Reclamation (The Ravening #3)(55)
Author: Erica Stevens

Someone behind me cried out but I didn’t look back as I heard the sound of their body bouncing off of something below us. With the grace of a deer, Jessica leapt off the rail and onto the next platform. Betty hurried forward, followed closely by Craig, and finally me. Jessica led the way down the hall, past the rooms with the crystal doors at a speed that would have beaten a cheetah but didn’t seem fast enough for me.

Sirens and lights continued to blare around us as we ran. The doors surrounding us had stopped changing color; instead they had all opened to reveal a single, twin sized bed and a small chest within. Every room was the same white color; there were no identifying pictures or personal objects in them.

Jessica didn’t even hesitate before scurrying onto the next golden rail with her arms straight out at her sides. Betty and Craig plunged out behind her just as the ship gave another jerking lurch to the side. More cries sounded from behind me but Betty’s piercing shriek was the only one I heard as her feet lost their traction and she plummeted from view.

"Shit!" I hissed from between clenched teeth.

Craig stumbled before me and nearly fell, but he managed to catch his balance in time to save himself. I had come up here fully expecting to die, but I’d be damned if I went out like a tightrope walker in some sort of demented carnival. Drawing on the strength Bethany’s blood and soul had given me, I poured on the speed as the ship began to tilt into a more downward angle.

I realized with absolute certainty that this thing was as doomed as the Titanic as Craig made it to the next platform and I leapt off behind him.

"Getting back to the container room is useless now," I said to Jessica. "There has to be an emergency way off of this thing."

Jessica shook her head as she looked at me helplessly. "There’s a way off, but…" she glanced at the ever shifting environment surrounding us. "I’m not even sure it would still work."

"It’s better than nothing. Just get us there."

She nodded and took off down the hall again. This time she bypassed the stairwell we had used to go over the massive central room. She leapt over the golden rail and dropped the thirty feet into the main room with the rest of our confused and panicked species.

Chapter 23

Bethany,

"Bethany what happened?" Abby cried as I stepped through the door.

"Are you hurt!?" Jenna gushed.

I shook my head as I barely glanced at the blood coating my body. "Aiden!" Abby screamed as she finally looked beyond the blood on me to who I was carrying.

I pulled Abby’s hands aside before she could grab at Aiden and feel the lifelessness of the body pressed against my back. "Abby no," I told her with a small shake of my head.

Tears bloomed in her mahogany eyes, eyes that reminded me so much of Aiden’s that for a minute I was almost unable to continue forward. "There has to be something we can do," she breathed forlornly.

I couldn’t find any words for her. The tinkling sound of glass shattering thankfully distracted her as Bishop swept the microscope and blood samples from the table. I knew that the gesture was as useless as my newer blood samples had been but I couldn’t bring myself to say those words as I gently placed Aiden’s body on the table. Before Abby could get any closer I turned around and pulled her against me.

"Please," she breathed as her small fingers curled into my shirt and her tears wet through to my skin.

"Bethany…"

"I know," I cut Bishop off before he could state what I already knew.

Abby’s slender shoulders shook as she started to sob harder. Bret pressed us against his chest and enfolded our heads with his hands. I took solace in the warmth and comfort he offered, but it did little to ease the shattering of my heart within my chest. Wrenching sobs escaped me, Abby pressed closer and Bret rested his forehead against mine. It was the wrong time to lose control, I knew that, but I couldn’t help myself as my shoulders shook and I clung to the two of them.

The echoing fire of gunshots finally pierced the thick haze of grief enshrouding me as I recalled that there was no time for grief here, not right now. There was still a battle to be fought, still an enemy to kill. And I wanted to kill.

I wiped at my tears and reluctantly pulled myself from their embrace. Blood from my clothing and body stuck to their clothes and skin but they didn’t seem to notice it through their misery. My gaze fell to Molly as she hesitatingly approached Aiden’s broken form and took hold of his hand. Sitting on the stool beside the table she began to weep openly. I longed to comfort her but as she bent to press a kiss to his forehead I knew she needed some time alone right now.

The shaking of the earth tore me away from her sorrow as the windows in the house began to rattle. I took hold of Abby’s shaking shoulders. "Abby, I need you to stay here, ok?"

"No!" she cried as she clutched my shirt. "No you can’t leave me too!"

Those words tore at the already fragmented pieces of my heart. I would have given anything to be able to stay with her, but to cower in this house would do nothing more than put her life in jeopardy. Darnell and Lloyd were powerful fighters, but I was stronger than they were now, and they needed my help now more than ever.

"I’m not going to leave you Abby, I’ll be back but Lloyd and Darnell need help. Please Abby stay with them. Molly really needs someone right now too."

Her lower lip trembled, tears spilled down her face but she didn’t offer any more protests as she stepped away from me. Jenna hurried forward and pulled Abby against her chest. "Be careful," she mouthed.

I nodded and turned away quickly. Lloyd held a rifle out to me and Bret. "Ready?"

"I’m more than ready," I grated out as my sorrow began to ebb toward a growing fury.

I rushed down the stairs behind him and Darnell as gunshots rang out from somewhere down the street. I turned in that direction but didn’t make it one step before two smaller Seekers burst from the side yard of the house next door.

Cade had taught me how to become still, how to feel within myself in order to hunt my prey, but something else came over me now as I focused on the enemy barreling down upon us. They had killed my mother, they had killed my brother, and now I was going to make them pay.

Blackness seeped through my veins once more, but it didn’t frighten me, in fact I welcomed it as I felt its strength infusing my cells. I almost tossed away the rifle and leapt at one of them again, but I could only take one of them down and I would be putting the others at risk if I abandoned my position. No, instead I lifted the rifle to my shoulder and smiled grimly as I began to pull the trigger.