Page 38 of Such a Feral Little Lamb
“You see a lot, little lamb,” Mason murmurs in my ear. I turn my head, and he’sright there, face too close. I want to step back, but if I do, I fear, somehow, he might go for my throat.
“Not enough,” I say, and a smile slowly widens on his face.
“Well. Keep those pretty eyes open tonight.” Mason glances past me, down the church. Are the others watching? Can they all see the way my heart is frantically trying to escape my chest? “I fear you have more to worry about than the zombies.”
“They won’t do anything to me.”
Mason makes an amused sound. “Of course.” He reaches out and rubs his thumb over my cheek. It comes away red. “This is a good colour on you.”
I don’t have anything to say to that. Even if I did, Mason takes my words with the movement of his hand, so instead, I turn away from him and head slowly down to the altar.
Autumn is curled on her side on top of her sleeping bag, still shaking. Tears glisten on her cheeks and I swiftly look away. Blake stares in the direction Otto vanished with Emma and Sal,and Rae’s gaze flicks between the door and Autumn, as though she can’t work out where her attention should be.
Dane watches me. I can’t read his dark, hooded eyes, and for once, I don’t try. My arms feel like lead, but I know I’ll raise my bat quickly enough if threatened.
“What did he say?” Dane asks once Mason has slipped through the door and closed it carefully behind him.
For once, we’re all alone up here, though I’ve no doubt that someone will soon be up to join us.
“Nothing useful.”
“Isaac.”
I stare back at Dane, suddenly willing him to start a fight. I’ve no better idea than he does about what’s going on here, and it scares me too, but I’m not about to take it out on the rest of the team.
“Nothinguseful.”
“He knows what they did, though.” Blake scowls. He doesn’t turn his back on the door, and with the way he turns his head, I know he can still see it out of the corner of his eye. “He wasn’t surprised.”
“He wasn’t,” I agree.
“What do you think they did?” Rae asks. “The virus… there’s no cure.”
Next to her, Autumn whimpers and squeezes her eyes shut. I look at Dane, who for once has nothing to say.
He was the one suggesting something else might be at play yesterday, but now? Now he’s quiet?
Vaccinations don’t work like that. Wounds don’theallike that. Any cure would still have left imprints on his skin, an indelible mark he could never be rid of.
Whatever they’ve done, Otto truly might survive. He’d never be allowed back in the Citadel with a bite mark, virus in his system or not. No mark, no proof, no way to keep him out.
“I don’t know.” I sigh and sit back on one of the pews. “I’ll take first watch.”
It’s a testament to how shaken Rae is, and Blake, too, that neither of them argues. Rae settles quickly next to Autumn, though I don’t think she’ll sleep. Blake stomps around for a while, washing up and changing before he lies down, too, back to us and face towards the door.
Dane says nothing. He vanishes to clean up, like Blake did, but when he sits back down on his sleeping bag, he doesn’t close his eyes. When it comes time for the second watch, the first passing in absolute silence, he gets to his feet.
“Sleep, Isaac.”
To my surprise, I drift off as soon as I rest my head, bat clutched against my chest. My left hand is under my jacket, a makeshift pillow, fingers brushing the hilt of my knife.
I’m just as on edge as everyone else. What if it didn’t work? What if Otto changes during the night? He’s down there with the rest of them, and I don’t know that they’re prepared for that danger.
A sound wakes me. A sound and a shift of air that mean there’s someone too close.
I bring the knife up before I even fully reach consciousness again. Dane hisses through his teeth as he grabs my arm.
“Fuck,” I mutter. I don’t let go of the knife or of my bat. “What are you doing?”
