“So,” Mackenna said, “you wanted to talk?”
Her wounds had been tended to, and the doctor had left. They’d been alone for several minutes now, and while he’d positioned himself on the edge of her bed for their conversation, he didn’t know where to start.
The beginning would obviously be a good place, but where exactly was that? “You know about the Purge?”
Her brow furrowed as she nodded. “A lot of humans were dying. They said it was some kind of virus, but no one knew what was happening.”
The basics were correct, but the Purge had been so much more than that. He’d found the beginning.
“Well, it wasn’t exactly a virus. It was a manmade biological weapon meant to target the paranormal population.”
Her expression became strained, deepening the valley between her eyes. “Someone did this on purpose?”
“They did. Something went wrong, though. It caused some adverse reactions in the Gemini, but it didn’t kill them.”
“How many?” She spoke quietly, barely on the edge of hearing.
Hoping he’d interpreted her question correctly, he answered, “About ninety percent of the human population worldwide.”
Her eyes fluttered closed briefly, but the tears he’d expected didn’t come. “What about the Gemini? You said something happened to them. Adverse reactions.”
Cade frowned. He couldn’t begin to imagine where she’d been this whole time that she hadn’t at least heard rumors. “Vampires burn in the sun.” They didn’t catch on fire or turn to ash, but it was still dangerous. “Shifters struggle with their change. I guess it takes longer, and it’s pretty painful. Werewolves got it the worst.”
She would already know that the werewolves could no longer shift at all. Whatever magic governed them still dictated they change on the full moon, but the PN2 virus inhibited that change. Hours of bones breaking, mending, and breaking again as an unending battled raged within them had driven many of them mad.
“The pain from not being able to shift caused a lot of werewolves to go feral,” he added, trying to cover as much information as he could. “We call them Ravagers.”
Mackenna stilled, her pale skin turned ashy as the blood drained from her face, and the light faded from her eyes. She stared into the distance, but he could only guess as to what she saw. Maybe she was remembering those painful nights of being huddled on the ground while her body fought to do what it no longer could.
“Hey, don’t worry. If you haven’t gone Ravager yet, it’s not likely that you will.”
“No, right.” She visibly shook herself, but the smile she offered him didn’t quite reach her eyes. “It’s just unsettling, you know?” Sinking back into the pillows, she rolled her head to the side to stare up at him. “Tell me about the Revenant.”
As Cade had heard it, the Revenant had existed long before the Purge. The fact that she knew nothing about them was probably a good thing, though. It meant she’d led an easy life, a happy one that hadn’t required intervention just to keep her alive.
“The Revenant is mostly other Gemini, though a few humans have joined the ranks in recent years.” Technically, he could probably consider himself a member, even if he’d never officially pledged his alliance to the cause. “They’re just a group that helps people. They rescue them from bad situations, right the wrongs of the world. They protect those who can’t protect themselves.”
Her smile had a little more warmth to it this time. “That sounds nice.”
As much as he wanted to keep that look on her face, to give her just a few more minutes of peace, he couldn’t put it off any longer. “I know this is hard, but I have to ask. What happened to you?”
For a long time, he thought she wouldn’t answer. She didn’t owe him anything, not even an explanation, but he couldn’t help her if he didn’t know what she’d been through. He also suspected that there were more like her, others being held against their will, and they needed someone to give a damn about them, too.
Even six months ago, Cade wouldn’t have been that guy. Back then, he’d been all about number one. So full of rage and self-loathing, he’d been no good to anyone, not even the small band of survivors who had elected him their unofficial leader. He’d hated having so many people depend on him, and in the end, he’d failed them all.
“It was a few days after everyone started getting sick,” Mackenna said, pulling him from his morbid spiral. “I was trying to get back to my hometown in Nevada, but I blew a tire, so I called this local towing company. The guy that showed up was kind of twitchy, but I didn’t think much of it.” She lifted one shoulder toward her ear, but it didn’t come off as casual as she’d probably intended. “I guess he drugged me with something, and when I woke up, I was naked on the floor of a cage.”
Cade’s stomach twisted, and his mouth flooded with saliva. “And you said it was Hunters who took you?”
She dipped her head.
The flame of unease in his gut ignited into a wave white-hot anger. He had no tolerance for anyone who inflicted suffering on others for sport. Hunters might technically be human, but that didn’t stop them from being monsters. Every member of the Revenant had been affected in some way by these fanatics, and from the stories he’d heard, their cruelty knew no bounds.
There had been a time when Cade had despised everything and everyone linked to the paranormal world, when he’d actively wished for their demise. Even in his darkest moments, however, he would have never hurt a child. He would
