Ravenous (The Ravening #1)(34)
Author: Erica Stevens

“Just wait until the second group gets a little further Aiden, please,” Abby whispered.

I decided to let her try to persuade Aiden, he had a harder time saying no to her than he did to me. He looked hesitant but he waited until the second group was already on the bridge and the first group was beginning to fade from sight. Then, without further speaking to us, Aiden began to move from the woods. I glanced franticly back at Cade.

Cade’s jaw was locked as he came toward us. The determination in his gaze was a sign of impending trouble. I knew he wasn’t going to make me cross that bridge. “Aiden wait,” he commanded crisply.

Aiden spun back toward him, but the other two members of Cade’s group were also coming forward. One of them was the girl who had claimed to know how to scuba dive. “Molly.” She thrust her small hand forward to shake Aiden’s. I took hold of her hand, surprised by the strength in her firm grip as I introduced myself.

“We’ll go now instead. You’ll see, we’ll all be fine,” the man said. He shot Abby and I a sympathetic look that set my teeth on edge.

“Fine,” Aiden said. “Let’s go Bret.”

“Wait,” Bret protested instantly. “Bethany…”

“It’s ok Bret, I’ll be fine," I assured him. "I would like to stay with Abby.”

“Cade can go over with Aiden.”

Hope sparked in Jenna’s eyes at the idea of being with Bret. Abby looked franticly back and forth between the two groups. I was ashamed by the spurt of disappointment that shot through me at the thought of being separated from Cade. “Let’s just go,” Aiden said impatiently.

“I’d prefer not to leave you here,” Bret said to me.

“Bret come on,” Aiden interjected, practically bouncing on his toes in his eagerness to move.

“Bethany?” Bret asked.

I forced down the lump in my throat. “I’ll be fine.”

“Would you like me to stay?” he inquired.

I wanted them all to stay, but my opinion didn’t seem to matter right now. “Its fine,” I managed to choke out.

He smiled tremulously at me, squeezed my hand, and kissed me tenderly on the lips. I didn’t recoil from him and didn’t push him away. In fact I kissed him back because I was fairly certain I would never see him again, and I did love him. He hurried to join Aiden and Cade swiftly took Bret’s place at my side. I stared morosely up at Cade, struggling not to cry as Abby began to sob quietly.

The first group made it to the other side of the bridge; I could almost feel their relief. They weren’t out of the woods yet, they were still completely exposed and out in the open, but they’d made it much further than I had thought they were going to. Hope began to fill me as I realized that perhaps I’d been wrong after all, perhaps we were all going to make it across. Perhaps the bridges were the answer.

I was seized by the urge to run across the bridge, race over to the other side and kiss the ground of the mainland. I glanced eagerly at Cade, Abby’s tears began to dry up, and Jenna looked like she was about to start jumping for joy. The second group was more than halfway there; Aiden was almost to the IHOP. “Let’s go,” Jenna said eagerly.

I managed a wan smile for Cade when he turned toward me. Jenna stepped out of the shadows and made her way toward the road. I swallowed nervously, gathered my courage, and followed Jenna. Abby had stopped crying as she moved with us. Cade stayed close to my side, little shivers of pleasure shot through me every time his arm brushed against mine. I didn’t feel so awful about us right now, I couldn’t. I needed him.

It was just that simple.

Aiden was at the foot of the bridge. The second group was almost safely to the other side when intense light blazed forth. For a minute I was blinded, and completely confused. I thought something had happened with the lights on the bridge, that perhaps a power surge had somehow caused them to blaze even brighter.

Then, I heard the screams.

CHAPTER 17

I didn’t stop to think. I shoved Abby back and pushed her towards the woods. “Run!” I yelled at her. She turned beneath my shoving hands and stumbled toward the forest. I turned and plunged in the opposite direction. “Aiden!”

I couldn’t see him over the glare burning my irises, couldn’t hear him above the screams that shredded the night. “Aiden!”

I was running toward the certain death that made it impossible to see the bridge anymore. I had no idea where I was or where I was running to. I stumbled, tripped, and sprawled onto grass. I had somehow managed to make it into the rotary, where exactly in the rotary I was though, I didn’t know. I could be closer to the bridge; I could be on the complete opposite side. I struggled back to my feet.

“Aiden! Bret!” I screamed, terror for their lives clawed at me and left me nearly breathless. Not my brother, I pleaded. Please not my brother, please not Bret. Please. Please. Please.

I crashed through some bushes that tore at my skin and clothes before I plowed into another bush that halted me abruptly. I thought I was somewhere near the Cape Cod spelled out with yews in the center of the rotary. I couldn’t be certain though, but I thought I may have hit the C of Cape. That meant I had at least approached the bridge side of the rotary in my heedless rush, and I wasn’t running aimlessly in the wrong direction. I just didn’t know where to go from here, which direction was the right one.

Arms wrapped around me and pulled me back. A terrified scream escaped me; I clawed savagely at the arms, certain that death had just locked me within its lasting embrace. “It’s me Bethany,” a voice whispered in my ear. I slumped as I recognized Cade’s voice, but I couldn’t see his arms around my waist against the harshness of the glow surrounding us. “We have to go back Bethy, we have to go back.”

Cade was pulling me away, dragging me toward something. I didn’t know which way we were going, what was happening anymore. More screams echoed out of the light. I was reminded of a wounded mountain lion and had never heard such awful, agonizing sounds in my entire life. I wanted to clasp my hands over my ears and attempt to drown out the suffering that echoed within those shrieks. I would never get them out of my head though.

Aiden. Bret. My heart was shattering. This was it; I couldn’t take anymore. This was my breaking point. It would soon be over, for all of us, and I didn’t even care anymore.

Cade kept his arm locked around my waist as he pulled me to the ground. “Move Bethany!” he grated in my ear.