I Am the Zombie Queen, and My Lover Is the One Sent to Kill Me Chapter 07

I Am the Zombie Queen, and My Lover Is the One Sent to Kill Me Chapter 07

We walked back to the building one after the other.

Before we even reached the door, I heard Kellan’s voice inside.

“Come on, Nolan, don’t be pissed. I was trying to save your life, okay? You already beat the crap out of me for it.”

Sienna stood beside Nolan, saying something to him in a low voice.

Nolan wasn’t looking at her.

His eyes were fixed on the doorway.

The second he saw me, his gaze slid slowly from me to the guy beside me.

Kellan saw it too, and his smirk returned instantly.

“Well, damn. Maddox, making moves on another man’s girl already?”

Sienna tugged on him, telling him to shut up.

The guy, Maddox leaned on his bat, watching Kellan with a look of bored contempt. “Why do you care?”

Nolan’s expression darkened.

He didn’t say anything, but his eyes never left me, like he was trying to see straight through me.

I kept my head down and walked inside. As I passed him, he reached out and caught my wrist.

He barely used any force, just a light pull, but it stopped me anyway.

“You know him?”

I pulled my hand free.

“Sort of. He’s a friend.”

I brushed him off with a vague answer and kept walking toward the corner.

He stared at me for a beat, his mouth shifting slightly like he almost said something, but in the end, he let it go.

Night fell quickly.

There were no lights in the room, only slats of silver cutting through the dark.

Everyone found a place on the floor and lay down.

Sienna and Kellan settled near the door.

Kellan kept tossing and turning, letting out the occasional pained grunt, probably because of his injuries.

Maddox set his baseball bat beside him and leaned back against the wall. Then he patted the floor next to him.

“Come here.”

I froze.

“Sleep over here.”

I understood instantly.

He was afraid I’d lose control and turn in the middle of the night. He was keeping watch over me.

And guarding against me.

Without a word, I got to my feet and walked over.

Behind me, I could feel a scorching stare pinned to my back so hard it made my spine tighten.

I pretended not to notice, lay down beside Maddox, and deliberately turned onto my side, shutting out that gaze that made my chest feel tight.

Not long after that, I heard the faintest rustle from the corner.

Nolan had gotten up.

“I’ll take first watch,” he said quietly, his voice hoarse and rough with something I couldn’t quite name.

Then he turned and pushed the door open.

Cold wind rushed in from outside.

I didn’t sleep.

All I could think about was tomorrow.

Where would I run?

How would I do it?

And once I got out, where would I even go?

The more I thought, the more awake I became.

The more awake I became, the more hopeless I felt.

Maybe I should just find an empty place and end it myself.

Anything was better than turning into a mindless monster.

I was still spiraling through those thoughts when a low rattle suddenly sounded outside.

I jerked upright.

Maddox already had his baseball bat in his hands.

Kellan shot up off the floor, his face white as paper. “What was that?!”

Outside the window, under the moonlight, more than a dozen infected were swarming the camp fence, slamming into the wire with mindless, bone-crushing force.

Gunfire cracked through the night, loud enough to make my ears ring.

A few infected dropped instantly, but more dark shapes kept pouring out of the blackness, dense as ants, flooding in from every direction.

Nolan was still outside.

I lunged for the window and looked out.

He was half-hidden in the shadows beside the building.

I had barely managed a breath of relief when one infected spotted him and hurled itself at him.

He swung and dropped one, but another immediately latched on.

Blood splashed across his face as more and more infected closed in around him.

I spun and ran for the door.

Kellan grabbed me with everything he had, his voice shaking so hard it nearly cracked.

“Are you insane?! You’ll get us all killed!”

I flung him off and turned to Sienna.

“You’re really just going to stand there while he fights for his life alone?”

Sienna went rigid. Her lips parted, but in the end, she didn’t say a thing.

Maddox was the one who moved.

He strode over, yanked Kellan aside, and shoved the door open.

I bolted outside.

“Get back inside!”

Nolan saw me and roared. In two strides, he reached me and shoved me behind him again.

His voice was frayed and raw. “Don’t come out here.”

Shielded by his body, I saw the approaching nightmare.

My heart was pounding so hard it felt like it might explode.

Without warning, the wound on my neck flared like it had been set on fire.

Heat tore through my veins, blazing down into my fingertips until they went numb. Even my bones ached.

The world spun.

A piercing whine filled my ears.

“Nolan…”

I called his name, trembling.

He turned back.

The second he saw me clearly, his whole body locked up, shock and panic crashing across his face.

“You—”

The word died in his throat.

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught my reflection in the window glass, and my heart seized.

That face was translucent, like marble, drained of every trace of blood.

But the corners of my eyes were bleeding a terrifying scarlet, and my pupils were glowing crimson.

…That was not a human face.

I was turning.