How could I have forgotten?
Done waiting, the pair fell on me, biting into me. The pain was intense, white-hot yet freezing cold. I needed to summon the flames...flames...flames...but they remained at bay, out of reach.
All of a sudden, the zombies sprang away from me, sickened by the antitoxin, seizing, clutching at their throats.
Emma raced out of the area, and I tried to call her back, to tell her never mind, it wasn’t safe, she needed to leave.
Where was Z.A.? Back inside me?
Flames...flames...still nothing. All I could do was lie there, a bone-deep hunger growing inside me.
I wasn’t sure how much time passed before I felt a warm caress against my cheek. My eyelids fluttered open. Cole loomed over me, his features bathed in red. Red...from my eyes? He was speaking, but just like with Emma, I couldn’t hear him. He stuck me with a syringe, then another, and another.
How many doses had I had today?
I felt a rushing river of strength, and some of the pain faded. The cold and heat evened out.
Careful of my injuries, I sat up. How much trauma could I endure? “I broke your rules,” I said. “Got bitten.”
“Don’t care.” Cole kissed me hard and fast. “You’re okay now. That’s what matters.”
“I’m okay,” I agreed. “You? Everyone?”
“I’m fine. Some of the guys are cut up pretty bad, and Trina...”
“I know. She’s collared. I think Kelly’s print would have opened the metal, but I...I killed him. Cole, I killed him with my fire. He was full of zombie toxin, and I touched him, and just like the zombies, he ashed.”
He traced his thumbs over my cheeks. “Baby, he needed to die. As for Trina, we’ll find another way. Come on.”
As he helped me to my feet, I said, “How did you find me?”
“Emma. She said she had to fight Zombie Alice to get to me.”
That was right. Z.A. had tried to hurt my little sister.
No one hurt my little sister and lived to tell about it.
We left the clearing, hand in hand. When I tried to hurry him, he shook his head.
“It’s over.” He grinned, violet eyes glowing with triumph. “We won.”
*
We decided to leave the Hazmats in the forest, both surviving and dead, rather than taking the time to cart them to the dungeon. Our main concern was Trina, and our own injured. We hooked up with our bodies and rushed to Mr. Ankh’s basement. There, Ethan was able to remove Trina’s collar with his thumbprint.
After everyone had been bandaged up, Mr. Holland, Cole, Frosty and Gavin shoved Ethan into the back of a car and drove off...somewhere. They planned to release him into the wild. With his father gone, Ethan was the only one left to take care of his sister, Isabelle. I hoped the girl recovered, I really did. Just not at our expense.
Despite our ragged condition, the rest of us ended up congregating in Mr. Ankh’s game room. Some played pool. Some Ping-Pong. Some darts. Anima wasn’t out for the count, we knew that, but the entire company had been severely crippled tonight, and we were flooded with the intoxicating taste of victory.
Reeve and Kat heard the commotion and hurried down the stairs. They looked for Frosty and Bronx, and when they didn’t see them, raced to me and H-bombed me with a thousand questions about what had happened. I explained as best I could, and they relaxed.
“You should have seen our girl, the Ali-nator,” Justin said, coming up to my side and putting his arm around my shoulders. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
I smiled at him. “You weren’t so bad yourself.”
“Probably the second best out there,” he said with a nod.
“Please. Your skills aren’t even close to mine, Justin,” Lucas called. He had his front pressed against Trina’s back as she lined up a shot at the pool table, and she didn’t seem to mind.
Were they a couple?
“You looked like a beginner compared to me,” Justin said.