Taken Over (Book 2 The Ravening Series) (51 page)

   “Animals mostly, but when it’s
been
absolutely necessary I have taken from a person without their knowledge. Not you,” he reminded me forcefully when I looked at him in shock. “I never take too much either. But sometimes the craving is too strong for just an animal to help me. It’s rare that happens though, maybe twice a year, sometimes three. It’s the blood we need more than the soul. That’s at least once a week, preferably more.
And since all of this has started my hunger has been even more intense, more
demanding.
”
 
 

  
It was disconcerting, but not awful I decided.
Hi
s gaze came slowly down to me. T
he ice in his eyes thawed,
affection lit the darkness.
“
It’s harder when I’m around
,
isn’t it?
”

   “
Not so much harder.” His voice was tight, hoarse
. “I just want you more than I’ve ever wanted anything.” I gazed in wide eyed wonder up at him, frightened and yet enthralled by his words. “Nothing will satisfy me the way that I know you would.”

   My mouth parted, my heart hammered with excitement and desire as my toes curled.
What did that say about me? What normal person would actually want for someone to feed off of their soul, off of their blood? I didn’t want to think too much on it, I was disconcerted by the implications of my intense need for him to touch me in such a way.
“You could…”

   “No,” he interrupted briskly, his face hardening. “
T
hat cannot happen
.
I won’t take the chance of possibly hurting you.
”

   “
You’re amazing to deny yourself
even when I’m offering myself freely to you
.”

   “Am I?” he inquired, his eyebrow quirked in wry amusement.

   “Yes.”

   “Careful love, you shouldn’t flatter the devil too much.”

  
I started at the reminder of what the girls in school had called him. The black devil. They hadn’t known just how
spot on
they had been with that description. Perhaps that’s the way another legend had been born. I imagined that these invaders must have re
sembled the devil when they
arrived
to decimate populations
.

   “What are we going to tell the others about Ian?”

   His face darkened again. “I’ll take care of it.” His eyes raked the wounds on my neck. “I’ll have to find you a shirt that hides those
first
though
.
I’m sure they’ve already looked for you in your room.”

   I nodded as I bit on my bottom lip worriedly. I trusted that he would be able to handle it, but I was an awful liar
,
and Aiden had always been able to read me like a book.

CHAPTER 17

  
A week
later Aiden was still staring questioningly at me, still watching me carefully. I tried to ignore his scrutiny, but it was becoming increasingly harder to do so. Everyone seemed weary of everyone else
within the group
, but I was certain that Aiden knew I was lying about sneaking out to be with Cade
at the time that
Ian had been killed. Certain that he suspected Cade as his gaze slid slowly toward
Cade
and I found him studying Cade with the same weariness I had seen grow over the past week
.

   The decision to
leave the hotel
immediately had been made before the two of us had
even
returned to the hotel. We came back to find our stuff waiting for us and Aiden, Bret,
and Lloyd prepar
ing
to set off in search of us. Darnell and Bishop had just finished burying Ian’s broken body. I hadn’t had to fake the blush that stained my cheeks when Aiden confronted us. The turtleneck Cade had managed to s
muggle from
the hotel helped with our story, even if it actually
wasn’t
hid
ing
hickeys beneath the high collar. It couldn’t hide the bruises on my face though, but they had been explained away
by training
, and a clumsy accident with a tree
branch
.

   Th
at
explanation hadn’t been bought, at least not by Aiden
, and I suspected some of the others
.

   Bishop was still openly mourning the loss of his equipment
,
data
, and fresh samples of my tainted blood
.
I didn’t know how I was going to tell him that I didn’t want him taking anymore of my blood, but I decided to cross that bridge when we came to it. If we eve
r
came to it. I hoped Cade had formulated some kind of plan, but we had not discussed it, and I didn’t really want to. Not yet anyway.

   I
an’s death had been attributed to the fact that he
must
ha
ve
interrupted someone in the act of stealing the supplies, or vandalizing them.
Some had bought the explanation, others hadn’t.
The group was disjointed, not as close anymore. They wanted to believe that it had been someone outside of the group
that had killed
Ian
, but the doubt was obviously festering.
A
few more people
had decided that
they would be better
off
on their own. I wanted to tell them that they were safe, that even though the killer was still amongst us, he would not hurt them.

   But I couldn’t do that without betraying Cade’s trust. Instead I had stood motionless, miserable, and guilty as they slipped away into the forest. Cade clung to my hand, his solid strength
h
elping me to get through the sadness that encompassed me.

   We had not settled into any one area for more than enough time to sleep since we had left
the hotel behind
. The days were starting to become colder,
October first rolled around as we reached the outskirts of Boston. For so long the large
alien
ship had hovered over the city, but on the day of
T
he
F
reezing it had moved over the ocean. Cade had explained it was
a safety measure
because there were not as many on the ship now that they
were needed to guard over their prisoners, and take pleasure in hunting down the less fortunate
. They did not think us much of a threat
anymore
, especially sinc
e they had managed to disarm s
o many
before
T
he
F
reezing had occurred, but they weren’t going to take any unnecessary risk
s with their ship
.

 
A cornered animal was the most
treacherous. And we were certainly cornered, and
dangerous
.
I wanted to show them just how dangerous and deadly we could be, but there were other things we had to do first. Jenna’s family was still out there, we were in need of food and ammo, but most of all we needed to find more survivors. There was strength in numbers, and we needed to increase ours, instead of having them steadily decrease.

   We stood on a hill overlooking the abandoned stretches of highway
and bridges
that crisscrossed
into
the heart of Boston
.
The once proud city looked desolate, eerie, terrifying. I had been here only once, when I was
only a child. We had gone
to the aquarium and science museum.
It had been our last family trip together.
I had been fascinated by the tall buildings, the traffic,
and
the people. My father had walked Aiden and I by Fenway,
proudly
spouting the history of the Sox, and The Curse. He had not survived to see them break it.

   I searched the empty roads, the broken buildings
,
and debris
for any sign
s
of life. It
had once been a city of nearly three quarters of a million. There was no sign that
any
of th
ose people still lived.
B
ut there had to be
survivors
,
there simply had to be people
amongst the
skyscrapers
,
warehouses,
broken concrete
,
and shattered glass. I expected to see wild animals creeping through the twisted byways, reclaiming the land they had lost
, but there was no movement on the littered asphalt
.
There was a hushed,
peculiar
pall
hanging over the city. None of us seemed willing to break
the silence, or even move
as
we stared in stunned awe at the
ruined
remnants of a
once glorious
world that
had forever ceased to
exist.

  
There w
ere a handful of cars on the roads
, a sight that
was
surpris
ing and unnerving
. Vehicles had been banned before
T
he
F
reezing had occurred, it was the first time I had seen any on the road
in a long time
.
Some people
must have
panicked and
tried to drive into the city after
T
he
F
reezing. I didn’t know what had become of th
ose people
, but I suspected
they hadn’t made it far.
There was no way that they could have; they would have been sitting ducks on the roadways.