent and still, something grabbed at my leg, promptly yanking me over the fence and into the darkness.

My fall was soft, Alex’s arms catching me just before I crashed to the ground. As soon as I was standing, Leisel’s hand found mine and squeezed it before pulling me from the wall, away from the shouting and yelling, away from Jami and into the forest.

We stumbled through the blackness, occasionally catching what sounded like the low moan of an infected. Keeping my grip firm on Leisel’s hand, I refused to let her go, even for a second. When she stumbled, I stumbled; when she fell, I fell. We were in this together; she was all I had left.

It seemed as if hours had passed before the forest thinned and we reached a small clearing. In the moonlight, I could make out the outline of a truck, and as we grew closer, I noticed that it was old and rusted. What was once probably a beautiful blue now looked like a washed-out gray with patches of brown. Worse, it didn’t appear as if it had been started in years, and I found myself holding out little hope of it being a worthy escape vehicle.

Regardless of its appearance, we piled inside. What choice did we have? The key was already in the ignition, and as Alex turned it, the truck sputtered several times before the engine finally turned over noisily.

As we drove away, leaving the forest behind us, Leisel’s head came to rest on my shoulder. I could feel her body quaking, hear her soft sniffles as she cried silent tears while I stared blankly out of the window.

Maybe tomorrow I’d cry. But not tonight.

“He kissed me good-bye,” I mumbled, still staring into the darkness surrounding us. Taking a deep breath, I slowly released it, refusing to be anything but grateful. Grateful because my friend, my very best friend, had evaded execution, grateful that both she and I were now free of Fredericksville and all its hidden horrors.

And that was all that really mattered.





Chapter Seven



Leisel

I awoke to the faint chirping of birds off in the distance, and the sound of trickling water. For just a moment I was at peace, happy in that gentle place between waking and sleep, ignorant of the crick in my neck from sleeping sitting up, and blissfully unaware of all that had transpired over the past two days.

And then it came back to me. Slowly at first—the pain, the violence, the crime—and I squeezed my eyes tightly shut, trying to block it out and enjoy the peace for just a moment longer.

But it wouldn’t relent; all at once the rest of it poured in. My fear, my bloodstained hands, the bodies in the alleyway. And then later, while tucked neatly between Alex and Evelyn, when I’d cried and cried until the movement of the truck rocked me slowly into a blissful unconsciousness, all while Evelyn had run her fingers through my hair, pressed soft kisses on the top of my head, whispered soothing, calming words in my ear.

But it should have been the other way around. It should have been me comforting her. After all, it had been her who’d lost someone she’d cared for. Not me.

Weak.

The word pounded through my thoughts like a wayward drumbeat until I could no longer stomach another second of being alone with my thoughts, and my eyes flew open. I blinked through tear-encrusted eyes, trying to see past the sudden blinding sunlight streaming in through the truck’s dirty windows.