KAEL POV
"You brought home a stray?"
Lysander's voice was flat with disbelief as I carried Zariah through the warehouse entrance. "A half-dead stray who's already got a bounty on her head?"
"She has a name." I kicked the door shut behind me. My zombie guards shuffled back into position outside, forming a wall of undead flesh that would attack anything living that tried to enter.
Except her. My system had already marked her as PROTECTED. The zombies wouldn't touch her even if I commanded it.
"Kael." Lysander blocked my path. "Think about this. Genesis wants her. Haven City wants her. Every settlement in the region is going to want her once word spreads. She's not just dangerous—she's a magnet for trouble."
"She's also the cure for the apocalypse."
"A cure that kills her every time she uses it!" He gestured at Zariah's unconscious form. "Look at her! She's already dying from curing three zombies. Three! How is that useful?"
My system pulsed again. The same message it had been screaming since I found her.
[ANOMALY: ZARIAH LOVELACE]
[PRIORITY: PROTECT AT ALL COSTS]
[WARNING: ENTITY SURVIVAL CRITICAL TO USER]
I didn't understand that last part. Critical to me? How?
But my system had kept me alive through impossible situations. I'd learned to trust it.
"She stays," I said flatly. "End of discussion."
Lysander's jaw tightened. "You're making a mistake."
"Won't be my first."
I carried Zariah up the stairs to the second floor. We'd cleared out the warehouse's old offices and turned them into living quarters. Bare mattresses on the floor. Scavenged furniture. Nothing fancy, but it was safe.
I laid her on the cleanest bed we had. She didn't wake. Barely seemed to be breathing.
The black veins on her arms pulsed faintly, matching her heartbeat. I found myself counting them. One pulse. Two. Three.
Still alive. Still fighting.
She'd survived two weeks alone in that storage room. Starving. Dehydrated. Infected multiple times based on the bite scars I'd seen.
Most people would have given up.
She hadn't.
"Stubborn," I muttered. "Or stupid. Maybe both."
Her violet eyes moved under her closed lids. Dreaming. Or having nightmares. Probably nightmares.
I knew something about those.
My hand moved toward her face before I could stop it. Wanting to brush the tangled hair from her forehead. Wanting to—
I jerked back. What was I doing?
She was a resource. A tool. Nothing more.
But my system pulsed again: PROTECT.
"Kael?"
I turned to find a young woman in the doorway. Red hair like fire. Golden eyes that missed nothing.
Raven. Our best fighter after me. B-rank Berserker System that made her nearly unstoppable in close combat.
"Who's the ghost?" she asked, nodding at Zariah.
"Her name is Zariah. She's—"
"The Silver Healer everyone's talking about." Raven's eyes widened. "Holy shit. You actually found her?"
Word traveled too fast in the apocalypse. "How did you—"
"Radio chatter. Every settlement from here to the coast is buzzing about it. Some healer who can cure infection. Genesis is offering a fortune for information." She studied Zariah carefully. "She doesn't look like much."
"She's SSS-rank."
Raven whistled low. "Another one? That makes three in our little group." Her expression turned serious. "Lysander's right, you know. She's going to paint a target on all of us."
"Let them come." My shadows coiled around my arms. "I'll kill anyone who tries to take her."
"Why?" Raven's question was direct. "You don't do charity. You don't save people out of kindness. So why her?"
Good question.
The logical answer: she was valuable. The cure could be leveraged for resources, alliances, power.
But that wasn't why my system was screaming.
"I don't know yet," I admitted. "But she stays."
Raven studied me for a long moment. Then she grinned. "Boss has a crush. Never thought I'd see the day."
"It's not—" I started, but she was already leaving, her laughter echoing down the hallway.
I turned back to Zariah. She'd shifted in her sleep, curling into a ball like she was trying to protect herself even unconscious.
My chest tightened. An unfamiliar feeling.
I hadn't felt anything in months. Not since I'd killed my sister. Not since I'd watched the light fade from her infected eyes and known I'd murdered the only family I had left.
After that, everything went cold. Numb. Dead inside to match the death I controlled outside.
But Zariah made me feel... something. Anger at whoever hurt her. Curiosity about her power. And something else I couldn't name.
"What are you?" I whispered to her sleeping form.
She didn't answer. Just kept breathing those shallow breaths, her black veins pulsing steadily.
I should kill her. My instincts screamed it. She was my opposite—life to my death, healing to my destruction. Opposites were threats. Enemies.
But I couldn't.
Wouldn't.
Instead, I called through my mental link to the zombies: Guard this door. Kill anything that tries to enter except me, Lysander, or Raven.
Twenty zombies shuffled up the stairs and took positions around her room.
Overkill, maybe.
But my system kept screaming PROTECT and I'd learned not to ignore it.
I turned to leave, then stopped. Went back to the bed. Pulled a blanket over her thin shoulders.
Her hand twitched. Reached out in sleep. Her fingers closed around air, grasping for something that wasn't there.
Someone, I realized. She was reaching for someone who'd left her.
The fiancé. The one who pushed her to die.
My shadows writhed angrily. If I ever met Thorne Beckett, I'd make his death slow. Painful. Creative.
Nobody hurt what was mine.
Wait. Mine?
I shook my head. She wasn't mine. Just under my protection. Just an asset.
I forced myself to walk away.
Three hours later, I stood in the warehouse's command center, staring at maps and reports.
Lysander pointed to marked locations. "Haven City's expanding. Thorne Beckett is recruiting aggressively. Rumor is he's got an A-rank Combat System and he's using it to force people into joining."
"How many awakeners?"
"At least fifty confirmed. Maybe more." Lysander's expression was grim. "He's building an army, Kael. And if he finds out about Zariah—"
"He won't."
"He will. It's only a matter of time." Lysander met my eyes. "You need to decide what you're going to do with her. Keep her hidden? Use her openly? Trade her to the highest bidder?"
Trade her. The suggestion made my shadows spike violently, cracking the concrete floor.
Lysander stepped back. "Easy. I'm just laying out options."
"She's not for sale."
"Then what is she?"
I didn't have an answer.
My system pulsed: CRITICAL: CHECK ON ZARIAH LOVELACE.
Something was wrong.
I was moving before I could think, taking the stairs three at a time. The zombie guards parted as I approached her door.
I burst into the room.
Zariah was awake. Sitting up in bed. Staring at her hands.
The black veins were spreading. Not just on her arms anymore. They crawled up her neck now, reaching toward her face like dark fingers.
"It's getting worse," she said quietly. "The cost. It's not stopping."
"What do you mean?"
"The life force I used to cure those three zombies. It's still draining. Slowly." She looked up at me, her violet eyes huge. "Kael, I think the cures are permanent. But the cost keeps building. Like interest on a debt."
My blood ran cold. "How long do you have?"
"I don't know. Days? Weeks?" She laughed bitterly. "Turns out being the cure means dying from it."
[SYSTEM UPDATE: ZARIAH LOVELACE STATUS]
[LIFE FORCE: 87%]
[DETERIORATION RATE: 1% PER 6 HOURS]
[ESTIMATED SURVIVAL: 21 DAYS WITHOUT INTERVENTION]
Three weeks. She had three weeks before the cure killed her.
"There has to be a way to stop it," I said.
"Why do you care?" Her question was soft but sharp. "You said it yourself. I'm useful. A resource. Resources run out."
"You're not—" I stopped. What was I going to say? That she mattered? That the thought of her dying made something in my chest hurt?
I didn't do feelings. Didn't do attachment.
But my system kept screaming: PROTECT. SAVE. CRITICAL.
"I'll figure something out," I said instead.
"Kael." She stood on shaking legs. "You can't save everyone."
"I'm not trying to save everyone." My shadows wrapped around her wrist, steadying her. "Just you."
Her eyes widened. "Why?"
Because my system said so. Because she was valuable. Because—
The window exploded inward.
Glass shattered everywhere. A body crashed through, landing in a crouch.
Female. Young. Wearing Haven City colors.
"Found you," she said, smiling. "The Silver Healer. Genesis is going to pay me so much for this."
She raised her hand. Fire erupted from her palm.
And aimed straight at Zariah's heart.