Once Upon a Twist (15 page)

“She’s, she’s…” Ruby couldn’t finish.

He wore a pained expression, like someone was physically hurting him. “Ruby, I’m sorry.”

She shook her head, not wanting pity. They had to think. They had to… “The path. There’s a trail of blood out back. We have to follow it.”

Ruby headed for the door but he caught her. His face was grim. “I can’t let you. It’s too dangerous.”

Struggling, she said, “I have to. She’s the only family I have. I can’t let that happen to her.”

He sucked in a breath, and he was the burning man again. “I’ll follow the trail, but I’m taking you back first.”

“I’m not going back. I’m coming with you.” Looking him straight in the eye, she showed him how serious she was. If he needed help, she wanted to be there, and if he found Grandma, she’d be able to do what she needed to.

“No.”

Ruby opened her mouth to argue, but he grabbed her face and kissed her hard. The world shifted a little beneath her feet and she had to grab his shoulders for support. His kiss was so warm, so passionate it consumed her every thought.

Too soon, he pulled away.

“The wolf is in the forest, and it’s still dark enough for it to be out. The search will take longer when I’m watching both our backs.”

Her heart dropped into her stomach at the thought of Jeremy out there alone with the wolf. “But—”

“No buts, you’re going home.”

She didn’t appreciate his tone one bit. “No, I’m not. But I’ll stay here. I need to be close in case…” Swallowing, she started at the ground.

Jeremy tilted her head up, and studied her for a second. After a quick check of the house, he said, “I don’t like this.”

“It’s light outside the cottage,” she pointed out. “If they’re allergic to the sun they’ll go back to wherever it is they spend the days. I’ll be fine. Just find her. Please.”

He didn’t answer, only looked deep into her eyes until she felt dizzy. What he saw on her face must have convinced him. Crushing her close, he lowered his mouth to hers again and devoured her. The kiss was desperate, fearful and felt like goodbye. It wasn’t until he pulled away and left without a word that she realized the danger she was putting Jeremy in. If he got hurt because of her…

Through the windows she could see him disappear into the forest at a jog, his shotgun aimed in front of him. Ruby slumped against the wall and sucked in a deep breath. And another. Praying he’d come back to her was all she had left.

She went through the hall to close the lounge door against all the coppery blood, and froze. The closet opened, blocking out the light seeping through the wolf-shaped hole in the front door.

A man stepped out, his eyes yellow, his skin hanging in strands and part of his left cheek was missing, highlighting the white bone beneath.

Her hands shook and she realized they were empty. She’d left the gun in the kitchen. Shit.

The creature’s grating groan startled her into action. She turned as it lunged forward. As the light hit its skin, it sizzled and the smell made her gag.  Darting to the side, she dodged its skeletal hand. Her shoes, damp from the morning dew on the grass, skidded on the shiny blood covered floor. Her stomach heaved, but she fought the urge to puke. Catching the doorframe for balance, she pulled herself through to the kitchen.

A loud thud told her the infected hadn’t been so lucky. She grabbed the gun, hiked it up on her shoulder and aimed it at the thing flailing on the floor. It seemed to have lost a few fingers in the fall. When she spotted them squirming next to the doorway, she swallowed back bile.

Shoot it. Do it now.

Jeremy’s demanding tone popped into her head. She pulled the trigger and the force of the shot knocked her back a few steps. Her shoulder ached, and her ears rang, but she didn’t stop to worry about that. She spun around and sprinted out the door.

***

A shot rang out just as Jeremy was twenty feet into the forest. The sound came from her grandma’s house. His chest constricted and the muscles in his legs seized for a second.

Red.

Adrenaline pumped through his body and gave him the strength he needed to move. Turning, he bolted back in the direction of the cottage.

The forest had grown quiet, and he couldn’t help freak out that the wolf had returned, but in fucking daylight? Shit, he shouldn’t have left her, he shouldn’t have—

Ruby burst out of the back door and ran down the path with the gun gripped tightly to her chest. He let out a sigh of relief, and as he cleared the forest into the meadow around her grandma’s cottage, her gaze met his.

That’s when they both heard the growl. One second he was running, the next he was eating dirt. The body slam didn’t register, and he wondered what the fuck he’d tripped over, until she screamed.

The pain came fast, like broken glass splinters had been lodged in his ankle. But it wasn’t glass, and he was being pulled deeper into the shadows of the forest. He kicked back at the fucker, and when his boot connected with the wolf’s face it let go with a snarl.

Jeremy tried to get up, but the wolf was faster. It was in a crouch before he could get his legs under him. Fuck, he was next, and he couldn’t get her away. In a last ditch attempt he scrambled to find his gun.

A shot rang in his ears, and the wolf let out a whine. It backed into the thicket of bushes just as his hand closed around the metal barrel. He swung the gun around and aimed it at the clearing, but the sounds of the wolf were getting farther away.

“Jer, your leg.” Her voice was barely a whisper, but he heard the panic.

He looked down his body and saw his denims covered in blood. The sharp pains hadn’t faded, but adrenaline was nothing if not a painkiller. Then it sunk in. Fuck. He was infected. 

Wasn’t Karma a bitch?

Chapter Six

The house was quiet when they returned. Ruby helped Jeremy into the kitchen, trailing blood all over the hall, but that was the least of her worries. Seeing him there, in the jaws of the wolf was her nightmare. Only worse. This was real life and she had almost lost the only thing she had left to live for. The only man she would ever love.

He lowered himself into a chair with a grunt, and she went to the cupboard under the sink, pulled the first aid box out and readied herself to get to work. But she knew the truth, knew it with all her heart. Didn’t mean she was going to accept it.

“Red, don’t. Cleaning the wound won’t stop it. I’m infected.”

She refused to meet his gaze as she fished a dishtowel out of the drawer and a bowl. Filling it with warm water, she brought the supplies to the floor and left them next to his feet. Oh God it was horrific. His skin was torn beneath his jeans. Fighting back the bubble of hysteria, she carefully rolled up the denim.

Cuts, she told herself. Only cuts. She needed to clean them and treat him and he’d be fine.

“Red, listen to me.”

Ruby took the dishtowel, wet the corner then began to clean the wound. He hissed at the pain and she wished she could spare him that, but she had to get it clean. Had to get…

Her vision blurred and she swiped at her eyes. Jeremy tilted her face up and cupped her cheeks in his dirty hands. “No,” she whispered, not wanting to hear the horrid truth.

The pain in his expression mirrored her own. “You have to leave here. You have to get out.”

“No!” She got to her feet. “I’m not leaving you. Never again.”

“Red, it’s over. I don’t want you around when I have to—”.

“The sun. You’re in the sun,” she cut in, not willing to hear the rest.

“I’m changing, I can feel it. The sun will start to burn me soon.”

She shook her head. “I can’t let you die.”

He pulled her close and she twisted, slid onto his lap, tight against his chest.

“I want you to leave,” he said. “You need to get out of here before I…”

“No. Please, Jeremy. No. Tell me there’s another way. Tell me this doesn’t have to be the end.” The dam burst, even though she knew it was over. He wouldn’t want to be a monster, and he wouldn’t want to ask her to take his life.

He opened his mouth, but nothing came out so he shut it again. Her heart sped, slamming against her ribs and her breaths came in gasps.

“Is there another way?” she pressed, trying to keep the tears at bay.

“I swore to myself I’d never lie to you again if I could help it.” He paused, squeezing his eyes shut. “But telling you the truth now would hurt you.”

Her vision blurred. “There’s no…” Just like he’d told her last night. This was the end. 

He nodded. “But I’m still me. I still have time.”

“For?” she asked, unable to bat away the last pathetic shred of hope.

The serious look in his eyes, the regretful expression, made her want to cuddle up to him and tell him he was wrong. “To end this myself.”

She shook her head.

“I’m sorry, for everything. I wish I could have told you it all. I wish it didn’t have to end without you knowing the truth.” The regret and self-loathing in his eyes resonated with her, soul-deep.

“So tell me now. Please, tell me it all now.” The longer he kept talking, the longer she had with him. “I’ll disappear, they won’t find me, and I’ll swear I didn’t know a thing. Nothing will happen to me, Jer.”  

“I can’t risk you like that.”

Jeremy’s eyes filled with moisture, a first for him which proved how pathetic it was to hope. She was glad at the end he was finally showing her warmth, finally cracking the icy wall around him.

“I would never put your life in danger that way,” he said.

She rose from his lap and paced the kitchen. If she thought walking away from him before had been bad, this was worse. “If you die, my life doesn’t matter.” He opened his mouth to interrupt her but she raised a palm to stop him. “I’d rather know the real you, and face any consequences than have you die and not know the truth. Tell me.”

The silence that followed made her want to scream, but she waited.

Eventually his head dropped and his shoulders slumped in defeat. She held onto the countertop, preparing herself for what would come next.

He sucked in a huge breath. “Once upon a time in a land far, far away…”

“Be serious, Jer.”

His eyes were haunted with sadness. “I need to do it this way, please.” She nodded, and he went on. “There was a crazy scientist who thought he could save the world. The man was an expert on the biggest killer of all, a disease every historian on the planet thought had been destroyed hundreds of years ago. It had taken as many children as adults far and wide.”

Ruby wondered why he needed to tell her this like it was a fairytale, then she realized he was talking about his father. Trying to pretend it wasn’t a story that happened to him. Her heart ached, but she tightened her grip on the counter and forced herself to listen. Besides, she knew the part about the disease breaking out, and a mutated version of what happened before being the reason. What she didn’t know was how Jeremy was involved. 

“When the disease first returned after lying dormant for centuries, the man’s wife, a nurse, was one of the first to be infected.  She had a wound on her hand. There was an accident in the trauma unit – we still don’t know for sure what happened, but somehow an infected patient’s blood seeped into her wound. It doesn’t just spread through saliva. Like many things, blood can be the carrier. She hadn’t realized the patient had the disease, how could she? Nobody knew. This patient was one of the first to catch it. Up until a few years ago everyone assumed it had been neutralized. The scientist soon realized something was wrong when his wife’s flesh started to decay.”

He paused to take a breath and she lost the battle to fight back her tears.

“Don’t cry, Red. You’ve shed enough tears for me.”

Swiping away the moisture on her cheeks, she offered him a weak smile.

“The man was an expert on contagious diseases. He worked day and night, teaching his son about the science behind the disease, telling him they would be the men who would go down in history for finding a cure. What he didn’t tell the son was that he, the scientist, was infecting animals with the disease in a small shack in the woods.”

The way he spoke, with such distaste, confused her. “I would have done the same.”

His eyebrows shot up. “What?”

“Jeremy, your dad was losing your mom to an old disease that wasn’t even documented. He was
desperate
, willing to try anything to save her.”

Shaking his head, he spoke through his teeth. “You may change your mind about that.”

Ruby doubted it, but she waited for him to go on.

“The rate the man and his son progressed was phenomenal. One year later they thought they had a cure, but the father insisted they had to wait before they gave it to the wife. This was when the disease still worked at a slow pace, taking its time to kill its victims, eating them from the outside in.” Jeremy grimaced. “The son didn’t understand what he meant, but his father disappeared for the weekend, telling the son not to worry, that he would be back soon. The son’s mother died that night.”

Moisture shimmered in his eyes. She crossed the room, unable to keep her distance, took his hand and squeezed.

“Weeks passed and the father never returned. Soon after, the government broke into his home, stripped all their research away and left the son without an explanation. Six months later, the story hit the news about a similar disease that rotted people, but which worked at a much quicker pace and also turned the victims into mindless monsters.”

“The government officials who raided the son’s house pulled him out of University and took him to their secret headquarters. He was questioned about the supposed cure, his father and their research, and it all clicked into place for the son. He realized that his father had tested the
cure
and something had happened to cause the disease to mutate, turning everyone who was infected into monsters. He begged the officials to let him help end the crisis and find a way to stop it.”

“But when the son and the officials did find a way, they realized that the situation wasn’t completely contained. The son searched through his father’s notes until he found scribbles about an outside lab deep in the woods, about a mile along the river. He came to the forest and found more papers, more research, and the son figured out that his last experiment with the wolf was what had started it all. The scientist’s search for a cure had backfired. The scientist had been directly responsible for the disease mutating and turning people into monsters. ”