The Virus Within: The Road Ahead (Book 1 - SERIES COMPLETED!)

Chapter 73

Nina and Daniel finally came onto the roof, and my instincts stirred the moment I saw Daniel's body language. His muscles were noticeably tense, and his posture was borderline aggressive. His eyes skimmed over Nicky and me, and even though they lingered on me for a moment, his gaze moved on, so it wasn't us that had him in a bad mood.

I didn't understand how helping Nina with the feral Nightstalker affected him more than the dozen Runners in the barn previously. My nostrils flared slightly as I took a deeper breath and picked up a very faint trace of Daniel's blood. I eventually spotted a tiny scratch on his upper arm. It was about as big as a paper cut and easy to miss, but I recognized the mark as a scratch from a zombie's fingernail.

No wonder he was in a foul mood. Being scratched by a feral Nightstalker would have severely insulted his instincts. If a Runner had managed to scratch me, I would've been pissed too.

Even so, that didn't give him permission to put everyone else on edge, although I wasn't too sure how to point it out to him. I had a habit of taking my anger out on trees, but he obviously hadn't worked out a method for dealing with his temper.

I examined him carefully from the corner of my eye. Most of the time I didn't care if I pissed him off, but his current mood was one that wasn't wise to trifle with. His instincts were much too high, and he was still too humanized to recognize most of the usual zombie body language. Playing passive wouldn't help me if I riled him up. He simply wasn't in tune enough with his instincts for me to rely on that backup plan.

As Nina sat down, Nicky asked, "Is the Nightstalker settling in?"

Daniel faintly growled his opinion of the subject, probably wanting to forget about the Nightstalker for a while.

Nina ignored him and replied, "Let's just say we aren't having fun. Any amount of light sends her into a frenzy and makes her extremely unpredictable. I wasn't aware of how aggressive feral Nightstalkers actually were until now."

They were accustomed to dealing with Runners, and Daniel had never really tapped into his instincts, so this was an entirely new ball game for them.

I chuckled darkly and muttered, "And people wonder why I'm irritable during the day."

Daniel narrowed his eyes at my tone, still in a foul mood as his instincts warred with his human mind. Nor did his mind completely understand his instincts, which only created more friction and hampered his control.

Nina tilted her head as she regarded me with bright, curious eyes. "After being around that feral, I honestly don't know how you can sit there so calmly. It makes me wonder if there might be something else allowing some zombies to remain in control. You're nothing like that creature in the barn."

"The difference is that my humanity is intact. That's the only thing that separates me from that feral. I may act human, but that shadowy side of my instincts is still there. I just suppress it as much as I can and hide it around people."

Nina pulled a small notebook out of her shirt pocket and started writing. I rolled my eyes as she forgot about her dinner once again. It was amazing she didn't starve to death considering how easily she got distracted. I took a drink from my water bottle and continued to subtly watch Daniel.

He kept glancing at me while eating, probably comparing the feral's behavior to my comments. I examined the Terror that sat on the other side of the circle of chairs and considered my possible options. It might not be wise to anger him at the moment, but nothing said I couldn't mess with his head.

Nicky was focused on her food, and Nina was still writing, so the two humans weren't paying any attention to me. Daniel's eyes drifted over to me once again. Keeping a straight face, I shifted slightly in my chair, altering my body language. Humans likely wouldn't notice anything out of the ordinary, but Daniel's eyes narrowed as his instincts easily noticed the change.