Read Online Safe In Your Arms by Kelliea Ashley - Free Book Online

away had changed a lot in the area. She wondered what changes she would find in her parent’s summer house. The sunken living room reminded her of her father’s den with the big television and all the plush couches. Yep, these people had money, plenty of it, by the looks of the paintings on the walls. Noises from above startled her as she moved to the fireplace mantle to look at the pictures. He was upstairs. What if he was with another girl? Perhaps the one he’d been dreaming of when she woke him up? There was only one way to find out.
    Moving as quietly as she could, Mina walked through the living room and found the staircase. She was halfway up the stairs when she heard a female cry of pain. Icy fear ran down her spine as she froze with her hand on the railing. A voice, low and muffled by doors, had her moving back down the stairs and through a hallway. She found herself in an immaculate kitchen with stainless steel appliances and green marbled counters. The knife block, full of black-handled knives, drew her like a match.
    When she was fully armed with a knife in each hand, Mina moved back up the stairs, not pausing at the grunts and groans coming from the left hallway. Keeping her body turned so her back was to the wall, she was careful to step lightly. Boards and tools lay on the floor before the very last doorway. A foul stench of rotting flesh and feces had her grimacing and placing her shirt back over her nose. What the hell was going on? It almost smelled like...
    Terror gripped her as she realized there was probably a zombie in the room only a door away. Mina took a shallow breath and prepared herself to fight. There was no survival with a Z on the island with them. Panic hit her like a pain in the chest as she realized the Z might be eating Gabe behind that door, while she was cowering in the hallway. Arm raised, a massive butcher knife in her hand, Mina kicked the door in and stood there in shock at the crazy sight before her.
    Sitting in a rocking chair with a colorful afghan covering her lap was a young girl. Her long brown hair was tied back in a braid with bangs covering her forehead. She was wearing a clean, white peasant top with red flowers embroidered into the collar covering her breasts. All this would have been quite normal, but the rotting sores and long fingernails gripping the chair’s arms weren’t. The girl sniffed loudly and her head snapped up fast enough to cause Mina to jump back.
    Drool hung from chapped and pale lips. Flesh was peeling on her cheeks and chin, revealing blackened areas of rotting meat. Mina’s stomach pitched violently as she met the female zombie’s hungry gaze. Lifeless eyes, blue in the center, seemed to be looking right at her. A growl came from the girl’s mouth as her damaged lips pulled up in a show of yellow, rotting teeth and blackened gums. In a heartbeat she came up out of the rocking chair, slamming it back against the wall loudly. Mina braced herself for the attack to come, startled when the girl came to an abrupt halt several feet from her. A howl of rage and despair echoed around her as the girl struggled futilely against the chains on her arms and legs.
    “Mina!” She turned her head from the animal in human clothing to see Gabe coming toward her with a bowl full of raw meat. He was wearing a torn leather jacket and jeans, with his expression angry and dangerous.
    Mina immediately knew that whatever was going on wasn’t good and there was no way she was going to be the next victim to go into that bowl. Adrenaline filled her as she attacked him. The bowl clanged against the wall as Gabe used it to defend against her wild swing with the butcher knife.
    “What the hell!” He dodged her next swipe, catching her wrist in a painful hold, but he missed her fist as it hit him in the jaw.
    “You sick bastard!” Mina kicked out, her foot glancing off his shin as he yanked her off-balance and shoved her hard up against the wall. He slammed her wrists up