Chapter 188: Infected (9)

Nyxie’s presence arrived warm and abrupt. Misha felt herself loosen from the body’s weight, the familiar separating lifting her awareness beside her own shoulder.

Below her, her knees straightened. Nyxie adjusted the sword in both hands, tested the injured wrist with a small turn, and drew a careful breath through Misha’s mouth.

She glanced down at the cloth darkening around the cut. Her usual eager grin never quite formed, though a faint crave touched Misha’s lips when Starfall came up. The sword’s point stopped trembling. Nyxie shifted her grip slightly lower to spare the wrist.

"You’ve been busy." She looked across the fallen people, her voice softening as she found Carl. "Tell me where you need me."

"Keep them out of the kitchen passage. The children are there, and some people are behind the benches." Misha moved far enough to see past Nyxie. "Two are standing. I don’t know where or who the others are."

Nyxie stepped into the center aisle. The broad man , whose name was Veron, followed her movement with his whole torso, his chin still tucked against his chest. His shirt stretched over a narrow vertical seam that opened beneath it. A pale structure pushed through, slick with blood, and extended sideways into two hooked limbs.

A thin woman turned at the same moment. Her mouth hung open, and a cord slid between her teeth while two narrow appendages forced their way through the skin beneath her arms.

Misha recognized the man. That morning, he had helped carry drinking water and complained about the bucket leaking onto his boots.

His eyes remained dull above the opening in his chest. Whatever moved him had left his face almost untouched.

The left hook struck first. Nyxie brought Starfall down across it and crushed it against the marble. His second limb swept toward her ribs. She turned inside its reach, letting the point pass behind her while the woman’s cord snapped across the aisle.

Nyxie lowered her head and shifted the sword upright. The cord struck the blade’s broad face, slid toward the guard, and tightened.

The woman pulled. Nyxie went with the pressure, stepping past the broad man before either could close around her.

Starfall turned in her hands. The cord slipped off the tip, and the woman stumbled backward into a chair.

Nyxie stopped in front of the kitchen passage. Both infected turned after her, their human feet dragging beneath moevements their bodies should never have made.

Misha hovered over the nearest bench. From here, ehe could see two people lying beneath it and another slumped across the seat.

"You can’t swing wide on the right."

"I saw them."

"The man under the bench—"

"I saw him too."

Of course, there was no use giving Nyxie another pair of eyes.

The War Maiden kept Starfall close to her shoulder. The broad man’s hook rose again, and she waited until its direction became clear before moving.

She caught the thicker section near the hilt and pushed it aside. The second hook struck the bench instead, punching through the backrest.

Wood split beneath an unconscious woman. Her body began sliding toward the curved point lodged near her hip.

Nyxie cut upward through the limb before it could pull. The severed hook remaimed in the wood while she caught the tipping bench with her shin.

The thin woman lunged behind the broad man. Her cord reached over his shoulder, and Nyxie released the bench to duck beneath it.

The cord struck the seat where her head had been. Nyxie stepped around the man’s bilk, drawing both infected away from passage.

Then a small, rough breath sounded. Misha followed the sound and saw Carl’s fingers move against the floor.

"Carl?"

He did not look toward Misha. Her voice reached Nyxie alone, but relief made her forget that for a second.

"The boy’s awake," she said quickly.

Nyxie glanced and saw Carl had turned his head, and his eyes widened when he saw the blood spreading beneath the broad man’s feet.

"Shana?"

"Stay down, sweetheart."

The man struck before Nyxie could say more. She met the hook against Starfall and let its pressure turn her sideways, keeping herself between the infected and Carl.

The woman climbed over a fallen chair. One narrow limb planted on the seat while the other reached toward Nyxie’s exposed back.

Misha saw it coming, and Nyxie was already turning when she shouted.

"Behind you!"

Starfall’s pommel struck the woman’s wristlike joint. The limb folded sideways, and Nyxie kicked the chair out before recovering the sword.

The woman fell against the broad man. His remaining hook tore through her sleeve as they separated, but neither host reacted to the damage.

Behind, Carl pushed himself onto one elbow. He looked toward the sleeping peiple and touched the shoulder of the man beside him.

"Wake up."

The man’s head shifted under Carl’s hand. His eyes stayed closed, and the boy shook him harder.

"Please. Wake up."

The thin woman’s head turned toward him.

Misha saw the change immediately. The creature had been watching Nyxie’s sword, but now its jaw opened farther, drawing the cord back between its teeth.

"Boy, get behind that pillar, and keep your head down!"

Carl tried to obey, but he struggled to get up while the other infected advanced.

Nyxie drove Starfall’s point into the pale tissue supporting the hook. The third strike stopped his forward movement, but the woman was already slipping around his left side.

"Nyx, she’s going for him!"

The woman’s cord shot low across the floor. Nyxie dragged Starfall free and stepped into its path, catching it against the blade.

The broad man’s hook came down on her wounded side. She turned with it, but the point scraped across Hearthkeeper’s shoulder and tore the combat fabric.

Misha watched her body jerk. Nyxie’s knee bent, and the woman pulled hard enough to bring the sword’s tip toward the floor.

For a moment, both creatures held her in place. Carl saw the opening beyond Nyxie’s shoulder and tried to crawl away.

The woman released the sword.

"Kid!" Nyxie shouted.

Her cord snapped toward the boy. Carl had barely raised himself onto his hands when its shadow crossed his face.

He flinched backward, one arm lifting over his head. His eyes fixed on the empty corner beyond the overturned chairs.

The cord struck the floor.

Carl was gone.

Misha stared at the patch of marble where his hands had been. A thin distortion passed through the air above before disappearing.

Something knocked against the opposite wall. She turned and saw Carl sitting in the far corner, his back pressed beneath a narrow shelf.

"What the fuck?" Misha muttered.

Nyxie’s head turned sharply. The surprise showed plainly before the broad man’s hook forced her to move.

She caught it high against Starfall and pushed it away. Her eyes went back to Carl for a fraction of seconds.

"Was that you?"

Carl stared at her. Then he looked down at his hands, around the corner, and back toward where he once was.

"I-I was there. I didn’t—"

"Stay where you are."

His mouth remained open. One hand pressed against the wall behind him as though he needed to make certain it would remain there.

Misha crossed the room.

Carl looked up toward the place her body occupied, unable to see her soul hovering toward him.

No blood marked the floor around him. He seemed frightened and unsteady, but he had escaped the infected woman’s cord.

The thin woman turned toward the corner. Her cord dragged across the marble, searching through the space where Carl had disappeared.

Nyxie stamped beside her. The sound brought the woman’s face around, and Starfall’s guard struck beneath her jaw before she could look away again.

"Eat this, bitch."

The broad man lunged into her from the side. She stepped across his path and shoved the woman toward him, forcing their limbs to collide.

Both hosts stumbled. Nyxie followed them away from Carl, keeping the sword low enough to clear the sleepers.

Misha remained beside the boy for another moment. His fingers trembled against his knees, and he kept looking between two corners.

"Hey kid! Can you do that again?" Nyxie asked across the room.

Carl shook his head immediately. Then he stopped, looking uncertain about the answer. "I-I don’t know..."

"Then don’t try."

Nyxie caught the next hook against the upper half of Starfall. Her wounded wrist bent under the impact, and fresh blood slipped beneath the cloth.

"Nyx, my wrist..."

"It’s still attached, don’t worry! I got this!"

Her body had already done too much today. Nyxie could make better use of it, but the soreness in its legs and the damaged wrist would still be waiting when she returned.

"Fucking great..."

For one bitter second, she wanted [Microscopic Examination] back. Caleb had let her have an absurdly specific skill, and she had exchanged it for [Weapon Mastery] because knowing how to fight had seemed considerably more urgent. She could still remember making that decision. At the time, the prospect of surviving long enough to examine anything had mattered quite a bit.

Perhaps it could have helped her find the parasites. She might have learned something useful, something that saved her from standing in a room and guessing which terrified person carried a creature inside them that made them monsters.

The thought lingered while Nyxie pulled the sword free. Misha hated how reasonable regret could be when it had arrived too late to be useful.

The hook rose again. She watched Nyxie shift her stance before the strike came. She followed the familiar angle of her own foot turning across the floor.

She had made the trade. Asking her absent brother for a refund could wait until nobody was trying to open her chest.