Taken Over (Book 2 The Ravening Series) (42 page)

   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 t
here, 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
.
F
orever 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 s
tay 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
.
H
e
’
d come as Aiden’s friend
, but
there had been a
n 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
h
is 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, w
e 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.

  
Cad
e had gone out of his way to avoid me until the at
tack beg
a
n
, 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
.

   T
hen
The Freezing had occurred, and
he hadn’t left my side until they
ha
d 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.
He
was angry and hurt? He wasn’t the one who had been
lied
to 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
c
onsider 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
!
H
e 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 lurk
ed
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
me
tonight. 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 a
n instant
. That there wasn’t
fa
r 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
want
to know.”

   I was certain that there were.
I was just as certain that I had to hear them
;
t
hat I
needed
to 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
i
t 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 th
at 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.