The Starborn Saga (Books 1, 2, & 3) (43 page)

Then there’s the fact that Connor has deep feelings for me. Of course I’ve known they were there, and I’ve felt them too. But I cringe when I think about Connor seeing me kiss Aaron. I feel stupid about it. I shouldn’t have ever done it. The first time I was feeling vulnerable. I felt safe with him and I felt like kissing him was the right thing to do. Connor doesn’t know about that kiss. But the second time was just to get him to stop talking. At least, this is what I tell myself. 

I can’t deny that I’m attracted to both of them, but when that thought enters my head, I think about why I even met them in the first place. I think about my job. I think about what we are all facing and how pursuing romance is dumb at a time like this. But am I supposed to completely ignore my feelings for them? And how can I care about both of them? I don’t want to hurt either one. 

It’s dark now. Grandma and Jake have to be wondering where I am since the others have already made it back.

I sneak through the village in hopes that I’m not seen by anyone, and I’m not. I do my best to keep as silent as possible when I slip into my shack. To the right of the entrance is my bed. In it lies Grandma, cuddled up next to Jake. She opens her eyes and sees me as I close the door. Jake is sound asleep. Grand aor me. Ofdma grins at me and closes her eyes. There’s room for one more.

I lie down next to Grandma and suddenly feel the exhaustion of today’s events take over me. But I know my sleep won’t be very sound because my dreams are now haunted by Evelyn who is trying to tell me how we all came to be here. How Jeremiah created the greyskins. 

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Jessi was eight months pregnant and didn’t have the desire or the energy to take care of her drunken roommate. At least, she thought Willow was drunk at first. When she stumbled through the door she fell to the ground and threw up. It was an occasion that wasn’t too uncommon in the campus apartments.

“Help me to the couch,” Willow said through labored breaths. 

Jessi shook her head as she reached down to help Willow to her feet. “I’m the pregnant one, remember? Don’t make me over exert myself because of your irresponsibility.”

But when she finally got Willow to the couch, she knew instantly that alcohol wasn’t what caused Willow’s state. Her eyes were bloodshot and her skin was turning an ashen grey. Saliva drooled down the sides of her cheeks. Jessi froze at the sight. 

“What happened to you?”

“P…p…poisoned. It’s a vi…virus.”

Jessi stepped back from her immediately, fearing what kind of virus would do this to someone. Fearing what it could do to her baby. 

“Why did you bring it back here?” she asked a little too loudly. 

Willow shook her head. “Not airborne. Bloodstream.” Her words were barely above a whisper. “Here,” she said holding out a piece of paper. “Call the p…police. To here.”

Jessi looked at the piece of paper. It was the science building, bottom floor. Instantly, Jessi’s face turned bright with fury. 

“Did that pervert do something to you?” she yelled out. “Did he touch you when you didn’t want him to? Did he try to drug you?”

“Call the police,” Willow repeated.

Jessi shook her head in anger, but called the police, not really knowing what to report. The operator seemed less than enthusiastic to be getting a call about another drugged college student, but when Jessi explained that something strange must have happened at the bottom floor of the science building, the operator said he would send over a patrol car as soon as possible.

Jessi hung up the phone and walked back over to Willow. Her eyes were shut and her breath was quick, almost like a panting dog, yet her mouth remained closed. Jessi shook her head, wondering what could have caused such a thing. 

She had been worried about Willow since she hadn’t come back the night before. She had been gone for over twenty hours. At first, she thought Willow must have had a good time with the professor and they took off together for the weekend or something, but that seemed too weird, even for Willow. As time went on, Jessi couldn’t help but think that something really strange was going on. So Willow had been poisoned. Of course Professor Adams did something to her. She couldn’t believe that she actually encouraged Willow to get coffee with him.

Jessi looked out the window. She always liked these apartments because she could walk to her classes. The science building was only a couple of hundred yards from them. Campus police would take forevemet. e ar to send someone.

She looked at Willow, then back out toward the building. This late at night, most of the lights were out. Few people would still be there, but there was a chance that the doors were still unlocked. 

She knew she shouldn’t go anywhere, but anger added to curiosity got the best of her. She would be fine. Besides, there were one or two windows where she could peek into the basement from the ground level. She wouldn’t even have to go inside. 

But after her attempt to look through the blackened windows failed, Jessi knew she had to go in. Something crazy had happened to Willow. She aimed to find out what it was. Perhaps even give Professor Adams a swift kick to the groin. 

Halfway down the stairs toward the basement, her baby gave her a sharp kick. Except this one felt sharper that usual. After it continued for a few seconds, she thought she might fall over from the pain. It was everything she could do to keep from crying out. Was she having a contraction? Surely not. She wasn’t even in her ninth month. Not today. 

Not today.

When the pain subsided, she slowly walked down the rest of the stairs. She had to remember to paint a look of anger on her face in case the good professor was down there. At the doors she took a deep breath, already knowing what she was going to say to him. She was going to let him know that he would definitely be paying the medical bills. Jessi had met Willow’s family. Though they were nice people, they couldn’t afford such a thing. Willow had gotten into college on brains alone. Unlike Jessi who barely made it in.

She pushed on the door and instantly cowered down behind a table when she saw the commotion in front of her. The room was large and bright. She couldn’t help but notice to the right was a wall full of rabid mice, all clawing to get out of their containers. In the middle of the room were two men.  

“He bit me!” the man yelled from the right. “He bit into my shoulder!”

That’s when she noticed Professor Adams to the left. “Show me,” he said.

The man began rolling up his sleeve, but Professor Adams didn’t give him a chance. As the man looked down, the professor held up a pistol, aimed at the side of the man’s head and shot him. 

Jessi reached her hands to her mouth to stifle a scream, knowing that she shouldn’t have come here.

Another man came out of the room beyond. “What was that?” he asked. 

Professor Adams answered with a bullet to his brain. “That’s for letting the girl get away, you worthless filth.”

Jessi couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Two men murdered in cold blood. Somehow they had let Willow escape from them. What was Professor Adams planning to do with her?

The professor stood in the middle of the lab, for some reason not daring to go into the room beyond. A loud moan made Jessi see why. Another man came out of the room, shirtless and frail. He seemed very old and scraggly. His skin was greyish, his eyes were bloodshot, and his mouth was drooling heavy amounts of saliva, just like Willow. 

Willow!

It occurred to Jessi that this man and Willow had suffered the same kind of sickness, but this one looked much worse than she. 

“Unbelievable,” Professor Adams said. “This virus must truly be powerful.”

The man paid no attention to his words. He just lunged for the professor’s throat. 

Professor Adams put three bullets into the man’s chest, but the man kept charging. The professor was stunned to see that the man didn’t stop. His surprise was his undoing, however. In his hesitaIn his htion, the man was able to grab the professor’s coat and pull him closer. He dug his sharp teeth into the professor’s arm and he screamed out in terrible pain. The gun went off four times and at least one of the bullets hit a shelf bracket on the other side of the room. 

Jessi knew what was about to happen and her stomach dropped at the thought. The shelves collapsed and thirty or more containers of rats smashed to the floor. The rodents spread everywhere.

Another shot rang out and Jessi saw the man’s brains all over the floor with Professor Adams lying there, blood pouring from his arm. The mice were coming in Jessi’s direction. 

Forgetting for the moment that she was pregnant, she charged up the stairs like an athlete. Whatever had just happened to the man might be happening to Willow. She sprinted across the road and ran up the stairs to their apartment. She swung open the door and went straight for the couch. Willow wasn’t there. 

Jessi’s heart started to beat a little faster. 

Outside of the living room was a long hallway. At the end was the kitchen and before that were two bedrooms and a shared bathroom. 

Jessi tiptoed to her left to get a better look into the bathroom. The door was closed and the light was on. Willow had probably gone in there to throw up again. Jessi walked to the door and pressed her ear against it. There was no sound. She tapped lightly. 

“Willow? Are you okay?”

No answer. 

“I’m coming in, okay?”

Jessi turned the knob and opened the door slowly, but she wasn’t ready for what she saw. 

Lying on the floor, lifeless, was Willow. She had been foaming at the mouth and the way her body lay it looked as if she had been convulsing. Jessi nearly fainted. 

Tears welled up in her eyes seeing her friend in such a state. What could have happened to her? What did professor Adams do to her?

Jessi ran to the living room to look out the window, hoping she would at least be able to hear a siren in the distance. All was quiet. She looked out at the science building. It, too, looked normal as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. 

“Come on,” Jessi said out loud. “Where are you?”

When she turned to go back to the bathroom, she stopped in her tracks at the sight of Willow standing in the middle of the living room. Her head was cocked slightly and her chin seemed to move up and down uncontrollably. 

Jessi was frozen in place. “Willow, what are you doing?”

The only answer she got was a gargled noise she had never heard come out of Willow before. Jessi could only think of the strange man that had attacked Professor Adams. Was that about to happen to her or was the man just trying to kill his own attacker?

Jessi glanced at the lamp on the side table next to her. She reached a shaky hand to it, gripping the middle like she might a stick. 

“Willow?” she said. “Can you hear me?”

Another long, drawn out, gargled noise. Then the attack. 

Willow jumped at Jessi with a startling speed. Jessi did everything she could to swing the lamp around to block her, but it did no good. Willow was on top of her, shoving her to the ground. Her fingernails dug into Jessi’s arm, drawing blood almost instantly. 

Jessi screamed at the top of her lungs, while at the same time continually smashing the lamp into Willow’s head. Willow was never even fazed.

With her last blow, Jessi was finally able to knock Willow off of her and she immediately sprinted for theinted fo door.

Willow caught her by the foot, tripping her to the ground. Jessi let out a loud yell as she landed on her belly. Her first thought was that her baby might be hurt. Her next thought was realizing that Willow was clawing at her leg. Nails ripped through flesh as Willow tried to make her way up Jessi, but Jessi flipped onto her back and met Willow’s jaw with the bottom of her foot. Again, the impact did little to stop Willow’s momentum, but it gave Jessi enough room to stand. 

Bloodied and injured, Jessi got to her feet and hobbled into the kitchen. Willow was close behind, but Jessi was able to grab a dirty saucepan off the stove and slam it into the side of Willow’s head. 

This time, Willow fell over, but she didn’t seem to feel the pain. She simply came back for more. Again, Jessi smashed the saucepan into the side of her head, but again Willow came at her. Jessi didn’t hold back the third time. All of her attempts had been to knock Willow out, but this was obviously not working. Her third swing was meant to kill. Screaming at the top of her lungs, swinging as hard as she could, Jessi landed the blow to Willow’s jaw, snapping it with a loud crunch. Her mouth dangled open uncontrollably but it didn’t stop her from continuing her attack. 

Tears flowed from Jessi’s eyes as she swung again. Willow fell to the floor. Jessi rushed to her side, bringing the saucepan above her and smashing it on her head until her roommate stopped moving. Then she did it two more times. 

Jessi dropped the saucepan to the floor next to Willow as the tears came down uncontrollably. The room looked like a war zone. Blood was everywhere and Jessi’s blood was mixed with the rest of it. Hers shined a brighter red than Willow’s, which had turned almost black.

Jessi sat there for several minutes, unable to move. Shock had taken over her mind and body, but that didn’t stop the labor pains from coming. She hoped beyond all hope that the baby was alright. She had survived, but there had been a few falls that could be devastating to the little one. Eventually,
finally
, she heard a siren in the distance, but she fell unconscious before anyone found her. 

She awoke in the hospital hours later. She felt sick, though she didn’t feel as much pain as she expected. Looking to her left, she saw a nurse. The nurse promptly let a doctor know that Jessi was awake. 

The doctor walked in with two police officers trailing behind him. The doctor gave them a look as if he was annoyed to have them so near. 

“How are you feeling?” the doctor asked. 

“Not so good,” she answered. 

“Your baby is fine,” the doctor said. “She is resting in the nursery.”

Jessi didn’t even know she had delivered the baby. She wished that somehow this had all been a terrible nightmare. But it wasn’t. It was all very real.