Eat the Ones You Love (The Thirteen Book 2) Read online

  Contents

  Title

  Prologue

  ONE

  TWO

  THREE

  FOUR

  FIVE

  SIX

  SEVEN

  EIGHT

  NINE

  TEN

  ELEVEN

  TWELVE

  THIRTEEN

  FOURTEEN

  FIFTEEN

  SIXTEEN

  SEVENTEEN

  EIGHTEEN

  NINETEEN

  TWENTY

  TWENTY-ONE

  TWENTY-TWO

  TWENTY-THREE

  TWENTY-FOUR

  TWENTY-FIVE

  TWENTY-SIX

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  TWENTY-EIGHT

  TWENTY-NINE

  THIRTY

  THIRTY-ONE

  THIRTY-TWO

  THIRTY-THREE

  THIRTY-FOUR

  THIRTY-FIVE

  THIRTY-SIX

  THIRTY-SEVEN

  THIRTY-EIGHT

  THIRTY-NINE

  FORTY

  FORTY-ONE

  FORTY-TWO

  Copyright © 2015 J.L. MURRAY

  HELLZAPOPPIN PRESS

  All rights reserved.

  For my wonderful beta readers.

  You make everything possible.

  Thank you.

  Prologue

  “You’re an animal,” he whispered.

  “You love it,” said Jenny.

  They met only a few days earlier, but it seemed like they’d known each other forever. Jenny wasn’t used to trusting people, but Declan Munro entered her life with a fierce intensity. She felt like every time he looked at her, he was looking deep within. As though he saw something that she couldn’t. And that smile…

  Jenny got up from the soft, musty pile of clothes and slipped her shirt over her head. She looked down at Declan, sprawled dramatically on the floor. He grinned, watching her.

  “Don’t do that,” he said.

  “What, get dressed?” she said.

  “You got someplace to be?” he said. “Hot date?”

  “Don’t you want to explore?” she said. “What is this place, anyway?”

  He laughed, but then went serious when he saw her face. He sat up.

  “You’ve never been to a mall?” he said, incredulous.

  Jenny shrugged and turned away. She scanned the overturned silver racks and counters. The piles of decaying fabric. A few bodies had been pulled over to the corner. Most of the stores were empty. Some of them flooded or taken over by vines or trees. This one had been closed up and had avoided damage.

  “My family didn’t let me…” she started. She shook her head. “We didn’t get out much. Do you think there’s any food out there?”

  “Nah, everything’s been raided. Probably years ago.” He got up and walked over to her, standing right in front of her so she couldn’t look away. She had to look up to see his face, but he obliged by hunching down a little.

  “Hey, you don’t have to be scared with me,” he said. He took her hands in his, lacing his fingers through hers. “I’m never going to hurt you, Jenny.”

  “I know,” she said, liking the warmth of him, the closeness of him.

  “Do you?” he said. “I mean, I don’t blame you for not trusting me. I wouldn’t trust me if I met me in an alley.”

  She laughed, looking into his eyes. Dark and deep, that’s where his eyes went. Suddenly she felt a little breathless.

  “I’ve had a rough time,” she said. “For the past…forever.” She laughed at her own awkwardness. “I mean, everyone has, but you have to understand, there are far worse people out there than Heathens and Righteous.” She felt a tingle behind her eyes. “I feel like I’ve lost someone,” she said, not knowing she felt it until she said it. “But I don’t know who. I can’t…I can’t remember.” She took a step back and let go of his hands. She started to turn away again, but he caught her arm. Not forceful, but gentle and soft. Warm.

  “Jen,” he said, his voice low and intimate. She could feel his breath on her neck as he wrapped his arms around her, bending down to pull her in. She let him.

  “I just can’t remember,” she said. She knew she was crying and she knew it seemed crazy, but she couldn’t stop it.

  “It’s okay,” he said, his words hot on her ear. “It’s okay, Jen. It’s over. You’re here now.”

  “I don’t know what that means,” she said.

  He laughed. “Neither do I, but it sounds good, doesn’t it?”

  That made her laugh too, and he released her, stepping back to look at her. He wiped the tears from her cheeks with his thumbs and held her face in his hands. He stared at her for a long time, a stricken look on his face.

  “I’m never going to let anyone hurt you again,” he said. And there was a ferocity in his voice that made Jenny believe him. His eyes grew even more intense and his face went hard. “Believe me, Jen. You’re safe now. I will always protect you. And I will always be where you are. Okay?”

  Jenny tried to look away, but something held her there. She felt chained to those eyes.

  “You can’t know that,” she said. “You barely know me.”

  “I know you,” he said. “I knew from the second you looked at me. The second you smiled at me. I knew, Jen.”

  “What did you know?”

  He kissed her then. Not rough and playful like before, but soft. Warm. And she kissed him back. They tumbled back down on the soft pile again, their hands all over each other. Jenny broke away suddenly and looked down at him. He was panting and he started to reach for her.

  “Promise me one thing,” she said.

  “Anything,” he said.

  “I have a brother,” she said. “Will you help me find him?”

  “Your brother,” he said, surprised. “You have family?”

  “Will you help me?” she said.

  He propped himself up on his elbows to look at her.

  “Is that who you lost?” he said. “Your brother?”

  “I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe.”

  He nodded, seeming to be processing. He frowned.

  “If I have to rip the world apart to find your brother, Jenny, I’ll do it. I’ll bring what’s left of civilization to your feet. I’ll have the Righteous worshipping you, and they will scream your name as they bury your enemies.”

  Jenny hit him lightly on the chest.

  “I’m serious, dammit.”

  He laughed. “I’m sorry. I know.”

  “If you don’t want to help me…”

  “It’s true, though,” he said, his eyes pushing into her again, seeming to look right into her mind.

  “What’s true?” she said, and she let him pull her down until she was lying on top of him. Until they were touching, nose to nose. Until she could almost taste his lips and his breath sent a shiver down her spine.

  “I would do anything for you, Jenny. If it’s important to you, it’s important to me. We’ll turn the world upside-down, you and me. We’ll do whatever we have to do to find your brother. It’s you and me from here on out. Everything that you want, I’m going to give it to you.”

  “Why would you do a thing like that?” she said. She tried to make her voice even.

  “Because you’re not getting rid of me,” said Declan. “You’re stuck with me now.”

  And then they were kissing. And then it didn’t matter.

  It wasn’t until much later, as the dying light filtered through the filthy skylight, that Jenny remembered.

  “His name,” she said, smoking the cigarette he’d given her. It was good, almost fresh, and she breathed it i
nto her lungs, long and deep.

  “What?” said Declan, lighting his own cigarette and then lying back and putting an arm around her naked shoulders. They were both covered in a sheen of sweat, but she didn't mind.

  “I never told you my brother’s name,” she said.

  “What is it?”

  Jenny took a drag of the cigarette, staring at the burning cherry on the end. The redness of it bright in the dim light, illuminating the tendril of smoke that rose out of it. This moment was magic. She could feel it hard in her chest and something told her to hold onto it. To remember this moment in time. Things always went bad, and she needed this. She needed to remember something good when shit went really bad. She heard someone scream outside, but it was so far away there was no danger here. No danger with Declan Munro. She believed him. She trusted that he would protect her now with every living breath he had.

  “It’s Casey,” she said, blowing smoke out of her nostrils. “My brother’s name is Casey.”

  ONE

  The prophet was screaming again.

  Jenny bolted up in her cot. She didn’t sleep anymore, not really. She just rested, remembering how the world used to be, how she and Declan used to be, back before she died. Before she got him killed. She wriggled out of her sleeping bag, slipped into her boots without tying them, and unzipped the tent. Trix was up as usual, her eyes narrowed toward the Living camp. A fire was visible from across the creek, the glowing coals left to smolder as the Heathens slept.

  Trix pushed a tendril of straight black hair out of her face. Jenny first met Trix when, in search of her brother Casey, Jenny had been bitten. Casey and his friends – including Trix– kidnapped Jenny, nursed her through becoming Undead, and set her on a path to finding a cure.

  “Motherfucker screams every night,” said Trix. “It’s dangerous.”

  Thirteen children survived the plague experiments designed by Jenny and Casey's mother, Anna Hawkins. Jenny came out with a metal spine and the ability to heal, courtesy of Anna's father—Jenny's grandfather—the sadistic, brilliant Dr. Frank Bierce. Jenny had the ability to beat the rotter plague and become Living again. Casey and the others didn't have the luxury. They were all rotters, zombies, but they'd kept their minds, their humanity.

  Sully, a twisted, obsessive freak who worked for Anna, killed everyone else to get to Jenny. Fisher, Grayson...and Casey, among many others. Jenny and Trix were the only ones who survived, and Trix followed Jenny when she set off in search of her mother. Trix said it was for Casey, but Jenny knew the real reason.

  It was better than being alone.

  Jenny listened to the screaming. Usually Zeke the Prophet came back to himself after less than a minute, but tonight he didn’t sound the same. Jenny shook her head.

  “Something’s wrong, that doesn’t even sound like Zeke.” She looked around. “Where the fuck is Declan?”

  Trix met Jenny's eyes.

  “Shit,” said Trix.

  Jenny had bitten Sully and killed him. Sully who killed her friends and her brother. Sully who tortured her. Sully who started the rotter plague. But she didn’t kill him enough. He woke up a rotter and bit Declan. It had been her fault, all her fault, and everything she did seemed to just make things worse. Desperate and searching for a way to help Declan, Jenny gave Declan a piece of herself. Literally. Declan ate a piece of her and when he came back, he could talk, think, reason—to a point. He was still a rotter, and he was still deadly. But he wasn't gone, and that was enough for Jenny. Though it hadn't exactly been a graceful transition.

  As one, Trix and Jenny started running toward the camp, the creek frigid as it rushed into Jenny’s boots. Jenny’s heart pounded in her ears and she felt as though she couldn’t breathe when she saw the blood that soaked through the tent. It had been ripped open and someone was backing out of it.

  Declan was looking at his hands, covered in gore. Jenny could smell the blood and her mouth watered. She pushed the hunger away. Declan stood outside the tent and stared at it, as if unsure what had just happened. The screaming stopped.

  “Jesus Christ, asshole,” said Trix. “What the fuck did you do?”

  Declan jumped. He met Jenny’s eyes. He was shaking. Jenny took a step toward him and he backed away. He was wearing pants and nothing else, blood smeared across his chest and covering his bare feet.

  “I’m sorry,” he whispered.

  “Declan,” said Jenny. “Let me help you.”

  He shook his head. “Just stay away. You can’t help me anymore.”

  Jenny took another step toward him. “It’s not your fault.”

  “You said I’d only be like this for a little while,” he said, his voice so full of desperation that Jenny wanted to cry. “You said it was temporary. I can’t control it. This isn’t me anymore, Jen.”

  “Remember?” said Jenny. “I said the exact same thing about myself and you didn’t give up on me.”

  “That was different,” said Declan. “You were good to begin with.”

  “So are you.”

  “You didn’t know me before,” he said. He took another step back, toward the woods. “You don’t know what I was capable of, even when I was alive. It’s time to end this, Jen.”

  “No,” she said. “You just have to be patient, Declan. Please.”

  He looked at her for a long time before he finally spoke again. “I’m sorry,” he said. Then he turned and ran into the trees. Jenny started to go after him, but Trix held her arm tight.

  “Fuck this drama,” said Trix. “Do you fucking see what’s happening here, cheerleader?”

  Jenny turned to see the Heathens all standing around the dead man’s tent. They were all staring at her. A woman was crying. She was relieved when Zeke walked through the crowd and came toward them.

  “Are you okay?” said Jenny.

  “His name was Van,” said Zeke. “He was a nice kid. I didn’t see it, I’m sorry.”

  Jenny first met Zeke when he was living with the Righteous. He was called a prophet because he could see things. Abel, one of The Thirteen who was sent to kill Sully, and later became Jenny's friend, said Zeke never stopped seeing things. Zeke's mind was a twenty-four-hour unrelenting film reel of what might come to pass.

  But Jenny couldn't help but think of Abel when she looked at Zeke. Abel had introduced them a lifetime ago, and when Zeke met her eyes she often thought of her friend, dying on the floor, a tear falling down his cheek, finally able to cry when it was too late.

  Jenny sniffed and looked away. It wouldn't do anyone any good to think of the dead right now.

  “What are they all going to do?” she said.

  “Everyone’s scared, Jen,” Zeke said.

  “They should be,” said Trix. “We fucking told them what we were.”

  “I know,” said Zeke. “They wouldn’t hear it before. They just wanted to follow The Thirteen for a while. You know what the Heathens think of you. You’re legends.”

  “We’re fucking dead,” said Trix, throwing a glance at Jenny. “Except for this freak. It’s like bringing home a fucking wolf and getting pissed when it eats your whole family.”

  “They’re going to leave,” said Zeke.

  “What about you?” said Jenny.

  “I’m staying,” he said.

  “Did you not hear a fucking word I just said?” said Trix.

  “I heard you,” he said. “But you’re not going to hurt me.”

  “How do you know?” said Jenny. “Zeke, it’s too dangerous. You don’t see everything.”

  “I see enough,” he said. “And I’ve seen myself surviving.”

  “Things change,” said Trix.

  Zeke shrugged. “I have to risk it. What else am I going to do? Go back to the Righteous?”

  “At least you’d be safe there,” said Jenny.

  “I wouldn’t be so sure,” said Zeke. “My step-father was a powerful man. To the Righteous, killing him was the equivalent of killing Jesus.”

  “Finch was kind o
f murdery for Jesus, wasn’t he?” said Trix.

  Jenny swallowed hard at the thought of Zeke's stepfather, the former Righteous leader, Daniel Finch. It was Daniel who had allowed Sully to cut her open, to torture her for days. And if Daniel had his way, Jenny would have been nailed to a post and left to die. Daniel was responsible for the deaths of anyone he saw as unworthy, including Jenny's friend, Lily, whose unborn child had been eaten by rotters after she'd been crucified. Zeke had saved Jenny from the hands of Sully and his step-father by alerting the Heathens – including Declan – to where she was, but not before Sully had tortured her. Jenny had quickly become friends with Zeke, accepting his eccentricities, just as he accepted hers.

  Jenny looked at the crowd. They were still staring at Jenny and Trix, a few whispering, casting fearful glances their way.

  Jenny sighed. “Okay. Stay, but I can’t protect you all the time.”

  “Understood.”

  “Dumbass,” said Trix.

  “Probably,” said Zeke. “But you have to stay away from Expo. That much I know. It would be real bad to turn up there. Every lost Heathen would want to follow you, and every possible outcome is bloody. Trust me on this.”

  “So we stay away from Expo,” said Jenny.

  “Where the fuck are we going to get fuel, then?” said Trix.

  “We’ll figure it out,” said Jenny. She turned to look at the Heathens. “I’m sorry,” she said louder, for the crowd. “He didn’t do it on purpose. You knew when you started following us that we were dangerous. I’m very sorry your friend is dead, I really am. You have to understand what we are, though.”

  “You’re just rotters,” said a woman with dark dreads. “You’re not the cure at all. You’re just killers, like all the other rotters.”

  “Maybe,” said Jenny. “But we never claimed to be anything else.”

  “He just killed that boy,” said the woman. “Just walked over and ripped him apart.”

  “Bitch, what the fuck did you expect him to do?” said Trix. “You’re all just meat. We never asked you to start following us. Go the fuck home.” Trix turned and walked back across the creek, holding both hands up as she went, flipping everyone off.