The Becoming (Book 4): Under Siege by Jessica Meigs Page A

words were as sharp as knives, flung out across the
room with the irritation and incredulity Ethan had come to expect
from her. “Why do you have a rifle pointed at—”
    Ethan looked up then, and Cade stopped
speaking, her eyes wide as she got a look at his face. Kimberly
stood behind her, the expression in her eyes horrified. Ethan
looked away, wanting to hide his face. She was the last person he
wanted to see him this way.
    “I’ll go get Derek,” Kimberly said. She
turned and hurried away.
    “What happened?” Cade demanded, once the
blond woman was gone.
    Ethan cast his gaze to the floor. “I just…I
don’t know,” he murmured. He reached for a towel and was disgusted
to see his hands shaking. He scrubbed at his face, trying to get
the blood off. “I don’t know. Cade, what the fuck is wrong with
me?”
    Everyone left in the room was silent for
long heartbeats. Ethan twisted the towel in his hands and slouched
against the counter again. His chest felt tight, his breathing
erratic as he struggled not to panic. He felt like he was about to
hyperventilate. It took everything in him to not hit the floor as
the elated mood he’d had previously flowed out of him.
    When Cade spoke again, her voice was harder
than before. “Keith, put the damn rifle down,” she said. “And, for
that matter, get the hell out of this kitchen.”
    Keith started to protest, but she
interrupted.
    “Don’t you even say a word to a
single soul out there about what you saw in here, you got it? I
don’t want this getting out everywhere.”
    “I think everybody has a right to know you
have one of the infected stashed in here!” Keith snapped
back. “What, are you trying to pull an Alicia or something? This is
Dominic Jackson’s doing, isn’t it?”
    Brandt opened his mouth to say something and
then closed it. He still looked shell-shocked, like he couldn’t
comprehend what he was looking at. Ethan really hoped that meant he
wasn’t about to put a bullet in his head himself.
    “He isn’t infected!” Cade said.
    “Like hell he isn’t! Look at him!” Keith
took a step toward him, and Ethan reflexively tried to back away.
“I don’t know what kind of bullshit you’re trying to pull in
here—”
    “And I don’t care what you think it
might be,” Brandt interrupted. He grabbed Keith’s shoulder and
shoved him toward the door. “Shut the fuck up. Don’t say a word, or
I will personally make sure you regret it. And if you even think about trying to harm him, I will cast you out of
Woodside so fast your head will spin.”
    Keith and Brandt glared at each other for
long moments, during which Ethan forced himself to take in large,
gulping breaths. Finally, Keith seemed to crack, looking away from
Brandt. “This isn’t over,” he muttered as he pushed past Brandt and
stormed out of the kitchen.
    “No, it isn’t,” Brandt mumbled.
    When the front door slammed, Ethan flinched,
and a sudden, terrible fear of being revealed to the entirety of
Woodside burrowed its way into his stomach. He bit back a surge of
bile as Brandt moved toward him. Ethan didn’t look up at Brandt,
who studied him as if he were a butterfly under a magnifying glass.
Cade kept her distance, not that Ethan blamed her.
    Brandt’s hands came up then, resting against
the sides of Ethan’s face, his fingers hooking under his jaw, and
Ethan was forced to look up. The two men stared at each other,
Ethan reluctantly and Brandt intently. When Brandt spoke, his voice
was hushed. “How long?”
    Ethan closed his eyes again. “Since I woke
up. Since Dr. Rivers did whatever he did to me.”
    “What were you feeling? Before?” Brandt
prompted. He searched Ethan’s face before dropping his hands.
    “I was hungry,” Ethan said. “It never
stopped, no matter how much I ate. It was just there. It wouldn’t
leave me.”
    “And now? How do you feel now?”
    Ethan had been so focused on how everyone
else was reacting that he hadn’t taken the time to figure