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  Before I even finished speaking, I started lifting my backpack out of the bed of the truck, intending to grab my duffel bag, too, even though I knew Nick and Blaine weren't just going to let me go on my merry way. Nonetheless, even though it might have been silly, I was just going to see what they'd do if I grabbed my bags. I just wanted to see what they'd do and say if I started heading down the road southward with both of my bags in tow, like I was calling the shots.

  However, Nick prevented me from even lifting my backpack out of the truck by placing a firm hand against it while I was lifting. "No. Sorry, Evangeline, but you're not going anywhere. You're staying right here...and Blaine and I are going to get to know you a little better right now."

  CHAPTER FIVE

  For a split-second, what Nick had said made my stomach lurch with fear. But then he continued speaking, and it became clear that he had something other than attacking me on his mind.

  "We're going to have dinner. We're going to talk. If you want, you can tell us some about your journey so far."

  I let go of my backpack strap, knowing that he wasn't going to let me lift it out of the truck bed and waltz on down the road with it. "Fine."

  "Also, how does your head feel? I know you must have whacked it pretty good to fall unconscious."

  I looked at Nick, realizing that the pain at the back of my head had completely subsided. "Honestly, my head feels fine now. I guess I am a little hungry, though."

  I really was. And truthfully, I was so hungry I felt like I could probably eat two dinners.

  Across from me and Nick, on the other side of the truck, Blaine lifted some kind of a sack out of the truck bed. "I'll start cookin'."

  The sack appeared to have some kind of dark liquid leaking from it, though in the very dim light of full evening, I couldn't quite tell if I was seeing things right.

  Frowning, I peered at what Blaine was holding. "Blaine, what's in that sack? And is it leaking something?"

  He just grunted in response to me at first, then glanced at me over his shoulder while walking away from the truck. "I thought my name was Mud Bucket."

  After watching Blaine go, Nick turned his gaze back to me. "We'll be having rabbit for dinner. It's high in protein, and easy to catch while we're in our shifter forms. We eat in our shifter forms, too, sometimes, but we also have to eat while in our human forms, just like all other humans, so-"

  "Oh, hell no!"

  Before the word no had passed my lips, I was already tearing away from the truck, charging after Blaine. The thought of eating rabbit had absolutely horrified me. It had chilled me. I'd kept numerous rabbits as pets growing up, and I'd been about to adopt one to keep in my apartment when the Bloodsucker apocalypse had hit. To me, eating rabbit was essentially the same as eating dog or cat. Pets weren't to be eaten. You just didn't do it. At least, I just didn't do it.

  During my travels, I'd heard of people eating some pretty strange, stomach-turning things. I'd seen people eating some pretty strange, stomach-turning things. One group of fellow travelers I'd come across, three elderly gentlemen, told me that they'd witnessed people boiling old library books to get some kind of a calorie-dense broth from the glue used to bind antique book spines.

  From Anton's group, even fairly early into the apocalypse, I'd heard talk of some people resorting to cannibalism in places where all houses, businesses, and agricultural storehouses had been picked clean of all possible food products. That was why Anton was leading Chris and the rest of the members of his group to Pennsylvania, where there was supposedly a large community of survivors.

  It was said that this community had gotten hold of military supplies and would have enough food to last for years. In the meantime, they would start farming and raising cattle and poultry for meat.

  I had no problem with raising cattle and poultry for meat. I had no problem eating beef and chicken for dinner. I did, however, have a huge problem with the thought of any pet-like creature being eaten for dinner. Which was why I attempted to tackle Blaine in some sort of a wild blitz attack, the very act of doing it making my head swim with intense vertigo.

  "You let them go! You let those rabbits go!"

  Instead of making him drop the sack and fall to the ground, my attack had almost no effect on Blaine whatsoever. It had actually barely caused a hitch in his long, unhurried strides. Really, it was as if I'd just hopped on his back for a piggyback ride, although I now hopped off, becoming increasingly dizzy.

  "You just let those rabbits go, Blaine. So help me."

  Slinging the sack over one shoulder, he turned to look at me. "Easy. Just relax. The rabbits in my bag are long dead anyway...at least a couple hours dead. I threw 'em in the truck before we set out again. They're still fresh enough for eating, though."

  Head still swimming, I staggered backward, almost falling.

  Blaine grabbed my arm to stop that from happening. "Damn. Just how hard did you hit your head?"

  "Just hard enough to be absolutely disgusted by what you're doing. People just shouldn't eat pets. You understand me? No matter what is going on in the world, people should keep up on their grooming, and not eat pets, and...." I paused for a deep breath while another strong wave of dizziness threatened to tip me backward. "That's how we survive."

  I hadn't even noticed Nick come up alongside us, but somehow, he was just suddenly there.

  "I think the real question isn't how hard she hit her head, but when was the last time she's eaten. You hungry, Evangeline?"

  Shaking my head, I didn't know why I felt like being contrary, but I just did. "No. I'm actually not hungry at all right now. I just ate like...not too long ago. It was earlier today. It was breakfast, I think, a few crackers and some jam, and then I was making such good time that I just didn't want to stop for lunch."

  Nick glanced at Blaine before returning his gaze to my face. "Even the latest breakfast would have been ten or so hours ago...and I'm guessing you walked miles and miles today after that. I'm also guessing that because of that, maybe your blood sugar's a little low."

  When I'd been in training, skating every day, I'd grown used to eating so little that my body had almost seemed to adapt to running on near-empty. I'd only rarely experienced extreme hunger and low blood sugar symptoms. But as of late, with even rationed portions of food seeming to me like indulgent daily buffets, I'd grown used to meals on a pretty regular schedule.

  With a faint sigh, realizing that all his guessing was right, I looked at Nick. "Look. Maybe I am suffering from a little low blood sugar. But I won't eat pets. I won't eat rabbits. I have a lentil-and-rice mix packet in my backpack that I'd like to make instead."

  With his earlier sternness now gone, Nick said that was fine. "We'll make it for you. And in the meantime, we'll get you sitting down somewhere."

  A short while later, I was sitting on a log near a campfire, scarfing peach slices from a bowl that I wasn't entirely sure had been properly cleaned beforehand. I didn't care. I was too hungry. Famished, I ate probably a dozen peach slices before I even really started tasting them.

  Above the fire, on a frame he'd constructed from sticks, Nick had hung a kettle containing water and my lentil-and-rice mix. With his face glowing gold from the flames, Blaine was holding a thick stick above the fire. On the stick, he'd speared several enormous chunks of rabbit flesh. I couldn't deny that the cooking meat smelled good.

  Even amazing, actually. Which made me feel repulsed and yet further starving at the same time. I certainly wasn't going to tell Blaine and Nick that the cooking meat smelled good to me.

  However, despite the fact that I hadn't said a peep, when Blaine had deemed the rabbit sufficiently cooked, he handed me a hearty chunk on a plastic plate. "Just eat some. It wasn't a pet. These were wild rabbits."

  Instead of thanking him, I took the plate silently, not entirely sure what I was going to do with the contents of it. Part of me wanted to hurl the plate into the darkened trees. But another part of me wanted to pick up the aromatic piece of
roasted rabbit and see how big of a bite I could shove in my mouth.

  Blaine filled his own plate with meat, took a seat on a log opposite me, and dug in, taking large, greedy bites, smacking his lips.

  "You're a sick, sick man."

  I hadn't even really meant to say that. It had just kind of come out.

  Filling his mouth with cooked rabbit flesh, Blaine just grunted in response, although his grunt actually sounded more like an mm-hmm, as if he were actually agreeing with me that he was a sick, sick man.

  Disgusted, I turned my gaze to my plate and found myself suddenly very not disgusted. The meat looked and smelled so incredibly good. It's just chicken, I told myself for some reason, suddenly picking up the meat and taking the tiniest of bites. Disappointing me somehow, it was phenomenal. Just slightly charred on the outside, it was flavorful, juicy, and well-seasoned.

  I'd watched while Blaine had taken a few jars out of a knapsack and had sprinkled the meat with something or other before spearing it on the stick.

  When Nick began spooning my lentils-and-rice onto my plate, I told him that he and Blaine could have some, too, if they wanted, and they both took me up on my offer, each spooning a little onto their plates.

  With the campfire crackling and popping, the three of us ate without speaking. When I finished my chunk of rabbit, Blaine got up and silently put another on my plate. Twice during dinner, we were interrupted in our eating by hissing, growling Huskers shambling into our little camp among the trees, possibly attracted by the fire.

  Blaine got up and got the first group of two; Nick got the second. To deal with such a small number of Bloodsuckers, neither of them even bothered shifting into their animal forms. Both of them just used knives to make their kills.

  When each of them returned to the fire, I watched to see whether or not they'd make some effort to clean their hands before resuming eating, despite the fact that it hadn't appeared that either of them had actually touched a Husker during killing. I didn't even know why I was curious to see. I just was.

  It turned out that neither of them made any effort to clean their hands before resuming eating. I figured that I should just be pleased that they'd both taken an alcohol-soaked hand sanitizing wipe from a tub I'd offered while Nick had been filling my bowl with peaches before the meal.

  Once the three of us had nearly cleaned our plates, Blaine looked up at me from scooping up one last bite of lentils-and-rice. "Where'd you get that Olympic medal in your bag?"

  After setting my plate on my knees, I dabbed at my mouth with the side of my shirt collar, since I didn't have a napkin, before answering. "I won it. Figure skating."

  With the firelight revealing a look that almost resembled triumph or satisfaction on his face, Blaine grunted. "Makes sense now."

  Sure I was frowning, I peered at him across the fire. "What does?"

  "That you're kind of an ice queen."

  Whatever goodwill Blaine had fostered by serving me unexpectedly delicious and non-guilt-inducing rabbit had been obliterated by that single comment.

  After dabbing my mouth with my collar again, I looked him dead in the eyes. "Better an ice queen than a mud bucket."

  He just said maybe and went back to the remaining few bites of food left on his plate. Nick said nothing.

  However, after setting his plate on the ground and picking up a water bottle, Nick soon piped up, asking me where exactly down south I was headed, and why. Realizing we were surely getting into his planned "getting-to-know-you-better" part of dinner but not wanting to participate in it at all, I told him that where exactly I was going was none of his business.

  "If the two of you are going to hold me captive, I can't stop you, so I really don't have a choice. But I do have a choice to keep my travel plans to myself, and I'm going to."

  Silently, Nick just studied my face for a few moments before speaking again. "Is there someone in particular down south you're trying to get to? Like a family member...or a boyfriend or a husband?"

  Thinking, I reasoned that there wasn't any reason that I shouldn't answer honestly. "I don't have a boyfriend or a husband. I'm trying to get to my two sisters...and I have been for almost two years."

  Blaine and Nick very briefly exchanged glances, the movements of their eyes so slight and fast as to almost be imperceptible. But in the warm glow of the fire, I hadn't missed the fact that they had indeed exchanged glances, no matter how briefly. Which made me think that I'd been foolish to say that I didn't have a boyfriend or husband, and I didn't even know why I had.

  Now it was clear that the admission had gotten Nick and Blaine's wheels turning, as if they were very interested or pleased to learn that I was decidedly single. This really shouldn't have surprised me. Of course they'd wanted confirmation that I was single, I thought. They'd probably wanted to make sure that I didn't have some fierce shifter husband down south who would come looking for me if I didn't eventually come down to find him.

  After a few moments spent regretting what I'd said, a different thought soon occurred to me. Talk of boyfriends and husbands had made me wonder about girlfriends and wives, in regards to Blaine and Nick. Clearly they'd abducted me to serve as a wife or concubine for someone, but that didn't necessarily mean that that someone was one of them. And suddenly, I had to know. I had to know if one or both of them were single, or if they planned to hand me over to one of the other men in their community.

  Trying to act like I really wasn't that curious, even though I was, I cleared my throat and stared into the fire, avoiding Nick and Blaine's eyes, while I spoke. "So, this group up the road that we're going to be meeting up with...do you each have a wife or girlfriend in this group?"

  Considering that men so vastly outnumbered women, I thought it unlikely that they both had female partners, but then again, I wasn't going to be stunned if they did. It was pretty clear that Nick was the leader of a community of people, apparently in a place called Helena, and it was also pretty clear that Blaine was probably his right-hand man, or even perhaps a co-leader of sorts. So, it just stood to reason that they might have immediately had rights to "call dibs" on any or all women in their group.

  However, after exchanging glances with Blaine again, Nick surprised me. "No...neither of us has a wife or girlfriend in the group...or anywhere else. Neither of us has ever been married. We'd like to be, though...and hopefully sooner, rather than later."

  He'd said that last part while looking directly into my eyes.

  Suddenly incredibly uncomfortable, I turned my gaze from his face and looked into the fire again. "Well...I hope you each find someone. Good luck with that."

  After an awkward second of silence that felt like an hour, during which time I could almost just feel Nick and Blaine exchanging glances yet again, I abruptly stood.

  "I'm going into the forest to the use the restroom, and neither of you had better follow me. I'm not going to try to escape. You're shifters who can probably track me by scent; I get it. So, I'm not even going to try."

  Not right then, anyway. But very soon I would, maybe once we got to Helena, wherever that was. I'd find some way to escape without Nick and Blaine knowing until I was long gone, heading south once again.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Nick and Blaine didn't follow me to the truck, where I grabbed a length of toilet paper from a roll in my backpack, as well as a clean t-shirt to change into, because I'd noticed with disgust that the front of the one I was currently wearing was stained with a bit of Husker gore from the fight earlier. Nick and Blaine didn't follow me into the woods, either. Somewhat surprising me a little, they were both still sitting right by the fire when I emerged from the forest. Apparently, they'd believed me when I'd said that I wasn't going to try to escape.

  After they'd each made their own brief trips into the woods, we set out down the road on foot, heading north. I'd taken my backpack from the truck and had slung it over my back, and Nick had grabbed my duffel bag wordlessly, eliciting a quiet thanks from me.

  In
the pale moonlight, the three of us walked in silence for a few minutes, until Blaine mumbled that I didn't have to walk if I didn't want to. "I could shift, and you could just ride along on my back if you wanted."

  Although I couldn't deny that his offer was kind, I was still more than a bit salty with him about his "ice queen" comment, and I figured this was the perfect time to express that.

  Staring straight ahead at the darkened, crumbling paved road, I spoke without even glancing at him. "Thank you for the offer, but I think I'm going to decline. Being that I'm such an ice queen, I wouldn't want to freeze your back."

  "Hey...I shouldn't have said that. Sometimes I just talk without thinking."

  I didn't say anything in response. I did, however, glance over at him, meeting his eyes, and though it was hard to tell in the dim light, they appeared to be holding a look of complete sincerity. Which, maybe a minute or so later, made me feel the need to issue a vague semi-apology of my own, though without even looking at Blaine while I did.