Catalyst (Book 1): Decay Chains by Kate Wars Read Free Book Online

there to stay. It was off-putting and Stormy’s inner actress sucked at hiding that her brain couldn’t fully distinguish him from the others yet. But when he held her close and she closed her eyes, nothing had changed at all.
    The biggest adjustment was getting used to the burns that ran all along his exposed skin. He was charred up and down his arms and all over his face and neck. It looked like a fireball burst right above him, but he swore he wasn’t in pain. The only thing that seemed to bother him was being more than arm’s reach away from her.
    “You have no idea how it felt to carry you in my arms again,” Matt said. “When I thought you were dead, it was like everything that wasn’t pain stopped existing.” Hard kisses crashed down on her head and she knew he would be tearing up if he still could.
    She kept a stranglehold on the feelings that surged inside her because she knew they were going to expire. This couldn’t last. Time would pass and Matt would be gone or she would be dead, perhaps in a matter of hours. She needed these precious feelings to get through. To survive. To stop crying and fight her way out of this hellhole. She couldn’t bear the idea of the pain that lay in store, so she didn’t think about it. Instead, she braced herself with this moment and used it as a crutch to get to the next one.
    “Do you feel different?” She asked him.
    “Sort of. It’s hard to explain. I don’t feel anything. I’m not hungry or tired. The pain is gone, that’s one upside, I guess. But there are no sensations, good or bad. I keep biting my tongue because I don’t realize it’s there.”
    Matt stuck his tongue out, pawed at it, and then laughed. “I really thought that stomach thing was going to take me out.” He got quiet for a moment. His eyes drifted down the devastated hall, and then refocused on her.
    “How did this happen to you?” If she didn’t find out now, she probably never would. “Why aren’t you like the others?”
    “My guess is that my insides being exposed caused a different reaction in me than it did everyone else. Dr. Louboutin thinks that it prolonged the usual symptoms of exposure. Any minute now I could go full-blown. That’s why he keeps trying to kill me, but I don’t blame him.”
    “That’s not going to happen with me here.”
    “On a serious note, I want you to do it, Stormy.”
    “Do what?”
    “Promise me that if I don’t off myself in time, you will. I need to know you’ll shoot me if I change.”
    “Don’t talk like that.”
    “I’m dead serious.”
    “You’re dead all right.”
    “Quit playing. Listen to me. If you don’t swear, I’ll do it right now.”
    “Don’t you dare.”
    “I can’t risk hurting you. Vicky already promised and I know the guys will do it. They have demonstrated that sufficiently. Now, swear that you’ll kill me if I start acting strange.”
    This was too much for her to process at once. She wanted to think straight, but her mind couldn’t wrap itself around a thought long enough to decipher it. Her head swirled till she felt dizzy. She was thrilled to have Matt, but at the same time, felt like she didn’t have him at all. He was one of them, but then again he wasn’t. Part of her wanted to snatch him away and spend these last hours together before he completely turned. The rest of her was grateful others were nearby, and she hated herself for that.
    If she did make it out of Reamer Towers, she would be alone. Everything caved in under that realization. Chasing that thought was premature grieving, which made her skin crawl. She fought to wake up from a nightmare that her coughing told her was real, but her mind second-guessed.
    When she didn’t answer him, Matt yanked her up by her arm and pulled the gun out of the back of her jeans. He had the wicked speed thing going for him now. She didn’t mean to scream, but her pained cry led to her release. The others closed in around them, some shook in anger, others in