Taken Over (Book 2 The Ravening Series) (47 page)

   “I don’t care,” I gushed out terrified that he would leave just so such a thing didn’t happen.

   “I do and you will. But to leave you
unprotected again, I can’t
.”
H
is fingers threaded through my hair, pushing it gently away from my face.
His voice was fervent, h
e clung desperately to me.
“
I can help keep you safe Bethany. Those things won’t get hold of you again as long as I’m around.
Whatever you decide, whatever you want
me to do
, I’ll do it
. If you want me to leave…” His hands tightened on me briefly, a small shudder
of agony
ran through his body. “I will. Anything you want.
Anything
.”

   I opened my mouth to respond, to tell him that I never wanted him to leave me. That though I was wounded, betrayed
;
aching with loss and confusion, I loved him just as much as he loved me. That I needed him just as badly as he needed me. We could deal with this. We
would
deal with this
together.

   But he placed his finger over my mouth before I could respond. “But there is one more
thing
that you need to know before you make your choice. One thing that could make you hate me forever.”

   “That’s not possible,” I murmured around his finger. “I don’t hate you now.”

   “You don’t know the worst thing
I’ve done. There is something else I
’
ve kept from you
.”

   I swallowed heavily
, fear trickled through me
. I was certain that no matter what he said, it couldn’t possibly get any worse
than everything that had been revealed tonight
. Whatever
else
he had
kept from me
, I could take it, and we would be fine. But the fear in his eyes, the beaten look in his
gaze
caused doubts to filter through m
e
. What could he possibly have done to make him look like a kicked puppy
so
badly
?

   “Ok, tell me,” I said softly.

   I held my breath, my hands fisted, as I braced myself for whatever it was he was about to say.
“No matter what happens, no matter
what
you decide
about me
, you cannot allow Bishop to take
anymore of
your blood.”

   My breath exploded out of me, my hands relaxed as my body was rocked with shock. I had not been expecting that, not at all. I had expected
that he had lied and there were
other women, or
even
other aliens, or something
,
anything
other than that. “
Why not
?”

  
His gaze searched mine; his hands were gentle yet strong against my face.
“
Y
ou are not completely human
Bethany, n
ot anymore.
”

   I had not been expecting
that
either.
 

C
HAPTER 16

   I froze, trapped like a deer in the headlights as I searched his face, looking for some sign he was kidding. Some sign that he was going to yell
“
Gotcha!
”
at any moment. Some sign that this was some sick, twisted joke that only an alien
,
with their quirky sense of humor would understand. Some sign that he was lying to me.

   But there was none.

   He simply stared at me, his eyes willing me to understand. Willing me to
believe what he was saying. I frowned at him, confused, lost, baffled by his words.
Then, slowly, a dawning sense of horror began to encase me. All of the changes
I had sensed growing within me.
T
he speed, the growing grace
as my inherent clumsiness seemed to fade. T
he
cravings
.
Meat, especially raw meat he had said. A gurgle
,
half sob and half hysterical laughter
,
surged up my throat.

   It
was
n
’
t what th
ose creatures had done to me I realized
.
It wasn’t some strange alien germ that had infiltrated my wounds and begun to infect me.
Their attacks on me aren’t what
had brought forth the strange changes I felt coalescing through my body.
It was him. “What did you
do
to me!?” I demanded.

  
He remained immobile, his eyes didn’t even flicker.
“The ships
started
leaking gas into
the air supply two weeks prior to
T
he
Freezing
,” he explained instead of telling me what he had done. “
The gas was odorless, tasteless, and undetectable to the human race. It’s not something
your
kind had ever heard of before, and to breathe it caused no ill harm unless it was coupled with a high frequency sound that most people
cannot hear. Then it caused the muscles to freeze, the organs to shut down, and the brain to become suspended. It’s something similar to what you would know as cryogenics.”

   “But cryogenics doesn’t work,” I mumbled.

   “
Yet, it doesn’t work yet. And only
because
humans haven’t mastered it yet.”
  
I
was in
a state of shock,
I felt as
if I were trying to wade through a swamp
but becoming
constantly mired in place
by
mud
. “
Your kind ha
s
though.”

   “Yes. They also designed it so that it would not affect people with type O blood.”

 
My eyes snapped back to his, I struggled to
shake
the strange stupor clinging to me
. “Why?” I breathed.

   “For the hunt, for the thrill.
Humans are the most dangerous game after all.
Ty
pe
O is
the
most popular blood
type, but there
wouldn’t be enough left
to be a serious threat, or at least that’s what
they
believe. They’re murderers
;
they enjoy the fear, the pleasure of hunting and torturing their kill.
However,
the human
population outnumb
er
ed
theirs. T
hey couldn’t take the risk that your kind could cause severe damage
,
and
massive
casualt
ies
to them
. They wanted the hunt, but they also wanted the assurance that they could win. It was decided to leave that number of the population mobile, while being able to easily capture and use the others
for food and pleasure
.
Not
everyone
will be killed
during the reaping process though
.
”

  
“They’ll be left behind for a later time.”
I was finding it more and more difficult to breathe. The neck of my shirt suddenly felt too tight as it squeezed my windpipe. I slid my finger into it
and tugged anxiously at it
.
I needed to breathe, I couldn’t breathe.
“For breeding,” I choked. “For their children to restock Earth
, maybe even
my
children
.”
I shuddered, I was going to thr
ow up, no I would not have kids;
I would never allow them to go through this misery. Never let them experience this terror, loss,
sadness. And I most certainly would
not
lose them to the monsters hunting us now. “No children.”

   His eyes were sad, he leaned closer to me. “Bethany…”

   I shook my head, devastated by what he was telling me. I’d never really thought about children before, I’d assumed that one day I’d have them but they were never a real thought or plan in my life. I was stunned by the sense of loss that filled me. “No.”

   “You don’t have to give that up Bethany. Your dreams…”

   “Are changing every day. I’m not even sure I have them anymore Cade, there’s no guarantee past today. I simply want to enjoy every day that I get from here on out. Besides, could we… um is it even possible
?”

   Red crept up my cheeks as my hands closed around his. “I don’t know if conception is possible, but sex is.”

   My face was on fire as I managed a small nod. “But if it is, our child, what would it be?”

   He shook his head. “There’s no way to know Bethany, our breeding period is different than a humans. Our gestation is six months, the labor is not as intense, but our babies are larger. There is no way to know what would happen to you, what it would do to you, and it’s not a chance I am willing to take. Not with you.” He took a deep breath, something dark flickered through his eyes. “It doesn’t have to be me Bethany
.”