Reclamation (The Ravening #3)(22)
Author: Erica Stevens

A noise from the tunnel caught my attention and for the first time I paused to think about who Aiden would bring back. I hoped that it wasn’t Abby. I trusted her completely, but I despised the thought of using her in such a way, of having Cade feed from her like that.

Aiden stepped from the tunnel first, followed by Bret and Jenna. I instinctively stepped in front of Cade as a million protests surged up my throat. "It will be ok Bethany," Aiden said.

It couldn’t possibly be ok. We had gotten closer but I still wouldn’t have trusted Jenna with this and Bret had never liked Cade. However as my ex-boyfriend I thought Bret had every right to dislike the man I’d broken up with him for. No matter how much he didn’t like Cade though, I didn’t believe he would do anything to hurt him, or me.

"What’s going on?" Jenna inquired.

"Is he ok?" Bret demanded brusquely.

I tried to find words but they got stuck on the lump in my throat. "He will be," Aiden said.

Confusion swirled within Bret’s green eyes as he glanced at Cade. "What happened to him?"

"Those things," I managed to choke out. "When he killed them."

"He killed those things!" Bret exploded. "How is that possible?"

"Bret," I breathed, I was terrified of how he was going to react. Until Cade had reentered my life, I’d lived with the simple acceptance that I would probably spend the rest of my life with Bret. I loved him, but not in the same way I loved Cade, never like Cade. Bret had been upset by everything that had happened between us and for awhile he’d hung onto the hope that we would, one day, get back together. He’d accepted the fact that it wasn’t going to happen, but I had no idea how he was going to react to this revelation.

Jenna’s hand went to her mouth as her vivid green eyes widened. Her strawberry hair curled around her petite face in delicate ringlets that emphasized her beauty. She stared at Cade for a few minutes, then at Bishop, and finally at me again. I simply stared back at her, willing her to understand, willing her not to freak out.

"Bethany?" Bret inquired.

I turned back to him. "He needs your help," I pleaded. "I can’t do it."

Bret was unblinking as he stared at me. "I expect an explanation."

"You’ll get one," I promised. I no longer cared if it was Cade’s secret or not. If they were willing to do this than they would get the explanation that they deserved.

"What do we need to do?" Bret asked.

Bishop approached with the freshly cleaned and sterilized knife. "I have him heavily sedated but he’s still swallowing the blood. He needs more if he’s going to survive."

Bret eyed the knife warily before holding his arm out to Bishop. I focused on the wall above Cade’s head as I wrapped my arms around myself. "I’m sorry." I was repulsed by the fact that I was allowing my friends to be hurt in order to heal and sustain Cade. There was no way around it, it had to be done, but I felt as if I were using them. "If there was another way…"

Jenna tenderly touched my arm. "It’s ok."

"No one…" I broke off and swallowed back the tears that burned my eyes and throat. "No one else can know."

"No one will know," she promised.

"He’s never hurt anyone." Jenna nodded and smiled listlessly as she pushed a stray hair off of her face.

"What about Ian?" Bishop inquired apparently having already put two and two together. "It was Cade that killed him, wasn’t it?"

I braced myself as I turned toward the doctor. I couldn’t look at Bret as he knelt before Cade. Jenna’s hand clenched on my arm as her breathing escalated. "Ian was trying to kill me," I whispered.

I felt their eyes latch onto me. "What?" Aiden demanded.

I gulped as my hands began to fidget before me. "I found Ian in your workroom Bishop; he was drinking my blood samples."

Jenna shuddered as Bishop frowned sternly. "So Cade wasn’t the one who destroyed the samples?"

"No, but I think he would have found a way to destroy them eventually." It seemed as if everything lately had been nothing but a lie, but I refused to lie to them now. "He didn’t want you taking any more samples, but I didn’t know the reason why at the time. When I discovered Ian in that room he attacked me. He knew that Cade had given me some of his blood; he must have tasted it in my blood somehow. Ian was set on taking me and keeping me in order to punish Cade."

"Why did he want to punish Cade?" Jenna inquired.

"Cruelty I suppose. Cade said that his kind doesn’t have emotions, at least not like we do. They don’t know love. They only know death and destruction and the pleasure that those two things bring to them. They only know how to take, and Ian was determined to take what Cade had."

Bishop nudged Bret away from Cade and bandaged his arm for him. Jenna released my arm and took Bret’s place. "But Cade loves you, I’ve seen the way he is with you," Jenna said. "He couldn’t fake the way he looks at you."

I couldn’t look as Bishop made a slice across her porcelain skin. For some insane reason, jealousy filled me as she was able to do what I couldn’t. That strange new hunger twisted through my belly but I was able to suppress it as I focused on my words. "He’s not like the others," I choked out as a way to distract myself from what was happening with Jenna and Cade. "For some reason he fell in love with me when we were children, he said he’s never heard of it happening before, but that if it had happened to someone else they would keep it hidden. The aliens thought that it was his adopted parents he was coming to care for, that’s why the Marshall’s were killed, and why he avoided me after."

"Jesus," Aiden muttered.

"Cade killed Ian to save me, but he wouldn’t do that to anyone else."

"Unless they’re a threat to you," Bret said.

There was no denying the truth. "Yes."

"And the reason your blood is different is because he gave you some of his blood," Bishop guessed correctly.

"Yes, there is no secret in my blood. I can’t help awaken the frozen people."

"We haven’t run into any of them in awhile, I don’t think there are many left for us to save." It was something we had all suspected for awhile, but to hear Bishop confirm it was disheartening. "But there could still be answers in your blood Bethany. You say many don’t survive, but you did. I was looking in a completely different direction before but now that I know, there could be answers."

"Bishop…"

He held up a finger and shook his head. "It’s something we can discuss later, when he’s awake again."