"He didn't do anything to me Aid," I assured him.
"You're young, you're innocent, you don't even know..."
"Stop it Aiden! Just stop! You don't know what you're talking about."
"I know that he took advantage of you!"
I shook my head as I tried to figure out how to proceed. He was completely wrong but to stand here and butt heads with him would only irritate the situation more. We were both stubborn and bull headed, this would only spiral into both of us not talking to each other, and him resenting Cade even more if I wasn't careful. However he couldn't continue on in his beliefs when they were so wrong.
"I'm not as weak or gullible as you insist on believing. I survived watching dad die; I lived through losing mom, and this whole awful mess. My heart was broken when I thought I'd lost Cade, but I still managed to pull myself together and continue on. I'm stronger than you think Aiden and no one is taking advantage of me."
I was worried he would continue to fight me but he finally gave a grudging nod. "You're right," he admitted. "It's difficult for me not to see you as a little girl, but then you haven't been a little girl in years. Not like Abby."
I smiled at him. "Abby's not a little girl anymore either."
"No she's not," he said sadly. "Are you sleeping with him Bethany?" I couldn't look at him. This wasn't a conversation I'd ever expected to have with my brother, just as I knew it wasn't one he wanted to have with me but for some reason he felt like he had to. "I know you love him, but you have to be careful. The world may be upside down but there is still the risk of pregnancy..."
"I'm well aware of the consequences Aiden, I won't get pregnant," I interrupted briskly.
"Diseases." Jesus, he was determined to have this big brother, protective speech with me no matter how red the two of us turned. "We don't have the medicine that we used to have, or the tests."
"There's been no one else," I said before he could steer this conversation into even more embarrassing waters.
"I know there hasn't been, for you," he gushed.
"For either of us," I whispered around the lump in my throat. I felt like I had the worst sunburn of my life as sweat began to bead on my forehead and my cheeks felt like they were on fire.
Aiden did a double take as his mouth opened and closed and he tried to assimilate what I'd just told him with everything we'd always believed about Cade. In school, Cade had been rumored to be unruly and dangerous and all the girls had chased him around. His air of mystery and aloof persona had only fueled the gossip that had run rampant through the halls. Rumors of Cade having lurid affairs with everyone from college girls to married women had been spread around but none of them had been true.
I forced myself to meet Aiden's astonished gaze in the hopes that he would finally believe what I was saying. "He's loved me since the first time he came to our house, loved me years before I even realized how much I loved him. There's never been anyone else, for either of us."
Cade had first appeared in our home as Aiden's friend, but he had continued to come back because of me. I hadn't known the true depth of his feelings for me until all hell broke loose with the aliens though. Feelings he hadn't even known he could be capable of experiencing until he met me all those years ago.
He would be back soon, I told myself fiercely.
"I see," Aiden said after a lengthy pause.
"I hope so."
"There is still pregnancy Bethy," he pressed. "You have to be careful; a pregnancy now could be devastating."
"I know Aiden."
There were more extenuating reasons why I couldn't get pregnant but there was no way I could go into those with him right now. He couldn't possibly know that Cade wasn't human, and I couldn't bring myself to think about what a baby we created might look like. Cade didn't have scales, but it was suddenly all I could picture covering our child and I shuddered at the thought.
"He scares me Bethany."
I tilted my head to study Aiden. "Why?"
Aiden shook his head. "There's just something about him that frightens me. I'm concerned about you."
"He would never hurt me."
"Maybe not you, but I can't shake the feeling that he would hurt someone else, especially if they were a threat to you."
I couldn't bring myself to lie to him by denying that. Cade would hurt anyone he thought was a threat to me, he would kill them. I had already seen that, and Cade was far more treacherous than Aiden could even begin to imagine.
"You wouldn't be a great big brother if you didn't worry." I tried to sound light and airy, but I could hear the tension in my voice.
He snorted softly and managed a small smile. "I suppose not. Do you think you two will get married?"
I laughed as I gestured around the tunnel. "I don't think marriage has much place in this world anymore, do you?"
"No," he admitted. "I suppose it doesn't."
I nodded as I turned my attention back to the tunnel. I'd never really thought about marriage to Cade. To me, our bond was solid and impenetrable already and I didn't need the added bond of being married on top of it. Until a few months ago though it was always something that I had pictured in my life, always something I'd assumed would happen one day. I didn't feel like we needed to be married, but I'd also like it if we were. It would be something so normal and wonderful in a world that was neither anymore.
"I would marry him though," I told him. "But I don't feel like we need it. We are committed to each other."
His smile was small and fleeting. "That's good to know. Do you mind if I join you or would you prefer to be alone?"
I had come here in order to be alone, but I found that it was the last thing I wanted now. It had been awhile since we'd spent any time alone together. "I'd really like it if you stayed."
We settled onto the ground beside each other, our shoulders touching and our heads bent close as we stared into the impenetrable gloom.
Chapter 9
Aiden's shoulder was warm beneath my head and his breathing was even when I woke later. I couldn't see him, but I knew that he was awake as he shifted against me. There was a tension in him that hadn't been there before I'd fallen asleep. "Beth..."
"I'm awake," I whispered so low that I was sure it was my breath he felt more than my words he heard.
He lifted his arm and pointed down the tunnel. My eyes narrowed as I strained to see. One of the changes Cade's blood had rendered in me was better eyesight, but sleep was still making my lids heavy as I tried to pick out whatever it was that had caught Aiden's attention.