Ravenous (Book 1 The Ravening Series) (3 page)

  
Cade grabbed hold of my shoulder, holding me still as I instinctively took a frightened step back from the monstrosity outside. I nearly collided with a table containing fragile figurines that would have shattered on impact. The saying bull in a china shop flashed through my mind, and I knew that I would have to be careful. I was about as graceful as that bull. And there were far too many fragile things within this store, and too many hideous things outside that we had to avoid.

  
The thing moved slowly forward. It was smaller than a Mac truck but there was something about it that reminded me of a semi without its trailer. It crept forward on numerous legs that were arachnid in appearance, but swollen, red, and bloated like an overfed tick. The legs seemed to pulse and vibrate with some strange life force that I didn’t understand. I was confused, completely unable to understand what the hell it was doing. Unable to comprehend what the hell it could possibly
be
. My mind simply could not wrap around the hideousness of this atrocity before us.

  
It stopped next to a few of the frozen bodies, hovering above them as it lowered slightly to get closer to the people. I watched in fascinated horror as one of those legs curled up before snaking out from the disgusting creature. The tentacle like appendage moved with an eerie, rapid grace that was almost as captivating as it was repulsive. I found myself entranced by its slithering, snakelike movements. The tentacle was clear; it slithered over the ground before snagging hold of a man holding hands with a woman. My mouth dropped, my eyes widened, a scream tore up my throat. Before I could utter a sound, Cade swiftly slid his hand over my mouth. He pulled me against him, pressing my back to his chest as he held me tight. My knees buckled as I found myself barely able to remain standing. Cade helped keep me up, but I could feel a tremor in his powerful, taut muscles.

   The tentacle
thingy slithered up the man’s leg before reaching his chest. It pulled back when it reached the man’s face like a cobra ready to strike. It remained there for a few moments before attacking with deadly, and startling, velocity. It sank into the man’s throat, burying itself deep within his body. The tentacle was clearly visible as it moved, slithering beneath the man’s skin as it made its way swiftly through his body. The clear tentacle began to fill with pulsating blood as the man suddenly, and violently, came back to life. Vomit rolled through me, and it was only the mortifying thought of throwing up on Cade’s hand that helped me suppress it.

  
The poor man thrashed against the thing moving through him, his arms flailed wildly against the brutal assault being waged on his body. He grasped at the woman beside him, but she remained still as stone, oblivious to his pain. The man’s fingers tore at the invader, trying to pull it free, but his efforts were useless and only caused more blood to spill from his already brutalized throat. I gagged, choked, nearly fell as every muscle in my body collapsed.

   This time Cade was barely able to keep me up. I could feel the horror that filled his entire body
as he clung to me. He took his hand away from my mouth, wrapping his arms around my waist he pulled me away from the window. I did not fight against him, there was no fight left within me. There was little of anything left within me besides fear and revulsion.

  
Cade led me swiftly through the store. He dodged the shelves, and delicate artifacts, with a graceful ease that even through my numbing shock and horror, I was able to admire. We passed by the counter. A gray haired man stood behind it, a duster was clasped in the hand above his head as he faced the shelves behind the register. His spectacles gleamed in the light of the lamps dangling from the ceiling above him. My heart went out to him. I moved toward him, wanting to do something, wanting to wake him if I could, needing to get him out of here before that awful
thing
came for him.

   Cade’s hand tightened on mine, he shook his head at me as he continued to pull me
rapidly forward. I wanted to fight against him, but I was ashamed to admit that I was too terrified to offer much of a protest. Cade opened a door in the back of the store and pulled me into the darkened stairwell. Closing the door behind us, he reached up to pull the string on a dim bulb. Light filled the narrow, steep stairway, but it did not reveal the bottom of the steps.

   Cade bent close to me, p
ressing his lips against my ear. “Stay,” he breathed so quietly that I barely heard him over the loud rush of blood filling my ears.

   I remained where I was
. A strange, uncontrollable shaking was starting to take hold of my body. My knees were trembling; I could not hold my hands still no matter how hard I tried. I wrapped my arms around myself, but it did nothing to ease the chill that had crept into my quaking bones.

   Even in this darkened stairwell, away from the street, I could still feel the vibrations the t
hing caused within the building. I could still vividly see the man struggling against the awful creature greedily pulling the blood from his body. I felt nauseous again, and devastated.

   Another
dim light switched on below. Cade was silhouetted within the shadows as he reappeared. He moved with unfailing silence back up the stairs to me. His hand was gentle upon my arm; he clicked the light off before guiding me down the steps. I was oddly aware of the fact that though he was silent, I was painfully not.

   He led me through the basement, guiding me swiftly through the clutter of boxes. The basement was
surprisingly clean; there was no dust, no cobwebs. Amongst the boxes were antiques that had already been unpacked, and set out in preparation of the move upstairs. Others had been stored away until their new owners could pick them up, something they would never do now. Cade led me to the back wall. I stood staring at it as he reached to the side and pushed on something that I couldn’t see. I frowned at him, and then at the wall as it began to creek and groan. In my hypersensitive, over stimulated state, I was barely able to keep myself from screaming in surprise and terror.

   He led me in
to the small, musty smelling room that had been revealed by the hidden door in the back wall. A crushing sense of panic settled over me, I could not see the walls surrounding me, but I could feel their nearness as it pressed against me. I wanted to turn and bolt from the room, wanted to run into the streets screaming the whole way. But I somehow managed to keep myself under control, mainly because Cade’s hand was strong and reassuring on my elbow and I could not humiliate myself in front of him.

   He pulled the door most of the way shut before
tugging on another string. Light flooded into the room, which was about twelve by twelve feet wide. There were only a few boxes within it, one of which was taller than me and nearly twice as wide. I couldn’t help but wonder what treasures were hidden within these boxes, and stashed away in this secret room.

   “Stay here.”

   I whirled as Cade released me. “Wait!” I gasped, lunging for him. I could maybe stay in this room if he was here, but by myself…

   By myself I would go crazy.

   He grasped hold of my shoulders, surprisingly gentle as he held me back and shook his head at me. “I have to get him.”

   I couldn’t form words. I couldn’t argue with him.
He was right, that poor man couldn’t be left up there to be drained dry by that awful, bloodthirsty thing. But I couldn’t be left here either. I hated to be trapped within tight confines. It was a fear that had taken hold of me a long time ago, and it had never let me go. I didn’t think it ever would.

   He was already shaking his head as I spoke again. “I’ll help you.”
 

   “No
Bethany. Stay here.”

   “Cade…”

   “It will be better if I go alone, quicker. Quieter.”

   I wanted to protest, wanted to cling to him, wanted to make him understand that I was just as terrified of this room as I was of that damn
thing out there. I didn’t do anything though. He was right, that man needed help; he could not die because of my fear. I couldn’t bring myself to look like a sniveling coward in front of him.
Never
in front of Cade.

   I didn’
t know what it was, but I had always found myself needing to appear less childlike, and more confident around him. But then again, I hadn’t been childlike in a very long time. My childhood had been cruelly ripped away from me years ago.

  
We had lived in this town together almost our entire lives, but we barely knew each other, and yet he gave me a sense of strength I had never known before. Even when we passed in the hallways, not speaking, not touching, I had always felt a strange sense of comfort just from knowing that he was there. There had always been a connection to him that I had neither understood nor tried to develop. I considered my feelings for him a silly crush, one that was rearing painfully, and inappropriately, back to life right now. All hell was breaking lose above us, and yet I found myself strangely lost to the magnificent force of his onyx gaze.

  He most certainly did not feel anything for me, a dull, clumsy, shy girl that was as far off his radar as Jupiter. Though he was intimidating, and aloof, girls had still flocked to him. They had been drawn in by his dark good looks and the air of mystery that enshrouded him. However, I had never seen him with any of those girls, and as far as I knew he wasn’t dating anyone. I didn’t even know if he ever
had
dated anyone, no matter what the rumors said.

 
But even with his distant attitude, and seeming disinterest in everything and everyone, I had still found him watching me within the halls, or on the street. Sometimes I would look up and he would be staring at me with an intensity that never failed to make me shake and quiver inside. Staring at me in a way that made me feel he knew me better than anyone else, maybe even knew me better than I knew myself.

  
I knew his attention didn’t mean anything, that I just
wanted
it to, but whenever I found him watching me it always left me rattled and aching for something more. Something that I couldn’t begin to understand, but knew that I wanted desperately. Those were the few times I actually did feel like a silly child again, because there was no way that Cade Marshall could ever see anything even remotely interesting, or special, in me.

  
I was feeling that strange connection to him again now, and it was giving me an odd sense of security and warmth. I couldn’t turn into a blathering idiot in front of him. I just couldn’t. No matter how much I didn’t want to stay in this cramped room by myself.

   My hand fell back to my side, my lips pinched
tight as I managed to give him a brisk nod. He studied me for a moment longer, but I kept my face impassive, tried to keep my fear hidden from him. I wasn’t sure it was working though.

   Finally he turned away from me
and slipped silently out the door. It wasn’t until I heard the soft lock click into place that I realized I did not know how to escape the small room if he didn’t come back. 

CHAPTER 3

   I was shaking, damn
close to tearing my hair out, and on the verge of screaming hysterically by the time that Cade returned. He had not been gone long, minutes only, but I was sweating so badly that my clothes were soaked and I was horrified by the realization that I was probably starting to smell worse than the dank room surrounding me. Though I tried to hide my distress and terror from him, tried to put on a brave front and prove that I wasn’t a weak idiot, I knew I failed miserably. There was no hiding my fear anymore.

   He closed the door silently behind him.
“The man?” I managed to choke out.

   Cade raised a dark eyebrow, his head cocked slightly to the side as he watched me. My shaking had eased now that he was back, but my throat was still clogged with te
rror. I was humiliated by the fact that I was on the verge of tears. When I needed to be at my strongest, I was close to completely falling apart, and all because of four stupid walls and a damn door.

  
“In the basement. He’s fine, or as fine as he can be, considering.” I managed a nod. My hand fluttered nervously up to push my dampened hair back. “Are you ok?”

   “Fine,” I croaked.
“Just fine.”

   “Are you
claustrophobic?”

   I started to shake my head to deny it. I had never admitted it to anyone
, even if there were times when I couldn’t hide it. Hell I hadn’t even truly admitted it to myself. I was too ashamed by the fact that tight spaces tended to upset and frighten me, too ashamed of the weakness. Though, my family knew about it as I went out of my way to avoid tight enclosures, including cars for extended periods of time. “Maybe a little,” I hedged.