The Becoming (6 page)

“What about your work?” Cade asked.

“Fuck work. Yours and Anna’s safety is more important.”

Cade nodded slightly in response, but she didn’t seem focused on Ethan’s words. Ethan frowned and looked to the front door for a moment. The potential dangers outside the house and the fact that his wife was somewhere out in the thick of it made him feel queasy. He was scared out of his mind for her. But at the same time, his best friend needed him. He felt torn as to which situation to handle first.

Ethan looked at Cade once more. She sat down on the edge of the couch and held her pajama shirt closed with one hand. He figured it was best to address the problem in front of him first.

“Why don’t you go upstairs and get cleaned up?” Ethan suggested. “You and Anna are about the same size; I’ll get you some of her clothes.” Cade nodded again and stood. She moved toward the stairs, but Ethan reached out and caught her by the arm. “Come here,” he said, and he pulled her into his arms in a tight hug. He ignored the additional blood that transferred from her clothes to stain his own. “You’re going to be okay, I promise,” he said into her hair as he gave the top of her head an affectionate kiss.

“God, I hope so,” Cade murmured as she clung to him. Ethan rubbed her back as she simply stood still, and he only reluctantly let go of her when she stepped back from him and wiped at her eyes with her wrist. “Upstairs, second on the right?”

“Yeah.” Ethan watched Cade walk up the stairs. Once she was out of sight, he moved briskly to the coffee table and snatched up his gun and holster. He fastened the holster to his belt and jammed the Glock into it before he approached the front door. Ethan was going to check out Cade’s house and see what he could gather about the situation inside, regardless of her discomfort with the idea of him being out of the house.

It wasn’t that Ethan didn’t believe her. Far from it. Cade was the epitome of honesty, and her IDF training had honed her powers of observation to an extreme. Ethan knew too that Cade had no reason to make up something so strange. It was just that what she had reported to him was so unbelievable that he was having trouble wrapping his mind around it. He had to see it with his own eyes to fully understand what she had said.

Ethan slipped out of the front door quietly and pulled it shut behind him with a soft click. He stepped off the front porch and approached Cade’s house for the second time that evening. His hand rested lightly on top of his holstered Glock. The house looked dark and sinister, though Ethan couldn’t place exactly what about it made him think so. After retrieving Cade’s gun from the grass in the front yard, Ethan slunk to the front door and made his way up the steps. The door was wide open and seemed to invite him in.

There was no movement in the dark entryway, so Ethan drew in a breath and stepped inside. He pulled out his gun and stepped into the foyer with caution. He raised his weapon and instinctively fell into the police procedures that had been hammered into his head for the past twenty-one years. Ethan cleared the living room with a quick sweep of his gun, using the dim light that emanated from the television to check out the area. He paused for a moment beside the couch and watched the scene behind the reporter on the screen: a large building burned. Ethan blinked as the realization that he recognized the building flitted through his mind, but not having time to pursue that avenue of thought, he shook the feeling off and headed for the kitchen.

After a quick scan of the kitchen, Ethan decided to move upstairs to look into the bedrooms. It was late, so it was reasonable to assume that Josie had been killed in or near her bedroom. The thought of the little girl, whom he adored so much, dead was enough to make pain lance through his chest. Ethan forced himself to exhale to calm himself as he made his way up the stairs.

One look inside the guest room where the little girl had slept was enough for Ethan. He closed his eyes for the barest of moments and backed away. He turned toward Cade’s bedroom and wished desperately that he hadn’t looked inside the guest room. The sight of the bloodstained sheets and the child’s motionless body was enough for him to know that there was no hope for her anymore. Andrew, though…

Ethan found the man slumped on the floor beside Cade’s bed. He eased up to Andrew and gripped his gun tighter in his sweating palm. A sense of unease settled in his gut as he stared down at the body. Gingerly, he stretched out a leg and nudged Andrew with the toe of his dress shoe. The man didn’t move. Ethan dropped to a knee beside Andrew and pushed him gently over onto his back. He felt over the man’s carotid artery, searching for a pulse; there didn’t appear to be one. The man was, as far as Ethan could ascertain, dead. Perhaps leftover adrenaline had kept Andrew moving even after the fatal shots, Ethan thought as he frowned. That would explain Cade’s perception that Andrew hadn’t stayed down after she’d shot him.

Ethan scanned the room as he straightened, and he noticed a black case resting on the bed beside a duffel bag. It was Cade’s new rifle, he realized as he moved closer to it. The key was in the lock, and the case’s lid was cracked open. Ethan lifted the lid to peer inside and make sure everything was in it; he noted the rifle, the scope, and the magazine inside its gray foam confines. Ethan closed the case’s lid and locked it before he picked it up and tucked the key into his pocket for safekeeping. It would be best to return the rifle to Cade. She would want it with her on their trip out of the city. Hopefully it wouldn’t get them into any serious trouble—or into any situations where they might be forced to use it.

As Ethan carried the case toward the door, a glint of steel in the corner of his eye caught his attention. He spotted a wicked-looking hunting knife on the bedside table next to Cade’s IDF portrait. Ethan picked the knife up and examined it for a moment before searching for its sheath. Once he’d found it in the drawer, he sheathed the knife and tucked it into his back pocket. Then he scooped up the duffel bag on the bed and slung it over his shoulder. When he had everything he thought he should get, Ethan headed back out into the hall.

Ethan was surprised to find Cade standing at the end of the hall, near the head of the stairs. The Israeli woman wore Anna’s clothes and stood with her arms crossed over her chest and a worried look on her face. She looked as if she were hugging herself as she stared warily at her surroundings. Ethan could just make out one of his spare Glocks dangling from one of her hands.

“What the fuck are you doing over here?” Cade hissed as Ethan approached.

“I came over to check things out,” Ethan said defensively. He didn’t bother to keep his voice down as he set the duffel bag at her feet; there really was no need. He held out the rifle case with a quick roll of his eyes. “And I got your bag and your rifle,” he added. “You’re welcome.”

Cade looked down at the bag, and her gaze softened. “Thanks,” she said. She reached out and took the black case from him, and then she picked the bag up slowly. She draped the strap over her shoulder and looked past Ethan, down the dark hallway toward the guest bedroom. Ethan frowned and reached out to touch her shoulder.

“Hey, do you need to…?” Ethan trailed off. The rest of the question hung in the air between them. He didn’t need to finish it; they both knew what he’d been about to say.

Cade hesitated, and then she nodded slightly and took a step toward Josie’s room. Ethan watched as she stopped in the doorway and turned her head. Her blue eyes looked into the darkness.

“Where is she?” Cade asked. The question caught Ethan by surprise, and he strode over to her, his eyebrows raised as he spoke.

“She’s right there,” Ethan replied. He moved around Cade and gestured into the room. “What the fuck,” he whispered as he saw the interior of the room for himself. Josie’s bed was inexplicably empty. Where the small body of the four year old once lay was just a dark stain on the sheets. There was an additional splotch on the floor near the doorway, one that Ethan didn’t remember seeing there before, though he couldn’t be sure.

“Where is she, Ethan?” Cade asked. Her voice rose in volume, and her accent became thicker in her agitation as she took a step back from the doorway.

“I don’t know, Cade! She was just right there!” Ethan said. He reached out to catch Cade as she moved backwards. He wanted to wrap his arms around her and pull her away, out of the house and back to the safety of his own home.

Ethan tugged Cade away from the door and a few steps closer to the head of the stairs. As they came within feet of the top stairs, a soft creak of the floorboards behind him was the only warning Ethan had that something was amiss. He sucked in a breath as he let go of Cade and turned on his heel. A figure ran toward them in the dim hallway, its arms outstretched. Ethan let out a shocked cry and twisted away, pulling Cade with him; his back thudded against the hallway wall, and Cade slammed into the sheetrock beside him. A framed photo fell to the floor with a crack, and Ethan fumbled for his gun.

It took Ethan a moment to register that the darkened figure was a man and that the front of the man’s body was stained with a large quantity of blood. It took Ethan an additional instant to realize that his green eyes were taking in the sight of Cade’s boyfriend, Andrew.

Cade’s breath rasped in her throat as she stood frozen beside Ethan, her palms flattened to the wall behind her, fingernails digging into the paint. Ethan took a step from the wall and positioned himself between Cade and Andrew, blocking Andrew’s view of the woman in an instinctive need to protect Cade.

“Andrew?” Ethan croaked out as he focused on the younger man’s face. Andrew’s dark eyes were devoid of any recognition. They locked like lasers onto Ethan’s face. Something in the man’s gaze gave Ethan the distinct feeling of prey in the sights of a hunter. He swallowed hard as he tried to steady himself.

“Andrew, are you okay?” Ethan tried, regardless of the look the man gave him. “You’re hurt. Let me go get you some help.”

Andrew didn’t respond to Ethan’s suggestion. Instead, he took a slow step closer to him. Ethan gripped his gun tighter and began to ease it out of the holster at his hip. His stomach churned with nervousness as he pulled the gun free. He inched along the wall, away from Andrew, and nudged Cade toward the stairs.

“Andrew, I think it’s probably a good idea if you stop right there,” Ethan said. He took a deep breath and lifted the gun. He pointed it in Andrew’s direction, even as he took another step to put more distance between himself and the dangerous man.

Andrew didn’t seem to process Ethan’s request. The look on his face suggested that he was studying a particularly nice-looking piece of meat. Ethan swallowed again and motioned with his gun. “Sit down on the floor,” he ordered. “You’re hurt. You shouldn’t be up walking around.”
You shouldn’t be breathing
, Ethan thought as he took another step back. Cade pressed hard against his back, her hand gripping his shirt. Andrew watched Ethan’s actions and slowly tilted his head to the side. He took a shuffling, deliberate step toward them.

“Oh God, Ethan,” Cade whispered. Ethan fought the urge to turn, fought the urge to take his eyes off of Andrew as the man advanced on them at the odd, creeping pace he’d adopted. “Behind him,” Cade warned, her voice still hushed.

Ethan reluctantly shifted his gaze away from Andrew and to a spot just past the man, to an area at the level of his waist. A small pigtailed figure shuffled toward them, a bloodied stuffed gray elephant clutched in one hand. Ethan swore his heart stopped beating for the barest second.

“Josie?” Ethan breathed. Cade took in a sharp breath and dodged around Ethan to go toward the little girl. Ethan lunged forward and hooked his arm around Cade’s waist. He dragged her back against him, gripping her tightly to him. “Cade! No!” he barked out. He hauled her toward the stairs. “Get back! Something isn’t right!” His instincts screamed at him, hammered in his head and in his chest as he watched the little girl. The way she moved, the open wounds she shouldn’t have survived, the horrible similarity between hers and Andrew’s jerking, lurching walks; whatever was wrong with Andrew was wrong with Josie too.

“Ethan! Help her!” Cade shrieked. She fought against his grip and clawed at his arm. Ethan winced as pain shot through his skin, and he swung her around and away from Josie, setting her on the top step.

“Cade! Get down the stairs! Now!” Ethan ordered. His voice was hard and cold and stern, and he glared at her with as much anger as he could muster.

Cade opened her mouth to argue. The distant, familiar whir of tornado sirens interrupted anything she’d been about to say. Both of them froze in place, and Cade’s blue eyes skipped over the side of the banister and focused on the large plate-glass windows at the front of the house.

Ethan turned back to Andrew and Josie. Neither had stopped in their advances on them. Their paces had quickened, though, and Ethan instinctively backed away from them. “Cade, down the stairs,” he warned again as he pointed his gun at Andrew. “Stop,” Ethan warned the man. “Stop right there or I’ll shoot.”

The man didn’t stop.

Ethan swallowed and flexed his finger on the trigger. He debated shooting the man. The tornado sirens blasting outside echoed in his head, making it increasingly difficult to think.

“Ethan, just shoot him,” Cade urged. “Just shoot, please!”

Ethan shook his head and took another step back. “Get down the stairs,” he repeated. He grabbed Cade’s duffel bag from her shoulder. “Go, now.” He nudged her again, and they both stumbled down the stairs, leaving Andrew and Josie on the second floor. Ethan didn’t know if Josie and Andrew could make it down the stairs, but he wasn’t going to stick around long enough to find out.