Taming the Darkness: Love & Monsters, Book 2 by Devin Harnois Page A

the whole thing?”
    Victor shrugged and winced. “They might. They were willing to put you in a cell with me, send you out alone with me, knowing I could turn on you. You’re not exactly precious to them.”
    The thought chilled her. “So now that I’m not worried about you eating me, we have to worry that if we fail we might be killed by our own people. Great.”
    “But we’re not gonna fail, are we?”
    She looked around pointedly. “We’re trapped in the back of a broken AV and surrounded by nasties. They might not consider this a success.”
    “We’re still alive,” he pointed out.
    “Think that’ll be enough?” Her head throbbed harder as she wondered what might be waiting for them back at base. The damn pills weren’t working yet.
    “It’s a start. We came out too far, and it’s not our fault we ran into that thing,” he said. She kept focusing on his blue eye, watching it as he blinked. That had to be from the alteration. No way that eye was natural. “So we’re stuck in here tonight. We’ll get another chance tomorrow. Think long term, if we can convince them I’m useful and if we can get the others on board. You’ve seen what I can do. Think of a whole group of us going in on a clearing mission, or acting as a front line on the night shift.”
    She stopped, watching his eye as his words sank in. “You’re planning. You said it was hard to think at night.”
    “The morphine is clearing my head a little. And being around you helps, like I said.” He shifted carefully.
    “What is it about me? Is it just that I’m the first woman you’ve been around since you were altered?” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she wanted to take them back. She was afraid of the answer, and the question made her sound needy. There was her need to be special again.
    “No. When you first came into my cell you smelled like food. If it was just about being a woman it would’ve been different then.”
    “Then what is it?”
    “Because you’re strong. Because you stood up to me when I could smell how scared you were. You treat me more like a human than anyone has since I was altered.”
    She looked at both his eyes now, guilt rolling through her. Claire had shown him some kindness, even kissed him, but she’d also called him names and treated him like a dog. She wondered if his attitude and mental problems had as much to do with how he was treated as they did with what the vaccine had done to him. “I haven’t been very nice to you.”
    “Same here.”
    “Yeah, but you’re…” She waved a hand.
    He arched an eyebrow. “Fucked up?”
    “I wanted to say something nicer than that.”
    Victor chuckled. “Broken? Not all there? Crazy? Infected?”
    She looked away. “It’s not funny.”
    “Sometimes you either gotta laugh or cry, and there’s no crying on duty.”
    Claire bit her lip, but a little laugh escaped her. He was right.
     
     
    She braced herself for sunrise. Victor’s reaction yesterday hadn’t been fun to watch, and she’d been mad at him then. He sat straight, his head tilted and his eyes distant. “They’re leaving.”
    Claire allowed herself a long sigh. The last hour the nasties had been scratching and banging against the AV, trying to get in. They’d eaten the big nasty she’d killed and they knew there was more food inside the metal box. Now I know what canned stew feels like. She snickered to herself.
    “What?”
    She shook her head. “Nothing.”
    He tilted his head in a different direction. “Close now.”
    “Does it hurt?”
    He stayed the way he was, turned away from her, and for a moment he was so still she imagined he’d turned into a statue. “No. I’m safe inside, right where it wants to be.”
    “So you think it’ll be fine? I was going to ask if you wanted another shot of morphine.” She’d given him another shot two hours ago even though he said he was getting better. He’d taken the bandages off his face and the three claw marks were