Divided (7 page)

Neither one of them said anything. I could feel my heart beating faster, and the feeling of panic started to choke me. I got up quickly. "I need some water." Butcher followed behind me. As I reached the steps up to the deck, I could hear voices from the fire, but Sonya and Gary were speaking too softly for me to understand them.

Inside, I was able to look around Gary's home and calm down. Something about the hutch in his kitchen that had the same exact items on it since before I could remember made me feel better. It made me feel like things weren't so different right now—we'd be okay. Sitting at the kitchen table, Butcher put his head in my lap, and I leaned over to give him a strong hug.

"We'll be okay, won't we boy?" He licked my face, but then his ears shot up, and he let out a growl in the direction of the door. "What do you hear, Butchie?" Then I realized, "Dev!"

I bolted out the door, running as fast as I could, but about five feet away from the steps, I stopped. Standing there, right in front of me was the most handsome man in the entire world. His hands were on Butcher, rubbing his head with both hands. But then his eyes came up to watch me with that smirk on his face that always made me want to simultaneously poke at his confidence and swoon like a silly girl. Right now, I was leaning toward the swooning. Of course, I'd just seen him several hours before, but this was different. He didn't need to hide the way he looked at me, and I didn't need to hide the blush that had to be all over my whole body. The light in his eyes made me bite my lower lip to force back my ridiculous grin.

He shook his head slightly and let out a short gasp. "God, you're beautiful."

Lip biting or not, I couldn't keep the smile that spread across my face. Five little steps forward and I fell right in to his arms. He held me tightly, pressing little kisses against my neck, my cheek, and finally my lips. It started out so gentle, but I wouldn't let it stay that way—I just didn't have the willpower to be calm. Placing my hand on the back of his head, I pulled him into deepening the kiss. The way his lips felt, hardened by the tension between us, was just amazing. I'd dreamed of kissing him for so many months, but none of it came close to the reality.

After several breath-defying moments, my uninfected body protested, and I pulled away from him. But his lips just moved to my neck, driving my senses beyond insane. Somewhere, in the back of my mind, I registered Gabriel clearing his throat, but it wasn't enough to stop me from clinging to Dev.

"Ah, I see Devlin is here." Gabriel cleared his throat loudly again, but Dev kept right on kissing my neck. "Devlin, son, get your lips off my daughter."

Dev groaned and pulled back to look me in the eye. His eyes were so beautiful, even with the unnatural green that formed a ring around the outside of the blue sea I was so familiar with. One arm encircled my waist while he ran his hand through my hair and down to hold the back of my neck. His eyes were completely focused on me, and he grinned arrogantly. "With all due respect, sir, no." Then he attacked my lips again.

"Walter!" Gabriel shouted behind me. "You still got that shotgun?" Then in a normal voice that sounded like he was having trouble holding back laughter, he said, "What do you think, son, between the eyes or between the legs."

I finally pulled away from Dev and wrapped my arms as tightly around him as I possibly could. "We have plans to discuss," I admitted as he groaned loudly in my ear. "Just don't take your hands off me."

"Finally, a request I don't have a problem with." His voice was so deep and sexy it made me melt inside. "I love you, baby. I love you so much."

"I love you too. I missed you so much. I'm so sorry about your mom. Is she doing better?"

He squeezed me tighter. "She's out of ICU. They think she'll make a full recovery. She's always had slightly high blood pressure, but it's never been so high she needed medication." He stared at the ground, and I knew the look of guilt on his face. "Because of the stress of me being gone and not being allowed to talk to them, her blood pressure has been too high. They'll put her on medication to keep it low and monitor her more closely now. We're lucky, really lucky. It could have been so much worse."

I stood on the tips of my toes and pressed a soft kiss to his lips. "It's the military's fault, not yours. They have no right to keep you hostage."

Gabriel smacked him on the back. "She's right. It's not your fault, but let's lay everything on the table so we can see what can be done."

Dev nodded, but still didn't take his eyes off me. Before I could guess his intention, he scooped me up into his arms and winked at me. "Just following your orders."

I kissed his cheek and happily wrapped my arms around his neck. The desire to live in that moment forever choked me, and I had to swallow back the lump in my throat and focus on enjoying my time with him.

"She's got legs, Vaughn." Gary chuckled as we walked toward the living room.

"Don't make me hurt you, Ryans." Dev's voice was gruff, but full of humor.

Gary just chuckled in response. "By the way, I gave her your present. Here's the number." Gary pulled a scrap of paper out of his pocket and put it in Dev's hand.

"I always know I can count on you, man," Dev said as he carried me into the house.

In the living room, Dev sat down on the couch, but kept his arms around my waist as I shifted to sit up on his lap. I threaded my fingers through his, and he leaned forward to gently kiss me again. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Sonya come into the living room, smiling at Dev and me. I could tell she was happy just seeing me happy, and it meant a lot. No one could be a better sister.

"When did your pals pass out?" Gabriel was sitting in an armchair across from us, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees.

Dev looked down at his watch. "It's been twenty-five minutes."

"The pills knocked me out for eight hours straight." Evelyn perched herself on the arm of the chair Gabriel was sitting in and continued talking. "I'm sure their metabolism is higher than mine, not to mention I was on pain pills too, so maybe we can count on five hours."

Gary's mom brought in several cans of soda.

Gabriel put his arm around Evelyn. "So, let's be on the safe side and say it takes you thirty minutes to get back, you need to leave here by." He turned around to look at the clock.

Dev squeezed my hand, and I looked back to him. He closed his eyes, and I could feel the stress return to his body.

"O two hundred hours," he said angrily. "So let's get this talk over with. They studied us for a few months, taking blood, doing tests. At first, it seemed like they were allowing the infection to spread by purposefully waiting too long to quarantine cities. Harm and I think they were trying to build up as many infected fighters as they could. Problem was they didn't know how or why the infection didn't affect us like the psychotic Infecteds. They know that now, but it's too late. After Albuquerque, the infection has gotten too far."

I put my hand on Dev's chest. "Wait, what do you mean they know that now?"

His thumb started rubbing circles on my hand. "I've been exposed to the bacteria. It comes from a tree whose roots have been growing in our well since before I was ever born. They even have a vaccine for it, but it takes too long to make and after Albuquerque, it's obviously unreliable."

"Albuquerque?" Gabriel's head flinched back slightly. "I've heard brief things about the quarantine there."

Dev wiped his hand across his face. "I just left there. It was—I'd say 75% didn't make it. They—"

"What?" Gabriel stood up.

Gary's dad sat heavily on the couch next to us. He put his hand out to Dev in disbelief. "Albuquerque, New Mexico? That's—but that's hundreds of thousands of people. You can't mean—"

Dev ran his hand through his hair. "Press release puts the death toll at 56,000. They'll stay under quarantine for another two months with cell phone signals, internet connections, all forms of outside communication completely blocked. But after that, the media will find out the real number. It was the worst I've seen it, but that's because of the vaccine. Actual death toll is over 350,000."

"No," Gabriel gasped.

Evelyn put her hand to her mouth, and Gary's mom reached out to take Gary's dad's hand.

I shook my head, unable to comprehend the deaths of so many people. We'd lost over 1500 in Bishop, but that was just nothing in comparison. "But you said the vaccine made it worse? I don't understand."

"It's unreliable. It was supposed to build up resistance by giving time-released doses of the infection." His eyes tightened, and his voice became terse instead of the sadness it had held before. "They released it to high school students in Albuquerque during blood drives. Kids got sick like I did, but worse. Some died right away, stronger kids survived only to become fully infected and without resistance. They—had to—well, they didn't make it."

"They had to kill them?" Gary's anger matched everyone in the room.

"Yes. And still, they kept injecting. They monitored the emergency rooms, but Infecteds popped up everywhere. They couldn't control it, and this new strain they created spreads faster. It wiped out most of the population in forty-eight hours. But thirty-three did survive and are now being trained to join the team, so they think it was partially successful."

"Successful?" Gabriel looked disgusted. "The death of hundreds of thousands for just thirty-three is successful?"

Dev put his hand up. "You know I don't agree. It's sick and unfair, and I—I uh—they made us—" He shook his head and laughed, but it was full of pain and anger. "I had to help capture them and bring 'em in."

I wrapped my arms around him and buried my face in his neck. "You had no choice," I whispered.

He nodded, but his voice sounded tortured as he held me tight. "There are these two that—baby, they just remind me of us. I can't believe I—I should have let them go."

I pulled back and put my hands on his cheeks. "You didn't do this, the military did. It's not your fault."

"That's what Harm tells me."

I forced myself to smile. "Well we share the same genes—that includes intelligence of genius proportions."

He kissed my lips softly.

"I just can't believe they got away with it," Gabriel said to Gary's dad. "How do you inject high school kids and get away with that?"

"Inner city schools." Dev explained. "Parents who don't care or just don't have the time to read the blood drive release they signed. Oddly enough, from studying the effects of that vaccine, they're closer to a viable vaccine, but again, it still takes too long to make. We think—Harm and I—we think the infection will keep spreading only there won't be anybody else resistant to it because the tree—I forget its name—only grows in a couple climates."

Gary's dad shifted uncomfortably next to us. "We've heard about it getting as far East as Nevada. Is it—"

Dev shook his head. "Texas."

No one even gasped in surprise anymore, but I could feel my eyes widen. That meant it was halfway across the US.

Dev pulled our intertwined fingers to his face so he could scrub his eyes with the back of his hand. "Harm was headed out with the team to neutralize the targets and stabilize the area in Northern Texas. It won't be long before it's all across the US. Predictions show that it should be across North America within the next ten months, and go global in a little over a year. They can't stop it."

I couldn't believe it. I knew—I mean we'd suspected that it would spread, but it was just too hard to process.

"What's the estimated death toll?" Gabriel asked, his voice devoid of any emotion.

Dev turned his eyes back to mine. They were so defeated. "112 million in the US, 10 million in Canada, worldwide—" He swallowed hard, making his Adam's Apple move noticeably. "Worldwide—two billion."

Gary's dad stood up abruptly and walked around the room.

"I—I—" Evelyn turned to Gabriel. "That can't be."

I realized I had tears in my eyes, but I managed to keep them from spilling onto my cheeks. Two billion people.

Dev hugged me to him and leaned his forehead against my shoulder. "I wish I could say I'm lying. We've seen it all firsthand. In Albuquerque, our task force was nearly wiped out entirely. We're the only ones strong enough to really get in there and fight the Infecteds. It's almost like they're immune to bullets. We go in when they're hiding out or have somehow evaded the Guard and the Army—when conventional weaponry doesn't work. But there are too many of them, and now, even with the new recruits there are only forty of us. We're stronger in hand-to-hand combat, but not when they outnumber us three to one. I—I've lost some good people."

Gary's dad was now pacing behind the couch as he shouted out thoughts. "Are you in charge of your group?"

"Harm is. He's our Staff Sergeant, but I'm second-in-command and where he can't go—as an Uninfected—I'm in command."

I suddenly realized what that meant for Harm. "But he can get infected, he could—"

"I watch out for him, baby. He saved my ass—really saved my ass. I won't let anything happen to him. And they don't send the Uninfecteds into the really bad zones."

It didn't help me relax any. "What about Kim? And Donald and Ted?"

"They're fine, too. We kind of have a pact to watch out for each other, but there's—well there are others in the group with different agendas."

"What do you mean?" Gabriel asked tersely.

"It seems the bacteria isn't black and white in terms of infection strength. Some of us are completely resistant—like me and Kim, Ted, and Donald. But some were much farther away from ground zero—so far from it that their resistance is less powerful. They are a little, uh, freer with their actions and abilities. They're a little less… ethical about the force they use."

Gary leaned forward, making it feel like he was more a part of the conversation, "Are we talking our team vs. the Panthers kinda difference or you mean the Kn—"

Dev gave Gary an incredibly sharp look. "The Knights and then some."

"Damn, man." I didn't understand their comments, but it was clear Gary had. His eyes were wide, and he shook his head in disapproval. "It's not enough to fight the planet, but you gotta fight amongst each other too?"