Page 72 of Immune

I hit the floor hard enough to knock the air out of my lungs, pinned under heat, weight, and the scent of burning wood and worn flannel.

Panic detonates inside me and I twist, knife already moving. Kaito catches my wrist before the blade reaches his ribs, clamping his other hand over my mouth. Every single part of me goes feral. I buck under him, teeth snapping against his palm, knee driving upward. He absorbs the hits with a silent grunt, face tight with pain, but he doesn't once let up or let go.

I see red.

Not fear.

Not thought.

Just hands. Weight. Trapped.

I tear my other hand free and go for his eyes, just as Kaito leans in and presses his forehead briefly to the side of my hood. There’s nothing affectionate about it, and it’s not soft. It’s just close enough for me to hear the breath he forces through his nose. Then he shakes his head once.

Slow.

Sharp.

His eyes lock on mine. There’s no anger there, only warning. He lifts his hand from my wrist, just enough to point. Through the cracked hallway window, I catch movement from across the park below.

Men. Armed men. And not the Alphas who just chased me through a fucking apartment block like their lives depended on my capture. Oh, no. These ones are different. Rougher. Louder. Five of them move between the trees and abandoned cars near the crash route, rifles raised and flashlights covered in red cloth. One has a shaved head and a yellow scarf wrapped around his arm. Another carries a pack I recognize, the one that had been near the crash, the bag dangling from his hand by a single strap.

These must be the shooters. The ones who brought the helicopter down.

My body grows utterly still under Kaito. His hand only remains over my mouth for one more beat before he removes it slowly. I don’t even bite him, and I consider it personal growth. Terrifying, horrifying growth.

Below, one of the looters kicks a Zed corpse, spitting, “Spread out. Bird went down over here. Anything worth shit is coming back with us.”

Another laughs. “Pilot better still be alive and breathing. Boss’ll want answers.”

Boss.

Fucking great.

Kaito shifts off me carefully, finally giving me space in the cramped hallway. My lungs drag in air a little too loudly, and he glances down, noticing the hat tucked under my jacket before he looks back up at me.

“You got it,” he whispers.

My hand clamps over the hat and I nod once.

For a brief moment, his eyes seem to soften. Then a looter fires a shot that explodes through the park like a fucking alarm bell. Below the apartment block, the Zeds answer first. Groans rise from the courtyard, the park, and the road. Slow figures turn and dragging feet move in the direction the shotcame from. The looters swear and shout, and then the Runners respond to their stupidity from the surrounding buildings.

Screams split through the night air suddenly, right before one Runner bursts from the lobby opposite, moving too quickly for the red flashlights to follow. Another one drops from the first-floor balcony, hitting a looter directly in the chest as he tackles him, screaming, into the grass.

The looters open fire then, and noise detonates all around. Zeds surge forward, Runners pouring from dark windows and broken doors, drawn by gunfire, blood, and all the living idiots currently sounding their dinner bell.

Kaito and I stay pressed in the narrow shadow under the hallway window and I realize then what he did. He didn’t tackle me to catch me. He tackled me to hide me. And that scrapes at me with sharper teeth than any Zed could possess.

I look at him, finding him watching the looters below with a tight jaw, body angled between me and the window without trapping me against the wall. Blood has soaked through his bandage again, dark under his shirt. He’s pale, and hurt, and breathing carefully.

Still, he found me.

Still, he stopped me before I ran straight into the hornet's nest, unprepared for the armed men who would have seen my pale hair, smelled my unreliable blockers, and put a bullet in my head or a collar around my neck before I could take my next breath.

My throat tightens suddenly.

I hate it.

I hate him.