Reclamation (Book 3 The Ravening Series)
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Authors: Erica Stevens
Erica Stevens
Copyright 2013 Erica Stevens
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The Captive Series
Captured (Book 1)
Renegade (Book2)
Refugee (Book 3)
Salvation (Book 4)
The Kindred Series
Kindred (Book 1)
Ashes (Book 2)
Kindled (Book 3)
Inferno (Book 4)
Phoenix Rising (Book 5)
The Ravening Series
Ravenous (Book 1)
Taken Over (Book 2)
Reclamation (Book 3)
The Survivor Chronicles
Book 1: The Upheaval
Book 2: The Divide
Special thanks to my husband, I don't know what I would do without you. Thank you for putting up with all my craziness.
To my parents for always being so supportive and allowing me to dream.
Thank you to my brother and sisters for giving me little pieces of you to add to characters.
To Megan for all the days and nights spent reading, whispering and dreaming.
To Kayla for being a pain in the butt and not putting on shoes, you slowed us down during our escape. Who knows where we would be living now!
To my nieces and nephews, thank you for making me smile and showing me just what the true definition of strength is in all that you do.
Thank you to all my friends who make me laugh and also add little pieces of themselves to the people in my head.
Thank you to Leslie for all of your continued hard work and support, I'm so glad we met.
Thank you to Christina for your good eye and friendship.
Thank you to all the fans who have become my friends. I don't know what I'd do without. You make everyday an adventure.
To Donna, Michelle, Christina, Cheryl, Tina, and Kathy thank you for the laughs, gentle nudges and countdowns that keep me on my game.
A very special thank you to Jessica for becoming my friend, for all your continued help and sup
port! I hope you find the Jessica in this story to your liking; she is named for you after all!
I ducked low and spun away as the snapping tentacle zipped by my head. The hollow slapping sound it made against the concrete wall resonated within the quiet alley. The creature, frustrated at missing me, made a noise that wasn't quite a roar but more like a growling hiss that made my blood run cold. Whatever it was, it wasn't a sound that had ever been heard on our planet before their arrival.
Taking up the shooter's stance that Darnell had taught me. I didn't have much time, but even so I fired off five quick rounds into the smallest creature. A screeching noise erupted from it as it curled into itself but I didn't intend to stick around and make sure it was dead.
Keep moving
, I told myself fiercely.
Don't stay still, just go
.
Leaping forward, I darted in and out as I attempted to stay ahead of the hideous thing pursuing me. I'd been hit once before by one of those tentacles and there was no way I was
ever
going to have that agonizing experience replayed. Grabbing hold of long forgotten trashcans and bicycles, I threw them behind me as I dashed into an empty office building and bolted through the shadowy and cobwebbed lobby.
I could barely hear over my own breath as my lungs labored for air. I grabbed hold of a dead potted plant and spun to heave it behind me as I tried to get enough distance between me and the monster to fight it off. The creature made that strange hissing sound again as the pot connected with its opalescent and mottled red exterior. It wasn't as large as some of the others I'd encountered, but it was faster and able to get through the building better than the bigger ones would have been able to.
My legs were burning as I jumped onto a sofa in the lobby and cleared the back of it in one single bound. There had been a time when I would have tripped over my own feet and ended up in an ungraceful heap on the floor, but things were different now. I wasn't the ungraceful, uncoordinated girl I'd been before The Freezing had occurred.
Cade had made sure of that, though his blood had resulted in consequences he hadn't expected and some he didn't even know about, as I still couldn't bring myself to talk to him about what was going on inside me.
I heard the creature coming seconds before I lurched to the side in order to dodge the tentacle's deadly trajectory. The snake-like appendage struck the wall with a sickening slap that caused my stomach to twist. I didn't know where everyone else was, we'd been separated when these things had emerged from the alleyway, but I knew if I could just stay free long enough, I'd be able to get the upper hand on this thing.
The entrance to the stairwell loomed ahead of me. The door had been half ripped off and hung askew on its broken hinges as I dove under it. I cleared the bottom half of the door and rolled into the gloomy stairway. I launched back to my feet and took the stairs two at a time as I ascended rapidly. My breathing sounded like a horse that had just won the race by the time I made it to the second floor, but I didn't slow down as I shoved through the stairwell door. The creature was only twenty feet behind me when I crashed through the first door on my right into an abandoned office.
My footsteps echoed through the cavernous space as I ran by the receptionist's desk, through another open doorway, and into a room filled with desks and copy machines. The smell of something dead and gone for too long now was coming from somewhere within the room. I prayed I didn't stumble across it as I ran in a zigzagging pattern I was hoping would help me lose the creature. I tried to ignore the blood streaked over the floor and smeared on the back wall but my eyes were drawn toward it repeatedly. The life of human beings gone, and sadly most likely forgotten, coated these walls.
I thrust open another door and plunged back into the hallway I'd just left. The screech of bending metal resonated through the hall as the monster scrambled through the office behind me. I had to get out of this building and somehow lose that thing.
Now
.
The door at the end of the hall was missing as I dashed into a different stairwell. It felt as if my feet barely hit the ground as I used the railing to propel myself down the stairs. My heart was in my throat as I leapt over the last four steps and fell into the closed door. My hands scrambled over the doorknob but it didn't budge as I twisted and tugged at it. A strangled scream escaped me; I slammed my shoulder against the metal, but it did little good as the door remained a solid barrier between me and my quest for freedom.
My lungs strained for air as I slapped my hand repeatedly against the metal and jerked on the knob. The thing's many legs sounded like nails on a chalkboard as it rounded the landing. Its chelicerae like mouth clicked eagerly when it spotted me against the door.
Not like this, not like this
, I prayed fervently.
I'm not ready to go now
. Cade would be heartbroken and devastated; he would be lethal if something happened to me now. This time my scream of frustration wasn't muffled, it was a loud and clear shout of pure fury and terror as I kicked and tore feverishly at the barricade in my way.
Faster than I could blink the door was ripped away from me. I gasped as light blazed against my irises and instinctively took a startled step back. Hands seized hold of me and pulled me out of the stairwell. I caught a brief glimpse of Cade before he pushed me behind him. The normal onyx of his eyes had seeped out to encompass his entire eyeball; the veins in his face seemed to have filled with liquid coal as he turned to confront the creature stalking me.
The thing was brought up short by the fact that one of its creators was standing in the doorway staring at it with murderous intent. Before I could react, and before the creature could sense the threat, Cade pulled out his knife and launched himself forward with a vicious snarl that caused the hair on my neck to stand up. The creature hadn't been expecting to be attacked by Cade, but its shock wore off the minute it realized that its life was in danger.
I stumbled back a few feet as squeals of pain and the sounds of fists pummeling the creature's almost mushy exterior surrounded me. My hands fell to my waist and the gun resting there. Pulling it free, I ran toward the doorway. There was no way I was going to stand back and take the chance of something happening to Cade. Before I could make it to the stairwell a low keening sound emanated from the creature but Cade remained eerily silent as the hollow thud of thumps and blows continued from within. My heart was a drumbeat in my chest; I could barely breathe through the constriction in my throat.
Was I already too late?
I was brought up short in the doorway as Cade reappeared. Blood streaked his midnight hair, full mouth and cheeks. "Are you ok?" he demanded as his eyes pierced me.
I opened my mouth to answer but I didn't get a chance to as he whirled away from me and disappeared into the stairwell. I caught a brief glimpse of blood splattered walls, and limp tentacles before he carefully closed the door behind him. I didn't know what had happened to make him retreat until I caught the sound of running feet. Spinning around, I took a step forward to block Aiden, Bret, and Lloyd as they charged across the lobby of the office building.
They couldn't see Cade like this, they simply couldn't. Their breathing was labored and their hair was dripping with sweat as they skid to a stop in front of me. "Are you ok?" Aiden demanded as his mahogany eyes fixed upon me.
Unable to hold his gaze, my eyes flitted back toward the glass front of the building. Aiden had been scrutinizing me ever since Cade had been forced to kill Ian in order to save me. Cade had revealed what he truly was to me that night, but the others didn't know and they could never find out. Aiden didn't know the true depth of the secrets I was hiding from him, but he was my brother and in the past, he'd always known when I'd been keeping something from him. Right now was no different; he knew I was holding something back.
I jumped a little as Cade's hands came down on my shoulders. Twisting to look up at him, I was relieved to see that the black had seeped away from his face to reveal his striking features. He had cleaned the blood from his mouth and hands though I could still see specks of it in his hair.
Knowing that it would help to calm him further, and needing the connection with him, I rested my hand on top of his. "I'm fine," I assured the others. "How is everyone else?"
"They're fine." Bret's clover colored eyes scanned me before settling upon Cade. He'd become a lot more accepting of our relationship, but like Aiden he'd never hid the fact that he didn't entirely trust Cade. If they knew the truth, the looks on their faces would be a lot less friendly, and as it was, the looks they gave him now weren't entirely welcoming.
Cade slid his arm around my waist as he stepped beside me and pulled me against his side. "Are you ok?" Lloyd asked.
I was uncertain what he was talking about until I realized that his focus wasn't on me. My gaze slid to the four round patches of blood, each about the size of a quarter that stained Cade's electric blue shirt. My mouth went dry and my mind went blank as I felt trapped beneath their inquisitive gazes.
"I'm fine. I must have rubbed against something." Cade pulled the shirt out from his body and looked down as if to study the spots of blood. He pulled off the lie and baffled look far better than I would have as he rubbed at the marks before shrugging and dropping the shirt back down.
"Looks like blood," Aiden pressed.
"It could be," Cade acknowledged. "There's plenty of blood marking this city right now."
I shuddered at the reminder and slipped my hands into the sleeves of my sweater to fiddle with the edges of the tattered cuffs. "I suppose." Aiden slid his rifle onto his back, but he didn't seem satisfied by Cade's answer. "We better get back. Darnell plans to try and get out of the city before morning."
"Since when?" I inquired.
"Since it has become apparent that most survivors have either moved on or..."
His voice trailed off but we all knew what he was going to say; or they were dead. We hadn't seen any living, breathing people since entering the city. Blood spattered the streets and buildings and I had seen far too many bodies and random body parts in the past few days. The worst were the children and babies. I tried not to think about them, but the images of the lost young would haunt me for as long as I lived.
Whereas the aliens had turned Cape Cod and Plymouth into a makeshift prison for those who hadn't been frozen, or that had already been reawakened, Boston seemed to have been a zone used simply for slaughter, pleasure, and mayhem. The aliens had come in here and ruthlessly hunted and destroyed any person they'd found, frozen or moving. I assumed there had to be survivors somewhere, that some people must have escaped, but there was no way to know as we'd come across nothing but death and destruction.
I'd asked Cade why they had left one area alone and basically untouched, while completely destroying another. He'd assumed that it was because Boston's population was far higher than the Cape's so there had been more survivors in Boston and more of a chance of a rebellion amongst them. The people within the city had been decimated, and their bodies left behind, as a warning of what could happen to any other survivors that came here seeking refuge or retribution.
However, Cade hadn't expected the complete massacre that had occurred in Boston, he never would have allowed us to come here if he had. He'd expected more aliens in the city, we all had, but the risks had seemed worth the food, medical supplies, and possible help we had hoped to find here. None of us had known that we were walking into Hell on earth, and that the rewards we had been hoping to find here were never going to materialize.
Even though we wouldn't be able to get supplies, a part of me was glad that Bishop wouldn't be able to get a hold of more equipment to test my blood with. I wasn't like the others, my blood type wasn't O, but there was no secret cure hidden within my blood like the one that Bishop hoped for. The secret lay within the fact that Cade wasn't human, and in the hopes of saving me from The Freezing, he had given me some of his blood. His blood could have killed me, but if he hadn't done it I wouldn't have survived at all. I would have been like my mother, who had been lost soon after The Freezing occurred.
Although Cade's blood had changed me and may still be changing me, I would forever be grateful for what he had done for me. Grateful for everything that he had risked for me, and for the pure love he so easily gave when his kind was incapable of such a thing. I couldn't help but return that love as he'd had my heart since we were children.
I would have liked to have been able to get our hands on some more medicine and supplies though, even if it meant we had to come up with a viable excuse for Bishop not to poke and prod at me anymore. We were in need of antibiotics, antibacterial creams, bandages, painkillers, and any other thing that would help keep us alive. Which was just about everything, we didn't have much left if an emergency arose.
However with most of the routes to the hospitals blocked off, and absolutely no guarantee that any of them actually still remained, that part of our mission had quickly been abandoned. Just as the mission of trying to find Jenna's parents had become too hazardous to pursue. The decision had broken Jenna's heart and she had cried a lot of tears, but she had never complained and she hadn't argued with us about it.
Her parents had probably arrived in Boston a couple of weeks before us, when the alien occupation here had been at its highest and worst. Unwilling to not show some kind of an effort on Jenna's behalf, Darnell had managed to get us to her grandparent's house. It had still been standing, but there were no signs of life within the dusty recesses of the home. We'd tried to get to another of the meeting places that Jenna's parents left in their note to her, the science museum, but the way had been blocked. The search was officially abandoned as our own survival became paramount, and the risks too high.