Sparrow’s Flight by Jenika Snow Page 0,10

the window. He placed a hand on the knife strapped to his waist and rose up on his toes in order to see out the window. He spotted the infected male right away and, after a quick sweep of the surrounding area, didn’t see any others roaming around. The moonlight cut through the trees and bathed the guy in a bluish tint.

“How many?” Mason whispered roughly, and Asher sensed him move behind him.

“One, as far as I can see.” The infected lifted his head and opened his mouth in a silent cry. Blood oozed out of his mouth, nose, and eyes. The blood looked black in the moonlight, but he knew even if it were daylight, it wouldn’t have been red. It was old blood, congealed and dead, just like them, because they were rotting from the inside out. His flesh was black in some areas, necrotic and starting to spread across his gaunt cheeks and sunken eyes.

They never said what was in those immunizations exactly, but whatever it was had to be some pretty toxic shit, given the fact that this was the end result. There were of course conspiracy theories, ones that talked about society being used as an experiment, and that experiment went deadly wrong. Of course nothing was ever explained to them, but why would it be? In the end, Asher didn’t give two fucks about any of that, because nothing could be changed.

The infected male wore an old mechanic’s uniform, and the stained name patch stated he was “Steve.”

An owl hooted in the distance, and Steve whipped his head toward the sound. He made another low, wet gurgle and moved back into the thick trees lining the back of the building. The infected may only go after humans, but any little noise drew their attention as if they couldn’t focus and had the attention span of a toddler. For whatever reason, and of course one that was never explained to them, the sick didn’t go after anything other than humans.

But animals were smart, knew to stay away from the infected, and didn’t let them get close anyway. But Asher had seen a deer get startled and run by one of the sick, and all the female did was stare at the animal with curiosity. She didn’t chase it, moan and groan, or get frantic like he had seen them do around healthy humans. It was a mystery to him, would forever be one as well, seeing as there was no one left to explain what in the hell had gone wrong.

He watched Steve move slowly through the underbrush. They were slow as fuck, and it was easy enough to get by them, but if they caught a person, it was like they had the strength of ten men. But then again, neither he nor Mason actually let them have the chance to attack. They went in, destroyed their brain with a clean stab in their head, and kept moving. They continued to stand still and watched Steve stumble into the woods and disappear. For several minutes, they did nothing but scan the area, making sure there weren’t any more that would come out. Another mystery was the fact that the infected liked to stay in groups.

It might have been said that they were brain dead, but it seemed as if they knew there was power in numbers, and that was clear when Asher had seen five of them swarm in on a fresh body. There weren’t any suspicious sounds, and Asher found himself relaxing his shoulders and letting his hand fall away from where his knife was.

Mason rested his hand on Asher’s outer thigh, and the feel of his warm breath puffing against the back of his neck had his heart pounding a bit faster. Neither moved for several long moments, but then Mason slid his hand farther toward the front of Asher’s pants and placed his palm right over his erection. Leave it to the relief of not having to take down one of the sick, and the feel of this hard, muscular man pressed against him, and Asher was raring to go for another round. He turned and faced Mason, and everything else faded away except tasting this man. They stared at each other for a long, suspended moment.

Their mouths met in a tangle of lips and tongues. Ash speared his hands in Mason’s hair, and he did the same. They tugged at the strands, the pain and desire mixing as one until