Taken Over (Book 2 The Ravening Series) (15 page)

   Bret frowned at me; his eyes darted down to my now fisted hand. He glanced back into the room before breaking away and coming to join me. “What is it?” he asked quietly.

   I looked behind him, but Jenna was nowhere to be seen. “I found a note with her name on it.”

   “What does it say?”

   I shook my head as I licked my lips nervously. “I don’t know. I didn’t read it, it’s not my note. What’s going on?”

   “It’s her aunt, she’s frozen.”

   Disappointment and hurt
for Jenna
filled me,
but there was also something else. Something that nagged at the back of my mind for a brief moment,
something was wrong.
I buried t
he
niggling doubt
beneath the returning hope that what I held was good news.
There was always something wrong now.
“She needs to see this.”

   Bret nodded as he turned away from me. He moved slowly back to the bedroom
, looking hesitant as he stepped through the doorway and spoke softly with Jenna. Lloyd had crept up the stairs, only making a sound as he stepped off the last step and into the landing behind me. I lifted the note for him to see, but he didn’t ask any questions, and I didn’t offer any information as Jenna emerged from the room.
She looked broken, drawn. Her eyes were red rimmed, her face streaked with the tears that had slipped down her pale cheeks.

   I held my breath as I handed the note out to her. It has to be good news, it has to be good news, I prayed silently
.
I twisted my hands eagerl
y before me hoping that the note held something that would help ease the broken look on her face.
Jenna frowned at me but slipped the now crumpled paper from my grasp. She pulled it open, her eyes widening as she spotted her name, and the words.

   “It’s from my mom,” she breathed.

   I inhaled a shaky breath, fighting back the sudden rush of tears that sprang to my eyes. Hope tore through me, happiness and relief filled me as Jenna’s face lit with pure joy and her bright green eyes shone with tears
of happiness this time
. “They’re alive, they
both
are. Or at least they were a week ago. She says they waited a week
for me
, but there were other survivors moving through and they realized they had to move also.
T
hey are heading into Boston,
in hopes that there will be more survivors and protection there. S
he’
s
not sure exactly where they will be
.
N
o matter what
,
as long as
one of them
is
still
alive,
they
will leave me a note
either at my grandmother’s house, the science museum, Paul Revere’s house, or in
a
mailbox
at a
home on Beacon hill. She says
t
he
y
love me and miss me. There are tear marks on the paper.”

   Jenna was also crying by the time she was done giving us the details of the note. I didn’t think she realized this though as she was smiling radiantly and
didn
’
t wipe the tears from her face. “Why so many places?” Bret asked softly.

   “In case
one or all of
the others are destroyed,” Lloyd answered. “Or in case they don’t
make it
near any of the others.”

   “They will go to my grandmother’s
,
no matter what,” Jenna insisted.

   “But there is no guarantee your grandmother’s house will still be standing.”

   Though the words were harsh and clipped, Jenna didn
’
t flinch from the truth of them.
I felt she was too happy to acknowledge the pain those words would have normally
inflicted
. “It’s ok, they’re
alive
,” she breathed. “I will find them, no matter what, and that is all that matters.”

   I nodded my agreement. She had come this far, he
r parents
had come this far, I firmly believed they would be reunited again, and I was going to do everything I could to make that happen. “I should have left a note,” Bret mumbled.

   I rested my hand on his arm, squeezing it gently. “You couldn’t have know
n that your mother probably wasn’t affected.
”

   “I still should have done it; I just assumed that we would be able to g
et
back…”

   His voice trailed off, his strong jaw clenched as he turned away from me. I could sense his anguish, his frustration, even though he was trying to keep it buried. “There are plenty of us that wish we could have done things differently, unfortunately there is no changing the past. We have each other, we have our lives, and we need to keep moving forward,” Lloyd said briskly.

   I didn’t ask what had
happened to
his family
;
he probably didn’t
kn
o
w
and none of us liked to be reminded of the loved ones we’d lost
. “There’s always hope,” I whispered,
briefly recalling
my dream
of Cade
earlier.

   Bret’s forest colored, beautiful green eyes came slowly back to me. For one brief, highly alarming moment, I saw only despair in a gaze that
had
always
been
so full of wonder and joy. And then, much to my relief, he managed a small smile and squeezed my hand tightly. “Yes
,
there is.”

   I realized too late that he might
have
take
n
my w
ords the wrong way. That he may think
that I meant hope for him
and I
again
, when
that was
the last thing in the world I
’
d
meant
. I glanced at Jenna, not wanting her to think I had changed my mind about Bret
. We
’
d just become tenuous friends, I didn’t want to ruin that,
but she was still staring in wonder at the paper in her hands. I jumped slightly when Bret’s thumb stroked over my hand.

   “Your parents may still be out there, there is a chance you will see them again,” I elaborated
,
gently pulling my hand away from
Bret’s
.
“
At least we know t
here
were other
survivors that moved through this town.”

   “And we had better get moving too,” Lloyd said. “If we want to try and get to the hospital before sunset.”

   “Just let me say goodbye to my aunt,” Jenna said, spinning swiftly on her heel.

   “Who?” Lloyd asked in surprise.

   “Her aunt. She’s frozen,” I explained.

   Lloyd’s eyes widened, his mouth dropped as he gaped at me. “
What
is she!?” he demanded sharply.

   I glanced nervously at Bret, thinking that Lloyd had flipped, that perhaps something in his mind had snapped.
Lloyd
knew about the frozen people, we had done nothing but encounter them for the past month. Hell
,
they had been nearly impossible to avoid
,
in the beginning
,
if
we
moved further than five feet at a time. How could Lloyd possibly have forgotten about that
,
and why was he looking at me as if he w
as
abo
ut to strangle the life from me?

   I took a frightened step back. I had become more competent with weapons
,
and fighting
over the past few weeks, but I sure as hell didn’t want to take on a man that
was
highly trained
by t
he army for at least
a
year. “
What
is she!?”
Lloyd
demanded again, but this time his voice was low and gravelly.

   “She’s frozen, you know one of the frozen people,” Bret said slowly
obviously as weary about Lloyd’s strange reaction as I was
.

   Lloyd let loose with a flurry of curses that would have caused even the most hardened truck driver to blush. They sure as hell made me gape
,
and
even
question what a few of the things he said meant. “We need to go!” he declared sharply at the end.

   “We’re going in a moment,” Bret told him.

   “No! Now! We need to go
now
!”

   Lloyd shoved roughly past me, he stormed down the hall at a rapid pace that left Bret and I staring
after
him in
disbelief. “What the hell was
that
?” I whispered.

   “No idea,” Bret responded, shaking his head slowly. “Let’s hope our trained killer hasn’t flipped his lid though.”

   “Bret…”

   My words were cut off as Jenna began to protest vehemently from the bedroom. Lloyd ignored her protests as he pulled her
forcefully
from the room. His hand was wrapped firmly around her upper arm as he began to drag her down the hall toward us. “Move out!” he snapped.

   “Lloyd what is going on?” I demanded
.
I was
unwilling to go anywhere with him until I knew where his sudden
,
and seemingly irrational
,
fear had come from.

   “We can talk as we move. Now
move
!”

   I turned and hurried down the hall, more frightened by the look in his eyes than by his behavior. He was speaking like he was angry, like he was on the verge of snapping completely, but there was pure terror blazing from his eyes. I fled down the stairs, Lloyd’s fear propelling me rapidly forward. Bret followed close behind and Jenna had stopped protesting by the time I reached the bottom floor.

   I rushed into the kitchen, realizing only belatedly that I had been too distracted by the note to check inside the fridge. I didn’t
think there was much hope for anything in there, but it was worth a peek. I flung the door open and froze. The power hadn
’t
gone out
in this area of town
so some of the food had managed to stay good, but there was green ooze seeping from the crisper and an awful smell assaulted me.
T
here were also two boxes of Cheerios, one of Special K, and a Raisin bran sitting on the shelf amongst the mess. In front of them was a
post-it
that read Jenna.