Read Online Barely Alive by Bonnie R. Paulson - Free Book Online Page B

stuff to work out.” Yes, I meant I wanted to eat him.
    Understanding raked the smugness from his face.
    The needle was pretty big. Looked like an 18-gauge, but I couldn’t be sure through the gathering gray fingers of smoke pinching the air. Collapsing wood fell somewhere in the back of the burning building. In one swift moment the needle was in her soft flesh and Dominic plunged the virus into her system. I winced.
    Heather screamed. “You son of a bitch!”
    She sobbed.
    Dominic tossed the used syringe to the ground. He smirked and pushed her from him. “Let’s see how she handles the meat in the warehouse. Show you how it’s done, eh, Paully?” He stood and moved around behind the waist-high cement wall. He thrummed his fingers on the rock and waited. I could almost see him counting the seconds in his head. I watched him.
    But I couldn’t hide my conclusions any more. Didn’t want to. I’d bit her and she hadn’t changed. Or died. Dominic didn’t know about the bite, didn’t know I’d drooled all over her back, licked every inch of skin between her shoulder blades in my “quest” to clean up the evidence.
    She wasn’t going to react as Dominic described. I knew what was going to happen – or not, as it were. Heather sobbed, tears streaking the dust on her cheeks. I would’ve held her, but I needed to keep my attention on Dominic.
    His face changed. I couldn’t place the emotion, if I tried. But I liked it. Confusion, maybe? Or fear? Or maybe a combination of the two. I couldn’t be sure.
    Dominic stepped toward Heather, but didn’t round the foundation wall. “I don’t understand. Hello? What is going on? Hey!” He snapped his fingers toward her face. “Do you want to eat me?”
    “ Ew. That’s gross. I don’t want you near me.” Heather rubbed the sore spot on her arm. Her glower hadn’t softened. The passing of time dawned on her and she looked at me. “I’m not like you?” I shook my head. She tasted her next words. “And I’m not dead.”
    A small smile split my mouth and showered my unsurprised delight on her. I’d have the chance to explain the bite later. She’d be pissed, but at least she was alive.
    Dominic watched me, his eyes burning holes in my dying skin. “You knew she wouldn’t change? How did you know, Paul?” He glanced between us and reached for Heather. “Where did you bite her, you sneaky little bastard? I didn’t see any marks. That’s the only way you could know.”
    A screech sliced through the smoky haze. I grabbed Heather and shoved her behind me. No way in hell were we sticking around, but I needed some meat and I needed it now. And something else was coming. We wouldn’t be safe out in the open.
    Moving as one, Heather and I shuffled to the barn door. We could hide in there, until the predator moved on.
    And it was something like me…
    I pushed the door open and shoved her through. Another screech ricocheted off the buildings, a lower pitch than the first.
    My gaze met Dominic’s. He stumbled around the foundation toward me, hand outstretched. But I sidled in after Heather and slammed the door shut, locking it from the inside with a large bar. I leaned against the door.
    Heather clamped her hands over her mouth. She stood two feet from me.
    “ Let me in, Paul. Now. If she’s immune, her family is, too. Let me in, or I’m going after them.” His mouth had to be just on the other side of the door, his words amplified but dulled by the wood. “And she won’t be able to recognize them when I’m done. Maybe I’ll visit yours, too.”
    Heather gasped. “No. My family…”
    My family… I lifted the bar an inch, two…
    Dominic’s fists hit the door – once, twice, three times – a screech, a scream, another screech and a thud of body on body.
    I dropped the bar. My breaths came fast and shallow.
    Heather moved a foot from me.
    Another pounding on the thick door, a different tempo, a different strength, easily distracted by a sound from across