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

“You son of a bitch!” Chris exploded,
charging across the room like a bull in a headlong rush at the red
cape. His sapphire eyes were narrowed with fury, his broad
shoulders set like a defenseman.

Devon braced himself, planting his feet
for Chris’s attack. Stepping swiftly to the side, he latched hold
of the larger boy, his hand wrapping swiftly around Chris’s throat.
Thrusting sideways, Devon pinned him sharply against the wall.
Chris’s feet dangled a good foot off the ground as he struggled to
break free of Devon’s hold. Chris choked, his hands clawing at
Devon’s, his eyes bulging as he struggled to breathe.

“You’re not big enough to mess with
me!” Devon snarled, his hand tightening on Chris’s neck.

“Wait, wait! Stop!” Melissa rushed
over; grasping hold of Devon’s arm she tried uselessly to tug him
free. “Let go of him!”

Luther pushed his way in, shoving
Melissa roughly aside as he knocked her hand free. Though Devon was
prepared for Luther to try and pull him away, he was surprised when
the man simply rested a hand lightly on Devon’s arm. His intense
grey eyes met Devon’s head on. Devon had questioned Cassie’s
strange relationship with Melissa’s adoptive father, but he now
understood that Luther was her Guardian. That he was, in fact, all
of their Guardians.

Luther was the man that trained them,
and helped guided them in their journey as Hunter’s. And that was
the real reason Cassie spent such a vast amount of time at their
house, why she had been distant and vague and oddly frightened in
the dream that they had shared. He now understood her words from
the dream lake. Now understood what she had meant when she had
said, “Out there everything is hard. Out there, this cannot be.”
For her, everything in the world was hard, he had wanted to keep
her sheltered from the dark realities of his life, but at the time
he had not realized that she was already fully inundated with the
true cruelty of the world.

“There wasn’t any time for camp once
Luther and Melissa came.” She had told him in the dream, and at the
time he had been confused and lost, but now he realized that she
was not able to attend camp once Luther and Melissa had come to
tell her that she was not a normal child; that she was in fact far
from normal. And Luther was her Guardian, the one that would help
her through the hard transition this realization would
cause.

Luther was the reason that Cassie had
fought him so hard when Devon had first arrived. Devon could not
find it within him to be resentful toward Luther though. In fact,
Luther had probably helped to keep Cassie alive. He may have been
too blinded by his infatuation with Cassie to recognize what Chris,
Melissa, and Cassie were upon his arrival, but Julian hadn’t, and
other vampire’s would recognize it too. Luther had helped to
prepare them for this, had helped to make sure that they would be
prepared for the monsters of the world, and able to defend
themselves against them. Luther’s training was the only thing that
had saved her from Julian’s attack.

“Cassie will be devastated if something
happened to Chris. She would never forgive you Devon if you hurt
him. Never,” Luther said fervently.

Devon met Chris’s bulging gaze once
more. He didn’t want to harm the boy; he had actually grown to like
him over the past couple of weeks. But his anger and frustration
over this awful day were getting the best of him. Besides, the last
thing he ever wanted was to hurt Cassie.

Taking a step away from him, he
released Chris with a small shove back. Chris slid down the wall,
stumbling slightly forward before regaining his balance. He leveled
Devon with a fierce glare as he rubbed his bruised throat, but he
didn’t attack again. Devon moved slowly back to the bed, planting
his body in between them and Cassie as he folded his arms firmly
across his chest. Though he knew that they would not hurt her, he
couldn’t shake the insane urge to protect her from them.

Chris took another step toward him,
bristling over Devon’s protective behavior. Luther grasped hold of
his arm, holding him in place. “What did you do to her?” Chris
nearly bellowed, shaking with the rage that flowed through
him.

Devon glared fiercely at him, but to
his credit, Chris did not back down. Though he was annoyed by
Chris’s condemning tone, he did admire the boy’s pride and
determination. “If I had done this to her, she wouldn’t be here
right now.”

Chris sputtered, trying to shake his
arm free of Luther’s grasp, but he would not release him. “And what
the hell does that mean!?” Chris exploded.

Devon took a step closer to him, his
arms falling back to his sides. “It means that she would not be
here. It means that I would have kept her for myself,” Devon
snarled.

Disbelief and horror radiated from all
of them, their eyes darted swiftly to her prone form. Devon
bristled slightly, but he did not move. “How is she?” Luther asked
quietly, apparently deciding to ignore Devon’s comment.

Devon’s gaze darted briefly back to her
pale, frail form. “The doctor said she will be fine.”

Melissa began to cry. Devon blinked in
surprise as the normally calm, stoic girl, burst into loud heart
wrenching sobs. She moved slowly around Devon, her tear filled eyes
wary upon him as she hurried to the other side of the bed. “I was
so scared,” she whispered, her voice mournful and lost. “I thought
she was dead, I thought that we had lost her. When I saw
it…”

Her voice trailed off as tears choked
her. “Saw it?” Devon inquired sharply, his hackles rising over her
statement. She had seen something that could have prevented all of
this, and she had done nothing to stop it?

Melissa glanced at him, her onyx eyes
bright with tears. She did not answer as she turned her full
attention back to Cassie. “What the hell is going on here?” Chris
demanded fiercely. “He’s a monster! We should be destroying
him!”

“I’d like to see you try. You have
never come up against the likes of me boy, you will not win this
battle,” Devon muttered in a low growl.

Chris’s eyes spit blue fury, but he did
not make another heedless charge. Apparently he was a quick
learner. “I think it’s safe to say that Devon is not one of the bad
guys,” Luther muttered softly, his eyes narrowed and questioning
behind his Lennon style glasses. The soft hint of his English
accent was even more pronounced due to his stress and
confusion.

“Is that possible?” Melissa asked
quietly, wiping the tears from her cheeks.

“Anything is possible, I suppose,”
Luther replied with an easy shrug, though his eyes were intent and
inquisitive upon Devon.

Devon bristled slightly under his
scrutiny, but he remained where he was, mainly because he was not
going to release Cassie’s hand again. “Who did this to her then?”
Chris demanded sharply.

Devon hesitated, not sure how much he
wanted to tell them. But he knew that the anger in the room would
not be diffused if he refused to tell them anything. And though he
would prefer to keep some things to himself, Cassie’s happiness was
by far more important to him than his pride. “Julian
did.”

They exchanged quick, confused looks
before focusing upon him once more. “Who is Julian?” Luther asked
softly.

Devon shook his head, not wanting to
get into a detailed explanation of that just yet. “He’s a monster,”
Devon answered simply.

“That’s the pot calling the kettle
black,” Chris retorted.

Devon’s head snapped up, his eyes
narrowed fiercely on Chris. “You don’t know what I am and am not!
But you keep pushing me and you will find out!” he spat.

Chris’s eyes widened slightly, and for
the first time a bolt of fear flashed through them. “Easy, this is
not the place for this. I am sure that Devon will give us some
answers later, but Cassie will also want those answers. Now, let’s
just calm down. Fighting is not solving anything, and it’s not
helping Cassie any. He did save her life,” Luther
reasoned.

Chris stared coldly at Devon, but
wisely kept his mouth shut for a change. “Have you called her
grandmother?” Devon demanded briskly.

Luther shook his head, pushing his
glasses up his nose as he glanced worriedly at Cassie. “No, we had
to get Marcy to the hospital first, and in all honesty, we thought
she was dead. That’s something that is better to tell a loved one
in person.” All of their gazes were inquisitive, and doubtful, as
they studied Devon like an odd bug that they didn’t
understand.

Devon nodded, his hand tightened
briefly upon Cassie’s. He didn’t take offense to the fact that they
had her thought her dead; it was the nature of most of his kind to
kill after all. And at one time he had not been the exception to
that rule. If it hadn’t been for Annabelle, he would still be a
monster, destroying and killing whenever the mood struck
him.

“How is Marcy?” he asked
softly.

“She’ll be ok,” Melissa whispered,
wiping the remaining tears from her cheeks. “She’s lost a lot of
blood but she’ll survive.”

“Yeah, now we have to worry about how
we’re going to explain all of this to her,” Chris
muttered.

“I’ll take care of that.”

Their gazes flew back to him, their
eyes narrowed questioningly. “How do you plan on doing that?” Chris
demanded.

Devon shook his head, not willing to
divulge any of his secrets before they agreed to divulge some of
theirs. And he knew that they would have secrets too. Hunter’s
possessed some of the same abilities that vampire’s did; he just
wasn’t sure which ones they had, and he couldn’t leave himself
vulnerable to them.

“I have my ways,” Devon
murmured.

Chris’s eyes narrowed sharply, his lip
twisted into a sneer, but he did not push further. “I saw you
coming, but I didn’t see you,” Melissa whispered, looking dazed and
lost.

Devon started in surprise, his eyes
widening as he turned back toward her. She was studying him with a
deep, penetrating stare that unnerved him slightly. “Excuse me?” he
asked in confusion.

She blinked in shock, shaking her head.
Her raven hair fell forward, shielding her pretty features as she
turned quickly back to Cassie. Luther moved to Melissa’s side,
resting his hand lightly on her shoulder as he lifted the phone and
punched in some numbers. Chris moved slowly to Cassie’s other side,
his gaze still weary on Devon as he rested his hand lightly on
Cassie’s arm.

Devon bristled slightly, his eyes
narrowed as he fought the urge to leap over the bed at Chris,
knocking his hand away from her. Instead, somehow, he managed to
keep control of himself. Devon had suspected for awhile that his
feelings for Cassie were more than just normal, had feared that
they were more intense and binding than that. He was now beginning
to truly realize that he had been right. However, if he didn’t
regain firm restraint of himself, someone was going to get hurt and
that was something that he couldn’t allow to happen.

Especially not now, not when Cassie’s
life still hung in the balance and her friends were surrounding
him. Friends that were also trained to hate him, fight him, and try
to kill him. Friends that wanted nothing more than to see him
dead.

He glanced back at Cassie’s prone
figure. If she survived this, would she hate him too? Would she
also want him dead? A shiver racked through him at the thought. He
couldn’t stand it if she hated, or condemned him. He would not
survive it if she turned him away. He would not be able to stay
rational.

Whatever she decided when she awoke
would affect both of them. She held both of their destinies in her
hands; he could only hope that she did not destroy his. Did not
destroy him. He returned Chris’s fierce glare with one of his own
as he slid his hand back into hers. He clung tightly to her,
needing her warmth to keep him tethered, needing her presence to
soothe his wildly swaying emotions. She was the only thing that
could keep him grounded in a world that was wildly unstable for him
right now. She was the only thing keeping him sane, the only thing
that was keeping him from destroying this room in a fit of
rage.

Pulling up a chair, he sat next to her,
ignoring the surprised looks that Chris, Melissa, and Luther shot
him. He didn’t care what they thought; he was not leaving her side
until she was awake. He was not leaving her side unless she told
him to.

For now he could only hope that Cassie
woke up again, and that she did not spurn him when she
did.

CHAPTER
2

Devon shifted in discomfort. His
muscles had stiffened long ago, his legs were cramped, his back
sore from the hard chair. Luther had left as the sun broke over the
horizon, taking Chris and Melissa with him to check on Marcy. They
had not been gone long, but he knew that they would be returning
soon. Cassie’s grandmother sat silently across from him, her hand
rested lightly upon Cassie’s arm. Though she kept most of her
attention focused on Cassie, she would glance questioningly at him
every once in awhile. Her eyes were sometimes the color of the sky,
at other times they were a deep, distant brown. He didn’t know what
brought on the change of color, but it was fascinating to
watch.