Free Strange Trouble by Laken Cane

his arms.
     
     

  Chapter
Fourteen
    “Hurry,” Owen panted. He gently laid Z—or something that
resembled Z—on the ground. “I don’t know if even you can save him now, Rune,
but if you can…”
    She met his shuttered gaze. “Thank you. I won’t forget
this.”
    “I couldn’t let him die. Not if there was a chance you could
save him.” He gave a tight smile. “I tried.”
    He glanced behind her and she turned to watch Jack as he
walked up to stand beside her. “Are we going to fight?” she asked.
    “No, Rune.”
    “I have to try.”
    “I know.”
    But she wasn’t sure she even could try. She’d fed Levi,
she’d lost half her hand, and now she was running on fumes. She wasn’t sure she
had the blood to save Z. But she was sure as hell going to give it a shot.
    Z lay unmoving on the cold pavement, his skin greenish and
covered with sores. His hair was gone, all but a few stubborn strands. He
smelled like infection and death.
    “What can I do to help?” Jack asked, kneeling beside her.
    “I might pass out. I might try to run.” Yeah, the pain was
that bad. “I need you to hold my wrist to his mouth.” Then she transferred her
stare to Owen. “And if he can’t keep me there, I need you to.”
    He nodded. “You got it.”
    She dropped her fangs and lifted her wrist to her mouth,
slicing open a vein. She began to bleed at once.
    Taking a deep breath, she pushed her wrist against Z’s lips.
“Drink, Z,” she ordered. “Drink.”
    Of course he couldn’t hear her, but the blood ran into his
mouth anyway, just as it had with Levi.
    But there was no pain.
    Terror squeezed her lungs and she couldn’t breathe. It wasn’t
working. She needed to feed in order to heal him. It wasn’t going to work.
    “God,” she cried. “I have nothing left to give him.” And
weeping, she took her wrist away. He’d taken some of her blood, but it was as
though she’d given him a drink of water.
    She couldn’t feel it working.
    There was no fucking pain.
    “Get Lex,” she said. “I’ll feed and—”
    “He’s too far gone,” Jack said, gently.
    And she knew he was right.
    She stretched out beside Z, wrapping her good arm around him
and burying her face against his chest. She didn’t care that his shirt had been
splashed with vomit and blood, didn’t care that the stench of him was enough to
make a person sick.
    “You know Z loves you.” Lex’s voice echoed in her
mind.
    Yes, she knew.
    He was her Z, and she couldn’t save him.
    “Don’t call me sweet thing,” she whispered.
    Her cell began to ring, and one of the guys, Jack, most
likely, pulled it from her pocket.
    “Yeah?” Jack was quiet for a
minute. “Owen brought Z in. She fed him. We’ll be there as soon as we can.”
    She forced herself away from Z, flinching as her half-eaten
hand hit the pavement. Out of habit she lifted her right hand to push her hair
out of her face, then remembered her hair was gone.
“Tell me,” she said to Jack.
    “That was Strad. They’re surrounded by zombies and could use
some help.”
    She nodded. “We’ll have to…” She gestured at Z, unable to
finish the sentence.
    Jack stood and drew a long blade. “I’ll do it.”
    She wanted to be strong. She wanted to do the right thing,
to take the blade from Jack and say no, no. It’s my responsibility and I
will do it.
    “Okay,” she said.
    “Wait.” Owen held up a finger, his voice sharp.
    Desperate for anything, any small hope, Rune looked at Owen.
“What?”
    Owen pointed at Z’s face. “He looks better. You might not
have healed him, Rune, but you might have. I’m going to put him in the house
across the street.” He met her hopeful gaze. “We can’t take a chance on killing
him if he’s going to heal.”
    “I’m not going to let him become a fucking zombie,” Jack
said, and lifted his blade.
    “Jack. No.” She gave Owen a nod. “Take him in and leave him.
Be quick.”
    When things went wrong, they went wrong in a hurry.
    Jack