Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 107619 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 430(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107619 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 430(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
“Super.” I try to sound more enthusiastic than I am. “So…what’s with this Azar guy?”
Boyd just grins. “You’ll see soon enough. Quit asking, chota.”
Sure. I’ll quit asking as soon as I get some answers.
I get a room of my own inside. I suppose that’s a plus. It’s next to Boyd’s, but it’s got a lock and deadbolt, and inside there’s a chair that I can shove under the doorknob to make sure no one can get in. Already I don’t like the way some of the guys are eyeing me, but I’m on to their kind. No one’s going to take me by surprise in a dark corner. I’m not that kind of fool. The After beat that out of me long ago.
2
EMMA
The next morning, someone pounds on my door, obscenely early. I glance blearily at the hint of rose-colored dawn sky in the dirty window and then fling myself from my musty bed to pull the door open a crack. It’s my brother, Boyd.
“What?” I ask, even as I fake fighting back a yawn. “It’s fucking early.” Rule number one of dealing with Boyd and his buddies—you never seem afraid. Doesn’t matter that my pulse is hammering and I’m about to break out into a cold sweat—as long as I look chill, I’m good.
“Yeah, well, Azar wants his breakfast.”
I squint at him. “So why are you coming to me?”
“You’re a chick. Go cook something for him.” He shrugs.
Is he serious? I’m a girl and therefore on kitchen duty? Culo. At first I think he’s joking, and then when he continues to stand in front of my door looking impatient, I realize he’s truly not putting me on. I’ve been assigned kitchen duty. I think about telling him no, and then I think about Azar and how weird and creepy he is and how everyone follows whatever he wants without question. “Give me five minutes to get ready.”
“Make it snappy.” He bangs a fist on my door and then wanders down the hall.
I snatch my clothes up from the floor and put them on, sniffing them. My rose perfume—the only staple other than a weapon in the After—has faded, so I put the clothes on and re-spritz myself. For the longest time, I used deer urine to disguise my scent. It’s one of the things that Jack taught me. Dragons snatch people away because they smell them, and so I need to make sure a dragon can’t smell me. I think they just snatch women, because I’ve never seen a guy get carried away by a dragon, but Jack always masked his scent just to be on the safe side. I do now, too, and ever since meeting Sasha and her dragon, I’ve been using rose perfume, since she says that it masks the scent just as well—and smells a hell of a lot better. I douse myself, slip on my shoes, and then race out the door, where Boyd’s waiting down the hall.
“Come on,” he says curtly. “I’ll show you where the kitchen is. Stocked pretty good here. Make sure Azar’s breakfast is fancy, too. He likes high-quality shit. No fucking Pop-Tarts or shit.”
“Right.” Because there are so many Pop-Tarts lying around in an apocalypse. Hell, I’d give my right arm for a Pop-Tart right about now. Screw giving it to Azar. But I listen quietly as my brother chats. That’s the thing with Boyd. He’s a dumbass and a ruthless sort, but he also runs his mouth because he wants you to know just how clever he thinks he is. He tells me all about how he hooked up with Azar’s men last year. How he didn’t think too much about Azar at first, but then he saw the guy tear someone’s throat out with his hand and thought that was badass. Says Azar prefers to be the brains of the operation, though, and he’s got some great ideas. He’s taken them a lot of places and gotten them more loot than they ever thought they’d get, and isn’t interested in taking much for himself. “Except magazines,” my brother says. “Guy loves magazines.”
Magazines, huh? Azar sounds like a weirdo to me, but he’s a weirdo with a bunch of dangerous followers, so I keep my mouth shut. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
The kitchen is pretty well stocked, and I spend a few minutes going through items, checking out everything and fiddling with knobs. The stove’s gas, but there’s no gas (naturally), but I’m used to that at this point. I find an empty sink, make a fire with some charcoal that someone’s brought in, and cook over it. I’m surprised that there’s some non-moldy flour and so I make pancakes, along with a few strips of Spam that I fry up in the pan. I open a can of fruit cocktail and dress everything in a few nice dishes and hope that’ll do. In my eyes, it’s a feast, but who knows what a guy like Azar is used to?