Alle Kapitel von System Of Blood: To Crave Survival: Kapitel 91 – Kapitel 100

CHAPTER 92Camryn's POVWe reached the camp at dawn on the third day. We were exhausted and covered in the kind of grime that came from two days of traveling through corrupted wilderness without proper rest. My legs felt like they might give out at any moment, and my shoulder wound had started bleeding again at some point during the night, leaving dark stains on the bandages. Each one drew a concerned look from Amon, which I pretended not to notice.But none of that mattered when I saw the others waiting for us in the clearing, exactly where we’d agreed to meet. Whitney was sitting on a fallen log, her injured leg propped up and looking less swollen than before. Fabian stood nearby sharpening his sword with a focus that meant he was either very calm or extremely anxious, and I’d known him long enough to guess which. Miranda was organizing supplies with the efficiency of someone who’d spent the last three days preparing for war.“You're late," Whitney called out when she spotted us. "W

CHAPTER 94Camryn's POVThe journey back to Eugene’s bunker took most of the first day, and this time we traveled as a full group. We were moving slower, but it felt infinitely safer. There was something reassuring about having five people watching for threats instead of just two, even if Whitney was still limping and Fabian kept looking over his shoulder like he expected the forest itself to attack us.We reached the clearing in the late afternoon, that same perfect circle of barren soil that hid everything important beneath it. I’d been worried that maybe I’d imagined it, that the bunker and the device and Eugene’s journals had all been some kind of exhaustion-induced hallucination. But no, the clearing was exactly as I remembered, and when I pressed my palm against the hidden lock mechanism, my blood opened the door like a key designed specifically for me.“This is remarkable,” Miranda breathed as the entrance revealed itself. She was cataloging everything tactically, calculating h

CHAPTER 96Camryn's POVMary Harriet looked exactly as I remembered—stern features that seemed permanently carved into an expression of disapproval, gray hair pulled back so tightly it had to hurt, eyes that could dissect you with a glance and find you wanting. She sat behind a desk that had probably been requisitioned from some bureaucrat’s office decades ago, its surface covered in deployment reports and casualty lists and all the paperwork that came with managing Hunters.She looked up when we entered her office, and surprise flickered across her face before her expression smoothed into professional neutrality. “Camryn Chavez. I was told you’d volunteered for the Lamenting Mother assignment, but I didn’t quite believe it.” Her gaze swept over the rest of our group. “And you’ve brought your entire team. Ambitious.”“Handler Harriet.” I kept my voice respectful but firm. “Thank you for accepting our deployment request.”“I accepted it because I’m desperate.” She gestured for us to si

CHAPTER 98Camryn's POVThe factory smelled like rust, decay, and something underneath—grief maybe, if grief had a scent. Our footsteps echoed loudly in the cavernous space, raising dust that had stayed untouched for decades and revealing glimpses of the machinery that had once built the radios.Amon's shadows spread ahead of us, probing the darkness for threats. Behind me, I could hear Whitney's uneven breathing as she struggled to keep pace with her injured leg and Fabian's almost silent movements, honed from years of vampire training. Handler Harriet moved with military precision, her weapon ready and her posture suggesting she'd done this too many times to be nervous anymore.Miranda stayed close to my right side, her hand on my shoulder in a way that felt protective and grounding at once. The device hummed on my back where I'd secured it in the carrying frame, its weight both reassuring and terrifying. Everything we'd worked for, everything Eugene had died protecting, condensed i

CHAPTER 100Camryn's POVThe Handler station felt different when we returned, like the building itself knew something significant had happened within its walls. Or maybe I was the one who was different, carrying the weight of Sara’s death and Eugene’s vindication, my tattoo still warm from the system’s recognition of what we’d accomplished.Harriet had disappeared immediately into her office with the device and her documentation, leaving the rest of us to clean up and rest in the temporary quarters. I sat on my bunk staring at my hands, which still trembled slightly from the effort of holding all that grief, of transforming it into something that wouldn’t destroy everyone around me. The ability was settled into my bones like it had always been waiting for me to understand how to use it properly, but using it had cost something I couldn’t quite name.“You should eat,” Amon said, appearing with rations. “And drink water. You used a lot of energy there.”“I absorbed seventy years of mour