Page 11

CHAPTER ELEVEN

AVA

Being lifted so quickly startled a squeak out of me, and I grabbed onto Gyrik.

“I wasn’t expecting that,” I said, looking up at him.

He blinked at me.

Bram’s warning that people would shoot Gyrik at first sight made his blink of confusion more endearing. Gyrik didn’t look scary enough to shoot at. In fact, he didn’t look scary anymore, not even with his cat-like eyes, which were slowly dilating as he studied me.

“You picked me up faster than I’d expected,” I explained. “It wasn’t bad. Just surprised me.”

He grunted and held me more securely as I looked at Bram and gave him a thumbs-up through the windshield.

“You will want to tuck your face against me before I start running,” Gyrik said, drawing my attention again.

I looked up at him. “You’re going to run with me?”

“Yes. It’s faster.”

I thought about how he’d run around the vehicles, killing infected, and made a face.

“It’s going to be really fast, isn't it?”

“Yes. Tell me if you get cold, and I will stop to warm you.”

I glanced at his shirt and nodded. He continued watching me expectantly. Feeling my face heat, I slowly pressed it against his chiseled chest. He was rock solid. I resisted the urge to nuzzle the firmness of his muscles. How was he so incredibly built?

“Thank you for trusting me, Ava,” he said before he started moving.

The calm wind probably saved me from immediate frostbite as he ran. As it was, the cold temperature slowly bled the heat from my legs first. When I pressed closer to him, he seemed to know what was wrong because the hand supporting my legs began to roam over my thigh. It helped. How could I be so cold when his exposed hand was still warm?

The thump of his heart near my ear was louder than his breathing and soft footfalls. But not loud enough to drown out the low moan that rang out in the silence.

Chills raced down my spine. Gyrik patted my leg in a reassuring way, not in a “hurry up and look away” way. So, I kept my head down as another moan sounded in a different direction.

It felt like he ran forever before his grip on me tightened.

“Don’t scream.”

Those softly spoken words were the only warning I had before he jumped, and my stomach did seven somersaults in a row. When he landed, I gagged into his chest. He dropped my legs but didn’t push me away like I’d expected. He held me to his chest while rubbing my back.

It was distracting enough that I stopped gagging and focused on the feel of his hand and the numbness in my legs. After a few deep breaths, I lifted my head to look around. We stood on top of the snow-covered flat roof of a building.

He turned me and pointed. On the other side of the Mississippi, across a bridge clogged with cars, a group of infected shambled through the snow. I could tell they were looking for us in the way the group slowly broke apart and went in different directions.

Creepy.

“Which direction?” he asked, his voice low and soft.

Remembering Bram’s warning that sound carried, I pointed to the south. Gyrik nodded and took a knee like he meant to tie my shoe. Instead, he started rubbing some warmth back into my legs. I quickly set a hand on his shoulder for balance.

The way he cared for me felt nice, and the break gave me a minute to really look around. Everything was so still. Snow-covered cars were mysterious white lumps on the roads. I didn’t see any infected moving around, but I knew they were there now.

I couldn’t see anything but distant trees when I looked off toward the cities. Were the buildings gone? Nothing but rubble now?

“Ready?” Gyrik asked.

I held my arms out to him, and he picked me up slowly. Grinning, I looked up at him and pointed south again.

“Ten blocks,” I said as softly as possible.

He nodded, walked to the roof's edge, and hugged me close. Taking the hint, I tucked my face against his chest and held my breath so I wouldn’t scream as he jumped off the edge.

Going down was less nauseating than jumping upward.

It didn’t take long for us to reach the house. Instead of going inside, he nodded toward the dormer’s roof, which was less pitched than the rest. Understanding what he meant to do, I shook my head.

He grinned and nodded. He jumped before I could hold my breath, and I felt my stomach turn again. It wasn’t as bad as the last time, though. No gagging.

He patted my back as he steadied me.

“Wait here,” he said quietly.

He jumped down again. The sound of wood splintering carried through the otherwise quiet area. The responding moan didn’t surprise me.

I watched an infected person run forward more swiftly than any previous infected had. His skin, tinged blue from the cold, peeked through his torn and bloody jacket.

He paused in the street, and I watched the way his head slowly lifted to me on the roof. My pulse kicked into overdrive.

In all the rules they’d told me, they’d never said what to do when one spotted you.

Just stay put. Bram said Gyrik would put you somewhere safe. Up high is safe. That guy can’t get you up here.

He moaned really loudly. It startled me, and I slipped a little.

Gyrik was next to me a moment later, steadying me.

“More will come. Wait here, then I’ll take you inside.” He paused, looking from the infected to me. “Do you know him?”

I shook my head and watched Gyrik jump off the roof’s edge. The infected just stood there, looking up at me and completely ignoring Gyrik as Gyrik removed his head. Another moan sounded, and Gyrik moved to meet the next infected.

It took several minutes and a body pile between the houses across the street for the infected to stop appearing. Gyrik cleaned himself off, removing his shirt, before returning to help me off the roof.

My stomach churned for a different reason once I was on the ground, facing the door to my childhood home. Gyrik’s hand rubbed the back of my jacket.

“We don’t need to go in.”

But I did need to.

The moment I walked inside, I knew they’d left in a hurry. Pops’ blanket was tossed on his chair instead of neatly folded, the way he liked it. The TV remote sat on the middle couch cushion instead of the coffee table as if something had interrupted them while watching a show.

Leaving the living room, I checked the kitchen. The dishes were washed and placed on the drying rack. A pot sat on the stove with a lid on it.

I was so busy looking at the signs of what they’d been doing that I almost missed the note on the table.

We’re being evacuated. The soldier said we’re going west. After this, it’s your turn. Love you. Kylie

A laugh escaped with a tear.

“What does it say?” Gyrik asked.

“They were alive and evacuated west. No location. Just west.”

“Molev, our leader, went west. He saw many humans there.”

I tucked the note into my pocket and removed the recent family picture from the wall. After ditching the frame, I added the photo to my pocket.

“Is there anything else we should take from here? Anything the community needs? Pops has a shed outback where he keeps his seed catalogs,” I added, recalling Zach's mention of a greenhouse.

Gyrik waited until I was once more safely on the roof to check the shed. When he returned, he carried three binders full of seed packets and carefully labeled baggies. He gave them to me to hold while he carried me.

I didn’t tuck my face against his chest as he ran back the way we’d come. Rather than taking the same bridge, he followed the trail to the south where the other bridge remained intact as well. Once he crossed over the river, he took the walking trail that edged the water to cut over to a road that led north and successfully avoided all the subdivisions.

It felt like it took a lot longer to return to the trucks than it had to get to the house. But Gyrik didn’t look remotely winded when he finally stopped in front of my truck again.

Bram waved from inside the cab and pointed to Repeat, who was doing his impersonation of a fur stole. I grinned and looked up at Gyrik, who hadn’t yet set me down. He was studying me intently.

“Are you all right?” I asked.

He nodded and set me down in a way that felt a little reluctant.

Bram got out of the cab and joined us, leaving the cats behind.

“How did it go?” he asked, looking at Gyrik.

“The section of the city we moved through didn’t look bombed,” Gyrik said.

“Any power on?”

“No,” Gyrik said.

“That’s too bad. At these temps, the canned goods probably won’t make it, but it might be worthwhile to come back for other supplies. What do you have there?” Bram nodded to the binders I held.

“My grandfather’s seed collection. Since retiring, he spent a lot of his time gardening. Zach mentioned the greenhouses in Unity, and I thought they might be useful.”

Bram nodded and clapped Gyrik on the arm. “I’ll get you a shirt.”

My gaze drifted over Gyrik’s bare chest, which I’d had my face pressed against the entire way back. He really had a nice chest.

After tearing my gaze from the muscle display, I opened the truck door to tuck the binders behind the seat and pet Pete. Repeat hopped out of the truck and high-stepped his way through the snow to Gyrik, calling loudly the whole way.

Gyrik scooped him up and nuzzled Repeat’s face with his nose. It was so cute. Bare from the waist up, buff as sin, and loving on a cat.

He glanced up and caught me watching with a dumb smile on my face.

I flushed and looked away as Bram returned with a new shirt and the map. Bram went over the route he wanted to take and asked for my input on towns along the backroad he chose, which pretty much headed straight south, as Gyrik covered himself.

Once we had a plan, Gyrik opened the passenger door for me.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to drive after all the running you did? You could take a nap.”

His answer was to help me into my seat and set Repeat on my lap.

The next several hours passed rapidly between interesting conversations and the occasional driver switch to navigate through small towns. Gyrik never seemed to get tired or bored. However, by the time he found us a house for the night, he was out of clean clothes.

For Gyrik’s sake, I hoped the ranch-style home with solar panels would have heat and running water.

We followed the previous day’s routine. While the others carried in supplies, I went to the basement with Gyrik and tried to light the furnace. Unfortunately, the gas didn’t seem to work. However, the water heater was an electric-type tankless unit, and we’d travel far enough south that snow hadn’t covered the solar panels.

“Well, at least there’s a fireplace upstairs. We should be able to light a fire so it can warm it up in here a little before attempting a shower or laundry,” I said.

Gyrik grunted and followed me upstairs. When I moved toward the fireplace, he redirected me to sit on the sofa.

“Sit and stay warm. I’ll start the fire and bring more wood inside,” he said.

I watched him disappear outside after he started a small fire. Zach grinned at me as he set a tote on the table.

“You should decide if you like the princess role or not and tell him. He’ll respect whatever your answer is.”

“Princess role?”

“Yeah. My sister, Brenna, is…married, I guess, to one of them. Thallirin’s a great guy. Patient. Kind. He was just a little too overprotective for Brenna’s taste. She had to put her foot down to keep doing what she liked to do, which was archery. The fey are all a little like that when it comes to women. Overprotective. But they’re not suppressive if you know what I mean. You just need to say when it’s too much.”

“Thanks for the advice,” I said.

He nodded and left, and I turned to study the fire.

Was I imagining things, or had the back of Gyrik’s black sweatpants looked wet?