by M. J. Haag
“Will you allow me to carry you?”
“Yes. Please.”
He picked me up before opening the door, which made me giggle until he opened it with only a minor adjustment in how he was holding me. The show of strength was both reassuring and fear-evoking at the same time.
I caught a brief glimpse of a group of fey waiting outside before I closed my eyes.
“Where would you like to go?” Azio asked.
“You choose.”
“What would you like to find?”
“Food would be good. Maybe some clothes?”
He grunted, and I felt him start running. His movements barely jostled me. That changed when we reached the wall. My stomach flipped at his sudden jump, and I barely contained the squeal that wanted to erupt.
Then wind battered my face, and I turned my head into his chest. While the weather was still cold, it wasn’t unbearable in his arms. Warmth radiated from his torso, keeping my nose and hands comfortable. My backside, though? Not so much. However, I’d known this wouldn’t be some happy outing, so I didn’t complain about my discomfort.
Minutes passed without any other noise but the wind and the slight rustle of their passing. I lifted my head after a while to take a quick peek. The fey ran in a circular formation around Azio. No, around me.
When one of them noticed my attention, he glanced my way and nodded. I managed one in return before tucking my face into Azio’s chest once more.
There was no mistaking the way he leaned down this time and brushed his cheek against the top of my head. I smiled to myself, appreciating his gesture of comfort.
If I put aside my fears about his strength and my aversion to his eyes, I really did like Azio. Groth too. But there was something sweeter about Azio. Which was kind of crazy since he was also the sterner of the two. Maybe that’s what I liked most. He wasn’t as much of a pushover as Groth. I grinned into his chest, thinking of how he’d plotted to lose my bra.
Azio was willing to push at my boundaries but still respected them. That was what I needed to make my dreams of a future a reality.
Eventually, the group slowed, and I looked up again. A farmhouse loomed ahead.
“This is a place we’ve visited in the past,” Azio said. “There are no clothes or food. But it has heat and water if you want to stop.”
“Yes, please.”
Two of the fey ran ahead, and I watched them disappear inside.
“They’re checking for infected, aren’t they?”
Azio grunted.
It didn’t take long for the one of the pair to reappear and wave us forward, and I couldn’t have been more grateful. My butt was in desperate need of a thawing. Staying focused on that discomfort made it easier to deal with seven sets of fey eyes watching me once I was inside.
“Would you like to stand?” Azio asked.
“Please.”
He put me down and let me hang onto his arm as I shook out my legs.
“Is this how many fey usually watch over a human on the supply runs?” I asked.
Azio shrugged. I released him and nonchalantly tried to rub some warmth into my backside. It didn’t work too well, so I moved around, pretending to look around the house.
“How much farther until we get to where we’re going?” I asked.
“We’re halfway there.”
“Where’s there?”
“Warrensburg.”
I nodded slowly, recalling what I’d heard of the place.
“Isn’t that pretty picked over, foodwise?”
“We will find food and clothes.”
The way he said that didn’t reassure me. Sure, we might find food and clothes, but what would it take to get to them. I mentally scolded myself. That was the kind of thinking I needed to get rid of and why I was doing this. I needed to learn to trust the fey. To trust Azio.
“Are you hurt?” he asked, confusing me.
“What? No. Why?”
“You keep rubbing yourself?”
I flushed and jerked my hands away from my butt.
“Nope. Fine.”
He glanced at the other fey. Two left the house, and the rest went off to look at other things.
“Will you allow me to help you?”
“You are.”
He sighed and strode toward me. Before I knew what he intended, my face was pressed to his chest, and he was grabbing my ass with both hands.
The sound that tore from me could only be described as a squawk.
“Shh. I am not hurting you. You need to warm before we leave again.”
I turned my head to breathe and grabbed his waist for support.
“A little warning would have been nice.”
“So you could pretend you didn’t need this?”
I made a face because he was probably right. Huffing, I leaned into him. He seemed to take that as permission to start moving his hands. I opened my mouth to tell him to stop, then snapped it closed again.
Wasn’t this the whole point, Terri? I thought to myself. This is nothing compared to what you are thinking of asking him to do to you.
So I held still and let him rub some feeling into my butt. And it wasn’t horrible. He was gentle and not overly grabby.
I didn’t realize how okay it was until I felt myself relaxing into his embrace. He brushed his cheek against the top of my head, letting me know he’d noticed. Maybe this wasn’t a bad thing at all. He was touching me, and my heart wasn’t racing. I’d take that win and carry on.
“Better?” he asked after a while.
“Yes. Thank you.”
The others must have been in hearing range because they promptly rejoined us.
“Would you like Groth to carry you?” Azio asked.
I’d assumed Azio would continue carrying me, which was a bit rude. Holding another person while running had to be exhausting.
“Sure.”
Groth stepped forward and scooped me up just as gently as Azio had. It wasn’t the same, though, when I had to tuck my face into his shirt. While I was grateful that I was comfortable enough with him that my heart didn’t flutter with fear, I still wished Azio’s arms were the ones around me.
Eventually, Groth slowed, and I heard a distant moan. My head snapped up, and I looked around wildly.
“You are safe, Terri,” Groth said.
I noted we’d lost two of our seven-fey team and felt less than safe.
Azio moved closer, keeping pace with Groth.
“Do you want to stop?” he asked.
Ahead, I could see houses—the outskirts of the city.
I shook my head.
“There will be infected,” he said.
“I know.”
The next several minutes passed in a blur. The two fey had run ahead to gain the attention of any wandering infected. We found evidence of their passing via a trail of headless bodies in the street.
“These houses have been cleared,” Azio said quietly.
I silently took his word for it, and we moved farther into the city, where there were no bodies. My skin crawled at the unnatural silence in the middle of the expansive urban sprawl. That eerie foreboding grew when the fey slowed and looked at me.
“Which house would you like to check first?” Groth asked.
My gaze swept over the surrounding homes. They all looked equally scary.
“You choose,” I whispered.
They picked one at random. Two more fey went inside to clear it while Azio and another waited with us for the signal to enter.
The house wasn’t a bad pick. Inside, we discovered a pantry full of food. Before I could get too excited, Azio explained we couldn’t take everything. However, they would return for whatever I couldn’t fit inside the backpack he’d found.
I moved around on my own two feet, looking at what the house had to offer. Two fey remained within touching distance at all times. Their nearness helped, but my nerves still felt stretched to the point of breaking.
The food helped distract
from some of the fear, though. I found some chocolate chips and a pound of butter. Both went into the bag along with some clothes I thought might work. I made neat stacks of blankets, pillows, and clothes in the kitchen for them to retrieve later.
“We might not need it, but Tenacity could use all of that,” I said when I finished.
Azio grunted and turned his head suddenly to look down the hallway.
Groth picked me up without asking and backed away.
“Close your eyes, Terri,” Azio commanded as the access panel to the attic crawl space lifted.
With every fiber of my being, I wanted to do what he said. But my eyes didn’t close. My gaze remained glued to that dark space in the ceiling.
Pale, blue-tinted fingers appeared, gripping the edge. Then, tangled clumps of long hair dangled down. Ever so slowly, the rest of the head appeared. Decay hadn’t touched the woman’s face, and her brown eyes glowed with a faint hint of red.
Their eyes weren’t supposed to have color. They were supposed to be milky white.
“Take her,” Azio said. “Don’t stop for anything.”
Groth sprinted for the door as the infected woman fell into the hallway.
I clutched at him, lifting myself enough to look over his shoulder. The woman’s head tilted, but her eyes remained on my retreat. Azio growled and rushed her. She opened her mouth and let out an ungodly moan that echoed in the walls.
Groth cleared the front door a moment before Azio reached her. I couldn’t see what he did, but I heard the faint wet squelch. Her death came too late, though.
More calls rang out in the street around us. It didn’t matter that there were three other fey with us; terror clawed at my insides. This wasn’t the first time I’d heard these calls. The infected had breached the military base we’d called home several times, and each one had been worse than the one before. People died. They always died. Now, we were the only people around.
“We will keep you safe, Terri,” Groth said. “Don’t look. Stay awake.”
Right. Fainting now would be bad. Very bad.
Yet, with the way my heart hammered against my rib cage, I didn’t see how I’d avoid it. Closing my eyes, I pressed my forehead against his chest and fisted my hands in his shirt. I tried my hardest to focus on each rise and fall of his chest, but I couldn’t shut out the sounds.
Moans. Yells. Grunts. Squelches. I knew that infected were everywhere and that the fey were killing some. But Groth wasn’t slowing down for any of it. He jumped suddenly. The upward jolt made my stomach clench and robbed me of breath. I kept my eyes closed, not wanting to know what was happening.
He grunted and landed hard a second later. Then repeated the grunt, jump, land process for several long minutes before stopping suddenly.
Breathing hard, he held me close to his chest. I opened my eyes and stared at my white-knuckled grip on his shirt. Neither of us moved. In the distance, I heard more moans.
Then another soft call nearby, letting me know we weren’t yet out of danger.
Swallowing hard, I closed my eyes again and pressed my forehead against his chest. He shifted me slightly in his arms, holding me more securely as his breathing started to slow.
A thump nearby made me jerk in his arms.
“Shh,” he said softly.
Several more thumps followed. Then we were moving again. This time when he jumped, I looked and saw we were running along the rooftops.
Two of the fey ran in front of us, their shirts gone and their pants coated with blood. I didn’t try to see what the rest looked like.
It felt like it took a lifetime to reach the outskirts of Warrensburg. When we did, the group stopped so we could listen for any nearby infected.
A howl, not a moan, echoed somewhere behind us. The sound of a hellhound was unmistakable and sent a shiver through me.
However, the fey around me seemed completely unconcerned by the fact a hellhound was awake and making itself known in the middle of the day. Or maybe that was why they watched the open area between the houses and the trees so intently.
Either way, I was positive I wouldn’t make it back to Tolerance alive.
Chapter Thirteen
“Do you read, Terri?” Azio asked.
I barely heard his quiet words over the pulse thundering in my ears.
“Terri, do you read?” he asked again when I didn’t answer.
“Yes,” I managed. “Why?”
“There are many books in our basement. Maybe you would like to read one when we get home. Cheri told Farco she finds them relaxing.”
One of the other fey snorted, and I saw him grin before he turned his head. Disbelief robbed me of some of my panic. Had Azio just made a joke about me relaxing? Now? Moments after hearing the howl?
I turned my stunned gaze on him. He, however, looked completely serious. And covered in gross bits.
“It was only an idea. Your heart was racing.”
Brownish-red smeared across his cheek, and his shirt was torn.
“You lost some color. Are you feeling faint?”
I slowly nodded but couldn’t manage to close my eyes.
There was a crescent of blood on his shoulder. A bite mark. He’d been bitten. That was why his shirt was torn. Torn while killing infected to keep them from chasing after me.
My heart stuttered a beat. The fey’s immunity to infection was the biggest reason to choose one to father my future children. Humans died when bitten. There was no saving them. No coming back from it. I hoped a half-fey child would be just as immune.
“Thank you,” I rasped.
He nodded. “I will find you a good book. Farco told me which ones to pick.”
That same fey from before made a sound again. Before I could glance his way, another motioned for us.
“We should leave.”
Groth grunted, jumped off the roof, and started to run across the field with the rest of the fey surrounding us. In two blinks, we made it to the trees. I turned my head into Groth’s chest after that and held on for dear life.
It was quiet, though, as we put distance between Warrensburg and us. Breathing got a little easier when we reached another house Azio said was about halfway. Like last time, two went in. Unlike last time, one of the fey carried a body out, and Azio joined the search of the house. It took longer to ensure it was free of infected, but I didn’t mind the extra caution since the sun was still high enough in the sky.
The heat was on inside, and the showers were running when we finally entered. Since Groth and I were clean, we gathered whatever I thought would fit the others. It wasn’t a great selection.
However, I couldn’t say I minded the view once the fey changed. The undersized t-shirts molded to every chiseled muscle they possessed on their upper halves, and the sweats and jogging shorts left little to the imagination downstairs.
While none of them minded my ogling glances, Azio’s ears grew darker each time my gaze swung his way. And boy, did it swing. Unlike that water bottle he had strapped to his inner thigh.
It was profane.
Terrifying.
Faint-worthy for sure.
Why couldn’t I stop staring?
I swallowed hard and forced my gaze away for the dozenth time but only managed a second before I was back looking at it.
It moved.
A twitch, then a stretch, the length crawling down his leg another two inches.
I dropped into a crouch, startling all the fey, and focused on breathing through my lightheadedness.
Pick the small one, I mocked at myself. He’s less terrifying. You should have checked his pants first!
“I will wait outside,” Azio said, his softly spoken words conveying his confusion and blame for my panic.
Guilt speared me.
“Wait. Give me a moment.” He paused beside me, and I took a breath, then another. When my vision didn’t tunnel, I looked up at him. “I’d like you to carry me the rest of the way. Please.”
That thing in his too-t
ight pants twitched again. I couldn’t not notice. It was eye-level. But I managed to maintain eye contact regardless of what was happening in his pants.
I wasn’t trying to play favorites by asking Azio to carry me again. But I knew I shouldn’t ask Groth since he’d just carried me, and I was far from comfortable with asking anyone else even though they seemed nice enough. I wasn’t entirely sure I was comfortable with Azio carrying me.
Liar! I silently yelled at myself. Perversely, what I’d just witnessed only made me want him to carry me more. My feelings about his size remained unchanged. But I also found the evidence of his attraction to me downright flattering.
He offered his hand and helped me to my feet.
“Are you warm enough?”
“Yep. I’m warm.” I was pretty sure my face was on fire and didn’t think I’d survive if he wanted to touch my butt, too.
“Are you hungry?”
He motioned to one of the other fey who miraculously had the backpack from Warrensburg.
“I’m okay for now. I’d rather wait to eat until we get home.”
Azio grunted, and the fey shouldered the bag. All of the muscles in his chest and side flexed with the motion. I turned my attention to Azio’s torso, mentally comparing the two. Azio’s chest was a bit narrower but far more defined under his formfitting shirt.
Realizing I was staring yet again, I focused on his face and noted how intently he was watching me.
“Will you tell me what happened back there?” I asked, hoping to distract us both.
“Yes.”
He held out his arms, a signal he was ready for me. I moved closer and looped an arm around his shoulder as he picked me up.
I didn’t miss the way he leaned in and brushed his temple against my cheek in the process of lifting me. It was kind of sweet, actually. All the subtle touches were little reminders that he cared about me.
Once we were outside and running, he started explaining.
“The infected are growing less stupid and better at hiding. I think the one in the house was older and knew to summon more to try to get to you. She was still weak and slow compared to us. Nothing for you to worry about.”
“Will the infected be watching that area now? I heard from one of my housemates who goes on supply runs that the infected do that. They wait for us to come back.”
