Part 17 (1/2)

”Kesha,” Melissa said.

”Oh, you're good.”

”So you'd kill Kesha? You'd kill the last bit of hope-the girl with the cure in her bloodstream-just to punish Riley?”

”Again. I thought so. But now, I dunno. I guess Riley is growing on me. His fight. His spirit. I dunno. Maybe imminent death is getting to my head.”

”What do you mean?”

Kane hesitated a few seconds.

Then he leaned forward and pulled his jacket away.

The back of Kane's T-s.h.i.+rt was ripped apart. Underneath it, Melissa could see blood.

Lots of patches of blood.

”You've been bitten.”

”I've had a good run,” Kane said. ”It had to end, eventually.”

Melissa felt mixed emotions over Kane's state and still she couldn't understand why.

”Well?” Kane said. ”Isn't this the part where you celebrate?”

Melissa shrugged. ”People die. It's just something that happens.”

”So you're not happy to see me go.”

”I'm not happy to see anyone go. We're all... we're all people, at the end of the day. No matter what we're like underneath, we're all people, and we are all united. Against the monsters.”

Kane's smile grew even further. ”You don't really believe that. Do you?”

Melissa couldn't hide her real thoughts anymore, as her heart thumped, as her pulse raced. ”No,” she said. ”I think we're the real monsters.”

Then she did something that surprised her more than anything.

She leaned over and she wrapped her lips around Kane's.

She was on top of him, then. He gripped on to her hair, pushed his fingers through it. She could feel him getting hard underneath her and she couldn't control her feelings, couldn't control her emotions, couldn't control her cravings.

Her l.u.s.t.

She felt his sharp fingers ripping the jumper off her back.

She felt his cold hands against her skin, cupping her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

And above anything, she felt his heartbeat. His heartbeat picking up as they got even closer, even more intimate.

She sensed Kane had never experienced feelings like this before, and that got to her more than anything. That turned her on.

She reached down the front of his jeans and grabbed his hard, throbbing c.o.c.k in her hand.

Upon touching it, he went soft right away.

”Disappointing,” she said.

Then Kane grabbed her around the throat and squeezed. He looked into her eyes with a look that she'd never seen before. An animalistic l.u.s.t. ”Trust me,” he said, tightening his grip around her throat to the point Melissa couldn't swallow, couldn't breathe. ”We haven't even got started yet.”

”And we aren't gonna be finis.h.i.+ng anytime soon, lovebirds.”

The voice made Melissa jump, and Kane loosened his grip around her throat. She hopped off of Kane right away, looked over to her right. She lifted her knife. Scanned the trees. There was no one there. No one that she could see.

And then she felt a hand on her shoulder.

She swung around and felt something crack against the back of her head.

She fell, right towards the ground.

When she fell, she saw someone standing above her.

It was a man. He was bald, and he was smiling.

”Come on, princess. If you want to finish off, I can help-argh!”

He didn't finish speaking because Melissa rammed the knife right up into his b.a.l.l.s.

She dragged the knife away, feeling the warm blood splatter down her hand.

And when she'd pulled that knife away, despite how much her head was still hurting and her ankle still aching, she ran away into the trees as quickly as she could.

She looked over her shoulder. She saw there were two more people standing near where she'd been.

She saw them standing right over Kane.

And she saw Kane's eyes. His smile.

The way he looked at her, like no one else looked at her.

She wanted to stay. That small, self-destructive part inside her body-the same self-destructive part that had almost killed herself a number of times-told her to go back and fight for Kane.

But the bigger part-the logical part-made her shake her head.

She turned around and ran.

Kane leaned back against the bark of the tree, still in a euphoric state of bliss after his moment with Melissa.