Thicker Than Blood (Thicker Than Blood #1)(37)
“Is this your home?” Leisel called out, her soft voice carrying across the clearing.
The man grunted loudly in response, but didn’t vocalize an actual yes or no.
“I’m guessing that’s a yes,” I said quietly.
“We’ll leave,” Alex said loudly, lowering his gun and taking a step away from the door.
I responded immediately, moving to Alex’s side and readying myself to leave, but Leisel, ever the compassionate one, didn’t budge. She looked at me, frowning ever so slightly, and I knew exactly what she was thinking—that my lack of compassion for this man and this child made me a bitch. Yes, I couldn’t deny it; I was more than willing to turn tail and leave these people to fend for themselves. They weren’t my problem, and I didn’t want them to become my problem. The blood dripping from the girl’s tiny body would undoubtedly attract the infected, it always did, and I wasn’t emotionally ready to fight.
Not only that, but I’d seen enough death to last me a lifetime. I didn’t need to bear witness to more if I didn’t have to. This child was clearly going to die, if she wasn’t already dead, and I didn’t have the stomach to stand by and watch how this was going to unfold.
“Leisel,” Alex said. “Let’s go.” He reached for her arm, meaning to pull her away from the door just as the man, as if finally breaking free from his indecision, began walking forward. His gait was strong and determined as he moved across the small clearing toward us.
No one said a word as he came to a stop beside us, and now that he was near us, I could smell him, and the stench was awful. Whether it was coming from the little girl’s wounds or their unwashed bodies, I wasn’t sure, only that it was a struggle not to gag from the awful stink.
His clothes were filthy, his skin and hair greasy to the point of appearing wet, yet he didn’t seem like a vagrant just barely getting by. If anything he seemed well fed, his shoulders large, his biceps strong.
We looked on while the man balanced the little girl in his arms as he fumbled with the second lock, opening it with ease and then kicking the door open. He kept his back to us the entire time, obviously having decided that were weren’t a threat. That, or he simply didn’t care.
“We should go,” I said quietly. “If she’s bitten, she’s going to turn, and I don’t want to see that.”
Because no one in their right mind wanted to see that, to watch a child die, let alone turn. And if that poor little girl died and one of us had to put her out of her misery, then what? What would happen when this man—her father—flipped out and attacked us? Because he would; I’d seen it happen too many times to count.
“Woman!” the man yelled from inside, his voice gruff and impatient.
Leisel jumped, looking from the doorway to me and back to the doorway before quickly slipping into the cabin. I cursed her loudly, and Alex did the same. We shared a knowing glance, me rolling my eyes and Alex looking grim, before both of us followed her inside.
It was dark, and it took my eyes several moments to adjust, but when they finally did, I found myself shocked. The place was surprisingly clean, almost homelike, with shelf after shelf of jars and boxes in different sizes and shapes. The entire place was no larger than a ten-by-twelve room, with a twin-sized bed on one side near a wood-burning stove, and at the other end was a small wooden table and three lawn chairs. The man was kneeling beside the bed, the little girl lying on top of it. Her breaths were dry, crackling, as her little chest rose and fell at a rapid rate.
The man was attempting to bathe her neck, only succeeding in cleaning the blood away for a moment before the wound would gush again. I swallowed hard. I was right; she’d been bitten, and she would turn.
To my horror, Leisel was kneeling beside the man, tenderly brushing hair away from the child’s face. “What can I do?” she asked, her voice full of urgency.
“Leisel!” Alex said, his tone sharp. He was clearly not happy about her proximity to either the man or the bitten child, and I couldn’t say I blamed him. I felt the same, concerned by the entire situation.
“She’s just a little girl, Alex,” Leisel snapped, shooting us both a look of disgust. “She needs our help. They both need our help!”
I dropped my gaze, knowing she was right. This poor girl, she was only a child, a beautiful girl of maybe seven or so, with long blond hair and the lips of a cherub. She was sweet and innocent looking, apart from the bite on her neck. But it was that very bite that made her a monster to me, one I didn’t want to go anywhere near.
“She’s not going to be a little girl much longer,” Alex said darkly.
The man turned then, fixing his narrowed gray eyes on Alex, and if looks could have killed, Alex would have been dead where he stood.
“Say that again, boy,” the man growled, and slowly pushed himself upright.
Alex, unfazed, cocked his head to one side and looked the man directly in the eye. “I said, she’s just a child…for now. She’s been bitten, she’ll turn into one of them soon. Who knows how long she’s got,” he said, gesturing angrily toward the bed where Leisel was still kneeling. “And I don’t want her turning anywhere near my…”
His words trailed off as his gaze moved away from Leisel, but I knew what he’d been about to say, what he’d wanted to say and why he’d stopped himself. He and Leisel weren’t anything, no matter how much he wished they were.