The Becoming: Revelations (30 page)

Remy blinked, her anger momentarily forgotten in the face of Brandt’s self-loathing. It was quite possibly the longest speech she’d ever heard out of his mouth, and she wasn’t sure how to respond.

But what she did know was she most assuredly did
not
appreciate being pushed around by
anybody
. And that included the man attempting to threaten her.

“If you touch me again, I swear to all that’s holy—and a few things that aren’t—that I’ll break your fucking nose,” Remy warned. She pushed free from the cage of Brandt’s arms and lifted her knife again, wielding it and her flashlight before her. “Let’s move. The sooner we kick ass, the sooner we track Cade down. And the sooner I can get the hell away from you.”

It took over two more hours for Derek to finish his explanation of events from the year before. He described the initial outbreak, the one that never made it to the papers or the evening news, the parts of it at which Brandt had only ever hinted when trying to tell Cade about what had happened. Derek talked about how Alicia had caught a cold that no one worried over until the following day, when lab technician Kevin Michaluk never showed up for work. How progressively aggressive Alicia had become, the pathogen inside her continuously mutating and adapting, influencing everything from her mood and behavior to her appetite. How the doctors in charge of her case decided to pull her off the pathogen due to the increasingly violent physical threat she’d begun to pose to the doctors and nurses and scientists. And how, once they were ready to cease testing, they got word of a viral outbreak outside the CDC’s walls, out in the city proper of Atlanta, with symptoms frighteningly similar to Alicia’s. And how they’d come to the horrifying realization that the pathogen had become viral, had become
contagious,
and had become virtually unstoppable.

The story Derek wove was like something out of the horror movies Cade hated so much. It made her feel queasy just thinking about it.

Something about the tale bothered her, though. As she rubbed at her eyes tiredly with a thumb and forefinger, it occurred to Cade exactly what was amiss.

“Wait, wait,” she spoke up, interrupting Derek for at least the fifth time in two hours. Every set of eyes in the room turned to her. “The Michaluk virus is one hundred percent communicable, right?” she asked, seeking verification as a nagging suspicion prodded at her brain.

“Yes, in my experience, the Michaluk virus has a one hundred percent infection rate when the pathogens from an infected individual’s blood, saliva, or other bodily fluid come into direct contact with the bloodstream or mucous membranes of someone who is uninfected,” Derek confirmed, sounding as if he were reciting from a textbook.

As Derek gave her a strange look, wondering why she’d asked about something everyone left alive already knew, Ethan muttered, “Means they can fucking spit in your eyes and you’d get the damned virus.” Cade didn’t want to think about that possibility.

“You’re … you’re absolutely positive about that?” Cade asked Derek carefully.

“Absolutely.” Derek paused and then added, “Why do you ask?”

Cade pressed her lips together and looked down, studying her fingernails; most were chipped, cracked, and broken. She dug them into her palms and closed her eyes as she debated what to tell them. She’d always kept her personal life personal, her private life private. She wasn’t one to talk about herself easily, and she most certainly wasn’t one to tell a room full of near-strangers the intimate details of her sex life. She blew out a heavy sigh, brushed a stray lock of hair from her face, and looked at Derek once more.

“And you’re
absolutely sure
that Brandt is infected?” she asked the doctor slowly.

“Positive,” Derek confirmed. “I gave it to him myself. Every test I’ve given him reflected positive.”

“Then how come
I’m
not infected?” Cade finally asked. In the ensuing silence, she forced herself to continue. “Over a month ago, on the way here to Atlanta, Brandt and I had sex. And I’m currently pregnant with his child.” Cade heard Ethan’s surprised intake of breath, but she shoved on. “By your own admission, I should be infected. But I’m not. Why?”

The silence that followed rested heavily over the five of them. Isaac sat in contemplative silence, while Derek rubbed at the graying stubble on his chin and pondered the problem before him. Kimberly merely sat, tapping a ballpoint pen idly against the back of her hand as her eyes danced from one person to the next.

Finally, Derek cleared his throat and spoke, his words slow and thoughtful as he pieced a theory together in his head. “Perhaps … perhaps the pathogen lies dormant in Brandt’s system, in an uninfectious state. Or perhaps whatever version Brandt has isn’t contagious, which would be the state we were aiming for in testing. This is all pure conjecture, of course. It’s something I’ll need to look into further once we manage to track Brandt down.”

“If Alicia doesn’t get to him first,” Ethan muttered.

“Yes, there’s
that
particular redheaded problem,” Derek acknowledged.

“It explains why Alicia was so interested in Cade, at least,” Kimberly said. “She knew you were pregnant, didn’t she?” Her eyes met Cade’s, and Cade nodded. “With it being Brandt’s child, if Alicia wasn’t able to get her nasty claws hooked into Brandt, then his
baby
would’ve been a perfect fallback option. Assuming, of course, that his seeming immunity has passed on to the child.”

“Fairly devious, but it does make sense,” Isaac agreed. A soft tap on the door drew the attention of all present. Isaac rose and went to it, speaking to someone on the other side before turning back to them. “If you’ll excuse me, I have something I need to take care of.”

“And on that note, I need some sleep,” Derek announced once Isaac pulled the door shut behind him. “I’m exhausted, and I want to take a nap before I look over my files about Brandt.” He beckoned to Ethan, much to Cade’s surprise. “Come on, Ethan. It’s about time for your meds.”

Ethan groaned, and Cade glanced at him, raising an eyebrow curiously. “Fuck, do you know how tired I am of getting poked and prodded?” he complained. He slapped his hands against his thighs and rose from his seat.

Cade looked at him with concern. “Do you want me to go with you?” she offered.

Ethan hesitated, and his fair cheeks flushed faintly. “I think I’d rather you didn’t,” he admitted sheepishly. “No offense meant. Normally, I’d say yes. But I need to get my bandages changed and …” He trailed off, giving her a helpless little shrug.

“And you don’t want me to see how bad it really is,” Cade acknowledged. “It’s okay. Really. I understand.” She caught his hand again and gave it a squeeze. “Go get your thing done,” she said. “I’ll see you after, okay? We can get caught up then.”

Ethan nodded and pressed a gentle kiss to her temple. “Yeah, we’ll get caught up before the inevitable ‘What the hell are we going to do about the shithole we’re in?’ powwow session,” he agreed. He straightened and, shirts and jacket in hand, retreated with Derek into one of the apartment’s two bedrooms. Cade watched him go. A touch of despondency hit her as the door shut behind the friend with whom she’d only just been reunited. She sighed and slumped back against the couch, covering her eyes with the heels of her hands.

“Tired?” a voice asked. Cade barely suppressed the startle that surged up her spine. She dropped her hands and looked to the other end of the couch. Kimberly sat staring at her, a touch of concern evident in her blue eyes. Cade had almost forgotten the other woman was there.

“I’m still trying to decide if I’m just tired or overwhelmed,” Cade said. She dropped her head against the cushions. “I’m just … I never expected to see him again. I had no idea that he was even still alive. And to walk in and just …
see
him like that–” Her voice cracked, and she fell silent. “I think I’m definitely overwhelmed.”

Kimberly moved down the couch to sit closer to Cade. “Are you okay? I know it can be pretty startling. I’m sure if Avi walked into the room right now, I’d be pretty damned overwhelmed myself.”

Cade raised an eyebrow. “Avi?” she repeated. “Avi Geller?”

Kimberly smiled. “You know, Ethan had the exact same reaction that you just did,” she said. “Avi Geller, yes. She was my sister, until Alicia Day had her gunned down because she found out Avi worked for the ‘other side’—the other side being Isaac’s people, of course—and thought Avi would bring you guys to Isaac instead of her when you came into Atlanta back in February. Which was the plan to begin with, and we thought Alicia didn’t know. But she did.”

“Damn,” Cade murmured. “I
knew
that shot wasn’t an accident.”

Kimberly gave her a sidelong glance. “I hear you got shot too.”

Cade shrugged. “I got lucky. If I’d been hit like Avi was, I don’t think I’d be sitting here telling you about it.”

“Considering the high-powered rifle Kyle used, you’re certainly right about that,” she acknowledged. She pushed her blond bangs out of her eyes and glanced at the closed bedroom door behind which Ethan and Derek had retreated. “I’m worried about him.”

“Who, Dr. Rivers?” Cade asked. “Or Ethan?”

“Ethan, of course,” Kimberly answered. “I think Alicia has messed him up pretty badly, though I don’t think you’ll ever hear
him
say that.”

Cade looked at her sharply. “What did she do to him?” she demanded, anger building in her again. Just the thought of what the woman could have done to Ethan was enough to put her teeth on edge.

“She hasn’t done anything to Ethan,” Kimberly said quickly, “at least not physically. But I think she’s been fucking with his mind. I
know
for a fact she’s been interrogating him without his knowledge.”

“How so?” Cade asked. She started to twist to look at Kimberly more fully. The movement caused a pang of pain to jolt through her side; she sucked in a short breath and instead settled on turning her entire body, tucking a leg underneath herself, facing Kimberly and waiting for her explanation.

“I think she manipulated him,” Kimberly said. “Alicia is a total master at manipulation and soft interrogation. She will use anything she thinks will get her way or will get the information she wants out of you. In Ethan’s case, she ingratiated herself with him. She let him believe she cared, that she was there to help him. She gained his trust and used dirty tricks like sex to get him to talk.” She blew out a breath. “The end result was that he felt comfortable enough to talk and talk and talk without paying attention to what he was saying. There’s no telling what he’s told her. There’s no telling how much of an advantage she holds over us, just through sheer knowledge.”

Cade thought back on the year before, the battle she and Brandt fought as they tried to get Ethan to trust their then-new arrivals Theo and Gray Carter. It’d been a never-ending fight, one neither of them had ever truly won; Ethan was not and had never been the type to trust people in such a short period of time. Cade had a very hard time reconciling what she knew of her best friend with what Kimberly told her. She shook her head, drawing her bottom lip between her teeth, before saying, “I just … I can’t see it. Ethan’s not the type to jump into something like that.” She snorted softly. “Hell, he and Remy danced around each other for seven months before anything happened between them, and even then they didn’t tell anybody about it. For him to just, well, jump in bed with someone he just met is … completely unbelievable.”

“Perhaps he’s changed since you last saw him,” Kimberly suggested. Her fingers tapped a rhythmic pattern on the cushion beside her.

“Perhaps,” Cade acknowledged. “Near-death experiences will do that to a person, I hear.”

Kimberly nodded and folded her arms over her chest, slouching lower in her seat. “And Ethan had a nearer experience to death than most,” she added.

Cade braced her nerves before she forced out the question that bumped at the forefront of her mind. “How close?”

Kimberly looked contemplative as she rubbed her fingers idly over her left bicep. “Well, most infected people at the Westin have only been bitten once, or they had the misfortune of having the Michaluk virus passed on to them through other means. Ethan … well, on his arms and shoulders alone, he was bitten four times. I don’t know about his legs, because I haven’t seen him without any pants on, but Derek tells me there are several bites there too. And that
doesn’t
include all of the scratches and scrapes on his back and sides either.”

“I had no idea it was that bad,” Cade admitted. Her eyes flickered to the closed door. “What about you? Are you …” She trailed off, unable to say the word. She hadn’t reconciled what she knew of Ethan with what she’d seen of the infected.

“Infected?” Kimberly finished. “Fortunately not. But I almost did end up that way about four months ago. I was out on a search for supplies with Dominic and some other of Alicia’s people. I got jumped from behind inside a restaurant. If Dominic hadn’t been there, I probably wouldn’t be here right now.” She paused, contemplating the door, before asking suddenly, “Are you really pregnant with Evans’s baby?”

Cade was taken aback by the sudden question, but she managed to cover it up and answer anyway. “Four pregnancy tests said I am,” she said smoothly.

“Are you sure it’s Evans’s?” Kimberly asked promptly.

Cade felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up as her anger and irritation made their reappearances. “What the hell is
that
supposed to mean?” she snapped.