Page 104 of Dark Fey Captive

“Why?” I asked.

“I hear gunfire and screaming.”

“Shit,” Gwen breathed, sprinting for the door.

Nav caught her around the waist. “Stay with Arena. I’ll go. Keep her safe.” Then he was gone.

Gwen looked at me, panic in her eyes. “We left Lynn and Asha. We’re not just going to stay here, are we?”

“No,” I said, untangling from Lettie. “I need pants.”

I ran to the bedroom and came back out in less than a minute, zipping my jeans and jacket hanging open. Barely pausing at the open front door, I stomped into my boots, then rushed outside.

Lettie and Gwen stood in the road, listening to the gunfire. Gwen held the recently acquired rifle, and my stomach twisted at the sight of it. Guns were great. They killed infected. And if she had one, she was expecting some.

We sprinted toward the fence, scrambling over it almost at the same time. The gun slowed Gwen a little.

We moved as quietly as possible down the center of the road, no longer sprinting. Our footfalls were soft but hurried. No one said anything. If the gunfire hadn’t drawn infected yet, it would soon. I kept looking over my shoulder in case any came up behind us. But as they’d said, nothing was moving besides us.

By the time we reached the pharmacy, I could hear someone yelling something, but the sound of the boat’s engine and infected calls made it impossible to make it out.

I tugged on Gwen’s jacket to stop her from running past the hotel. She and Lettie followed me to the side, near the tall grass, where we could see the docks without being spotted.

The chaos I saw stunned me. A group of men near the land end of the dock was shooting at the horde of infected between them and us. I recognized a face. Eric. Scanning the rest, I saw the one Belak had knocked out, too. The pair were dividing their attention between that group of infected and another group on the dock that Nav was trying to keep from Asha, who was huddled behind a pile of supplies.

How had Eric managed to get his people pinned between two groups of infected? And why wasn’t Nav killing the ones surrounding him and Asha?

My heart leaped when Eric and his partner fired a few shots in that direction. Two infected in front of Nav jerked but didn’t go down.

Lynn, in the boat, yelled. I couldn’t make out what she was saying, but based on the arm movements, she was trying to get Asha to jump and swim out to her.

Nav turned his head and said something to Asha as he shoved an infected into another. Why wasn’t he tearing off their heads? I’d seen him do it. He could kill them all in seconds.

I squinted, noting the blood on his forearm. Was he bitten again?

“What do we do?” Lettie whispered, sounding on the verge of tears. “What if he turns?”

Gwen’s expression hardened, and she lifted the rifle. I stopped her.

“He won’t,” I said quietly. “No shooting here.”

I nodded toward more infected moving our way.

Gwen didn’t question me as I gestured toward the front of the hotel. They followed me into the building toward one of the lower rooms facing the water in the middle of the hotel. I knocked softly on the broken door. When nothing answered, we went in.

While Lettie and I moved the dresser to block the door, Gwen went to the window. She had a clear view of the dock and Nav.

“Don’t shoot him,” I said. “He’s immune. I’ve seen it.”

“I won’t,” she said, opening the window enough to aim.

Lettie and I covered our ears.

Gwen fired.

At the sound, the men in the group started yelling.

“Did you get one of them?” Lettie asked.