Taken Over (Book 2 The Ravening Series) (44 page)

   I swallowed heavily. “Why
would they give you to
the Marshall’s
of all people
?”

   “In the
Marshall’s
search for a child they came across o
ne of my kind
.” At the surprised look on my face he elaborated. “The
Marshall’s
didn’t know what it was they were dealing with. There are many of us throughout the world, all holding different positions
.
They are
all in various places of power
so that when they finally
did
arrive
here
again
, it would be easier
for them
to take over. Easier to get
the different
governments to concede to certain things. In some countries they were even
ruling
power
s
.”

   I choked, tears streaked down my face as he
revealed the
stunning depths of the
aliens deception. “
Adoption agent
was
a perfect opportunity for my people to place
their
children in various
homes
where the
child might
one day
rise to
be
come
someone of power.
Even the
aliens that were here
did
n
o
t know
when th
is attack
was going to
occur
.
I
t depended on wh
en it would become necessary for
a new reaping.
Mr. Marshall…”

   “Was a wealthy
lawyer
from a political family
.”

   “
With
political aspirations
of his own
. With his background, and
family
money
,
he could have risen to P
resident.”
  

  
A jolt of fear tore through me.
If he had risen to President, Cade would have been right there with him
.
He c
ould have heard
,
and been able to learn so many things that would have been detrimental to
the human race.
He would have been right there, in the middle of it all, and no one would have thought twice about him because he was Mr. Marshall’s son. He would have been living in the freaking White House for crying out loud, the thought made me want to gag.
And if the attack
on us
still did
n’t come for
many
years, there was a chance that Cade himself may have one day
been elected into our government
.

  
They had been infiltrating us all those years
,
they’d been living amongst us and gaining control,
and
we had never known. We’d been sitting ducks. Even if we’d had some kind of warning, we never would have been able to stop them. They knew us to well,
they were everywhere, and the
re was no bringing them down
.

   I really wanted to sit down. Really wanted to walk away. I didn’t want to hear this anymore, but I found my feet wouldn
’
t move. Mainly because I was terrified that my legs would no longer hold me up.
The human race had
n
ever had a chance
to begin with;
we
had even less of one
now
that our numbers had been decimated
. I slumped against the tree, trying to think, trying to understand, ter
rified by
what little I did understand.

  
Suddenly all of those times he had seemed tense, distant, exhausted and strained made sense. Those times he had disappeared into the woods, and come back strangely revitalized.
He had
go
ne hunting. But what exactly had he been hunting
, animals or the Frozen Ones
?
Nausea twisted in my stomach. How little I knew
about
the man that had touched me so deeply was
unsettling
.

 
“You were only a child
when they gave you away
. How did they expect you to control your
er
… appetites?
I mean you do drink blood
,
don’t you? You’re the one that said those monsters bring the blood back for them.
Ian…
”
I choked on my words. “Ian drank mine.”

  
Fury flashed over his features, for a moment his eyes became completely black again as a snarl curved his upper lip. I took a small step back, a
mewl
of fear escap
ed
me as I saw the creature lurking just beneath the surface.
Cade’s
surface.
I saw the murderous fury he had managed to keep hidden from me for so long. He took a deep breath, the tight set of his shoulders relaxed slightly.

   “Don’t fear me Bethany.”

   I had no words for him, my heart ached for the sorrow I heard in his voice, but how I could not fear him? He was truly terrifying
when he was enraged to the
point of revealing his inner self
. “I tried to keep him from you; I tried to keep you from him…” his voice trailed off, his gaze settled on something far off and distant. “It’s my fault, I should have done more.”

  
“There was nothing yo
u could have done about tonight,
”
I whispered.

   His eyes latched onto me, hardness slipped over his beautiful features. For the first time he appeared truly alien to me in the gleaming light of the moon. “I could have killed him sooner. I
should
have killed him sooner.”

   My mouth dropped, a cold chill ran down my spine.
He meant it. He would have killed Ian sooner if he’d known that tonight was going to happen. He would have killed him in cold blood, and he wouldn’t have blinked an eye. I wanted to cry, he was darker than I’d ever imagined, ever thought possible. And he had killed for me tonight, and I knew with unfailing certainty that he would do so again.
“Cade…”

   “Make no mistake Bethany,
you
come first. Always. No matter what happens
,
after tonight
,
you need to realize that your safety is number one. No matter what
the cost or who I have to go through to ensure it
.”

   “Oh Cade.”

   He stared at me for a moment longer, his head tilted slightly to the side.
“
The hunger for something other than food doesn’t awaken until we reach fifteen, and neither do our other abilities.
” It took me a moment to realize that he
was answering my last question
; that he did not want to elaborate on his last statement
.
“
By then we are better able to deal with
our
urges.
We can control
all
our
appetites
if we so chose.
We are capable of surviving on meat if necessary,
a lot of it, and
preferably raw.”
I jolted
in shock
, my eyes widened. It took everything I had not to vomit. Oh God, oh God! My mind was screaming, hammering, pulsing with adrenaline and terror. Meat.
Raw
meat. All those strange urges, all the differences. My head bowed, I was struggling to breathe.

   “Though under times of great duress, activity,
and stress meat does not suffice
and it become
s
necessary to feed on real blood.
There are others way to feed our need for a soul and h
umans are not the only
things that
possess a soul
,” he continue
d, apparently not realizing how sever my reaction to his words
was
.
“
T
here are other ways to fulfill that need
,
and it does not have to destroy
,
or even hurt the person
,
or creature
. I just need to take
cau
tion
not to
lose control.”

   “So then why are they doing this?” I was stunned by the pleading desperation in my voice. S
t
u
nn
ed by the desperation and longing that surged through me.
What I really wanted to ask
wa
s why had they done this to
me
? Why had those creatures changed me on some physical
level?
What
had they done to me?
But I could not force the words out, I could barely admit it to myself, let alone admit it to someone else.
And not Cade, not now.
“Why?” I choked out.

   His eyes softened,
compassion shone from them. F
or the first time since this had all started I saw the Cade I had come to know and love beneath the hardened façade he had been exhibiting. “Bethany…”

   “My mother…
P
lease just tell me
why
!?”

   His face hardened again, his ice were black ice once more. “Because they can, because they’re hungry. Because they don’t curb
their
hungers. It’s why they’re in this mess in the first place
, why they had to abandon their own ravished planet
to begin with
.”