Ashes (Book 2 The Kindred Series) (17 page)

A tight knot formed in her throat as
tears burned her eyes; her appetite vanished even though she had
barely taken a bite. She loved him so very much, but it was not
enough. It would never be enough, because she could not give him
everything that he needed from her. For the first time she fully
realized the finality of their love. Deep down she had still been
holding out hope that they would somehow get through all of this
without losing too much, and with her still being human.

She realized now that that was not
going to be possible. She either joined him, or they ended this. At
the moment she didn’t know which was worse.

Devon turned back to her, his eyebrows
drawing questioningly together, his gaze darting to her barely
touched food. Cassie swallowed heavily, dropping her head quickly
before he could see the hopelessness engulfing her. Though she was
no longer hungry, she forced herself to eat, not wanting to upset
him more. She could not give him everything he wanted and needed,
but she would give him as much as possible.

No one spoke as they ate. Chris helped
himself to seconds before anyone else was even done. Cassie managed
to choke down almost three quarters of her plate before putting it
aside. Devon’s eyes were sharp on her, but he seemed satisfied with
what she had consumed.

“I think everyone is ready Luther,” her
grandmother said softly, drawing her small legs beneath her once
more.

Luther nodded, pushing his glasses up
on his nose. He rested one arm on the mantle, his gaze distant as
he stared at the far side of the room. “About fifteen hundred years
ago, vampires were beginning to run rampant in the world. They were
not overly concerned about people knowing of their existence, why
should they be when there was no one to stop them?

“At this time a group of humans
gathered together, determined to hunt down the monsters and destroy
as many of them as they could. They were determined to drive the
vampires back in an attempt to try and regain some control of the
earth.”

“They were the first Hunters?” Cassie
inquired softly.

Luther looked slightly uneasy as he
shifted slightly. “Sort of,” he hedged.

Cassie lifted an eyebrow at his “sort
of,” not liking the way he responded to her question. “What do you
mean, sort of?” Chris inquired, temporarily forgetting the plate of
food still on his lap.

Luther and her grandmother exchanged a
look; Devon rested his hand upon her knee. Melissa’s gaze was
focused upon the floor, her shoulders stiff. Cassie’s frown
deepened, she didn’t like the sudden tension in the room, the
hesitation that grasped them all. It was becoming more apparent
that she was not going to like what Luther had to say. In fact, she
was certain that she didn’t want to hear it at all.

Luther heaved a large sigh. Sliding his
glasses off, he cleaned them on his shirt before slipping them back
on. Cassie’s eyes widened slightly as he began to pace nervously.
Luther never paced, and he was never nervous. Her hand tightened
around Devon’s as a growing knot of worry and fear began to twist
in her body.

“As a group, the humans were able to do
some damage against the vampires, but not much. And when they came
up against a more powerful vampire, they were useless. They were
getting slaughtered and the vampires were becoming stronger. As the
years passed the vampire’s numbers grew, and the human fighters
dwindled as most became afraid to continue the battle.

“That was when they recruited the help
of an emerging group of scientists.”

The last sentence hung heavily in the
air, the knot in Cassie’s stomach turned into a noose that spread
up her throat, threatening to choke her. A chill of apprehension
swept down her spine. Though Chris still looked confused, there was
a dawning horror inside her.

“And what did these scientists do?”
Chris inquired, placing his plate on the table, his appetite
apparently gone.

Cassie fought the urge to cover her
ears, wanting to block out whatever else Luther had to say. It may
have been a childish urge, but it was one that she desperately
wanted to fulfill. “Experiments. When they were able to, they began
to keep the vampires that they hunted.”

“And they experimented on them?” Chris
looked confused as he glanced around the room. It was not that he
wasn’t grasping what Luther was saying, it was that he didn’t want
to. Cassie didn’t blame him.

“Yes.”

Cassie’s breath came quicker, her heart
pounded loudly. Her skin was suddenly clammy, cold. “What kind of
experiments?” Chris demanded, his tone taking on a hard
edge.

Luther sighed softly. “They wanted to
know how vampires worked, how they functioned. Where their powers
came from.”

“And did they succeed?” Cassie asked in
a choked voice.

“Somewhat, but not completely. They
learned that the source of a vampire’s power comes from their
blood. To become a vampire an exchange of blood is needed, and
death must occur.”

Cassie turned slightly toward Devon,
these were things that she knew, but for the first time she truly
realized that he had died. That someone had killed him. Or he may
have willingly allowed himself to be changed, may have embraced
death for the promise of eternal life. Her forehead furrowed as she
once again recalled how very little she knew of him. And she wanted
to know so much more. However, right now she was learning more than
she had ever wanted too, and her curiosity about Devon was going to
have to wait.

“During the exchange of blood, the
demon that lurks within the vampire is passed on, its hunger and
thirst handed over to its victim. This demon blood is thought to be
the source of the vampire’s power; it was also the reason why
everyone believed that all vampires must be monsters and
murderers.”

His gaze turned briefly to Devon, his
grey eyes flickered slightly. “Obviously we were wrong.”

Devon looked briefly at Cassie as he
nodded subtly. His face was tight with tension, and Cassie knew he
was thinking about his struggle to keep himself restrained around
her. “It is hard, but it can be controlled. Most simply do not want
to control it; they enjoy the hunt, the thrill, the power. They
revel in the evil, or at least their darker side does, and they
have no desire to suppress it. Others may not even know that it can
be done, but there are still others who do control it.”

Luther nodded, rubbing the bridge of
his nose as he pinched it tight. “Yes, I understand that now. We
should have understood it earlier, but arrogance and fear go a long
way in keeping the truth hidden.”

Cassie lifted an eyebrow, her gaze
darted worriedly to Devon before she turned to Melissa and Chris;
panic was growing inside of her. Melissa was not as composed as
normal; it was obvious that though she knew where this was going,
she didn’t like it. There was a pinched look around her mouth, her
eyes were narrowed slightly. Her normally neat hair was disheveled,
strands of it framed her pretty face. Her eyes, usually a sparkling
onyx were now as dull and flat as coal.

Chris rose suddenly, knocking the
coffee table slightly with his knee. It skittered back, but he made
no move to fix it as he paced restlessly away. Running a hand
through his hair, he turned sharply toward Luther, pinning him with
his gaze. His jaw clenched tightly, his broad shoulders were set as
if he awaited a fierce blow. Which Cassie was certain they were
going to receive.

“Where did our abilities come from?”
Chris asked softly.

“When they discovered the source of the
vampire’s powers they began to try to isolate it, hoping to combat
the growing threat of the vampires. They could never successfully
isolate the gene, but they began to experiment with trying to
harvest that power into humans.”

A chill ran down Cassie’s spine, the
hair on the back of her neck stood on end. Her hand clenched
tighter upon Devon’s, but for the first time his touch was not
enough to soothe her. Shifting uncomfortably, she found she was no
longer able to sit still either. Sliding her hand free of Devon’s
she launched to her feet, desperately wanting to flee the room and
this conversation, but knowing that she couldn’t.

“And how did these experiments go?” she
asked, her voice hoarse.

Luther hesitated, his grey eyes hard
and distant. “At first, not well,” he admitted. “There were many
failures, many were caught in between.”

“In between what?” Chris
demanded.

“In between human and vampire. They
were caught in a world where they were neither…”

“Neither?” Cassie croaked.

“A monstrosity,” Devon answered when
Luther seemed unable to. “A thing that is neither human nor
vampire, a creature that has no thought or reason, all it does is
destroy. All it wants is blood and death.”

Horror flowed up Cassie’s throat; it
burned into her esophagus as her stomach threatened to heave up its
contents. She could picture these monsters, these things that were
caught in between. Neither human nor vampire but a fiend even worse
than anything any horror writer could have dreamed up.

“What happened to these things?” she
asked quietly.

“They were destroyed,” Luther answered
flatly. “Something like that could not be allowed to roam the
earth, the destruction would be incalculable.”

“And these experiment victims were
willing?”

“Some, but not all.”

Swallowing heavily, Cassie turned away,
pacing to the doorway before turning back again. This time she did
not return to Devon’s side, instead she felt the desperate need to
be closer to Chris and Melissa. They were like her, they were
feeling this too.

“And how did it all turn out?” Chris
asked quietly when she stopped next to him.

“Eventually they succeeded in planting
enough of the vampire blood into a human, without changing them
completely, or leaving them in the void. Eventually they turned
these humans into something more powerful, something that still
seemed completely human but was stronger, faster, and possessed
gifts and talents of their own.”

The truth was not shocking; it did not
rock through her. She had expected it. She did not like it, but at
least she had been braced for this blow. “And they became The
Hunters,” she stated flatly.

“Yes.”

“And the genetic alterations, the
changes that the vampire blood wrought in them were passed through
the generations to their children?”

“Yes, even if a Hunter and a normal
human are together, the Hunter genetics are stronger than the
human’s DNA. Those children will inherit the Hunter line, develop
abilities, and carry on the gene. Though for the most part, due to
their difference’s, Hunters tend to stay with each other or with
The Guardians. It’s rare when they went outside of those
lines.”

Chris bristled, shifting slightly
beside her. His father had gone outside of those lines, and his
mother had been the one to pay for it. “And the experimenters, the
perpetrators of this abomination, became The Guardians,” he stated
bluntly, a hint of disgust in his voice.

Luther inhaled sharply as he nodded.
“Yes. Originally The Guardians were meant to make sure that nothing
happened to these humans, that they did not change in
anyway.”

“They were meant to destroy them if
they did,” Chris said dully, his voice distant.

“Yes, but fortunately nothing occurred,
and as each generation emerged with no mutations The Guardians
became relegated to the role of training the Hunters to fight, and
hunt vampire’s. They also became keepers of the history; they
stayed close to The Hunters to record each generation’s efforts,
and to record them.”

“Well wasn’t that nice of them,” Cassie
said, unable to keep the bitterness out of her voice.

“It needed to be done,” Luther said
gently.

“Needed to be done!” Cassie nearly
screeched. “They tortured human beings! They turned us all into
monsters! They shortened our live spans!” She jabbed a finger at
Chris, Melissa, and herself. “They sentenced us to a life of hell
while they sat back on their haunches and recorded our history.
Needed to be done my ass! They were cowards who were to afraid to
try the experiment on themselves.”

“Cassie,” her grandmother said
gently.

“They tore our families away from us!”
her voice broke on a sob, her shoulders sagged in
defeat.

The anger fled swiftly from her as
despair rushed up to take its place. Devon was watching her, his
eyes sad and knowing, his jaw locked tight. They had also torn him
away from her, she realized with a start. If she had been human, if
she had been normal, then maybe she would have embraced a life of
immortality with him.

If she had been human she never would
have known such hurt from vampires, she never would have known the
cruelty that they had bestowed upon her loved ones. She would still
have her parents, and a normal life, and a boyfriend who loved her
and wanted to be with her for eternity. She imagined that it would
all be very romantic and appealing to a human, but to her it was a
world of darkness and blood and death. A world of horror and hurt.
A world that she had been genetically altered to fight.