The Virus Within (Original rough draft)

Chapter 23

They kept glancing at me. The one called Kal spoke first, "Why are you wearing sunglasses? The sun set quite a while ago."

I shrugged, "I like them."

Just having these guys around put me in a bad mood after today's earlier events. As irritated as I was, there was no way I could change my eyes to brown. Besides, the fire was too bright to look at without them.

Another guy snorted, "Well, it is just stupid to wear them now. I bet you can't see anything." He moved his hand to make the crazy sign beside his head.

I gritted my teeth at the insult, "I saw that."

He frowned, "You were meant to see it and it was meant for you. You must have more than a few screws loose to wear sunglasses at night."

Frank ignored us as he watched the fire. The younger guy, Joel, sighed, "Leave her alone guys."

He sounded like he was tired of their talk already. That made two of us. Insults didn't do well with my instincts. It had been a long day and I was out of patience. I didn't feel like putting up with this kind of crap right now. I got up to walk away before I got more annoyed. Killing Kal sounded like a pretty good idea at this point though...

Kal snickered, "Running away already? Wow, you're sure a scaredy-cat. I haven't even gotten warmed up yet."

I took a deep breath to suppress the rage. His words were triggering my instincts and making me fight for control. I stood at the edge of the roof trying to calm myself down. Perhaps silence would shut the man up. I wasn't so fortunate.

"I think I know how to make it up to you. I have a set of fluffy pink handcuffs that I bet would look real good on you. I have a pair in my bag if you want to try."

I clenched my jaw. "Your bright red blood would look even better if it was on the ground."

It wasn't my best comeback, but it should get my mood and my message across. If any of them did start bleeding, I was running at this point. My control was approaching its limit with this man. My vision was going redder, which was not a good sign.

The largest man snickered, "You wouldn't have a chance at hurting us. We are simply too strong for you. We would thrash you before you even knew what hit you."

His words were another blow against my Nightstalker pride. I took a slow deep breath as my muscles tensed with the heat running through my veins. These two men were managing to press the exact worst buttons if they wanted to survive this night. Numerous insults, check. Accusing me of running away, check. Flirtation from an insulting guy who hadn't washed in a week, check. Declaring that he would win any fight, check. He was cruising for a bruising at this rate.

I heard footsteps on the ladder. The three returning from their bathroom trip headed back to their seats. Daniel was looking in my direction with a frown, he had likely heard the entire discussion. He knew the danger that those two were in.

Nicky flopped down in her chair with her usual indifference to the atmosphere. Daniel slowly took his seat with half an eye on me. Nina paused in front of her chair as she looked between me and the men, "What is going on here?" She sounded like an irritated parent with troublesome teenagers, although she seemed to be mostly blaming our new guests.

Kal shrugged innocently, "We were just having a friendly chat."

I growled a correction as I glanced back over my shoulder. Whoops. I was mad enough that the growl had slipped out as Kal tried to cover his tracks. The men looked at me with confused expressions. Kal sounded incredulous, "Did she seriously just growl at us like a dog? Who the hell does that?"

Nina shrugged, "What did you expect? If you push a Nightstalker's temper to the breaking point, you also push their control to the breaking point."

Nice way to keep a secret Nina... Kal went pale, "She is a zombie?"

Perhaps Nina's tactic was for the best. If it shut him up before I killed him, then it was worth a shot. I raised my hand to pull my sunglasses down for a few seconds. My strongly glowing red eyes would easily be seen. One of the chairs was blocking my view of the fire, so it was more uncomfortable than painful.

I pushed my glasses back up. The men were silent in shock. Joel had also gone pale, although he was in the least danger since he had tried to stick up for me. Kal was the first on my hit list and Kal was probably aware of it.

Daniel drawled out, "I am not entirely sure you are actually a Nightstalker. You are far too tame."

My temper flared as I spun around to snarl fiercely at him. His brown eyes flickered to a bright glowing red as he snarled just as viciously back at me. That overconfident ass didn't even have the decency to stand up to snarl at me. I took a threatening step forward. I could at least blow off some steam with him. He could take anything I could dish out and hand it back just as easily.

I was almost guaranteed to end up pinned or facedown on the ground, but today's events had pushed me much too far and I was past caring about such details at this second. I knew he wouldn't kill me at this point and I really needed to blow off some steam. A good fight with a higher-ranking zombie fit the bill perfectly at the moment.

My train of thought was interrupted by a large thump. I glanced over to note that Joel had fainted and fallen off his chair. Kal didn't look too far behind either.

Nicky was completely unfazed by the two snarling zombies as she smirked at Kal in amusement, "Better dump some water over his head to wake him up and take him into that tent. Lots of mosquitoes come out at night, you know."

Nina grinned at her comment. Kal got even paler as he glanced between Joel and me. I suspected that the mosquito he was worried about didn't have wings. The distraction and dark humor of Nicky's comment had shaken the worst of my mood off of me, although I kind of wished that it had been Kal that had fainted. That would have been far more satisfying...

I shook myself like a dog, "I am heading out to hunt before someone else pisses me off. Daniel, you're on guard until I return."

He bared his teeth at the men in a parody of a smile. He had obviously decided that the worst threat was already up here on the roof with us. Kal looked unsteady on his feet and the other men paled even more. I stepped off the roof to drop to the ground below. I took off running in my usual slight crouch, although I doubted that they could see me in the dark. I took off my sunglasses to let my red-tinged vision pierce the darkness unrestrained.

At first I simply ran hard to try to run my temper into the ground. I no longer felt like ending up on the losing end of a battle with Daniel, but Kal was going to be snarled at if he tried any similar comments in the future now that the cat was out of the bag. My eyes landed on a large dead tree that was still standing. I imagined Kal's face on it and launched forward with a snarl as I tried to work off some of my lingering rage.

By the time I moved on, there wasn't much left of the tree besides splintered pieces better suited for kindling. I felt much better. I lifted my nose to the air as I recalled my original purpose for coming out here. I was going to need more than a mere rabbit to handle tomorrow if it was anything like today.

I didn't feel like deer, and an elk would be a waste since I wouldn't be able to drink that much blood while I was hunting regularly. I caught another scent and headed after it. It might even put up a bit of a fight. Minutes later I gazed up at the tree the cougar was resting in. It didn't realize that I was here yet. I picked up a fist-sized rock and threw it at the big cat.

The cat jumped down with a snarl as it looked back up at the tree, trying to figure out what hit it. I charged the cougar from my hidden location with a snarl and it turned to attack me. It jumped toward me, but I ducked as I dodged its swiping claws with a low growl. It slid in the leaf litter as it landed and snarled at me again.

It didn't get the chance to pounce again. A strong blow to its neck shattered the spinal cord, killing it instantly. This was the fourth cougar I had ever hunted. I didn't like depleting any population of animals so I tended to leave the big predators alone. Their blood had a different taste, heavier and thicker. It wasn't something I would want on a regular basis, but it suited me just fine today.