Ravenous (Book 1 The Ravening Series)

Chapter 14


There was light at the end of the tunnel. I had to turn off the flashlight to make sure, but there it was, a bright beacon against the darkness and panic enshrouding me. Hope surged through me, I moved forward at a more rapid pace, scurrying forward on my elbows as I used my toes to propel me onward. Tears flooded my eyes, clogged my throat. I needed to be out, needed to be free.
I didn’t care what was at the end of this tunnel, didn’t care if it dumped into raw sewage or a nest full of aliens. I didn’t care if I was scooped up and eaten as soon as I reached the end. I only cared about escaping this cramped enclosure and breathing fresh air once again. I heard a gasp of surprise from Abby as I reached the end and plunged heedlessly out of the pipe.
It was a further drop than I had anticipated; I hit the muddied, wet ground with a loud grunt. Pain shot through my bruised tailbone and elbow. For a moment the air was knocked forcefully out of me, and then it gasped wonderfully, blessedly back in. I panted, clawing at the watery ground as I pulled myself clear of the pipe exit. I blinked against the bright light of day that burned my eyes.
Though it was wet beneath me I was not in a puddle, and even if I couldn’t see yet I knew that I was in the wide open. I could feel that there were no walls around me anymore; feel my freedom even though I could not clearly see it yet. Hands seized hold of my arms; I blinked, trying to clear the tears away that were blurring my vision. It was then that I realized that the sun was not the reason I couldn’t see, it was the tears streaking down my face and clogging my eyes. “Are you ok?” Cade demanded.
I wanted to nod, wanted to speak, wanted to reassure him that I was dazed, but completely fine. Instead a terrified, brutal scream ripped from my throat. I couldn’t stop it, and once it tore free, I could feel unending shrieks of anguish and terror building up and roiling through me. I was shaken, torn, and very close to coming completely undone. I had managed to keep it together in that awful pipe, but it had been too much, and I was completely unraveling. I could feel a shattering forming inside of me, a soul wrenching breaking that I was very afraid might just destroy me.
Cade wrapped me up in his arms, pulling me tight against him. He buried my head in his neck, muffling the sounds of my shrieks with his body. I clung to him, continuing to scream as all of the pent up frustration, terror, and horror of that pipe, and everything else that had occurred, boiled out of me. And once it started I couldn’t stop it, could no longer contain it.
“Bethany, Bethy baby hush. You’re out now, you made it. You’re free, it’s over, and you did great. You did great,” Cade whispered against my ear, his hands entangling in my snarled and filthy hair as he pressed me closer.
I shuddered, clawing at his skin and clothes, trying harder to get closer to him, though it was nearly impossible to do so. It was impossible to be any closer, but I needed to be, I needed more. I needed him, all of him. The absolute certainty of that was soul shaking, it nearly ripped me in two as I held him, oblivious to anyone outside of the two of us. No one else existed in this world of warm security within Cade’s strong embrace. I wasn’t aware that my screams had subsided until I felt the gentle caress of his hands over my hair, soothing me gently, and whispering softly to me as I began to tremble. Not from fear this time, or relief, but from the sheer wonder of this tender moment, and his touch.
I did not even care that we were both covered with slime, and stunk to high heaven. I didn’t even care that there were two other people watching us. All I cared about was the fact that I didn’t ever want to let go. I could hear his answering response to me in the excited beat of his heart, and the slight tremble that gripped his body.
“Bethany,” he whispered, his lips against my ear, his hands in my ear. “My brave Bethany.”
I didn’t feel so brave today. I felt like a coward, and childlike. I felt drained, and nearly defeated. If it hadn’t been for his quiet strength, and unwavering faith in me, I wasn’t sure that I would have made it this far. It was a faith I wasn’t sure I deserved, especially not after the breakdown I had just experienced. Jenna may complain about everything, but at least she was keeping it together. I was unraveling faster than a yo-yo. If there had been any aliens in the area, I could have just killed us and all because I had a problem with small spaces.
“I’m sorry,” I breathed.
He didn’t tell me it was ok, didn’t say anything but simply brushed a gentle kiss over my temple. He may have forced Jenna into the pipe, he may have even left her behind, but in that moment I knew that he wouldn’t have forced me, and he wouldn’t have left me. He would have done everything he could to keep me safe for as long as possible, even if it meant dying himself. I wanted to start crying again at the realization, but this time I managed to keep my tears at bay. What was this wonderful, horrible, confusing situation that I had been sucked into?
Just days ago life hadn’t been perfect, but it had been peaceful. I’d had a home, and a mom. I’d known my siblings were safe, and that I would be seeing them again. I’d had a nice, loving boyfriend. I had been certain that if enough time passed I would come to love him one day, because who wouldn’t love Bret? Every other girl in the school loved him, except for me.
But wrapped tight in Cade’s arms I began to understand why I had never been in love with Bret. Even though I hadn’t known it, and might never have recognized it if it hadn’t been for everything that had happened, I understood it now. Ever since those long ago days of fishing, playing, kind words, and small smiles; ever since that long ago night in the garden, Cade had owned my heart, and always would.
What I didn’t know was why he had chosen me. And chosen me he had, years ago. Of that I was certain. Long before his parents had been killed, long before my father’s death, he had chosen me. I recalled the first time that Aiden had brought him home. He had been six at the time, young, quiet, and new to town. I had been five. Even at that young age there had been a strange wisdom in his onyx eyes. A wisdom that had struck me, stunned me, and entranced me. He had been beautiful to me, and perplexing as he studied me in a way that I had never been studied before. There had been confusion in his gaze, disbelief, and a strange yearning that I had not understood at the time. I understood it now. Just as I understood that he would always be a part of me, and that he had been since that first moment.
I may have forgotten about those earlier days after my father’s death, and the subsequent years of being studiously avoided by Cade but I was acutely reminded of that little boy now, and the strange bond that had ensnared us. My heart lumbered with the memories, and the love surging through me. I could see that little boy perfectly, standing in our doorway, his face slack with surprise and his eyes wide as he watched me.
Then, ever so slowly, he had smiled at me. It had been a beautiful and rare smile. It had warmed the ice that had glimmered in his onyx gaze, and it had caused me to smile brightly in return. He had been Aiden’s friend, but he was far more than that to me, and we had been together nearly every day for the following two years. He had been my everything then, and though I had been too young to understand relationships, or recognize that I was helplessly in love with him, I knew now that I had been. And that I still was.
But in one awful night it had all changed. For a brief moment I wondered what it would have been like between us if his parents hadn’t been killed. What our lives would have been like if we had not been separated by hideous chance. I knew there never would have been a relationship with Bret. As much as I cared for Bret, it would have been Cade and I this entire time, there never would have been anyone else of that I was certain. Fate hadn’t worked that way, and though we had been separated then, I knew we would not be separated again. Not willingly, anyway.
He pulled slightly back from me. His hands cradled my face gently, his thumbs rubbed over my cheeks. I knew I had to be filthy, he was filthy, we were all filthy, but he didn’t care, and neither did I. His breath was warm against my mouth as his lips brushed lightly over mine. My heart leapt, plummeted, and then soared high again. A soft sigh of pleasure, and wonder, escaped me. I leaned into him, savoring the warmth of his mouth, and the pleasure that flooded my body. My hands dug into his back, for a brief moment I allowed myself to be lost to him.
But only for a moment. I pulled slowly away, blinking his handsome, dirt smeared face into focus. I smiled softly at him, cradling his hands gently against my face. “We have to go.”
“We do,” he agreed.
For some reason his simple words caused my smile to widen. I was surprised by the answering spark of merriment I saw in his midnight eyes. It was rare to see any joy in his gaze, but it was there now, and beaming radiantly out at me. He was just as happy as I was to have found me again, that much was obvious. He kissed me swiftly once more before rising gracefully. He held his hand out to me, helping me to my feet. I stood shakily, but my legs somehow managed to keep me up.
Taking a deep breath, I forced myself to look at Jenna and Abby. Jenna was staring at me with a haughty, superior look on her face that set my teeth on edge as she smirked at me. I knew that she would tell Bret as soon as she saw him. I would have to tell him first. The last thing I wanted was for Bret to be hurt, but there was no way to avoid that anymore. I saw that now, there was no stopping this thing between Cade and I, and I no longer wanted to try to. It had to come from me; I had to tell Bret about it, not her. This was not Bret’s fault and I needed him to understand that, I also needed him to understand that I did love him. I just didn’t love him like this.
Abby had moved away from us; she was studying the area where we had landed. Cade took hold of my hand as Abby turned slowly back to us. She was unable to stop the flicker of relief that filtered over her face at seeing Cade and I no longer embraced. “This can’t be legal,” she said softly.
I frowned as I took in our surroundings for the first time. We were standing in a soppy bowl in the ground. Grass and weeds sprouted up here and there, but the ones outside of the area we stood in were burnt from the harsh August sun. I looked at the pipe we had tumbled out of, surprised to realize that it was broken. Five feet to my right, the rest of the pipe was jutting three feet out of the ground. The broken pieces lay in a jumbled heap around us.
“Don’t think they knew about it,” Cade muttered.
He released my hand. Climbing up the small hole we were in he lay flat against the grassy hillside as he scanned the horizon. He turned over, looking in the other direction before scurrying back down to us. “The dump is about a mile away. I don’t see anything coming this way.”
“Where are we?” Jenna asked softly.
Cade shook his head. “I don’t know, but we need to get moving. If they discovered that pipe then they’ll know where we went. Let’s go.”
I refused to look at Jenna as we fell into line behind Cade, heading toward a copse of trees that did not appear nearly thick enough for my liking.

***

I was relieved, and exhausted, when we finally came across the highway. The sun was beginning to set; we would not have much of a break before we tried the inevitable crossing. I had not allowed my thoughts to turn to Aiden and Bret since we had been separated. For the first time I wondered where they were, if they were ok, if those things had chased them too, or if they had made it to the gas station already as they’d had a much easier and closer route than us.
I numbly accepted the bag of chips and half full bottle of water that Cade handed to me. I was starving, so hungry my head hurt yet I ate the chips slowly, and barely tasted them. “We’ll have to move quickly,” Cade said softly.
I studied the two lane highway. We would have to dart across it before reaching the median, which was dotted with trees and scrub brush. It would be ten feet of refuge before we would have to run across two more lanes in order to reach the safety of more woods. Though those woods were nowhere near as thick as some of the ones we had traversed earlier.
Cade handed me the duffel bag containing our supplies. I frowned at him as he turned away, making his way to the edge of the woods. I snapped out of my strange stupor to hurry after him. “What are you doing?” I hissed.
“I’m going to go out there first. Make sure it’s safe.”
“Like hell!” I retorted sharply.
He glanced back at me, his face half hidden in the shadows of the woods as he knelt down to study the road. “Do you want another replay of the bridge?”
I froze, my mouth parting slightly as the horrifying reminder of those events slammed into me. I glanced back at the open expanse of highway. Unlike the bridge there were no lights to illuminate the road, but after the events at the dump I could almost feel the aliens lying in wait, hovering over us, and setting a trap to take us down. “We’ll find another way.”
“There is no other way.”
“I’ll go with you.”
He was already shaking his head. His gaze drifted to Abby. “You don’t want to leave her alone.”
“Stop using her against me!”
His jaw clenched for a moment; then he sighed softly and relaxed slightly. “I’m not using her against you; I just need you to stay here Bethany. I’ll be back. I promise.”
I wanted to find solace in his words, I couldn’t. “You can’t promise that.”
“No, I can’t.” I frowned at him. I had expected some kind of reassurance, some more false promises even. I was slightly taken aback by his blunt admission. “But if you come with me, and something happens, these two will be left alone. They need someone to lead them.”
I shifted slightly, glancing over my shoulder to make sure that I was out of earshot. “I’m the one that has completely collapsed in this situation Cade, not them. They’re holding up far better than I.”
He rose slowly to his full height, moving subtly closer to me. I could feel the heat of his body against mine. “That may be true, but you are still stronger than them Bethany. You reached a snapping point today, but many would have reached theirs years ago if they had carried the same burdens as you. You will not reach it again, I know that…”
“You can’t know that,” I interrupted.
“Of course I can, I know you. You’ll get them through this, because you have to. If they lose us both, they won’t make it. Trust me on that.”
I bit my bottom lip as I continued to frown fiercely at him. I wanted to believe him, but a part of me believed he was just feeding me a line of bull in order to get me to stay behind while he tested the waters. I could almost see the gears turning in his head, the thoughts bouncing rapidly through his brain as he tried to think of some other way to dissuade me.
“Without you?”
“What?” he asked blinking in surprise, thrown off by my questioning him instead of arguing further.
“Do you honestly believe that I will be able to keep it together without you?”
He shifted nervously, I could tell he was hesitant to say his next words, but say them he did. “You kept it together after your father died, until me. You kept it together today, until me. I’m the reason you fall apart Bethany.”
“That’s not true!” I protested vehemently.
He glanced over my shoulder; his jaw clenched tight, a muscle jumped in his cheek. “It is true, without me you will make it through this…”
“That’s awful of you to say! Especially after everything that has happened!” I hissed, growing infuriated with his words and the absolute belief he had in them. “How could you believe that I’m stronger without you!?”
He grabbed hold of my shoulders, pulling me a step closer to him. “I never said that. When I am not around, you bury your fear, your hurt, your pain, your emotions because you don’t trust anyone else with them, but…”
“But for some reason I trust you.”
A small smile quirked the corner of his full mouth, his black eyes twinkled mischievously. “Yes, for some reason you trust the devil with your fears, and your pain.”
I blinked in surprise as he brought up his nickname from school. “You knew they called you the dark devil?”
His grin widened. “The devil knows all.”
“You’re not funny,” I muttered.
“I’m not trying to be.” He kissed me softly on the forehead before releasing me and taking a step back. “You will get them through this Bethany. No matter what, I know you will.”
Though I appreciated his unwavering faith in me, I wanted to grab hold of him, wanted to plead with him to stay, wanted to tell him I loved him but the words stuck in my throat. It was obvious that he was set on this course of action, and I was not going to be able to stop him.
“Be safe.”
He flashed that amazing cocky grin that caused my heart to melt and my toes to curl. “Always.”
Before I could say another word he darted away from me, bolted across the road, and disappeared into the shelter of the median with startling speed and grace. I was left gaping after him, my heart hammering wildly as a cold sweat broke out on my body. I had never seen anyone move like that. I took a small step after him, torn between wanting to follow, and needing to stay with my sister.
My gaze went slowly back to Abby. She and Jenna had crept closer, but still hung back a good five feet. I could see the fear in their faces, a fear that caused me to straighten my shoulders and tilt my chin up. Cade was right, I would find some way to get them out of this. No matter what it took, I would get them out of here, even if I had to do it without him. That thought made me want to vomit.
A soft rustle of the leaves was the only thing that alerted me to the fact that Cade was making his way across the other side of the highway. I held my breath, counting silently to myself. I thought he should at least be back in the median by a hundred. At two hundred I was beginning to panic. At three hundred, I could barely breathe through the tight constriction of terror encircling my chest. I was shaking, tears burned my eyes, but I refused to shed them, refused to let my terror show to either Jenna or Abby.
I counted to five hundred. My throat was burning, I was barely breathing anymore. Five fifty. I didn’t know how long we should stay here for. How long we should wait for him to return. I wasn’t sure that I would be able to get my feet to move away from here if the time came. There was no bright light, no crashing bangs echoing throughout the forest signaling the creature’s arrival, but when I hit eight hundred I was beginning to fear that Cade was not going to return.
We didn’t know what other kinds of weapons these aliens possessed, didn’t know what they were capable of. Just because they had always announced their arrival with noise and light before didn’t mean that they always had to. The noise and lights could just be a fear tactic, one that worked really well as far as I was concerned. Maybe they had taken Cade. Maybe they knew we were here and were just waiting for us to expose ourselves.
I took a step back from the roadside, losing count as I began to search the night around us. Were they out there? Hunting us, stalking us? Were they narrowing in on us even now? I didn’t want to leave Cade, but he had been gone for far longer than he should have been, and he had faith in me that I would continue on, that I would get them to safety.
“Bethany…”
“Five more minutes,” I whispered.
“But he’s been gone…”
“Five more minutes Abby.”
“Look, I get that you don’t want to leave your lover behind, but they could be closing in on us even now,” Jenna said.
I shot Jenna a furious look, my hands fisting at my sides. “Five more minutes!” I snarled.
She glared at me as she shifted angrily. I turned back to the road, starting to count again. One more time to two hundred, and then we would have to go. We would have too. Fifty six… fifty seven… fifty ei… Movement rustled the trees in the median.
My breath froze, I took a swift step forward as hope exploded through me, and then Cade was emerging from the shadows. My legs shook as relief flooded me; I was able to take my first real breath since he had left. Cade knelt by the side of the road, his hand resting lightly on the ground as he searched for us. I stepped slightly forward, barely exposing myself to the dim moonlight that illuminated the road. He lifted his hand, gesturing for us to come over.
“Let’s go,” I said softly.
“Wait!” Jenna hissed in surprise.
“We have to go now, well it’s still safe.”
“Out there?” she croaked.
I decided to take a page from Cade’s book. “Then stay here. Let’s go Abby, now.”
Jenna’s eyes widened, her gaze darted wildly around, but she offered no further protest as Abby came slowly toward me. I heaved the duffel bag onto my shoulder, bowing slightly beneath its weight. It was far heavier than I had expected considering the ease with which Cade moved with it. I straightened my shoulders and burst onto the road with Abby close at my heels and Jenna following reluctantly behind.