“No,” he interrupted briskly, his face hardening. “That cannot happen. I won’t take the chance of possibly hurting you.”
“You’re amazing to deny yourself even when I’m offering myself freely to you.”
“Am I?” he inquired, his eyebrow quirked in wry amusement.
“Yes.”
“Careful love, you shouldn’t flatter the devil too much.”
I started at the reminder of what the girls in school had called him. The black devil. They hadn’t known just how spot on they had been with that description. Perhaps that’s the way another legend had been born. I imagined that these invaders must have resembled the devil when they arrived to decimate populations.
“What are we going to tell the others about Ian?”
His face darkened again. “I’ll take care of it.” His eyes raked the wounds on my neck. “I’ll have to find you a shirt that hides those first though. I’m sure they’ve already looked for you in your room.”
I nodded as I bit on my bottom lip worriedly. I trusted that he would be able to handle it, but I was an awful liar, and Aiden had always been able to read me like a book.
CHAPTER 17
A week later Aiden was still staring questioningly at me, still watching me carefully. I tried to ignore his scrutiny, but it was becoming increasingly harder to do so. Everyone seemed weary of everyone else within the group, but I was certain that Aiden knew I was lying about sneaking out to be with Cade at the time that Ian had been killed. Certain that he suspected Cade as his gaze slid slowly toward Cade and I found him studying Cade with the same weariness I had seen grow over the past week.
The decision to leave the hotel immediately had been made before the two of us had even returned to the hotel. We came back to find our stuff waiting for us and Aiden, Bret, and Lloyd preparing to set off in search of us. Darnell and Bishop had just finished burying Ian’s broken body. I hadn’t had to fake the blush that stained my cheeks when Aiden confronted us. The turtleneck Cade had managed to smuggle from the hotel helped with our story, even if it actually wasn’t hiding hickeys beneath the high collar. It couldn’t hide the bruises on my face though, but they had been explained away by training, and a clumsy accident with a tree branch.
That explanation hadn’t been bought, at least not by Aiden, and I suspected some of the others.
Bishop was still openly mourning the loss of his equipment, data, and fresh samples of my tainted blood. I didn’t know how I was going to tell him that I didn’t want him taking anymore of my blood, but I decided to cross that bridge when we came to it. If we ever came to it. I hoped Cade had formulated some kind of plan, but we had not discussed it, and I didn’t really want to. Not yet anyway.
Ian’s death had been attributed to the fact that he must have interrupted someone in the act of stealing the supplies, or vandalizing them. Some had bought the explanation, others hadn’t. The group was disjointed, not as close anymore. They wanted to believe that it had been someone outside of the group that had killed Ian, but the doubt was obviously festering. A few more people had decided that they would be better off on their own. I wanted to tell them that they were safe, that even though the killer was still amongst us, he would not hurt them.
But I couldn’t do that without betraying Cade’s trust. Instead I had stood motionless, miserable, and guilty as they slipped away into the forest. Cade clung to my hand, his solid strength helping me to get through the sadness that encompassed me.
We had not settled into any one area for more than enough time to sleep since we had left the hotel behind. The days were starting to become colder, October first rolled around as we reached the outskirts of Boston. For so long the large alien ship had hovered over the city, but on the day of The Freezing it had moved over the ocean. Cade had explained it was a safety measure because there were not as many on the ship now that they were needed to guard over their prisoners, and take pleasure in hunting down the less fortunate. They did not think us much of a threat anymore, especially since they had managed to disarm so many before The Freezing had occurred, but they weren’t going to take any unnecessary risks with their ship.
A cornered animal was the most treacherous. And we were certainly cornered, and dangerous. I wanted to show them just how dangerous and deadly we could be, but there were other things we had to do first. Jenna’s family was still out there, we were in need of food and ammo, but most of all we needed to find more survivors. There was strength in numbers, and we needed to increase ours, instead of having them steadily decrease.
We stood on a hill overlooking the abandoned stretches of highway and bridges that crisscrossed into the heart of Boston. The once proud city looked desolate, eerie, terrifying. I had been here only once, when I was only a child. We had gone to the aquarium and science museum. It had been our last family trip together. I had been fascinated by the tall buildings, the traffic, and the people. My father had walked Aiden and I by Fenway, proudly spouting the history of the Sox, and The Curse. He had not survived to see them break it.
I searched the empty roads, the broken buildings, and debris for any signs of life. It had once been a city of nearly three quarters of a million. There was no sign that any of those people still lived. But there had to be survivors, there simply had to be people amongst the skyscrapers, warehouses, broken concrete, and shattered glass. I expected to see wild animals creeping through the twisted byways, reclaiming the land they had lost, but there was no movement on the littered asphalt. There was a hushed, peculiar pall hanging over the city. None of us seemed willing to break the silence, or even move as we stared in stunned awe at the ruined remnants of a once glorious world that had forever ceased to exist.
There were a handful of cars on the roads, a sight that was surprising and unnerving. Vehicles had been banned before The Freezing had occurred, it was the first time I had seen any on the road in a long time. Some people must have panicked and tried to drive into the city after The Freezing. I didn’t know what had become of those people, but I suspected they hadn’t made it far. There was no way that they could have; they would have been sitting ducks on the roadways.
“We’ll make camp here.” Darnell’s voice was hoarse, choked. “From now on we’ll travel at night; the concrete jungle won’t hide us the same as the woods.”
It didn’t seem like much of a jungle to me anymore.
I glanced at the group gathered around us; our numbers had dwindled to only nineteen, a far cry from the nearly sixty that had been in the warehouse over a month ago. It was still a lot of people to move through these streets, but if we were careful we could make it without losing any more. We would just have to stay in the shelter of the buildings and alleyways. I turned away from the city, frightened by what was to come.
I looked to Jenna. She was wringing her hands nervously, her eyes wide with worry and fear. Darnell had promised her that we would try to get to as many of the addresses on her list as possible, but there was no guarantee it could be done. I felt sorry for her; I couldn’t begin to imagine what she was going through. I didn’t like the answers I had, but at least I knew what had become of my mother.
Abby grabbed hold of Jenna’s arm, squeezing it gently as she sought to give comfort. I wrapped my arm around her as I settled against the trunk of a large maple. The leaves hadn’t started to change color yet, but they would soon. We would have to be away from the city, and somewhere secure, before the woods became bare and winter set in. We didn’t have much time to spare looking for survivors, or more medicinal supplies. The mission was supposed to be a quick in and out affair in which we gathered as many supplies as possible.
I hoped that it worked that way, but I had come to learn that nothing ever went as planned anymore.
Cade settled down on the other side of me. He draped his arm around my shoulders pulling me tight against his side. I closed my eyes as I lost myself to the reassuring beat of his heart. His warmth enveloped me. Abby snuggled closer, her head resting against my
shoulder as her breathing evened out and her body relaxed. A moment of solace enveloped me as the warmth and love of my family surrounded me.
Cade would keep us safe, I thought sleepily. His hand moved idly through my hair, he twirled it gently around his finger as his lips rested briefly on the back of my neck. I shivered slightly before lifting my head and smiling at him. His ebony eyes gleamed with warmth and love.
I turned my attention away from him before I became lost. Aiden was staring at us, his eyes narrowed questioningly. Cade shifted slightly beside me, his hand clenched me tighter as he caught sight of Aiden. I wondered how long it would be before my brother confronted me, I was surprised he had waited this long.
Bret was suddenly before us, kneeling down as he handed me a plate of beans, beef jerky, and a piece of bread. “I know you hate jerky, but we’re running low on food.”
“It’s fine, thanks.” I smiled at him as I took my plate. At least it was meat. I shifted uncomfortably, hating that realization, but it was true. Cade’s hand slipped off my shoulders as he accepted his meager lunch also. Abby did not stir but I took her food and placed it beside her for later.
“Make sure you eat it. It’s going to be a long night.”
I nodded and Bret rose and walked swiftly away. I forced the dry jerky down my throat, choosing to eat it first in order to get it out of the way. This was not the time to be picky about food; I doubted I would ever have that luxury again. I choked down the last swallow before eagerly digging into the cold baked beans that remained.
I tried to sleep before night settled in, but I was wound so tight that I found it nearly impossible to do so. Once we hit the city our pace would be far more frantic, more rushed. None of us wanted to stay there for any longer than we had to. I only hoped that everyone would be able to keep up with the harsh pace that Darnell had described.
Eventually I was able to drift off, but it felt as if I had barely closed my eyes before Cade was shaking me awake again. “It’s time,” he whispered in my ear.
I nodded, swallowing heavily as I rose to my feet. I joined the others at the top of the hill, gazing down at the now dark ribbons of highway. One of the cars had its lights on; it must have had an automatic nighttime sensor. Though the battery was dying, its dim glow was enough to light ten feet in front of the car, giving the road an eerie radiance that caused the hair on the nape of my neck to stand up.
Darnell jerked his head to the side, signaling for Mick to take the lead. We moved swiftly forward, staying low as we took the hill as carefully, and rapidly, as possible. The city was a whole new world than the one we had been living in, and I was terrified of everything it hid within its concrete depths. There was no knowing what Boston had in store for us.
No knowing what was to come of his leg of our journey but I couldn’t shake the feeling that hidden within these high walls, dark roadways, and numerous hiding spots was far more danger than we had already encountered.
Erica Stevens, Taken Over
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