Текст книги " Taken Over "
Автор книги: Erika Stevens
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Текущая страница: 8 (всего у книги 14 страниц)
And in that simple realization I found myself slowly becoming someone new. Becoming someone that was not driven by fear as the girl had been, and someone that was not driven by anger and hurt as the strange woman had been. The person that was emerging was new, uncertain to me, but I found I was beginning to like her. And I had not liked myself in a very long time. She was a combination of the girl and the hardened woman. She had some of the same strengths, and some of the same weaknesses, but she had learned and she was wiser. Iwas wiser.
I was developing new ways to handle things, finding new things to enjoy and take pleasure in, and new ways to take care of myself. The ice encasing me was melting; I was beginning to understand that loss was not an excuse to hide from people, and love. Not an excuse to withdraw from the world. Grief was something to endure, it was something to grow and learn from, and I was starting to realize this.
Those hours in the woods had soothed some of the ragged edges of my frayed soul and had finally allowed me to come back to life, even if only a little. But slowly, day by day, that little was beginning to grow.
But now I could feel the panic tearing at me again, shredding my insides, trying to climb out of me as Bishop placed the syringe between his teeth and hit a few keys on the computer he had set up. There was no internet, the aliens had banned it and dismantled it months before they had unleashed their unholy attack, but Bishop kept all of his notes on his laptop. I watched Bishop as he frowned, shook his head, and pulled the syringe from between his lips. He seemed to have completely forgotten that I was even here, or what the syringe was for. I understood this strange quirk about Bishop, understood people who lived mainly within their own worlds. Aiden lived within the walls of science and math; my father had also been a dreamer who had spent many hours locked away writing.
But Bishop was driving me nuts right now, and at this moment I had no patience for it.
“Bishop.” He continued to ignore me as his fingers flew over the keyboard. “Larry. Doctor Bishop!” He finally glanced up at me, surprise filtering slowly over his features. I shook my head in annoyance. “What is wrongwith my blood?” I demanded.
“Oh yes, yes, your blood. We need a fresh sample Bethany.”
I exhaled angrily as I folded my arms over chest. “I’m on antibiotics, remember?”
“Oh yes, yes.” Disappointment flitted over his features, he dropped the syringe down. “We’ll wait until you are off the medicine.” He had already informed me of this fact two days ago, but he seemed to have forgotten. “How is your shoulder? Let me take a look.”
I sat on the edge of the table as he examined my wound closely. His fingers were gentle as he prodded me, but I couldn’t stop myself from wincing as they touched against the tender flesh of the burn. “It’s healing exceptionally well considering the amount of damage, and the means taken to close it. It’s a good thing you were so close to the hospital as you’re showing no signs of infection.”
I caught a brief glimpse of a horse head and two front hooves before he tugged my shirt back into place. As the swelling, blistering and redness had gone down the rearing horse burned into my shoulder had become more obvious. At least it was a horse and not a camel after all, I thought wryly. I shifted on the table I was sitting on, my hands wrapped around the edge of it as I leaned forward.
“Yes, I was lucky. So what is wrong with the samples?”
He glanced back at me, shoving his horn rimmed glasses further up his nose. “I told you it’s just contaminated, we’ll get it all cleared up in a few days.”
I knew he was impatient to get fresh samples from me, and now so was I. “What are you seeing in the samples you do have?”
“Cell degeneration.” I froze; my legs stopped swinging back and forth as I gazed at him in shock. “Abnormalities.”
“Excuse me?” I squeaked.
He seemed to truly see me for the first time, seemed to finally focus on my fear and uncertainty. “It’s nothing to worry about Bethany. I’d let you know if there was. The degeneration is simply because the samples are old and were improperly stored. They were more than likely contaminated.”
“Contaminated?”
“Hmm.” He was back at his computer, his head bowed as he read something on the screen. “Due to lack of room we stored the alien, and your blood, in the same fridge at the warehouse. There must have been cross contamination.”
I continued to stare at him in wide eyed horror, angered by the fact that he seemed to be taking this so lightly when I was a tumultuous mass of raw nerve endings and terror. There had been so many changes going on within me lately, so many things that I didn’t understand. Could these abnormalities in the samples be the reason why? Had that thing that grabbed me on the beach somehow done something to me?
“What if it’s notcross contamination!?” I nearly shrieked.
He looked up in surprise at my harsh tone. My terror must have been evident as he forgot about his computer to walk back toward me. “I’m sorry Bethy I’m not explaining myself well at all.”
“No, you’re not,” I agreed.
“The blood samples I took from you were ruined when the alien was stored with them. Your cells are showing a mutation.”
My throat was completely dry, my heart lumbered painfully in my chest. That cold chill was back, it crept down my spine leaving a layer of sweat behind. Bishop’s eyes grew distant once again as his eyebrows drew tightly together. I hated the fact that he seemed completely baffled by whatever he had discovered in my cells. “A mutation that resembles the cells of that thing we killed?” I croaked.
“No not like that, it’s different.” Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God! My mind screamed over and over. I was trying not to shake, trying to remain calm, but it was taking every ounce of strength I had to do so. “The alien cells must have mixed with your blood and changed it somehow while they were in the fridge, that’s the only thing that makes sense.”
“But you believe there’s something different about me? That my cells are different?”
My voice was barely more than a whisper. “No Bethany I don’t believe that. They couldn’t be anywhere near as different as what I’m seeing. There are still many human characteristics visible, but the differences are too much, and too startling. Your DNA would have been changed at a genetic level; it would have rendered you something that was neither human, nor that creature. We would have noticed the differences; it’s simply not possible that we wouldn’t. That youdidn’t.”
Of course it wasn’t possible; of courseI was completely human. My mother and father were entirely human; Aiden and Abby were entirely human. Yet I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something off; that I wasn’t entirely like him, like them. Not anymore anyway. I had noticed differences, not many, and I could explain all of them away by our strange new world and new existence. Well my new eating habits were a bit strange, but even that could be explained away. I had eaten little red meat before all of this had started, but lately it seemed to be all I wanted. And I liked it rare, or at least a lot rarer than I had ever liked it before. I shuddered at the thought of the still bleeding meat, but even as disgust rolled through me, my stomach rumbled in hungry expectation. However, even that could be explained away by anemia or some other vitamin that my body was lacking due to my increased exercise and lack of a consistent, and well balanced, food supply.
My better night vision was due to my increased night activity, my hearing seemed better but I attributed that to the fact that I used the sense more now in order to survive. I was more graceful and faster because I had to be, because I had been honed into more of an athlete and had been trained to fight and move more quietly through the world. I was more aware of my body now than I ever had been, that was the only reason I noticed all of these differences in me. Even as I thought it though, I had the niggling doubt that I was wrong, that I was lying to myself.
“You haven’t noticed anything have you Bethany?”
His gaze was keen, sharper than I like. I swallowed heavily as I shook my head. “No, nothing,” I lied though he didn’t know that. “Aiden and Abby are normal?” I managed to choke out wondering if perhaps their blood was abnormal too.
“Their blood’s normal, I checked it to see if maybe there was some strange genetic flaw in the three of you.”
“Am I…” I broke off as I nearly choked on the words. “Am I somehow one of those things? When that thing grabbed me on the beach, did it somehow do something to me that changed me?”
Bishop chuckled softly as he shook his head. “Not at all, that thing did not change you I assure you. There are others here, Darnell and Lisa Blake have been grabbed by those things and lived to tell the tale. Their blood is still perfectly fine, I made sure of it. I’m telling you it was just cross contamination Bethany.”
Though he said the words, I could tell that even he wasn’t completely convinced of them. He was troubled, that much was clear, but he was trying to hide it from me. We both knew that my blood had never been like anyone here to begin with. My stomach rolled over, I was going to be sick. But not in front of Bishop. I didn’t want him to know that there were a few doubts of my own rolling rapidly through my head. But they made no sense, they couldn’t.
I h adto be like everyone else. Abby and Aiden were, my parents had been, and just what the hell else couldI be? If that thing hadn’t changed the others, why would it change me? I had been hit twice by one of them, but these blood samples were from before that thing had gotten a hold of me in Plymouth. There had been no fresh blood samples taken since then. There was no answer to any of my questions; Bishop had to be right about it just being cross contamination.
Then why the hell was I suddenly terrified of giving Bishop a fresh sample of my blood?
Something primal and instinctual was clamoring against my insides. I studied Bishop intently, but couldn’t come up with any reason not to give him blood when I had given it so freely before. The antibiotics were keeping me safe, for now, but what would happen when I came off of them? What would happen if he took a fresh sample and discovered that there was something wrong with me?
Bishop touched my arm gently, looking to soothe me, but I found no comfort in his kind gesture. My hand trembled as I squeezed his hand for a brief moment. I couldn’t shake the nausea that twisted within my belly as I watched him walk away. I tried to convince myself that Bishop was right, that cross contamination was the culprit, but it wouldn’t sink in. There was something else, something savage clamoring inside of me, and begging to be heard.
I couldn’t help but feel that it was the voice of truth.
CHAPTER 11
I ran that night. I ran like I had never run before. I ran like the hounds of hell were on my heels. Ran like I could escape the clamoring terror thumping through my veins and pounding in my blood. If it wasmy blood anymore. I was afraid that this strange entity was inside me now, that it had somehow gotten inside and pumped and pulsed rapidly through my veins. My blood, this thing that I couldn’t escape from, this thing that was the very life of me, also felt like my enemy now.
It was inside of me, pushing me faster, driving me onward as it tore at my insides.
I wanted to shout my horror and terror to the world. Wanted to fall to my knees and scream until I couldn’t scream anymore. But that would only bring them, and if they came, they would kill me. If they came they would split me open, like they had that boy in the hospital, and poke around inside me to see if they could find what made me different too. I wondered if they would finally be able to discover what Bishop was so desperately seeking.
I stumbled, fell, but scrambled swiftly back to my feet. My knees ached from the impact, but I kept going, leaping and dodging and zigzagging around the obstacles in my way. My labored breathing was harsh in my ears, I fell again as exhaustion claimed my legs. I attempted to scramble back to my feet, but slipped in the lose leaves and plummeted back to the ground. I lay there, gasping, trying hard not to cry as my fingers dug into the earth.
What was wrongwith me?
I didn’t mean what was wrong with my blood, but simply what was wrong with me. Why couldn’t I be like the others? Why couldn’t I put on a smile and at least attempt to fake happiness? Was it because there really was something wrong with me? Wrong with my blood?
I shoved myself off the ground, refusing to lay there and be miserable. Refusing to be weak and broken anymore. The woods were my place, this was mytime. I would not allow it to be ruined, not now, not ever. There was nothing wrong with me. I had to believe that. There was nothing wrong with me other than a broken heart, wounded spirit, and a body depleted of the essentials it needed. I saw better at night now because I was a part of the night now in a way that I never had been before. I could hear better now because I had learned to listen better, because it was a sense I needed for survival and I had honed it. I was stronger and faster because I had been training, I had lost weight and gained muscle, and I had been fighting.
I sat panting, my lungs burned, my legs ached from the run, but it felt good. I felt alive. I wasn’t trying to run from myself, wasn’t trying to escape something inside of me, I was simply seeking some kind of freedom from a world that terrified me now.
And these moments were the only moments of freedom and solace I had.
I ached for Cade, longed for him fiercely. He wouldn’t have the answers to the fears and questions that plagued me, but his presence had always been comforting, reassuring; strong. He’d always been so strong, so calm, so collected and cool even when I was breaking down and falling apart. He’d made me stronger. He wouldn’t have the answers, but I knew he could ease the doubts, the fears, the crawling horror building within my belly. I closed my eyes and lay down. The ground was so cool, so blissfully cool against my heated flesh.
I could smell him; smell the wonderful scents of wood and earth and spices he’d exuded. I could almost feel him; almost touch the hardened muscles beneath his smooth, soft skin. Those eyes, so black and beautiful they had seemed as endless as the night sky, seemed to stretch into an infinity of love and understanding. A tear slid down my cheek, I did not try to stop it. Aching loneliness spread through my chest, I did not try to push it away, did not try to rebury it. It felt good to grieve, I needed to grieve. For the first time it actually felt good to think of Cade again. It brought agony with it, but it also brought a rush of joy so bittersweet that I almost laughed aloud with it.
My arms shook as I pushed myself up. I sat on the ground, my legs crossed before me as I finally caught my breath. I opened my ears to take in the sounds around me, but I was horrified to realize that the forest was quieter than normal. Rising to my knees, I caught the faint sounds of animals moving about, but they were far more remote and hesitant. The breath froze in my lungs as I slowly surveyed the woods, looking for the danger that must be lurking within the dense cluster of trees.
I frowned, uncertain and confused. I shoved myself up; my legs still trembled slightly from the exertion of my run, but they were strong enough to get me out of here if I needed it. My hands went to my waistband, instinctively pulling out one of the guns tucked there. Something seemed to shimmer as it moved on my right; I turned in that direction, leveling my pistol on the tree line. I waited breathlessly for a few moments but I didn’t see anything more.
I frowned as I turned in a slow circle, searching for something lurking in the darkness. My sense’s hummed as I strained to hear, or see, anything out of the ordinary. Though both of those senses failed to detect anything, I was certain there was something there, something haunting me, stalking me. I hated the fact that these creatures seemed to enjoy playing with their food before pouncing.
I swallowed heavily; my body was thrumming, fairly vibrating with tension and fear. I cursed my stupidity for having run this far. No one would even hear my gunshots out here. I was alone and I had no one to blame but myself, and my desperate need to feel something other than trapped and broken.
I spun to the left, my hands clenching on the pistol as the rustle of leaves rattled through the trees. There was no breeze tonight; the animals had gone to ground. My eyes narrowed, my hands began to sweat as I took up a shooters stance. I might be able to outrun one of them, might be able to lose them in the woods, but I wanted to know exactly what it was that I was going to be outrunning.
And then it shimmered from the trees, moving with an eerie grace that left me mesmerized at the same time that I felt everything inside of me curl up and die. My insides shriveled, my mouth became as arid as the Sahara. I felt as if someone had just walked over my grave. My entire being became as cold as ice, gooseflesh covered my entire body. If someone had pushed me, I either would have fallen over or shattered into a million ice shards.
My heart, the organ that had been beating so rapidly just moments before, seemed to have stopped. I felt as if the thing had shriveled to the size of a raisin. I could no longer feel the blood pulsing through my veins; no longer hear the beat of it in my ears. Every bit of my heart hurt, every beat of it was anguished and lumbering. There was a strange ringing in my ears; I could no longer make out any other noises.
The thing kept coming closer, but I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t move as it emerged with eerie grace. It was so unfair, so awful. That they could take on human form had become painfully apparent, but that they could take on this human form was just heart wrenching. And that they even knewto take on this form was truly horrifying.
We had always known that they were intelligent, that they were far superior to us in many ways, but now it seemed that they could also read minds, or knew far more about us then we had ever thought possible. That they knew far more about me, and mymind, than I could have ever imagined possible. In that moment, if I had been able to move at all, I truly would have pissed myself, or curled up into a sniveling ball of snot and tears as my mind shattered completely. Was it because I had just been thinking of him? Did they somehow now have the power to conjure him because I had been thinking about him so vividly? His eyes, his smell, his skin. Had I somehow revealed to them the thing they had sent to kill me?
I remained immobile, half mesmerized and half revolted as the image of Cade came closer to me. It could be a dream I thought absently, I could have fallen asleep on the forest floor. I had done it before, and just because I hadn’t dreamed of Cade for the past week didn’t mean that it couldn’t be happening now.
But I knew that it wasn’t a dream. I was too cold, too broken, too wounded for this to be a dream. In a dream I would have run to him, I would have thrown my arms around him and kissed him senseless until the cruel reality of waking interrupted us. In a dream, I would have been elated.
Here, I was terrified, and on the verge of complete mental collapse. Here, I was going to go insane before that thing finally did me the favor of ending its torment.
Noise, normal noise, screeched back to my tormented ears as a hitching breath ripped from my chest. My hand began to tremble on the gun. It wavered before me. I knew that I should shoot, knew what this thing was going to do to me, but I couldn’t move. I felt like a cobra under the snake charmer’s spell, entranced by the creature coming at me. Charmed into allowing it to strike me, instead of offering up the defense that Darnell had tried so hard to instill in me.
Entranced by its striking similarity to the man I loved.
Its black hair fell across its forehead just as Cade’s had. It framed the most handsome features I had ever seen in my life, features I had given up all hope of ever seeing again. Longing sprang forth in me, for a moment I ached to touch the creature. Ached to run my fingers over the hard cheekbones and beloved face. I wanted it so badly that I couldn’t stand it. My whole body throbbed with the need consuming it. For a moment I really wanted to believe that it washim and I wondered if it would allow me to touch it, even if only for a brief moment, before it destroyed me.
My paralysis was falling apart as my hands began to shake so badly that I could barely hold the gun anymore. My lower lip was trembling fiercely; the sting of tears burned my eyes. It had his mouth, that beautiful full lower lip and hard upper one. It had his body, lean with hard muscles cording it. The dark shirt he wore clung to the sculpted abs that I knew lingered beneath the shirt, or at least they had with Cade. I wasn’t sure if this thing would be that detailed, but it did have gleaming onyx eyes that seemed to penetrate straight to my very soul.
Oh God!
My mind was shattering, splintering. Tears spilled freely down my face, a sob tore from me. It continued to come swiftly forward with the eerie grace and confidence that Cade had exhibited. Beautiful, it was just as beautiful as Cade had been, and it was going to kill me.
My hands tightened upon the gun. I lifted it up, leveling it at the things chest. It seemed to hesitate for a moment, seemed doubtful, but then it kept coming relentlessly forward at an even brisker pace. I wanted to tell it to stop, wanted to tell it to go away, to leave me alone, but words could not escape my painfully constricted throat. My chest was twisted with agony. I was going to kill Cade.
It wasn’t Cade! My mind screamed at me.
But now that it was only feet away from me, I could see it even more clearly. Oh its eyes, I thought longingly. They were dark as midnight when angered, or the most clear and pristine onyx that the world would ever create when loving. They were beautiful.
A strangled sob escaped me. I couldn’t pull the trigger. I simply could not bring myself to put a bullet into thatface, or to hurt him in anyway. Even if it wasn’t him. I knew what that thing was, knew what it was going to do to me. I had seen it with Sarah; I had feltit in Plymouth. It was going to kill me, it was going to destroy me in the most agonizing way possible, and I couldn’t bring myself do anything about it.
Weak, I cursed myself. But then Cade had always been my weakness, and somehow these things knew that, and they were going to destroy me with it. I imagined they were thoroughly enjoying my misery and I couldn’t bring myself to care right now. If I put a bullet in Cade, even a Cade that wasn’t, I would be destroyed anyway, I would not recover from it. No matter how much I had managed to put myself together over the past couple weeks, I would neverbe able to put myself together again after that.
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men, I thought hysterically. Couldn’t put Bethany together again.
My head bowed, my shoulders shook, as the gun jerked in my hand. “No,” I moaned.
I hated myself for this weakness. I should be strong, I should fight. I should take this thing down with me. I should destroy it for mocking me, for mocking Cade, and the bond that we had shared. I should want to put a bullet in its face and destroy it for its derisive cruelty. Instead, I could only weep like a baby as I watched my death stop before me.
I winced, bracing myself for the killing blow, bracing myself for the tentacle that would fly out of it, smash into me, and destroy me the way that it had destroyed Sarah. The way that it had torn into my arm, wrenched into my bones and muscles, and seared into my veins. It reached out and seized hold of my hand. I was surprised by the warmth that it radiated, or maybe it just felt that way because I was so unbelievably cold right now that even the deadened awfulness of this thing felt warm against my iced skin. I was surprised by the fact that it still wasa hand and not some snapping thing that sought only to drain me of my blood, and my life.
“I am notone of those things.” The voice it issued was hard, grating. It sounded parched.
My eyes flew up as it descended upon me, they could speak? Instead of destroying my face, and skull with a deadly tentacle, its mouth claimed hold of mine. I recoiled slightly, stunned as its hands seized hold of my face and throat. Why was this thing doing this to me? Why was it tormenting me so? Yes, I had fought against them, but I was of no real importance in the fight. I was simply a survivor.
Its thumbs stroked over my cheeks as its hands rested against the tender hollow of my throat. It was going to choke the life from me instead of draining it from me, I realized dimly and yet I felt no fear. I didn’t think there was much fear left in me right now. I was too broken for that now.
Then its words sank in and something strange began to happen. Words actual words .Those thingsdid not speak, they never had. But we were learning new things about them every day. And they were learning new things about us every day. Things that only aided in their attempt and desire to destroy us.
But my body was beginning to react to this thing in a way that it had only reacted to Cade. My mouth began to warm, and then my throat and face. Heat seeped slowly through my whole body. My chest expanded, air burst into my stricken lungs. My heart exploded with the blood that had seemed so restricted before. It pulsed violently through my veins again, rushing through my nerve endings as my body was set ablaze.
Every cell within me came to life; all of them seemed to be screaming forward, rushing to the place where my lips met the thing kissing me. The cells seemed to swell at the touch of this thing, seemed to refill with life as its hot lips moved over mine in a gentle caress that left me aching and trembling for more. The aliens could mimic us, but could they mimic these sensations, these emotions? I hadn’t felt this right, this wonderful and whole in so long. I hadn’t felt this since…
“Cade,” I breathed against the mouth possessing mine.
And then he was pushing me back, bringing me down beneath him. I was stunned, confused adrift in the emotions and disbelief pulsating through me. It wasCade, but it couldn’t be. He was dead. I had given up hope, I was grieving, and I had been trying to salvage the broken bits of me and slowly putting some of those broken bits back together again.
And now he was here. And none of it mattered anymore. The agony and pain were forgotten as his searing touch burned the lingering ache from every fiber of my being.
His hands were hard upon my throat. For a moment I thought that he might kill me in his desire to touch me, to be near me, to feel me again. And I found that I didn’t care as he pressed me into the ground. His body was hot against mine, hard as he pressed closer. I had never felt something so unbelievably wonderful. His kiss became more ferocious, greedier with its need. Hisneed.
I reacted to it, breaking free of the lingering chains of shock that confined me. My hands dug into his back. I was sobbing; I couldn’t get enough of him as I grasped desperately at him. My mouth parted to the fiery invasion of his tongue. I arched beneath him, clinging tighter as his pelvis rocked against mine. His desperate need was overwhelming my senses, overwhelming my mind. The world was spinning rapidly; I was entrenched in the desire, relief, and love that filled me. There had never been anything as wonderful as his hands searing over me, touching me, grasping eagerly at me. Unable to get enough of me.
The depth of his hunger was shocking in its passion. It overwhelmed me. I had felt his longing for me before, his desire, but it had never been this extreme, never been this overpowering before. It was almost animalistic, almost savage. I thought I should fear the overwhelming intensity but I couldn’t, not when he was touching me again, not when I was holding him, not when he was here with me.
Not when he was alive.
I didn’t care what happened now, didn’t care that this was spiraling far beyond my control. Far beyond his, even. That this was spinning into places I had never been before. Nothing mattered except for thismoment, and the two of us.
His arm wrapped around my waist, lifting me sharply against his pelvis as he ground against me. I gasped as fire shot through me. The motion jarred my wounded shoulder, but I couldn’t bring myself to care about that even. I certainly wasn’t going to tell him to stop, he could do whatever he wanted just as long as he was still holding me, and remained alive. His mouth broke away from mine, his lips moved over my neck leaving a trail of flames across my skin. I was breathing rapidly, my chest heaving against him as my fingers dug tighter into his back. I had to cling to him; he was the only thing stable in this tumultuous sea of love, need, and growing desire.
I knew where this was heading and I yearned for it. I craved it like a thirsty man craves water, craved it like a prisoner craves freedom. He was my water, he was my freedom; he was the only one that could sate the needs of my body. Needs that I’d never known until him, needs that I’d forgotten since he’d been taken from me.
He pulled at my shirt, tugging the buttons eagerly open. I gasped as the cool air hit my overheated, over sensitized skin. I expected to feel the hard press of his lips again, but they did not come. I opened my eyes slowly, aching for him to come back to me, but he was unmoving as he kneeled above me. His hair was tussled from what had just passed between us; his expression hard as his swollen lips pinched tight.
