Taken Over (Book 2 The Ravening Series) (39 page)

  
“It’s you,” he said again
freezing me in place
.
I turned questioningly toward him
.
What
was me?
“You’re what he’s been hiding.”

  
H
is words caus
ed
turmoil and confusion to surge through me. “You’re all over this room.
Your smell, your
taste
,
it’s everywhere.
” His hand fell onto the hematology analyzer on the table. It was then that I noticed the empty vials littering the table. My blood was gone. “You’re all inside of me.” My eyes flew back to his, my heart slammed rapidly against my ribs. I could barely breathe through the horror
choking me.
His lips were red, red as blood.
My
blood.
“And you’re
good
.”

   The purred word caused everything inside of me to go limp. He had drunk my blood. And he
liked
it. And he wanted more.

   He was going to kill me. He wasn’t human. Holy crap he was one of
them
!

   Thought
s
raced through my head
at a
million miles per hour. I couldn’t focus on just one of them, couldn’t grasp just one. All I knew for certain was that he wasn’t human, that the aliens had infiltrate
d
our group for some reason, and that he was going to kill me.
“
Sooooo
good,” he continued. “No wonder he’s keeping you to himself. No wonder he’s hiding you. Greedy, greedy boys always lose their toys.
He’s been bad though. Very
very
bad. He’s inside of you too. He knows better than that. It’s forbidden. But he is, he’s
in
you
, and
you
survived
it.
Amazing.
And now
he’s made you even yummier than you would have been
otherwise
.”

  
Holy hell, not only was he going to kill me, but he was completely freaking
insane
on top of it!

  
I didn’t know what he was talking about.
Didn’t know w
hat he could possibly mean with his hissed words, and strange statements
,
but
I was shaking
from their effects. Shaking from the strange notion that I should understand his words
, that
a part of me
did
understand them
,
even though I didn’t want to
,
even though I
refused to acknowledge
the fear that twisted through me
.
And not all of that fear was because of this man standing across from me, but from something more, something else.

  
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
up
on the weapon.
Dismay filled me.
I opened my mouth to scream but his
other
hand w
rapped
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. T
here was something wrong
with his eyes
, my vis
ion 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 s
eeped
out
to
completely take over the eyeball. But it wasn’t only just e
ncompass
ing
the eye
it
also seemed to be seeping into his face. I watched in horror as the black spread through
out
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 encompass
ed
him. I could almost feel it creeping out, trying to wrap around me
.
Trying to get inside of me,
just like that
thing
had 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
claw
ed fingers
pierced me.

  
Though
he
was not as ugly as those things that hunted us
,
and drained us d
ry
, 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 b
e 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 slamm
ed
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.” H
is disgusting tongue mov
ed
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,
days
even.
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 n
ot
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
.”