I took a deep breath and turned back to the new guy. “What’s your name?”

He flicked a glance at McKinney and received a whisper of a nod in response. “Name’s Aaron Wallace, ma’am,” he told me.

“I’m Angel.” And I’m going to be your Angel of Death today, one way or the other, I thought miserably. “You, um, should probably sit down,” I said, waving in the general direction of the wall. I gave a nervous gulp. “I…I’m sorry. This is going to hurt.”

Aaron moved to sit and leaned against the wall, still keeping his back straight and stiff. “It’s all right ma’am. I’ve been injured before.”

I knelt down beside him, met his eyes. I wanted to tell him that he needed to run, get the hell out of here. Tell him that he had no idea what he was getting into. “There’s no going back from this,” I whispered. “There’s no cure.”

He gave me such a sweet smile that it almost brought me to tears. “It’s all right. I’m ready.”

I wished I was.

Taking hold of his shoulders, I leaned over and bit him hard, the same place I’d bitten Philip, right on the meat of muscle of his traps. Aaron let out a soft hiss as I tightened down, but didn’t twitch at all. I bit harder, tasting blood, then released him, swallowed uncertainly, and bit again. C’mon, killer instinct, I silently begged the parasite. I can’t do this on my own. Blood filled my mouth on the third bite. I could feel tears leaking down my cheeks as I tried to pretend I was simply eating a really tough piece of steak and did my best to tear the flesh.

I sat back on my heels and looked up at McKinney. “It’s not working,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady. “I swear, I’m trying. I swear. Maybe it’s too soon. Let me try some other time. Please!”

McKinney regarded me, mouth twisted in thought. “I’m not ready to quit trying yet. There’s one thing that’s different.” And with that he lifted the gun and shot Aaron twice in the chest, in an almost exact duplicate of the wounds on Philip.

Aaron jerked, eyes wide as he fought to get breath.

“No!” I screamed. “It’s not working. I’m not going to be able to save him!”

“Philip was dying when you tried to turn him,” McKinney replied, utterly calmly. “Perhaps being near death is a requirement. Now, try again.”

I struggled to catch my breath. Could he be right? I’d been close to death when Marcus turned me. And Marcus said he had rabies…but surely he hadn’t been actually dying when Pietro turned him? Would simply having a fatal disease count?

Aaron met my eyes as he fought for breath. Blood bubbled at his mouth, but then he gave me that same sweet smile. How could a seasoned soldier like this be so…innocent? I struggled to give him a smile in response, but I knew it was a sickly effort.

I leaned forward once again and bit down, silently praying with everything I had that this would work. I bit, I chewed, I even forced myself to swallow a small hunk of Aaron’s flesh in case that was what would trigger the mauling instinct.

But the only thing it triggered was nausea, and it wasn’t long before Aaron let out a low sigh of breath and went still.

“Fascinating,” I heard Dr. Charish say. “Though annoying,” she added. “It seems the parasite has a built in population control, which makes sense considering that human brains are a limited resource.”

I got slowly to my feet, turned to face her. I knew I still had blood around my mouth but I didn’t wipe it off. She stood with her hands on her hips, looking between me and Aaron’s body with undisguised impatience and aggravation. The black-suited man didn’t looked very pleased either.

“And how, pray tell,” he asked, “are we supposed to build a unit of Zoldiers if we can’t make more than one?”

“I can fix that,” Dr. Charish snapped. “The limitations are there because of the shortage of food supply. Once the parasite is introduced to the pseudo-brains it should adjust accordingly. I’ve given the new formulation to Philip, and there are none of the issues that were present with the previous batch. Which means we’re in business.” Her gaze went back to me, eyes narrowing. “And which also means that we don’t need to waste resources on this one anymore. Take care of it, McKinney.”

I crumpled as McKinney’s rounds hit me in the chest and stomach. God damn it, I was getting really fucking tired of getting shot. I made sure to fall so I was facing away from the group, though. Because Ed’s brilliant idea was hopefully going to pay off now.

“Do you want me to finish her off?” McKinney asked.

Dr. Charish laughed. “Oh, heavens, no! This is an excellent chance to see how the zombie parasite reacts when it doesn’t have the brains it needs.” I couldn’t see her, but I could practically hear the bitchy smile spreading across her face. “I want to see her rot. Let’s see how cocky she is when her tits are falling off.”

The government guy made a disgusted noise in his throat. “You’re a sick woman, Kristi. But I suppose that’s necessary for this sort of research.”

“Just wait until you’ve been around the zombies for a while,” she said with snort. “Besides, this way if it turns out we still need her, we can just throw some brains at her and she’ll be good as new.” She chuckled. “I can keep her as a test subject forever, if need be.”

And that’s when I stood up.

See, Ed’s idea had been brilliant and disgusting. He was a paramedic who knew anatomy and how to stitch wounds; I was a zombie with the ability to heal without a scar. And the perfect place to hide a stash of brains was, of course, in my abdomen.

McKinney’s stomach shot had actually helped me out by piercing one of the sausage casings of mushed brains that Ed had stuffed inside me—which, for the record, had not been a fun experience at all since anesthesia didn’t work on me. But oh, it was all so worth it now. After being shot I’d had to curl in on myself and do a bit of quick digging to pull the other tubes open and squeeze the brains out before the parasite could repair the damage, but while Dr. Charish and the others were yammering, I was busy getting tanked up to the max—three brains worth. I didn’t even need to eat the brains. The parasite didn’t give a shit how it got what it wanted. This was a sure-shot delivery system.

And I was the motherfucking predator now. I’d felt this way when I’d saved Marcus from being killed by Ed, and it had taken all the will I had to hold back and keep from doing everything I could to stay this way.

But right now I had no intention of holding back. Sweet zombie Jesus, I was fucking invincible.

They could see it, or sense it in their puny little hindbrains. Pure panic filled Dr. Charish’s face, and even McKinney went pale. She stabbed at a button on the keyboard in front of her and an alarm started hooting in the hallway.

My lips curled back from my teeth in a feral grin. “Zombie Super Powers, activate, you fucking bitches.”

I went for McKinney first. Even though I desperately wanted to smash through that window and take down Dr. Charish, I was a smart predator and knew that McKinney was the one who posed an immediate threat to me. Plus, I didn’t want to waste energy on smashing things too soon.

McKinney had enough training to go for the “fight” instead of the “flight,” but it didn’t matter. I got to him before he could squeeze off a shot and wrenched the gun from his hand with an adorably sweet sound of breaking bones. Okay, so I might not have actually pulled the gun from his hand before doing the wrenching.

He was tough—I had to give him that. He let out a choked cry of pain, but a snarl of determination curved his mouth. His other hand was already going for his ankle, where I figured he likely had another weapon.

I punched him hard in that determinedly snarling mouth, crushing lips and teeth. He staggered, but before he could fall I seized him by the side of his head. He tried to swing at me, but I batted it aside easily. I gave him my best evil-predator-bitch smile as he struggled to focus on me.

“Yeah, I’m a zombie, you motherfucker. And I’m also a person.” I slammed his head hard into the window. “I’m a woman.” I slammed it again. “And a daughter.” And again. “And a really fucking cool chick!” Oh what the hell, one last time, for good measure.

I let him drop and grinned at the bloody spiderweb of cracks in the glass. The room beyond the glass was empty and a distant sound of running footsteps echoed along the hall. The predator inside me keened in pleasure. A hunt. This would be fun. But first…

I crouched over the body of McKinney. His skull came apart easily since it was already fairly shattered, and I quickly gulped down the contents. While I ate I yanked off his belt and looped it around my waist. It was far too big but I threaded it through his holster and managed to tie the long end around the buckle so that it wouldn’t fall off. He also had a phone—unfortunately, with no signal. Either we were in the middle of nowhere, or we were in a big metal building. Or both. I clipped that onto the belt as well. I probably looked ridiculous but I didn’t give a shit.

My gaze shifted to the body of Aaron. “Sorry, sweetheart,” I murmured as I smashed his skull against the floor. “Just think of this as me avenging your death.”

After I finished I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. It came away bloody, and I stood. Time for the monster to bust herself out.

Chapter 27

McKinney had another gun in an ankle holster. It was a small thing that only held eight rounds, and I used them all to bust through the thick window. My room was locked, but the door of the observation room stood wide open. I kept McKinney’s other gun with me. I wasn’t much of a shot, but since I figured I was up against at least half a dozen guards I needed every edge I could give myself.

Right now my senses were at superpower levels, and I could literally scent the direction they’d gone. Unfortunately, Dr. Charish and Suit Dude had a good head start, and that damn hooting alarm was apparently the grab-everything-and-get-the-hell-out signal.