Reclamation (Book 3 The Ravening Series) (12 page)

My head tilted back as the massive gates loomed out of the forest before us. The large wooden poles on either side of the gates were wrapped with barbwire and adorned with what appeared to be blood, but I couldn't be sure in the dim light. People began to hold back around us and I felt my own heels dig in as my heart began to hammer with trepidation.

I was convinced this had been a mistake as my gaze traveled up and down the chain link fence that stretched as far as the eye could see in either direction. Razor wire curled around the top of it and I knew the minute we stepped inside those wooden gates there would be no getting back out. Jessica made some sort of intricate hand signal that reminded me of a baseball coach signaling to steal second. The massive gates before us swung open with a groan of hinges badly in need of being oiled.

Light flared over us as torches were brought forth. More figures appeared and the torches were raised high to reveal the six men and women that had emerged from the darkness. There were at least two humans amongst them, but I suspected there were more as inviting smiles spread over their faces.

"You found more," a woman with deep brown hair who appeared to be in her mid to late thirties said.

"Better than that Rosemary." Jessica stepped aside to reveal Cade standing behind her.

A shiver of foreboding crept down my spine when Rosemary's black eyebrows shot into her hairline. "That
is
an interesting turn of events," she murmured as she rubbed her chin.

My hand tightened around Cade's as I stepped closer to him. I knew he'd told me everything he'd thought I needed to know but there was so much he'd kept hidden from me. I sensed I would get some of the answers to the many questions running through my mind from these aliens standing across from us.
Curiosity killed the cat
, I reminded myself, but the cat also had nine lives and my curiosity was clamoring to be eased.

"Well come along everyone," Rosemary invited.

She turned away but Cade's words stopped her. "I'm the only one that will be coming."

The woman lifted her torch again as she turned back around. "Everyone will be safe here."

"You're not going in there alone," I told him.

"I don't even know where or
what
here is," Cade said to Rosemary.

"It's a prison encampment for the humans, or at least it was," Jessica explained. "We took it over a couple of weeks ago, freed the prisoners, and claimed it as our own."

"Did you now?" Darnell inquired dryly. I couldn't help but feel a little skeptical too. Darnell rested his rifle against his shoulder as he stepped forward. "The last thing I want to do is step foot in there, and I'm not so sure I trust you." His gaze was relentless as it settled upon Cade and though he knew what Cade was now I saw no fright in his eyes. "But Bethany is right; you're not going in there alone, someone else will hear what they have to say too."

"I'll go," I volunteered.

"Someone besides
you
," Darnell sneered.

I felt as if I'd been slapped but managed to keep my face as impassive as possible. I deserved his condemnation, I'd kept a secret from them, a
big
secret, but I admired Darnell and looked to him for leadership and guidance. He'd helped me when I needed him most. I wanted to apologize to him but now wasn't the time and I didn't think he was willing to hear it. I'd chosen my course of action and now I was going to have to live with the consequences of it.

"I'm going," Bishop said.

I didn't think there was anything that could have kept the curious doctor from going in there, not even the threat of being locked in there for good. "I'll go too," Lloyd offered. "You should stay with the larger group, in case something goes wrong," he said to Darnell.

Darnell studied the rest of our group before giving a brisk nod. Cade tugged me to the side and pulled me up against the fence. "I want you to stay out here with your siblings."

I shook my head and thrust my shoulders back. "I'm going in there with you."

"It could be dangerous in there."

"Look around you Cade; it's not exactly open arms and musicals going on right now. They distrust us both."

He glanced at the people we had come here with as they grouped closer together. They spoke in whispers as weapons were exchanged amongst them. "Bethany..."

"I've already assumed that there's more you haven't told me."

His eyes narrowed. "I've told you everything that pertains to
my
life, here. I've told you everything that matters to me. Those things up there don't matter to me and they
never
have."

"I understand that."

He groaned as he ran a hand through his hair and nervously glanced back at the crowd gathered outside of the gates. "I don't think you'll be safe on either side of these gates but out here you could at least still have a chance to run."

"I've seen you take down two of those bloodsucking things with only a knife, I don't think I'd be getting far even if I did run."

His eyes flickered away from me as he shook his head and his shoulders slumped in resignation. "Stay close to me Bethany; don't let them separate us, no matter what."

"I won't," I promised.

"No matter what happens, know that I love you. There are things you're going to hear..."

I smiled as I squeezed his hand. I was certain there were things I wouldn't like hearing, but I hadn't shied away from the revelation of what he was, and I wasn't about to start now. "I know. I love you too."

I went to turn away but he tugged me back. "You have to know this first. Jessica is the woman I was supposed to marry."

If a ghost had floated before me and yelled 'boo!' I wouldn't have been more shocked than I was to hear those words. I hadn't known what to expect once we got in there, but what he'd just said was the absolute last thing I had expected to hear. I opened my mouth to respond but no words came out. I closed my mouth and swallowed as I glanced back at the young woman standing by the gates with the blond haired man at her side.

"I thought you'd never met her," I finally managed to get out.

"I haven't, but I've seen her picture."

"Oh, of course." Who hadn't met their future spouse, the alien they were supposed to spend the rest of their life with, by a picture?

"Bethany..."

I held up a hand and shook my head. "They're waiting for us."

I turned and hurried away before I became too disturbed by his revelation, before I thought too much about it and decided the last thing I wanted was to step foot in there with him and his ex-intended. Or was she
still
his intended amongst their race? I didn't know and I wasn't going to sit around and try and figure it out. Cade and his fiancée were the least of my problems right now.

My head tilted back as I took in the wooden gates before us. Yes, it was definitely blood that stained the wood that bleak color, my nose pricked at the scent of it, my stomach rumbled but I ignored it as I focused on Abby, Aiden, Jenna, Molly and Bret standing near Bishop and Lloyd by the gates.

"We're coming with you," Aiden said before I could protest. Molly remained unmoving beside him, her hand entwined within his as she stared at Cade and I. "We all know it's just as safe in there as it is out here and we'd rather be with you."

I knew exactly how he felt. Cade stepped back beside me as Jessica nodded for us to follow her. Lloyd stayed in the back, the rifle pressed against his chest as we moved through the gates and into the cleared area of the forest that had been created to house the encampment. I didn't know much about acreage, but the cleared area seemed to be as large and in the same shape as a baseball field as it spread out around us. I wasn't sure if the trees had been used to create the rickety shacks that sat around the outer edges of the fencing but they had at least been cleared to make room for the small houses. The forest floor had been tromped down enough that it was now hard packed dirt beneath our feet.

"Is this what it looked like when you took over?" Bishop inquired as more people and aliens appeared around us and Timothy slipped away to join a small woman. The crowd whispered amongst themselves as they gazed curiously at us. The mention of Cade's name amongst them did little to ease the turmoil twisting through my stomach.

How did they all know who he was?

Torchlight flickered over them, highlighting their raggedy clothes and dirty features but none of them appeared frightened or any more bruised and disheveled than any of us were. A child with her brown hair in pigtails tentatively waved at us. Jenna waved back until someone grabbed hold of the little girl and pulled her away. Jenna's hand hovered for a second before it fell back to her side.

"We've removed the execution building, the chains and body parts since we've arrived, but for the most part this is what it looked like," Rosemary answered.

They were leading us toward a building that was larger and sturdier than the other buildings surrounding us. I moved closer to Abby and Aiden as Cade stepped in front of us. Rosemary hurried forward and threw the door open, she disappeared inside and a second later light spilled from within the shelter. I exchanged a look with Aiden, but followed Cade up the three steps to the doorway.

The floor was nothing more than plywood with a single table set up in the middle of it. There were a few rolls of documents sitting in the corner of the room and a full size bed with an old gray comforter next to the rolls. I tore my eyes away from the bed as Rosemary hung a lantern above the table. She pulled the gloves from her dainty hands and dropped them on the bed.

Shadows played over the delicate planes of her face as she approached the table. I'd become accustomed to what the aliens looked like and their attitudes toward us, but there was something different about Rosemary that I just couldn't place. She had crow black hair and eyes the color of obsidian but there was a warmth about her that wasn't present in the others, not even in Cade.

Her gaze focused on me before shifting toward Cade. "Yes a very interesting turn of events," she murmured.

Cade took a step closer to me, his chest pressed against my shoulder as a shadow fell across the doorway. I turned as another man stepped through the door. He was tall with shaggy brown hair and blue eyes that crinkled at the corners when he smiled at Rosemary. I looked to Cade but his attention was focused on the man as he hurried across the room and took hold of Rosemary's hand.

"Did you think you were the only one?" Rosemary's question was little more than a whisper as she met Cade's unflinching stare. "Did you think it was an accident, a stroke of fate, or perhaps a curse that had befallen
only
you?"

"I never thought it was a curse," Cade replied. "I suspected there may be others but to actually find them, to see them..." his voice trailed off as he studied Rosemary and the man before turning his attention toward Jessica. "I never expected this."

Rosemary nodded as she placed her hands on the rickety card table before her. "None of us did."

"What
is
it?" I asked.

Rosemary smiled at me. "It's love."

I glanced at Cade before focusing on her again. "I know that, but why? What is it that is so different about me, or him," I said with a nod to the man beside her. "That makes you feel something for
us
?"

Rosemary frowned thoughtfully as she glanced at the man beside her. "I knew the second I saw Greg that there was something different about him, something... more." Cade remained immobile but Jessica was nodding enthusiastically. "It's not something you could understand as a human. It wasn't until this past year that I began to understand it more, and only because I've finally had a chance to discuss it with others that it has happened to."

I glanced at Cade as she stopped speaking. He remained rigid at my side, his hands fisted as a muscle in his jaw twitched. His eyes slid to me briefly before he focused on Rosemary again. "And what is it that you've begun to understand?" he inquired.

"There's something about certain humans that entangles us. There's something about them that we react to, and it is
only
one of them for each of us." Cade grabbed hold of my arm and pulled me back a step as Rosemary stepped around the table. She held her hands up and didn't come any closer as color began to seep through Cade's face.

"We don't see auras as people commonly think of them but I see something around Greg that is almost similar to an aura," Rosemary continued. "I believe it is the soul of the one that we belong with, the one that can change us that we are able to see. Their souls are stronger, more vibrant and powerful than other human souls and the people that possess those souls call to us. I cannot see yours," her gaze focused on me before sliding over the others. "Or theirs, but I see something around Greg. Jessica tells me it is the same with Leo and the others have reported the same thing to me. I assume it was no different with you, am I right?"

Cade's fingers slid over my arm as he pulled me back another step so that I was pressed firmly against his solid chest. "Something like that," he stated.