The Virus Within: Blood Moon (Book 3)

Chapter 1

My eyes refused to leave the spot where Jess's and Nicky's scent trail abruptly ended. As I stood there, my muscles vibrated with my desire to shred their kidnappers limb from limb. The problem with that idea was I didn't know where they were, only that they were driving as fast as possible and probably over fifty miles away by now.

"We're just about done packing," Nina said as her footsteps went to where our truck was parked beside the building. "If you want to grab anything from your room, we'll be leaving in about five minutes. Hank found most of the crowbars and socket wrenches we brought back, and he put the bag in the back of the truck for you."

Her words finally broke through the unthinking rage in my mind, although I hadn't been staring at the spot for long. A nearby clatter made me turn my head as Logan dumped an armful of weapons and other supplies in the back.

"You helped me, now it's my turn to help you," he said simply.

"We're going to help you get Jess and Nicky back," Daniel quietly affirmed, his eyes still glowing brightly. He remained near the steps, giving me as much space as possible while helping pack.

From the doorway, Luke asked, "Did you recognize the scents?"

"No," I growled. "Why did they take Jess and Nicky?"

"I don't know," he replied unhappily. "We can only think of two possible reasons. An enemy might be planning to hold them hostage against you, or since they mentioned visiting Nina, they mistook Jess for her and took Nicky because she was also there."

I really didn't care about the reasons – I just wanted them back – although I gave his words some thought. I'd pissed off more than a few people over the last three months, but I didn't think any of them were gutsy enough to try something like this. Shoot at me, yes. Take hostages, no.

Luke came a few steps closer. "I need your advice on whether or not I should come on this rescue mission. I really want to help, but at this point, I think we can safely agree those two Runners were intentionally left as a distraction, so this might be another attempt to lure us away. And I'm not entirely sure you'll be able to tolerate my presence in the back of the truck right now."

"No one will be able to keep up with me while driving," Daniel added, "so a second vehicle will only slow us down. Otherwise, we'd have quite a few more volunteers packing several vehicles."

My eyes narrowed as I considered their comments, although most of my focus was on Luke. "I don't think they're going to return – they already had the best opening they could have possibly had. Now we're on guard. But others may come. Or feral Runners. Remain here and guard this place. Please."

My words were clipped, and my tone was short, but it was the best I could manage when I was angrier than I had been in a very, very long time. With my instincts this high, it would be extremely hard for Luke to travel in the back of the truck with me. It was probably safer not to try. And I couldn't even contemplate the thought of taking two vehicles if there was even a chance of it slowing us down.

Luke nodded with determination at the task I'd given him. "I'll defend this place to the best of my abilities."

Behind him, John and Hank also nodded as they brought a couple of boxes over. Neither were exactly fighters, so it didn't surprise me they had opted to stay and help guard this place. With a Terror and a Nightstalker on the warpath, our biggest obstacle was the distance between us and the people we were after.

"Is there anything you want to take with us?" Daniel asked me. "We're just waiting for one more box to be brought over."

I had my backpack and was about to say no but caught sight of Logan's bow by his coat.