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.