Ashes (Book 2 The Kindred Series) (3 page)

Though Cassie’s grandmother had not
spoken a word to anyone since she had arrived, Devon knew that she
had something to say to him. He just wasn’t entirely sure he wanted
to hear it. He was greatly afraid that the deceptively delicate
looking woman would tell him to stay away from her granddaughter,
and that was something that he could not do. Not until he was sure
that Julian was gone for good. He could not leave Cassie until he
knew she was completely safe. Even then, he wasn’t sure he would be
able to leave her. He needed her; she was a part of him. She was
his everything.

Finally, Cassie’s grandmother turned to
him, her eyes a bright blue once more. “Thank you,” she said
softly.

Devon’s hands tightened on the arms of
the chair, his eyebrows lifted questioningly. “For what?” he asked
quietly.

She swallowed heavily. “For saving her,
she’s all that I have.” Tears shimmered briefly in her eyes before
she turned quickly back to Cassie. “Thank you.”

Devon leaned forward, his back cracking
as his muscles protested the movement. Folding his hands before
him, he studied the small woman intently. “Cassie’s parents were
killed during the attack?”

She lifted a dainty strawberry blond
eyebrow; her eyes were sharp and fierce as she studied him. “Is
that what your kind calls it? The attack?”

Devon nodded as he studied her. She did
not seem to hate him, but there was a hesitance about her that she
had not displayed in his presence before. She had been open and
accepting of him when they had interacted before. There was also
fresh anger and hurt radiating from her. “What do you call
it?”

“The Slaughter.” Her voice was cold,
distant, and hard. Pain blazed across her features, tightening the
lines around her mouth. “We call it The Slaughter.”

Devon nodded; he could understand why
they would call it that. The Hunter line, Cassie’s family and
lineage, had been murdered by a group of vampire’s. Before most of
the Elder’s went into hiding, they had decided to gather as many
vampire’s as possible together, in order to destroy the Hunter line
and secure their safety. Fortunately for him, fate had seen fit to
spare Cassie’s life, and bring her into his. “I see,” he said
softly.

“Do you?”

He stared at her for a moment before
rising swiftly and moving slowly over to the bed. Behind her closed
lids, Cassie’s eyes moved as unconsciousness held her deep within a
dream realm. Delicate blue veins were clearly visible on her lids;
her skin was still unnaturally pale. However, her heart beat with
strong, reassuring thuds that he heard clearly, and kept finely
attuned to. She looked better than when they had first arrived, but
it was still not enough. He wanted her awake, he wanted her
speaking, and he wanted to know that she did not hate him for what
he was.

His hands clenched as terror tore
through him. He had dealt with, and overcome many things in his
long, event filled life. But he knew that he could not handle
Cassie’s hatred, or condemnation. He needed her smile, her
brightness. Now that he knew what it was like to have her light in
his life, he could not bear to part with it. He could not go back
to that world of loneliness and self hatred.

He would not survive it
again.

“You also saved her life then,” he said
softly, his gaze darting back to her grandmother as he tried to
distract himself from his despairing thoughts.

She studied him for a long moment,
disbelief and curiosity flitting across her delicate features.
“Yes, I kept her safe, hidden, protected. I kept her alive through
The Slaughter.” Pain radiated from her bright eyes as she turned
away from him, her hand tightening upon Cassie’s.

“Thank you,” Devon said
softly.

She blinked at him in surprise, and
then a small smile curled the corner of her full mouth. “You really
care about my granddaughter, don’t you?” She sounded completely
mystified; it was hard for her to compute that he, a vampire, could
care about anything. Let alone that he could care about a Hunter,
which was a realization that still mystified him. How could he have
not known what Cassie was? What they all were?

Love was truly blind, or at least the
people in it were, he realized.

The image of her standing at the side
of that clearing, her eyes blazing with hurt and fury, her hand
clenched tight around a stake was burned permanently into his mind.
She had not been shocked to see him there, not as he had been to
see her standing there. Though she seemed to have figured out what
he was, he had not been able to put all of the pieces of the puzzle
about her together until that moment.

And the pieces of that puzzle were ones
that he almost wished did not fit. The woman that he loved, and
cherished, was also his sworn enemy. The woman that had brought him
back to life had also been created specifically to end it. He still
couldn’t quite understand it, and the twisted irony of it was not
lost upon him.

Devon met her inquisitive gaze,
confusion and hope radiated from her. “Yes,” he admitted honestly.
“More than I ever thought possible.”

Her delicate forehead furrowed in
confusion as she turned back to Cassie. “I don’t understand any of
this,” she whispered.

“We are not all monsters.”

Her gaze darted quickly back to his,
her eyes widening slightly as she studied him carefully for a long
moment. “No, I suppose not. I’m just going to have to figure out
how to process that shocking bit of information.”

He nodded, his hand briefly stroking
over Cassie’s arm, relishing in the feel of her satiny skin. She
had been out for far longer than he liked. Turning, he moved away
from her, stalking toward the door. Pacing back and forth, he tried
to lose some of the restless energy clinging to him, even though he
had not slept. He wanted her awake, and he needed to know what her
reaction to him would be.

Still acutely attuned to the beat of
her heart, he felt when it picked up, when she stirred slightly. He
froze instantly, his mouth going dry as he waited for his fate to
be handed to him. She could not reject him, he would not survive
that.

She had to forgive him.

Her grandmother rose swiftly, leaning
eagerly over her granddaughter. “Cassie, Cassie can you hear
me?”

He could see her lids lift, but he was
unable to see the bright color of her eyes. “Grandma?”

The sound of her voice was the sweetest
thing he had ever heard. “Yes dear, I’m here. It’s ok; you’re going
to be just fine.”

Cassie’s hand grasped hold of her
grandmother as the woman bent over to give her a surprisingly
fierce hug before pulling slightly away. “Devon? Where’s
Devon?”

Her grandmother glanced worriedly at
him before taking a small step back. “Here, I’m right
here.”

He was surprised to find that he could
barely get the words past the tight constriction in his chest and
throat. He moved swiftly toward her, eager to see her again, eager
to feel her again. Eager to know how she felt about him now.
Stopping at her side, his body froze as her brilliant eyes clashed
with his. The startling azure violet of them was bright and
wounded, the pure amethyst flecks speckled throughout them shone in
the harsh light of the room.

“Devon,” she breathed, tears filling
her eyes and spilling down her delicate cheeks.

“Shh, don’t cry love.” Bending over
her, he gently wiped the tears from her skin, relishing in the feel
of her. “Don’t cry.”

“I wanted to kill you,” she whispered,
a sob shaking her fragile body. “I thought that you were that… that
thing and I wanted to kill you.”

This revelation did not surprise him.
He had suspected as much. Though he felt that he should be angered,
or feel betrayed by it, he was not. Their kind knew nothing about
the vampire’s that did not feed on humans; they knew nothing about
the ones that had shunned human blood. All she had known was that a
monster was hunting her community, killing people, and somehow she
had managed to figure out what he was. She had no way of knowing
that he wasn’t a murderer anymore, though at one time he had been
even worse than Julian. At one time her assumption about him would
have been completely right.

More tears spilled free, coming so fast
that he could no longer keep up with wiping them away. Worry for
her health seized him as sobs shook her. “Cassie…”

“I wanted to kill you, and you saved my
life.” Her face was filled with agony as she seized hold of his
hand with surprising strength. “I should have known that you
weren’t a monster, I should have trusted you. You would never do
anything to hurt me. Please forgive me.”

His body constricted with anguish. He
had been worried that she would not forgive him, and instead she
was pleading for his forgiveness. It was something that she would
never have to do. There was nothing she could do to turn him
against her, nothing she could do to make him stop loving her.
Gathering her in his arms, he cradled her gently, relishing in the
feel of her once more. “There is nothing to forgive Cassie. I was
worried that you would not forgive me.”

Her body trembled in his arms. “For
what?” she mumbled.

“For what I am.”

A shudder rocked through her as she
buried her face in his neck, her tears wetting his skin and shirt.
“You are a wonderful man Devon.”

His gut twisted as his grip on her
tightened. That was the worst part about all of this, he was not a
man, and at one time he had been a brutal monster. He did not know
what he had done to deserve her, but he would spend the rest of his
life doing everything he could to earn her unwavering love. His
hand wrapped into her hair, gently easing through the tangles that
marred its golden beauty. Holding her tight, he closed his eyes as
she buried herself against him.

Never in his life had he felt anything
as wonderful as she was, and he knew that nothing would ever
compare to her. He cradled her for a long time, rocking her as her
sobs and tears slowly subsided. She pulled slightly back from him,
her eyes reddened from her tears but still breathtakingly
beautiful. He wiped the tears gently from her wet cheeks, hating
the sight of them. She deserved only happiness and light, not
misery. Unfortunately, fate had cast them both into roles where
darkness was their main reality.

She stared at him with wide, wonder
filled eyes. The tips of her long dark lashes were matted with
tears; the ends of them shimmered with water. She searched his
face, seeming to savor in every detail. He was unable to resist the
tempting lure of her as he bent down and pressed a light kiss to
her rosebud mouth.

His skin heated, his body tightened as
the feel of her burned into him. Hunger for her surged through him,
but he kept it tightly under control, along with his fierce urge to
deepen the kiss. Pulling reluctantly away, he stroked her face once
more before turning to meet the newcomers in the room.

Luther, Chris, and Melissa stood just
inside the doorway. Chris’s mouth was slightly ajar, his sapphire
eyes wide in shock. Luther’s face was an impassive mask while
Melissa’s cheeks had colored and she looked slightly uncomfortable.
Rising slowly from the bed, he kept hold of Cassie’s hand as he
stood beside her. He had nearly lost her, he was not about to let
her go anytime soon.

Cassie abashedly wiped the remaining
tears from her face, smiling shyly at them. “Hi guys.”

Melissa was the first to recover her
usual aplomb. “It’s so good to see you awake!”

She moved swiftly forward, shooting
Devon a confused look as she moved to Cassie’s grandmother’s side.
She bent to hug Cassie quickly, careful of the wires and tubes that
still ran from her. “It’s good to be awake.”

Chris eyed Devon wearily, his eyes dark
and brooding as he joined Melissa. Stiffly he bent to hug Cassie,
his gaze never leaving Devon’s. Devon bristled slightly when he
touched Cassie; he hated the idea of another man touching her, even
if it was Chris. His hand tightened around hers until Chris
released her and stepped back.

“What happened?” Chris asked his voice
tight and confused.

Cassie glanced briefly at Devon.
Slowly, her hand clenching upon his as she spoke, she retold the
awful events of the night. Anger slowly built within Devon,
mounting to higher and higher levels as he sensed her rising
distress. Though he had only tasted a few drops of her blood, they
had been enough to forge a stronger connection between them. He
could sense her emotions more clearly, and though he could not read
her thoughts, he could almost feel them pounding against the edges
of his mind. Stroking her delicate skin, he tried to soothe the
anguish building within her. Her voice cracked slightly, her
anguish was evident as she finished her retelling.

They all turned toward him, their gazes
fierce and inquisitive as they studied him intently. “I think we
have a lot to discuss,” Luther finally broke the long
silence.

Devon nodded briskly. He supposed they
had a lot of questions, as did he. “After Cassie is feeling well
enough to go home, we can talk,” he assured him.