Free The Survivor Chronicles (Book 3): The Forsaken by Erica Stevens Page A

barely dangling at the edge of his bottom lip as his stunned eyes came up to meet Xander's.
    The man took a step back and spun toward the sink. Turning the water on, he pushed the sleeves of his shirt up before frantically washing his face and arms. Xander nudged Riley toward the sink as the man's skin began to take on the shade of a lobster from the scrub part of the sponge he was running over his arms and face.
    Xander grabbed hold of the man's hand to stop him before he began to rip the flesh from his own bones. The man stared at him before releasing the sponge and stepping aside. His chest heaved and his eyes rolled but he seemed to be regaining control of himself. "Is it still on my face?" he choked out.
    Xander shook his head as Riley stuck her hands beneath the faucet. With his chest pressed against her back, he stretched around to help her wash the blood from her arms. She was still shaking but she had finally stopped gasping for breath. Xander stepped out from behind her, grabbed a dishtowel and wet it in the water. Her lower lip trembled as he gently washed the blood from her face and neck.
    "Why?" she whispered.
    He shook his head. "There's no answer for that Riley. Unfortunately, there never is."
    The sound of a boot falling on the kitchen floor brought his head up as Carl stepped around Debra's body. At least the hideous twitching had finally stopped. "Where did she get the gun?" Carl asked as he stuck his foot on top of the weapon and pulled it away from the growing puddle of blood.
    "It..." John broke off as he swallowed. "It was mine. I put it on the table when I went to help you move the chair."
    Carl thrust his gun at him and bent to pick up the one on the floor. "We have to get out of this house, that gunshot is going to bring them here," Carl said.
    Xander nodded but it was Riley that turned the water off. She inhaled a shuddery breath and grabbed another dishtowel from the cabinet in front of her. She dried her arms and face before turning away from the sink.
    The young man remained where he was as Carl and John pulled aside the curtain over the back window. "I'm sorry about your friend," he said to the man. "But we have to go."
    The man's gaze moved from Debra's motionless figure to him. "I didn't know her before three days ago."
    "That's almost a lifetime," Riley whispered.
    The man's rust brown eyes studied her before he nodded and took a step away from the sink. "It is a lifetime," he agreed.
    Carl and John lifted the table away from the door. "You ok?" John asked Riley.
    "Not really, you?"
    "Not particularly."
    Carl shoved the curtain aside and peered out the window again before flipping the locks and opening the door. Xander took hold of Riley's hand as they stepped out the door and into the open. He didn't like feeling so exposed but as he ran alongside Riley he found he was grateful to be away from that house, and the hideous memory of what had just occurred that would forever haunt him.
    His leg had been rewrapped but it still throbbed like a son of a bitch as they ran through backyards. He tried to keep his gait as steady as possible so that Riley wouldn't worry but by the time they made it to the next street he was beginning to limp again. He knew they were making their way in the general direction of his grandmother's house but it would take them forever to get there by foot.
    "A car," Carl said and nodded toward a silver Toyota sitting in a driveway.
    "Let's just get it and get out of this godforsaken town," John said.
    Xander seconded that notion as they moved in on the car. John got to it first and pulled the driver's side door open. He slid into the seat and searched for the keys to the car but came up with nothing. "Inside," Riley said and ran up the porch steps of the home.
    Thoughts of the last time he'd entered a house in search of keys propelled him up the steps far faster than he would have thought possible a minute ago. Riley had gone through enough today; she didn't need to see more