The Virus Within: Blood Moon (Book 3)

Chapter 12

The truck came to a stop by the grassy trail that led to Regan's cave, and he jumped out. As he turned around, he let his hood fall back.

"You don't need to worry about the strangers in my forest," he said. "They won't live to see the sunrise. We part ways here. Please be out of my territory by sunset."

"Assuming we don't break down, we don't plan on lingering," I told him with a hint of a dry tone coloring my words.

The ride back had been filled with enough tension that we could have collected it and built a sturdier bridge than the one we'd watched collapse. Although if I thought the tension during our hour-long ride was bad, had we kept traveling together, we would have set a whole new definition once the sun set and both of our instincts strengthened. To put it simply, it wouldn't have worked.

"If you ever travel north to Canada," Nina began, "feel free to stop by Ironwind Stronghold."

Instead of groaning internally, I hid a smirk at the lack of her usual enthusiasm. She had also waited until he was out of the truck and hadn't mentioned anything earlier in case he had time to think about it and possibly ask to catch a ride with us to Ironwind. And for Nina to not want to be around a zombie, that really said something.

"You keep to your kingdom, and I'll keep to mine," he replied briskly as he turned on his heels and walked into the trees, quickly disappearing into the underbrush.

Daniel wasted no time driving away before the grumpy Nightstalker could change his mind. Logan moved back to his usual corner, letting Nicky and Jess spread out and give me room to sit down.

After a couple of minutes, Nicky said, "No offense, Nina, but I really hope that guy doesn't take you up on your offer."

"As do I," she murmured. "I felt pretty bad for all of you back there. He wasn't very... pleasant."

Nicky shrugged. "Well, there weren't any casualties, so I'll count that as a win. I'm quite relieved we're leaving him here, even though I'm not sure where 'here' is, but if it's over four hundred miles away, then I'm fine with that."

"The mountains in Oregon," Nina informed her.

"That means I've visited over three-quarters of the states in the USA, and I didn't even get to party in the last two!" Nicky waved her arms to emphasize how terrible such a thing was, almost whacking Jess in the head. She shook her head in regret, then turned to me. "You've been awfully quiet lately. I also noticed you and Regan didn't do any rank jockeying while you were in the truck."

"Call it a temporary truce. On the ride out, we were focused on the ones we were chasing. He was in a mood on the way back, but he kept it to himself, which was the only reason it didn't cause problems."

She tilted her head as if sensing I was leaving something out. "You honestly don't think that guy will turn up at some point, do you?"

"Will he show up in the next few years? Unlikely." I exhaled slowly, comparing his territorial behavior with what I had witnessed down by the river. Nor had I missed the few occasions when he had watched Jess lean against my leg with something akin to envy. "At some point in the future? There's a chance he'll swing by."

Nicky scratched her head. "Unless I'm missing something, I'm pretty sure Daniel and Nina's discussion about which Stronghold might give us fuel was just a fancy cover story to let him know where to get the cure or controlex without having to travel to Ironwind."

In the front seat, Nina turned sideways so she could see me more easily. Without denying Nicky's claim, she asked, "What makes you think Regan might come to Ironwind?"