Page 96 of Immune

Kaito looks up at the ceiling.

Ewan presses his lips together and nods slowly. “Yeah, I get it. That one was on me.”

“No shit,” I mutter, right before I pull Maine’s hat from under my jacket and shove it on my head, all without removing my hood. I tug the brim low and inform all four Alphas, “I’m not going with you.”

No one speaks.

Good.

“I’m heading in the same direction for reasons that are entirely my own, motivated by personal investigation, possible blocker acquisition, and my very reasonable desire not to let a bunch of organized dickheads with a fucking launcher get their grubby hands on NOVAC samples.”

Ewan opens his mouth.

I point at him.

Ewan shuts his mouth.

“I’m not joining your compound. I’m not joining your group. And you can bet your asses that I am not participating in whatever emotional survival boy band situation you’ve got happening here,” I conclude.

Kaito’s mouth twitches.

Fletcher looks pained.

Xeon’s eyes warm in that quiet way I don’t trust.

Ewan whispers, “But we’d need a name, though.”

I stare at him and he clears his throat with a nod.

“Too soon. Got it,” he mutters.

Fletcher picks up his rifle. “We move in five.”

“No,” I say bluntly. He pauses, and I smile sweetly under the bandana. “We move in three. Zeds will drift east after heavy noise if the wind carries sound that way. Your five-minute plan is how we’ll find ourselves sharing a hallway with something overenthusiastic that likes to bite.”

Fletcher studies me for a long moment before he finally nods. “Three.”

I blink.

Well, that was concerningly easy. Kind of disturbing, actually.

“Stop agreeing with me,” I grouch, frowning at him.

“Make worse points and I will,” he counters.

I narrow my eyes on the scarred Alpha just as a grin slowly appears on Ewan’s face, like a sunrise over a landfill. “Oh, that’s nice. I like him better when he does that.”

“I don’t,” I say.

Kaito pushes away from the wall, pain flashing over his face before he can smother it. Unfortunately, I see it. “You reopen those stitches and I’m sitting back and letting them unionize without interference.”

His gaze finds mine. “I’ll be careful.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” I volley, and his mouth softens again.

Before he can say anything, the pilot groans again when Xeon and Fletcher haul him off the floor, lifting him carefully between them. Ewan checks the vent one final time, then the door. Kaito waits near me, still not too close but still not blocking anything. Just… there. Like a tether I haven’t cut. Yet. Haven’t cut yet.

The utility room door opens with a low, metallic sigh. Beyond it, the passage lies in gray morning light, damp and narrow and full of the stale breath of a city that flat-out refuses to die cleanly. Somewhere in the distance, a Zed groans. Another answers, and then another.