Taken Over (Book 2 The Ravening Series) (36 page)

   I sat on the stool that Bishop patted lightly before turning away to grab his ever present needle. My other, tainted, blood samples had been disposed of. Bishop had seen no need to keep them
since they were ruined, and I had returned alive.
“Do you really think this could work?”

   I turned in surprise;
I hadn’t realized that Darnell, Lloyd, Aiden, and
Jenna
had followed us into the room.
I had been so caught up in my own worries and fears that I hadn’t noticed them behind us
. “It’s a possibility,” Bishop muttered.

   “But it could save more lives, if we can get to the remaining frozen people in time?”
Darnell pressed.

   We were all acutely aware of the fact that we hadn’t come across any of the human statues in a long time.
Though there had been some destruction and debris left here, there had been no bodies
,
and very little blood.
I tried not to think about the possibility that they were all dead. That it was already too late to save anyone, no matter how hard we tried.
“There’s no way to know that, but we can hope.”

   “So they could all be dead already. This could all be for nothing.” My voice was weak, listless
with despair
as Bishop stabbed
me. I had been poked and prodded more times than I wished to count,
we had risked our lives and experienced awful things to go to Plymouth,
and it could have all been for
nothing
.

  
“They’re not dead.
At least not all of them anyway.
”

   I jumped slightly, a sharp pain s
hooting
through m
e
as I twisted on the stool
and jerked the
syringe
in my arm
. I didn’t know when he had arrived but Cade was now standing in the doorway, his eyes narrowed upon the needle stuck in my arm.
His displeasure was obvious as he watched us.

   “Who’s not dead?” Darnell asked quietly.

   “The
F
rozen
Ones
.”

  
Darnell’s eyes widened, everyone’s attention became riveted upon Cade.
“What do you mean they’re not dead?” Darnell asked quietly.

   Cade looked away from me as Bishop pulled the
vile free
and quickly replaced it with another one.
I remained silent, unwilling to speak. Those words w
ere
the most that Cade had said about anything he
’
d experienced, or anything he knew. I feared that if I spoke he wouldn’t say anything more, that he would withdraw, leaving us with
only
those cryptic words and no explanation. I waited breathlessly instead, hoping to learn at least a little something of what he had been through.

  
“They aren’t dead. They’re trapped in a cryogenic
-
like state
,
just waiting to be awakened.”

   “How do we awaken them?”
Bishop
demanded.

   “
We
don’t.
Those other things do. There’s something in them, or they do something that causes the people to awaken again
.”

  
My bones
quaked
, literally rattled,
as I
vividly
recalled the pain those things could inflict. If it was possible
,
I was certain
they
could wake the dead
with that pain
.
“No matter how much time has passed?”
I croaked out.

   “I don’t know
about
that,” Cade responded flatly.

   “How
do you know they reawaken
?”
Darnell asked.

   “Bethany and I saw a man come back to life, though at the time we
di
dn’t realize why he had come back, and thought that perhaps pain had caused it.”
Abby and Aiden exchanged a guilty glance, my head bowed beneath the weight of the memory. We hadn’t known
why the man
in the street
had come back to life
and
we had
hoped
to save our mother. B
ecause of that
,
Cade had tried to burn Peter, his former boss, with a lighter in the hopes that the pain would reawa
ken him. It hadn’t worked
. So much had happened since then that I had almost forgotten about that awful memory. “Unfortunately
,
we were wrong.
We
saw th
at man
come back to life though, when
one of
th
ose
thing
s fed from h
i
m
so they were still alive
.
I saw others come back to life too, when those things got a hold of them.
”

   I swallowed heavily
, I found I could barely say the words, but I had to.
I hadn’t said anything, hadn’t even begun to try and tell them what that pain had been like. I never wanted them to understand it, because there was only one way that could happen, and I didn’t want to speak about it. 
“It’s not the same.”

   Bishop’s grey eyes narrowed on me, I turned away from him, unable to
take the inquisitiveness in his
sharp
gaze. The desire to
know
,
b
ut he
never
could. “What isn’t
the same Bethy
?”

   I could feel something inside of me twisting, recoiling, coming forth and then retreating again. I wanted to tell them, wanted to share, but it was difficult
to find the words. Tears filled my eyes
;
I blinked them back as I lifted my gaze to Cade.
Clouds of anger passed over his face; there was a rolling turmoil and fury in him that startled me. For a strange, startling moment, darkness
seemed to ooze out of him
, seemed to seep from him in waves of black that filled every one of his veins
.
T
hen it was gone
,
and I was left with the thought that I
somehow
must have imagined it. 
  

   “What isn’t the same Bethany?” Bishop pushed.

   My jaw clenched for a moment, I focused on the back wall, unable to look at any of them right now. “The pain, the pain isn’t the same.” My fingers played
nervously
with the ragged edges of my shirt.
“You can’t understand it.”

   There was a long moment of silence. I had almost forgotten that Bishop was drawing my blood until he stuck a cotton ball against me and forced my numb fingers to hold it in place.
I was shaking, but it wasn’t visible to them. It was an inner shaking that quaked through my blood, my muscles, even deep into my organs.

   “So it’s worse?”

   I couldn’t stop the snort of derision that
escaped me at Jenna’s question. “It’s much worse.”

   “Ok so it’s worse than a burn, perhaps if we inflict even more pain than that...”

   “No,” I interrupted
Aiden
forcefully. “No.” The cotton slipped from my fingers, I lurched awkwardly up stumbling slightly as a wave of dizziness swept through me. Bishop had taken more
blood
than I
’
d realized. Cade grasped hold of my arm, but for the first time I didn’t want his touch. I didn’t want
anyone’s
touch. “Don’t. I’m fine.”

   “Bethany…”

   I shook his hand off,
I was
swarm
ing wi
th dizziness and pain
filled memories
.
I inhaled deeply, trying hard to regain control. “No,” I said again. “No we will not do
anything
more to th
ose poor people!
We cannot awaken them; it’s not possible for
us
to do it.”

   “
A
broken bone perhaps,
”
Darnell suggested hesitatingly.

   “Maybe, though it would be awful to do, a gunshot,” Lloyd muttered.

   “It’s not possible to duplicate that
kind of
pain!” My voice was near hysteria, my tone sharp and high. I was ashamed by the lack of control, ashamed by the horror and terror clawing at me, but this time I could not reel it in.
I couldn’t let them keep discussing this. Not when it wasn’t possible. I didn’t want them to think they could do something, or even have them try to do something
,
they couldn’t. “You don’t know, you don’t understand. So just stop.”

   “There are other options
besides burning
,” Lloyd pressed.

   I opened my eyes, focusing my attention on him.
“I’d rather have you cauterize me a hundred times over than ever experience
that
again. I’d rather break every bone in my body than have one of those things enter, and yes
enter
, me again. That is not broken bone pain, it is not burn pain. It is a soul deep wrenching that I can still feel in every
fiber
of my being. It is not a pain that is forgotten with time, it is a pain that is
readily
recalled.
Readily
relived
. You cannot duplicate it Lloyd and to try to do so is simply cruel and unne
cessary torture. Let it go
, it can
no
t be done.” 

  
Lloyd
looked as if he wanted to argue with me some more, but
thankfully he remained silent. I dropped the cotton ball into the trash, more for something to distract me than for any other reason. I could feel them all watching me, but I couldn’t look at them. I didn’t want to. I had said my peace; they had to understand, because I sure as hell wasn’t going to let them hurt anyone.