Free Lust Plague (Steamwork Chronicles) by Cari Silverwood Page B

silver-gray wolf hair on the shirt and no doubt on her bottom.
    “You need a toothbrush, boy. Bad breath is not going to win you any girlfriends.”
    “You talking to Cadrach?” Sten hollered back. “Knew you’d like each other.”
    Kaysana folded her arms and refused to dignify that with a reply.
    Once they left the wheat field, bursting out into the open, Sten slewed the machine to a stop. The engine ticked and clunked methodically. A startled sparrow zipped past the small right-hand window, wings flapping madly.
    “Know just how you feel, bird.” She leaned forward, hand on the back of Sten’s seat. “Why have you stopped?”
    “Where are we going? I’ve seen the early planning maps, I know we’re aiming for Perihelion, but that’s miles away up in the mountains. I’m not even sure where these roads go.”
    “Nearest town that might have a telegraph will do me. I’m supposed to report in. I need to sort out our position too.”
    Before them, the slope rolled down to a road, a hundred yards away. Sten pointed at the road. “That’ll do, then.” He gunned the engine, and they rolled down.
    The night before, there’d been vehicles on this road—she’d seen the headlights—yet now it was deserted except for carrion birds and the dead. The pathogen mustn’t have hit every square mile. From the way it took over her ship—her stomach dropped as she remembered her people again—she figured the effect must move about.
    “That man, the officer on your ship who went weird—” Sten yelled to be heard over the engine.
    “Ling?”
    “Yeah him—the one with the shiny eyes—he said something about the power growing as you reached the middle.”
    “Really? When did you hear this?” Alarm quaked through her. When I was unconscious, of course. While Ling had me at his mercy . That whole time had become dreamlike, yet she’d almost been killed and Sten had rescued her and she couldn’t remember any damn thing—not leaving the airship, the flight down, nothing.
    She slumped back in her seat. What else didn’t she know? “Is that all he said?”
    “Only that he was the right hand of God…’cept I chopped that one off, so he was really the left hand.”
    “Do you ever stop joking?”
    “Not if I can help it. Keeps life in perspective.”
    “Hmm. Let’s just get to the next town.” But she smiled, if a little sadly.
    After a few minutes of watching the cycle weave and zoom between the road debris, she faced her fear. “Tell me everything you saw happen on the ship when the plague hit us.”
    His shoulders shifted. “Some of it was nasty.”
    “Don’t spare me.” But she tensed.
    “Right.”
    When he got to how he’d found her and described Ling and how she’d been tied, she found herself staring at the floor.
    He paused. “You okay?”
    “Sure. Sure I am.”
    Only one good piece of info came of it.
    “There was scuttlebutt rumor among the mercs that some of the zombs captured weren’t really zombs. That they went back to normal after a while and never did more than want to fuck an awful lot. They were a bit out of it at times, confused, some got fevers, but that was it.”
    “Oh shit.” There I go, swearing again. He’s corrupting me . She collapsed back onto the leather. “You’re saying that’s…us?”
    “Could be. The one’s who are zombies stay zombies, though.”
    The explanation of her bizarre behavior made her feel like someone had pulled a plug. Anxiety drained away. If true, she’d be herself again eventually, no more lusting after Sten’s touch. No more caving in to his advances. No more incredible sexual highs…
    She stared at the back of Sten’s head, trying to figure him out. She’d never had to sit with a frankenstruct before, or talked with one. Despite his forceful ways, he seemed almost normal.
    She needed to keep her distance. Do that and this odd behavior of hers would be less a challenge. Strategy said that every attack had its counter. She just needed to