Reclamation (The Ravening #3)(35)
Author: Erica Stevens

A small smile spread across her full mouth, she turned her cheek into my hand. It took all I had to pull myself away from her and back to the plans before us. Another shock rolled down my spine as I noticed the name of a room in the bottom of the ship. "You made it into the Hallowed room?"

Jessica paled a little as she shook her head. "It’s the one room that I couldn’t get into, but I know where it is."

"What is the Hallowed room?" Bret asked.

"It’s rumored that it’s where the source of their life, perhaps even the Fountain of Youth itself or whatever constitutes The Fountain is located. No one, other than The Ancients, has ever gone into it," I answered.

Bishop’s brow was furrowed over his glasses as he stared at me. "You think The Fountain may be more than water?"

"Perhaps, none of us have ever seen it. Our planet was largely made of water and it would make sense that The Fountain was water, but I think they also would have tried to throw everyone off of as to what The Fountain truly was."

"It’s also rumored that if whatever is in that room is destroyed The Ancients will be destroyed too," Rosemary said.

The hush was so profound that I could hear the distant drip of water from outside and the faint laugh of children playing tag. "We need to get inside that room," I stated.

Jessica shook her head. "I’m not sure we can do that."

I leaned closer to her. "If you can get me on that ship, I’ll get us in that room."

The abrupt intake of Bethany’s breath sounded in my ear. I slid my arm around her waist and pulled her closer as I sought to comfort her, but I know it didn’t do any good as she remained rigid against my side. "I can get you on the ship," Jessica vowed.

"Wait, why would you do that?" Leo demanded as he stepped forward. "We’re safe here; we’ve found a place…"

"It’s only temporary. They will search every corner of this world and they will hunt us all down. They may not plan to destroy every human, but we have no way of knowing what they will do to you after they’ve taken all that they came here for. What they will do to all of us. None of us will let you go without a fight and it’s obvious that Rosemary has already undergone some changes. The exchanging of the souls and blood has kept the humans hidden, but at any moment they can release a new gas that also affects the people with type O blood and we’ll lose even more of our fighting power. Something has to be done before that happens," I told him.

Bishop sat on the bed again, all the color drained from Jenna’s face as Abby took a step closer to Aiden. Bethany’s fingers dug into my back as she stepped closer. I could feel the tremor that raced through her muscles but I also saw the resolve that settled over her and caused her chin to jut out.

"They won’t kill all humans, or at least I don’t think they will, and if they don’t, they will come back to this planet again. They will only get smarter and stronger while the human race will remain decimated. You will never again be as strong as you are now. Your numbers will only dwindle; your race will only grow weaker. This is a now or never situation," I pressed.

I turned to Jessica, unwilling to deal with Leo’s protests anymore. "How many can you get on that ship?"

"Maybe ten, safely. Less than that would be better so we could stay more easily hidden, but more would be better to put up a stronger fight with."

It was a horribly unfair catch twenty two that I didn’t have time to think about. "Who do you trust to go?"

"Anyone in this compound," Rosemary answered. "But there are some that are stronger than others."

"Gather the stronger ones so I can speak with them."

Greg held up his hand to halt Rosemary. "Hold on, this is moving way too fast. You can’t just go back up there."

"You knew this was our ultimate goal and now that Cade is here we have even more power than we had ever hoped for. It’s something we have to do. Jessica, go outside and gather Betty, Steve, Cory, and Craig. We’ll start with those four for now."

"Wait!" Leo commanded. "If you’re going up there than I am going with you."

"Leo…" Jessica started.

"No, he’s right," Bethany interrupted. I saw the fire in her eyes as they slid to me. "You can’t just leave us here. You did this to us; you changed us and made us different. You made me different. You can’t just expect to get up and leave us here with no way of knowing what is going on."

"No one is going anywhere right now," I assured her. "There are things to discuss first."

"Jessica, please go get the others," Rosemary said.

Jessica nodded and took hold of Leo’s hand. "Come with me."

I barely paid them any attention as they disappeared out the door. "Bishop come and take a look at this."

Bishop took a deep breath and straightened his shoulders as he rose to his feet. I pushed the drawing more firmly down and pointed toward the Hallowed room. The hesitation faded from Bishop’s face as his curiosity was snagged by the drawing.

"If I can get in there and destroy this room there is a good possibility we can end this," I told him. "Without The Ancients the others would be lost, they may continue to put up somewhat of a fight, but I think it is more likely that they would flee in panic. Also, The Ancients are the ones that control the gas; the others wouldn’t be able to make a new batch without them. The rest of you would be safe."

"What if we try giving all of the type O people my blood or the blood of one of the others like me? It hasn’t been done yet and maybe our diluted blood would be able to keep them safe from the gas, but not kill them. Unless you have tried it already?" Bethany asked Rosemary.

I lifted my head to look at Rosemary. "There are humans here that have no ties to any of us. They decided to stay with us after we freed them from being prisoners but we haven’t experimented on any of them, we wouldn’t do that. There’s no way to know what her blood, or any of the others like her, would do to them."

"I’ve seen what his cells have done to your blood Bethany, they’re aggressive and your cells may likely be the same way now. Would we have any notice if they release a new gas?" Bishop asked.

"Not much. We will know because we’ll be able to smell it, but it’s odorless to humans. We won’t have more than a day’s notice at best, maybe even less," I told him.

"What if you do that whole soul exchanging thing with us?" Molly inquired.

Bethany’s fingers dug further into my skin and I couldn’t help but feel pleased that such a thought irritated her. "No. There would be no exchange between us; we would take until there was nothing left of you," Rosemary answered.