The Virus Within: The Road Ahead (Book 1 - SERIES COMPLETED!)

Chapter 22

Kal shrugged innocently. "We were just having a friendly chat."

I growled a correction as I glanced back over my shoulder. Whoops. In my anger, the sound had slipped out as Kal tried to cover his tracks. Daniel slowly sat in his chair as the men looked at me with confused expressions.

"Did she seriously just growl like a dog?" Kal sounded incredulous.

I was beginning to suspect their old Stronghold had kicked them out for their lack of manners. They were even making my grouchy demeanor look like a breath of fresh air. At least I didn't go out of my way to insult others without reason. Usually.

Nina shrugged as she finally sat down. "What did you expect when you annoyed a Nightstalker?"

Nice way to keep a secret, Nina... Although with how Kal's face drained of color in mere seconds, it was almost worth it.

"She's a zombie?"

Perhaps Nina's tactic was for the best. If it shut him up before I killed him, then it was worth a shot. Still looking over my shoulder, I raised my hand to pull my sunglasses down since one of the chairs was blocking my view of the fire. My strongly glowing red eyes would stand out in the darkness.

The men gaped at me, too stunned for words. Even though I couldn't see the fire, enough light shone around the area to border on being painful, so I pushed my sunglasses back up.

The men sat in silent shock. Joel had also gone pale, although he was in the least amount of danger since he had tried to stick up for me. Kal was the first on my hit list, and the annoying man was probably aware of it.

As if to break the tense silence, Daniel commented, "I was expecting a stronger reaction. You have a lot more restraint compared to the last Nightstalker I met."

My seething instincts immediately assumed that restraint meant weakness, and they locked onto the likely-unintentional insinuation. My smoldering temper flared, and I spun around to snarl fiercely at him. His brown eyes shifted to a bright, glowing red as he snarled just as viciously back at me. The overconfident ass didn't even have the decency to stand up.

I took a threatening step forward, ready to take out my temper on him. If nothing else, it would help me blow off some steam since he could take anything I could dish out and hand it back just as easily.

I was almost guaranteed to end up pinned or face-down on the ground, but I was past caring about such details at this exact second. After our earlier scuffle, I knew he wouldn't kill me, and I really needed to blow off some steam. A good fight with a higher-ranking zombie should accomplish that.

My train of thought was interrupted by a large thump. I glanced over to note that Joel had fainted and fallen off his chair. Kal didn't look too far behind.

Nicky was completely unfazed by the two snarling zombies and smirked at Kal in amusement. "You better dump some water over his head to wake him up. Probably also a wise idea to take him into the tent. Lots of mosquitoes come out at night, you know."

Nina grinned at her comment. From the way Kal got even paler as his eyes drifted between Joel and me, I suspected the mosquito he was worried about didn't have wings. The distraction and dark humor of Nicky's comment had shaken the worst of my mood off me, but I kind of wished it had been Kal who fainted. That would have been far more satisfying.

I shook myself like a dog. "I'm heading out to hunt before someone else pisses me off. Daniel, you're on guard duty until I return."

He bared his teeth at the men in a parody of a smile as his eyes faded back to brown. He had obviously decided the worst threat was already on the roof with us. Kal looked like someone cornered by a pride of lions, and the other men paled even more.