Taken Over (The Ravening #2)(50)
Author: Erica Stevens

I held up a hand, warding off any further descriptions of death and horror. Any further description of souls that had been unwillingly taken from Earth. “So long, you’ve been coming here for so long.”

“Even longer. Those are just the ones that were written about. There was a time when people were far more isolated then they are now. It was not hard for an entire group to disappear without drawing any attention. Our society is far more advanced than yours. They are capable of many things that you couldn’t even begin to imagine.”

Anger spurted through me, I quirked an eyebrow at him. “Obviously,” I retorted.

“Is it any worse than humans that kill for pleasure or greed? We were starving.”

“You destroyed your own planet!”

“So are you.”

Righteous fury simmered through me, a muscle twitched in my cheek, but I could not argue his words. He was right in some ways, but in others he was completely wrong. “It’s not the same and you know it. We are not destroying other worlds!”

He sighed softly. “You’re right you’re not. But if you’d had the ability to find them what do you think might have happened?”

I glared fiercely at him, more enraged by his words than I was his betrayal. “Do not try and justify what your kind has done. I don’t know what would have happened, but I do know that we would not have brutally slain so many. We are not you.”

He stared at me for a long moment, then the anger left his face and his shoulders slumped slightly. “You’re right. Humans may be brutal and thoughtless, but you are nothing like my kind. We may be similar in appearance but that is where all resemblances end, at least for most anyway.”

Some of my anger melted at his admission. “Why, why did they keep coming back after taking all of those people? If they kept some for breeding…” I choked on the word, disgusted by its implications.

“Because supply no longer met demand.” My eyes widened, I was repulsed by his words, and the coldness with which he delivered them. “My people may be technologically superior, but they are greedy and set in their ways. They are not willing to change; they are unwilling to curb their ferocious appetites for the greater good.”

“They’ll just continue to ravage planets instead?”

“I didn’t say it was a great plan.”

“Obviously not.” 

“I know nothing of my world Bethany. Nothing. I have never seen it and I never will. I barely know anything of my people. I was born on a ship, and I was delivered here when I was two. My people are nearly emotionless, love is not known to them. It is not understood, it is not exchanged. We are cold; we take what we want, when we want it, and we do not take no for an answer. No matter what it is that we want, food, drink or sex, we do not deny ourselves. Ever.”

My head fell into my hands, my fingers curled tightly into my hair. Those poor damn people that had been taken, the poor damn people that were now prisoners. For the first time I realized The Frozen Ones might actually have been the lucky ones. “Oh God,” I moaned.

“I told you there were things that you wouldn’t want to hear.” He was right, so unbelievably right, but I didn’t tell him to stop either. “They do not think about the consequences of their actions, and they do not care. They’re the superior race no matter where they go; they don’t have to worry about the outcome. It’s what they know, it’s who they are.”

I was spinning, lost, terrified of his words and their implications. Everything that he was saying didn’t sound like him, it sounded nothing like him, but then who was I to judge who he was? “And who are you?” I inquired softly.

Those eyes. They were infinite onyx pools as they gleamed in the moonlight. They were not nearly as black as I knew they could be though, not nearly as black as I had just seen them. “I’m what you made me.”

I was stunned, taken aback by his response. I didn’t understand it; I most certainly hadn’t been expecting it. He watched me intently, but I had no words for him. What the hell did that even mean?

“Before I was captured on the beach I hadn’t seen my real parents since I was two, and I saw them only briefly during the time I was gone. Their depth of indifference toward me is only matched by my own indifference to them.” My mouth dropped at the revelation, my head spun. How could he not care about his parents, even if he hadn’t seen them in years? It made no sense to me, none of it did. The more he revealed, the less and less I felt I knew him. “I was brought to Earth and given to the Marshall’s when I was two. The Marshall’s were desperate for a child, and they adopted me.”

I swallowed heavily. “Why would they give you to the Marshall’s of all people?”

“In the Marshall’s search for a child they came across one of my kind.” At the surprised look on my face he elaborated. “The Marshall’s didn’t know what it was they were dealing with. There are many of us throughout the world, all holding different positions. They are all in various places of power so that when they finally did arrive here again, it would be easier for them to take over. Easier to get the different governments to concede to certain things. In some countries they were even ruling powers.”

I choked, tears streaked down my face as he revealed the stunning depths of the aliens deception. “Adoption agent was a perfect opportunity for my people to place their children in various homes where the child might one day rise to become someone of power. Even the aliens that were here did not know when this attack was going to occur. It depended on when it would become necessary for a new reaping. Mr. Marshall…”

“Was a wealthy lawyer from a political family.”

“With political aspirations of his own. With his background, and family money, he could have risen to President.” 

A jolt of fear tore through me. If he had risen to President, Cade would have been right there with him. He could have heard, and been able to learn so many things that would have been detrimental to the human race. He would have been right there, in the middle of it all, and no one would have thought twice about him because he was Mr. Marshall’s son. He would have been living in the freaking White House for crying out loud, the thought made me want to gag. And if the attack on us still didn’t come for many years, there was a chance that Cade himself may have one day been elected into our government.

They had been infiltrating us all those years, they’d been living amongst us and gaining control, and we had never known. We’d been sitting ducks. Even if we’d had some kind of warning, we never would have been able to stop them. They knew us to well, they were everywhere, and there was no bringing them down.