Taken Over (Book 2 The Ravening Series) Read Free

horror, wanted to flee, but my darker instincts seemed to have taken over as I pulled the trigger over and over again, continuing to do so even long after the gun was empty. The edge of my mind , the reasonable, still slightly sane part, realized that I should stop shooting . I t was pointless to continue to do so . B ut I could not bring myself to lower the empty gun until Bret grabbed hold of it and forcefully pushed it down.
       I was ashamed by the shaking that rattled through me. My teeth chattered. I had lost my mother, I had lost Cade, I had seen far more of these things than I cared to recall, but for some strange reason I was shaking so bad ly I could hardly stand. What I had just witnessed had rattled me so much I was afraid I might actually piss my pants.
       It had looked so human , so eerily childlike . And what it had done, well what it had done was pulverize Sarah’s pretty face with the most disgustin g thing I had ever seen before. Even from my distant position I could see there was nothing left to her. Tears choked me as I realized that her own mother wouldn’t have been able to recognize the smashed mess before us.
       “I t’s ok Bethy.” Bret’s voice trembled as he spoke the words. I wondered briefly if he believed them. I didn’t. “It’s ok.”
       I swallowed heavily, I wanted to sit. I couldn’t. I had to stay strong; I could not let them know how disturbed I had been by what had just happened. I had to stay on my feet. My hand shook as I slipped the gun back into the waistband of my jeans. I hated the cowardice that the trembling revealed, but I still did not have complete control over my body yet. “No,” I disagreed. “It’s not . It hasn’t been in a long time, a nd it never will be again .”
       It was the first time I had ever expressed that though t out loud. The first time I had truly acknowledged my own growing doubts and fears to anyone else. As I met Bret’s clear green eyes I realized that the worst part was that ever optimistic, endearing, and loving Bret believed it too. 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER 2
     
     
       Darnell nudged the edge of the dead thing with the toe of his boot. The girl it had pretended to be was completely gone. It was nearly opalescent again, almost the color of a jellyfish except for the blood it had managed to suck out of Sarah before dying. I couldn’t bring myself to look at Sarah’s ruined face again . She had been a pretty woman with a bright smile and dark hazel eyes. All of that was gone now, there was little left to identify her by. It was just too awful. It could have been any of us; Sarah had just had the misfortune of being nominated to go first.
       The creature slumped back to the ground, the tentacle flopping uselessly back as Darnell dropped it . “We should get going,” Darnell said softly. “Private Price give me a hand with the body.”
   Private Lloyd Price looked just as shaken and horrified as I felt. His smattering of reddish freckles w as stark against the sharp pallor of his drained skin. His clear blue eyes were wide and rolling behind his glasses, his nearly orange hair was standing on end in a thousand different directions. He wasn’t much older than me, nineteen , twenty at most. And it was very obvious that he did not want to touch Sarah’s body; that this was not what the young private had signed up for when he enlisted . I didn’t blame him in the least. I didn’t want to leave her here but if Darnell had asked me to help him I probably would have thrown up.
       “How did it do that?” Darnel l’s dark eyes slid toward me ; there was n o answer in his hard gaze . My heart was hammering, my palms were sweat ing ; I couldn’t believe I was about to say what I was going to say. “We should bring it back with us.”
       “Are you crazy?” Bret demanded.
       I held Darnell’s gaze, not at all eased by the gr owing