Ravenous (Book 1 The Ravening Series) (25 page)

  
“Bethany!” Abby hissed.

   “It drops again.” I warned in a strangled voice that I hardly recognized and was more than a little ashamed of.

   And then, I shoved myself into the disgusting darkness that dropped dangerously into nothing.

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.