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.