Taken Over (Book 2 The Ravening Series) (30 page)

   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.
M
y entire being became as cold as ice
,
g
ooseflesh 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 noise
s
.

   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
knew
to take on this form was truly
ho
rrifying.

   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 ab
out
me
, and
my
mind, than I could have
ever
imagine
d
possible
. In that moment, if I had been able to move at all, I truly would have pissed myself
,
o
r 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 remain
ed
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.

   B
ut 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 t
he 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 th
e 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
was
him
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 bad
ly
that I could barely hold the gun anymore. My l
ower lip was trembling fiercely;
the sting of tears burned my eyes. It had his mouth, that be
autiful full lower lip and hard
upper one.
It had his body, lean
with hard muscles
cording
it
. The dark shirt he wor
e
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. I
t 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
c
ould not escape my painfully constricted throat. My chest was twisted with agony. I was going to kill Cade.

   It wasn’t
Cade
!
M
y 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 d
ark as midnight
when angered
, or the most clear and pristine onyx that the world would ever create
when loving
.
T
hey were beautiful.

   A strangled sob escaped me. I couldn’t pull the trigger
. I simply could not bring myself to put a bullet into
that
face
,
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
felt
it in Plymouth. I
t was going to kill me,
it was going to destroy me in the most agonizing way possible,
and I
c
ouldn’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
never
be 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 bulle
t 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
, wrench
ed
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
was
a hand and not some snapping thing that sought only to drain me of my blood, and my life.

   “I am
not
one 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
? I
nstead 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.