Page 3 of Blood Bond

I want to ask Seth if he's okay. I want to ask him what I’m supposed to do, but years of training have my lips sewn shut.

He gets to his feet. His wings have folded back now, forming that intricate tattoo across his back. It’s just as beautiful as they are, maybe more so. Shimmering blue waves under his skin, ready to come out when he needs them.

I don’t move as I watch him take a step and stop in front of me. I hold still, ready for the anger, for whatever reprimand I’m due for leaving. I didn’t mean to, but his kind won't care about that. Yet, inside, I don’t feel the same level of fear. “Are you hurt?” is what he asks, taking me aback.

I shake my head.

The sun isn’t burning his skin, and he can look straight at it. It doesn’t make sense.

He turns and takes a few steps away from me. The valley that used to be a river at the back of his building is now reduced to gravel and dirt that has dried in the relentless heat. Skin Trade stands out like a dark crystal shimmering in the bright light and reaching so high into the sky that I can’t look the whole way up.

He … we fell from there.

Skin Trade is built on the edge. Cracks in the ground create a webwork covering the dirt leading to his entrance. Small dark green plants dare to sprout out, but some leaves are so burnt, they’re almost black. What is left of a few trees push out from the barren earth, forcing their life out of the riverbed.

“We should get inside.”

I look back at his place. “We’re going in there?” The words just tumble out and I grimace. I know I shouldn’t question.

But he replies. “Yes. It will be dark soon, and what lurks in the darkness is worse than anything we might encounter in the daylight.”

“Your brother?—”

“If he has any sense about him, he’ll not come here.” He peers up at the tall building. Sweat glistens on his back as he takes another step, then stops. “Move back …”

I don’t know what he means, but I follow his lowered gaze. He’s looking at the shadows, where the rocks create a dense overgrowth of bushes and trees. They lean together like they could fall at any second, but are being held up by their neighbours. A few spindly branches reach across our path and scratch along the ground, warding us off with their meagre strength. There are cars here, too—what was once an old kind of trailer looks familiar from my youth. My father used to have friends who had those kinds of campers.

Thoughts of my father play in my mind, and I don’t even know how to sort through that part in all of this yet. The father in my mind and the one I just saw don’t reconcile and I can’t comprehend how they’re the same person. In my mind, I envisioned him relieved, coming at me, finally putting his arms around me, glad for me to be alive, but instead …

“Payton …” Seth’s voice is barely a whisper but I pick up the warning tone in it. He moves back to me and crouches. “Do not move.”

He goes for the tree closest to us; it's charred and black at the top, like someone took a fire to it. And I know the sun has done that—the skies were scorched when the humans tried to fight back. Now it beats down unforgivingly.

Seth snaps off the branch and it comes away with a loud crack. Then I see what he is looking at and a gasp catches in my throat. “thirsty —" There are two, maybe three. The shadows near them move as if there are flames in the sunlight. No, there are four, five….

My breathing hitches.

They stalk the shadows, looking for an escape—some way to slip through to us. A female leads the way, her long blonde hair mottled with fiery red streaks. One of her ears holds a chain, and she still wears clothes—black and dark, like she died at a rock concert.

The man behind her is not so lucky. His face is burnt away. He has no eyes. His nose is gone, shrivelled to blackened shreds, and flakes flutter from his skin. He moves like a zombie, chewing on something that isn't there. His jaw moves rhythmically, gnawing on an invisible morsel. The others follow him closely, one missing both ears and half its skull, another with a single hole where its mouth should be, and yet another with chunks of flesh missing from his abdomen.

They're all staring at me, their fingers groping at the air for me as I stand before them. A meal waiting to be devoured.

My heart hammers relentlessly in my chest, a thunderous cacophony threatening to drown out all other sounds. I mirror Seth's actions, grabbing whatever branches I can from the burnt tree. The smaller branches crumble in my grasp as my fingers close around them, leaving my hands stained black.

“I've got this,” he says.

If we didn't need to get into Skin Trade, we could have left these behind in the dark corner, simply walked away, and let them remain in the shadows. But they stand in our way now, blocking the path that leads us to the door, and to safety. I know if we had time to go elsewhere, Seth would take us. But there is no elsewhere, and the sun will set soon. Then they won't just be these few to contend with, but so many more. And whatever else lurks in the dark.

With predatory grace, Seth moves among them with fluid precision.

They pay him no heed, arms extended, gnashing teeth, seeming oblivious to his presence. Groans continue their relentless chatter and their outstretched fingers reach for me.

It's the decaying male nearest to me that inches the closest; little remains of his facial features, except one unseeing eye. The other is a bloody pit. His lips have peeled back from his teeth, exposing blackened gums and fangs.

His vacant gaze locks onto mine.

It mirrors the one I saw earlier when I was with Nico, the one whose former life I managed to glimpse like a shadow in my mind, or maybe a dream I made up. He steps boldly into the light, extending a trembling hand toward me. The sun beats down, the ever-patient weapon against these creatures poised to lay claim to the undead daring to traverse its path. The flesh that remains on his arms hisses in the heat, sizzling like cooked meat. A moment later, he glances at it, and for a fleeting moment, his disarrayed consciousness seems to register imminent death before his eyes widen once more and fixate on me.

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