Текст книги " Taken Over "
Автор книги: Erika Stevens
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Текущая страница: 11 (всего у книги 14 страниц)
I was lost. I was terrified that I was going to die, but I wasn’t going down without a fight. I whipped the gun up, but before I could fire it he was on top of me, knocking it aside. He was so fast, so stunningly quick that it took my breath away. He hit my hand so hard that numbness instantly enveloped me, causing my fingers to involuntarily release their hold upon the weapon. Dismay filled me. I opened my mouth to scream but his other hand wrapped around my neck, choking off my scream as he swiftly crushed the air from my throat.
I grasped hold of his hand, struggling against the death grip strangling me. Stars of bright light burst over my eyes. My feet kicked against the wall as he lifted me off my feet with terrifying, inhuman, ease. There was something wrong with his eyes, my vision was swimming due to lack of oxygen but I could still tell that there was something wrong with his eyes.
And that was when I realized that his entire eyeball, not just his iris, was completely black. It seemed as if the color in his iris had seeped out to completely take over the eyeball. But it wasn’t only just encompassing the eye it also seemed to be seeping into his face. I watched in horror as the black spread throughout the veins in his face, causing them to stand out starkly against his dark complexion.
I choked, gagged, sputtered as ice began to pulse through my veins. Blackness, oozing blackness encompassed him. I could almost feel it creeping out, trying to wrap around me. Trying to get inside of me, just like that thinghad tried to get inside of me. Against my throat, I felt the pinch of nails, or talons, on my skin. I felt the cool trickle of my blood as his suddenly clawed fingers pierced me.
Though he was not as ugly as those things that hunted us, and drained us dry, he was ugly, and he was horrifying. And he was what those things served. He was what they fed. And now he wanted to feed from me.
That blackness was in the air now; it seemed to be coming at me. Another long talon pierced my skin. Ian licked his lips eagerly, taking the last of my blood from them. A gurgled scream escaped me; bile surged up my throat as he bent his mouth to my neck. His tongue was hot against my chilled skin as he licked over me, tasting me. I nearly vomited with disgust. A low purr escaped him; his pleasure was nearly palpable as he continued to savor my blood. He drew back slightly, using a sharp nail to draw a line down my skin. I felt the sharp pain of the slice as my blood spilled forth.
“Delicious,” he murmured. “Eat you from the inside out.”
That blackness tore into me. It seemed to rip into my very soul, shredding through my flesh, bone, and marrow. I bucked against him. A silent scream of agony slammed through my skull, spread through my veins, and paralyzed my body. I felt as if I were being drained of more than just my blood, but also my soul, my very life essence. It was as bad as when that other thing had gotten a hold of me, only Ian was not physically inflicting a wound in order to do it.
“Inside,” he breathed.
I couldn’t move; I felt my eyes roll back in my head. I was going to faint. I was going to die. And I found myself welcoming it if it meant that I could escape this.
“No no sweetness,” he whispered. I could feel the darkness leaving me as he pulled slightly away. The black veins in his face began to slowly fade but his eyes remained burning charcoal orbs as he smiled at me. “Out.” His disgusting tongue moved up my neck, tasting more of my blood before moving on to stroke over my cheeks. I recoiled in revulsion from the feel of him. “It’s so much more fun when you stay awake. So much more fun when you enjoy every little thing that I am going to do to you. For hours, dayseven. I’ll make him pay for being a greedy, treacherous boy. Oh the joy of it all.”
I wanted to cry, wanted to sob in horror, but he was ripping me away from the wall. Dragging me by my neck he made his way toward the back of the room. I stumbled, nearly fell, but was held ungraciously up by the nails he dug sharply into my skin. I could feel blood seeping from the numerous wounds he inflicted upon me.
“I’ll teach him to try and hide his toys, to not share. You are a rare treat, a survivor, a delicious, scrumptious little survivor .It’s truly amazing you know.”
No, I didn’t know; I didn’t have one damn clue what the hell he was talking about. In fact, I could hardly think at all due to the lingering haze of pain, confusion, and terror that was clamoring through me.
Ian stopped abruptly, jerking me roughly up. Before I knew what he was doing, his hand was at my waistband. I froze in horror, my muscles locked into place as my breath stuck in my lungs. He grinned at me as his fingers brushed over my skin. They dipped momentarily lower, brushing against the edge of my underwear before he pulled the other gun from beneath my shirt. “It’s not time for that yet sweet one, not until we’re out of here anyway. There will be plenty of time for that after we’re away.”
My mouth parted slightly in horror, it was in that moment that I realized there was a fate worse than death, and that I was facing it. Renewed strength filled me; I shoved violently off of him as I tried to pull free of his tight hold. Pain surged through me as his claws ripped across my throat, and tore into my skin. Blood spilled over me, but he had not expected me to react at all so I was able to wrench free of his tight hold. Shock radiated over his face for a moment, and then the black lines surged to the forefront again.
I stumbled back, trying to catch my balance as I slammed off of one of the tables. He lurched at me, leaping forward with a snarl that caused the hair on my arms to stand on end. Grabbing hold of the closest thing to me, I lifted the microscope and swung it at him with the full force of my might. Pain radiated through my arms as the jarring impact of microscope, verse face, slammed through me.
His head snapped to the side, but his forward momentum was barely knocked off balance as he plowed into me. His arms wrapped around my waist as we fell back. I took most of the impact of the hard floor as my body bounced painfully off of it. A startled cry escaped me, I wanted to scream but he was on top of me, tearing ferociously at me. My shirt ripped beneath his savage assault. His face was a mask of fury and blackness, though he was enraged with me, he did not shred my skin. It was apparent that he was able to keep enough reason to not kill me now; that would ruin all of his wonderful future plans for me.
I tried to fend him off, tried to deflect his hands as he pushed and pulled and grabbed brutally at me. He seized hold of my hands and slammed them over my head with one of his hands. He was so strong, so unbelievably, inhumanlystrong. It seemed as if he had a million hands, seemed as if he were everywhere at once as he leaned over me, leering with vicious intent.
He grabbed hold of my cheeks, squeezing painfully. I winced in pain, wishing that I could slap his hand away, wishing that I could slap him. “By the time I’m done with you you’re going to be begging to die. Begging for me to kill you.”
I had no doubt that he was right as I glared at him, but he was going to get one hell of a fight before then. He grabbed hold of me, hauling me to my feet by my wounded throat. I tried to pull away from him again, but he held tight. His nails were sharp against my brutalized skin; his hand was tight in my hair as he jerked it sharply forward.
He had only dragged me forward ten feet when the low growl pierced the air. I tried to turn, tried to see where the noise had come from when I was knocked violently aside. A small cry of surprise escaped me as I bounced roughly off of one of the tables and fell to the ground. The flashlight went tumbling into the darkness. Its beam bounced around the room, flashing blindingly over the walls as it spun. I didn’t know what was going on, could barely make out anything as I blinked rapidly against the flashing brilliance. The sounds of a brutal assault were loud in the room.
I scurried away, scrambling on my hands and knees as the table next to me skittered into the blackness. I jerked back, frightened of getting hit by the heavy piece of furniture as it was kicked violently back at me. My heart pounded with fear as I searched for the door, but my vision had been compromised by the flashlight. I couldn’t make out anything within the room. My skin crawled with horror. I could hear the violent sounds of punching, the grunts and snarls of the fighters, the cracking of furniture and bones as the fighters rolled and tore at each other.
I didn’t know who my savior was, or if they were even winning, but I did know that I had to get the hell out of here, and I needed help. I had just regained my feet when I was hit from behind by one of the bodies. I staggered forward, but my leg twisted beneath me and I found myself back on my hands and knees again. Pain blasted through my palms and bruised knees. I struggled to get away but one of the fighters was still half on top of my awkwardly twisted foot.
A startled cry of terror escaped me as hands clawed at me, trying to gain purchase in my hair or ruined clothes. I fell, rolling out from underneath them as someone reared out of the night. Fury and fear pulsated within the room; whoever had been seeking me was knocked forcefully aside.
That was when I spotted the flashlight. I scurried forward, crawling swiftly across the floor as I reached for the small, gleaming torch. My hand seized hold of it as an echoing snap resounded through the room. Everything went silent. I froze, my hand wrapped around the handle of the light as I waited breathlessly in the dark. I had never heard that sound before, but I knew instinctively that it had been the sound of a breaking neck. I didn’t know who had won, I didn’t know if Ian was going to grab hold of me again. I didn’t want to move, didn’t even want to blink. I was afraid that any small movement would reveal my location and that the assault would begin anew.
Something moved within the room. My heart leapt into my throat. I couldn’t stay like this forever, I had to move. I had to know. I spun suddenly, flipping over as I aimed the beam in the direction of where I had last heard anything. I had hoped to use the flashlight to blind whoever was left with me, even if it was my savior. Instead, it revealed a horror far worse than anything I ever could have imagined. A horror that left me cold, empty. Dead inside.
Ian was on the floor, his neck twisted at an unnatural angle. His dark eyes were open, but unseeing. In fact, they would never see again. His mouth was parted slightly; the right side of his face had caved beneath the force of numerous, furious blows. Blood was splattered over his face, his clothes, and the ground. Though the sight of his mutilated body was disturbing, it was nothing compared to the sight of the person sitting over him.
Cade’s shoulders were hunched, his head bowed. Blood splattered his clothes; it streaked over his hands and arms. I stared silently, breathlessly, afraid to move even an inch. There was something wild, something savage about him that frightened me. Something that I did not recognize but that instinctively terrified me.
And then he turned toward me. A small mewl of horror escaped me, my hand shook on the flashlight as I took in the sight of that blood splattered face. I didn’t recognize the eyes gleaming out at me, barely recognized the beloved face I knew so well. Because that face no longer existed. It had been replaced by the monstrous, nearly unrecognizable face before me.
Black, everything about him was black. From his entirely black eyes to the black veins standing starkly out in his face.
Primitive. Violent. Deadly. Those words screamed through my mind as I gaped in revulsion at him. Inhumanalso.
I felt something inside of me breaking, splintering, and shattering into a thousand pieces as bits of my heart and soul disintegrated. His eyes narrowed. He didn’t seem to recognize me as his completely onyx gaze slid slowly over me from head to toe and then back again. He shuddered, rage blazed from him as his eyes returned to linger upon the ruined remains of my shirt. The blackness had been slowly receding from his face; it surged back to life, racing through his veins once more as his eyes found my bloody neck.
I was ashamed of the soft whimper that escaped me. Ashamed of the complete lack of control I suddenly had over my body, ashamed by the crushing sense of defeat that descended over me. His gaze came slowly back to my face; he stared at me for a long moment before the black slowly started to creep out of him again.
My heart was breaking, my body felt numb. I felt deadened and empty. I didn’t understand any of this; I just knew that there was a strange sense of finality enclosing me. A strange sense that this was the end, it was all over. That there was nothing left within me.
He rose slowly, with a strange grace that made me want to cry. That grace, that haunting beauty, those dark piercing eyes, and strange strength I had seen him exhibit were slowly, and finally, beginning to make sense to me. He hadn’t escaped from the aliens, he hadn’t broken free. They had lethim go. No wonder he didn’t want to talk about what he had experienced, because he had not experienced it as a human, as a prisoner. He had no answers for us, nothing he could tell us because he had been with his kind all along. He had probably enjoyedthe time he’d been with them. Probably relished in the death and brutality I was certain the captured people endured.
I’d been a fool to think he’d actually loved me. He was a monster, monsters could not love.
Thoughts scrambled and screamed through my mind. I could barely make sense of anything as he gazed at me for a long moment. I wanted to run, wanted to flee screaming into the darkness, but I found myself unable to move. And then he was rising above me like a dark avenger coming to finish what his cohort had started.
Terror drove me to my feet. I lurched awkwardly upward, desperate to get away as he came at me. I darted in between the tables, frantic for escape. My heart hammered in panic; I could barely breathe as I ran blindly forward. I had left the flashlight behind in my panic. I was never going to escape; I didn’t even know where the damn door was anymore!
Not like this, I thought franticly. Not like this. Not at the hands of Cade. I could notbe killed by the only person I had ever loved.
I hadn’t made it that far, not nearly as far as I would have liked anyway, before his arms wrapped around me. He lifted me easily off the ground as he clasped my back firmly against his chest. His hand snaked around, closing tightly over my mouth as I opened it to scream. He pressed me against his chest, holding me against him as I struggled within his grasp.
“Shh Bethany, I’m not going to hurt you. Stop, just stop.”
Tears slipped down my face, I couldn’t keep them in anymore. This was just too much to handle right now. It had been so hard for so long, but this thiswas going to be my snapping point. I could feel my mind unraveling rapidly; feel everything within me spinning wildly out of control.
“Oh Bethy,” he breathed. “Please don’t cry.” His head fell against mine; he inhaled a shaky breath as he held me tight. He actually seemed genuinely distraught, but I knew he was not genuine about anything, he never had been. A sob lodged in my throat, my broken heart kept beating. “Let me explain love, let me…”
Noise from the hallway cut him off. He stiffened, his hard muscles locking against me. Though I couldn’t see him, I could feel the blackness against my back as it crept over him, seeping through his eyeballs, bleeding through his veins. A primitive growl escaped him, his hold on me tightened as running footsteps approached.
Cade slipped further into the shadows, carrying me easily with him as he moved. I started to struggle against him, wanting to be free, wanting to alert the people approaching to the danger that lurked within this room. That had alwayslurked amongst us. The danger I had so fervently and desperately wanted back. But Cade held me easily and with a rigid strength that was impossible to break free from. We reached the back corner of the room. I had a brief moment of hope as Cade let go with one hand to reach for something behind him. I lurched against him, but he grabbed me back, pinning me against him as three people burst into the room. I had a brief flash of Bret as light filtered on, but Cade had already pulled us into the other ballroom and away from all promise of salvation.
CHAPTER 15
Cade didn’t release me until he had carried me deep into the woods. I felt as if we had walked for miles, and going by the strength and speed that I now knew he possessed, we probably had. The moment he set me on my feet, I tried to run. He grabbed hold of my arm and pulled me back with surprisingly gentle ease. I was brought up sharp against his chest, my arms pressed against the hard flex of muscle beneath his blood spattered cotton shirt. His eyes were dark, fierce as he stared at me, but at least they were back to normal now. His eyebrows were drawn sharply together over his nose, his jaw clenched.
I glared defiantly back at him as I struggled to break free of his tight hold. “I am notgoing to hurt you,” he snarled.
“How do I know that?” I demanded breathlessly. “How can I believe anything that you say, anything that you do!?”
He watched me for a moment longer before he released me suddenly. Holding up his hands, he walked a couple of steps away. “Because I have never hurt you before, and I neverwill.”
I blinked at him in surprise, torn by what he was saying, and everything I had just witnessed. What I had just seen. He’d lied to me repeatedly, he’d pretended to be something he wasn’t. He’d pretended to be human. I was filled with the heartbreaking certainty that I didn’t know him at all. “You’ve lied to me repeatedly. I have no idea who or whatyou are.”
Anger filtered over his features, though the black did not return to his face, I could sense it lurking just beneath the surface. “You know exactly who I am. I’m the person that’s kept you alive. I’m the person you claimedto love.”
“But you’re not a person,” I breathed.
He recoiled as if he’d been slapped. For a moment guilt and uncertainty flared hotly through me. I was ashamed of myself. I didn’t know who he was, I wasn’t entirely certain what he was, but he had saved my life. Many many times he had saved my life, and no matter how betrayed and deceived I felt I still loved him, I always would. Even if he tried to kill me. I didn’t want to cause him any hurt, I didn’t want him to feel like I felt right now, but I couldn’t stop myself from striking out at him.
Couldn’t stop myself for inflicting some measure of hurt on him, because I was so unbelievably hurt by him.
“No,” he agreed. “I’m not.”
The blunt admission was like a cold blast of water against my heated skin. I had known it, I had seen it, but I hadn’t truly believed it until that moment. Hadn’t fully understoodit until he confirmed every horrible thought, emotion, and fear that tangled within me. “What did they do to you?” I breathed. Even as I asked the question I knew that I was wrong. This hadn’t been doneto him.
He looked at me over his shoulder, his eyes narrowed as he scowled. There was so much anger in him, so much murderous rage still lingering beneath the surface that I found myself taking an instinctive step away from him. I didn’t know him, not anymore, but I was strangely certain that he still wouldn’t hurt me. “They didn’t doanything to me. I was bornthis way.”
My mouth dropped, my legs began to shake as he confirmed what I had suspected. I thought I was going to fall, thought I was going to melt into a puddle of boneless goop right there on the forest floor. How could I have been so wrong about everything? “How… how is that possible? I’ve known you…”
My voice trailed off, I leaned heavily against the tree behind me. Cade had been five when his family had moved to town. Cade’s family had been wealthy; his father a prominent lawyer whose own father had once been a congressman. Mr. Marshall had been intending to run for office himself when he was killed. Cade’s mother had been a teacher in our elementary school and had enrolled Cade there. She’d been a sweet woman who always smelled of raisin cookies and Play-Doh.
Cade and Aiden had been in kindergarten together. A year behind them, I was not yet in school when Aiden brought Cade home for the first time. I remembered that day vividly, I always would. I could recall him standing there, skinny and disheveled, as he’d played catch listlessly with Aiden. I remembered being struck by the fact that he seemed to take no joy in the act of playing as other children would, as Aiden did. Cade had been wearing a spider-man shirt and jeans, and his face had been emotionless, until he’d seen me. I hadn’t known it at the time, I was too young I couldn’t have, but the shocked look and wide eyes that had transformed his face would forever be in my heart. Forever be a part of me.
Aiden had tried to shoo me away from them, annoyed to have his little sister trying to interrupt his time with his new friend. Cade had insisted that I stay and play with them; he had in fact taught me how to throw the football the best he could with my small hands and uncoordinated movements. He’d come as Aiden’s friend, but there had been an instantaneous bond between us. He had never treated me as Aiden’s annoying younger sister, he’d always been kind, patient and gentle with me in a way that neither Aiden, nor any of his other friends, ever had been. I hadn’t known what love was then, but I did now, and I recognized the fact that I had loved him even then. Had loved him from the moment my eyes landed on him in his comic book gear.
Cade spent the next three years at our home nearly every weekend, and at least a few days a week after school, he would come over. If Aiden went to his house, I would also be invited along, though I wasn’t allowed to spend the night when Aiden did. Cade had stopped coming over immediately after his parents were killed in a botched home robbery. He had pretty much faded from my life after that. Though he was placed into foster care, we had continued to go to the same school, but where he had once been a constant presence in my life, a steady friend, he barely spoke to me again. I had been hurt by his abrupt dismissal of me, but I had been a child, and I had moved on. Until the night of my father’s funeral, when Cade had come back to me, comforted me and allowed me to cry when I would not cry in front of the others. And then he had disappeared from my life again afterward.
Cade had gone out of his way to avoid me until the attack began, though I’d often caught him watching me in the halls or in class. I hadn’t known how to approach him again, hadn’t known what to say to him. The older he got the more intimidated I became by his good looks, and the aloof air that set him aside from a lot of the other boys in school. And then there had been Bret, and though I had been acutely aware of Cade still watching me, I had tried to move on with a life that had not included him in almost ten years.
Then The Freezing had occurred, and he hadn’t left my side until they had taken him from me. I’d thought they’d killed him, that they were torturing him. Instead they had just brought him home. They had just taken him back to where he belonged, and it was not here, it was not amongst us. It was not with me.
“Lies. All of it, everything. It’s all been lies.” My voice was choked, hoarse. I could barely think straight let alone speak well as my head spun with the implications. “Oh shit,” I moaned, closing my eyes as waves of anguish washed over me. “Oh hell.”
“Not all lies,” he said softly. “Not everything Bethany. I couldn’t fake my love for you.”
A single tear slipped free. It left a cool streak on my heated flesh as it ran down my cheek. I didn’t know what to believe, what to think. I didn’t know which way was north and which way was south. Didn’t know if up was down or down was up. The world lurched sickeningly, my hands clutched at the bark of a tree as I struggled to keep from passing out.
Pressing my forehead against the rough bark of the trunk, I clung to it for a long moment as I inhaled deeply and repeatedly. It took a few moments but eventually I was able to regain control of my body, I was not so lucky with my mind or heart. I didn’t think I would ever regain control of those.
Finally, I was able to lift my head and look at him again. He had retreated to the other side of the clearing. His arms were folded over his chest, his face and posture defensive as he watched me wearily. I was surprised, and slightly angered, by the hurt I sensed radiating from him. Hewas angry and hurt? He wasn’t the one who had been liedto this entire time. He wasn’t the one who had just realized their boyfriend was some kind of monster that fed on blood and whatever else that black thing that oozed from Ian had been seeking when it penetrated me.
His eyes were hooded, distant. “Do you want me to leave?”
“No!” The word popped out of my mouth before I could stop it, out of my mouth before I even had time to consider a response. I wanted to scream in rage and frustration, wanted to pull my hair and stomp around the clearing like a two year old throwing a tantrum. I wanted to tell him yes, that of course I wanted him to leave! He had lied to me. He had been deceiving me for years; my pride and trust were bruised. They were demanding to be salvaged somehow. The word stuck in my throat though. I could only stand there and stare at him, wounded, hurt, confused by everything rapidly unfolding around me.
But the last thing I wanted was for him to leave. The thought of it was even worse than living with my kicked ego. I couldn’t lose him again. Not again. But how could I trust him? I knew nothing about him. Or did I?
I watched him as he moved with lithe grace away from the edge of the woods. The shadows played over his hard, enticing features. There was no sign of the blackness, no sign of whatever it was that lurked within him; something that I had never even suspected lurked there until recently. He could have killed me years ago. He hadn’t. He could have killed us all; he could have allowed Ian to kill me. Instead, he had killed for us, he had helped us to escape the Cape, and he had exposed himself to me tonight. He had killed for metonight. One of his own apparently.
I was hurt and I was angry, but I had to listen to him. I owed him that, owed him more in fact, but right now all I could give him was my ear.
I swallowed heavily as he continued to move slowly. He stayed a good distance away from me, but I did not kid myself into thinking he couldn’t grab hold of me in an instant. That there wasn’t far more power and strength in him than I had ever thought possible. “I’ll tell you anything that you want to know.”
I took a deep breath. “I want to know it all.”
He was silent for a long moment, his shoulders stiffened briefly as he ran a hand through his disheveled hair. “There are some things you aren’t going to wantto know.”
I was certain that there were. I was just as certain that I had to hear them; that I neededto hear them. “I know.” His gaze slid to me. “But I have to know Cade. No more secrets.” He quirked an eyebrow at me, his head tilted slightly as he watched me. His slow nod encouraged me to go on. I didn’t know where to start, but I thought perhaps the beginning would be best. “You’ve been here since I was a child, how is it possible that you’re one of them when they arrived only a year ago?”
He sighed softly, his arms folded over his chest. “We’ve always been here.”
I sputtered; something icy ran through my entire body. I had thought that there was nothing more that could shock me, I knew now I was wrong. I had a feeling that by the time he was done I was going to be shocked a few more times. I braced myself for that eventuality. “Excuse me?” I breathed.
“Over the years, throughout history, we have always been here. Monitoring, watching, keeping track of your developments, and your technologies. We’ve even aided in some of your own advancements. We’ve also come in search of food before.”
I shuddered. We both knew that when he said food he didn’t mean steak. “I’m not sure I understand.”
He nodded, took a deep breath, and then plunged in. “Our planet, from what I’ve heard of it, is similar to earth. Hence our similar appearances. My people raped it, nearly took everything they could from it, drained it of life, blood, and nourishment. When they realized what they had done they began to make trips to find other planets to harvest from. There were fifteen in total.”
My eyebrows flew up, my mouth parted on a soft gasp. “Fifteen?”
“There are three left, including Earth that they haven’t harvested yet and pushed to the brink of extinction. For now. They’ve raided those planets, took what they could, and left them behind. There were few survivors left but I’m sure those numbers have increased by now.”
My mouth opened, it took me a moment but I finally managed to form a question. “Why would they do that?”
“They destroyed their own planet; do you honestly think they care about others? The survivors were left…”
“For a later time. Another harvest.” I felt ill, but the words escaped me before I could stop them. I somehow managed to keep my composure even though I was rapidly unraveling.
“At first, it wasn’t that way. At first they just went on missions to collect supplies…”
