Ashes (Book 2 The Kindred Series) (32 page)

How had he not seen this coming?
Loathing and disgust washed over him as his hands fisted
tighter.

Cassie spun away from him, her still
damp hair whipping out behind her. “Take me home.”

Chris gaped at her, his eyes wide and
questioning. The color had not returned to his face, in fact he
seemed even more ashen and hollow. His eyes were dark, worried,
withdrawn. “Cassie, don’t do this.”

The words were choked out of him; his
voice was hoarse with pleading and sorrow. His eyes darted
worriedly to Devon; hopelessness filled his gaze as a small tremor
ran through him. Cassie was fairly spitting with fury. “Take me
home!” she snapped.

“Cassie…”

She stormed out the door, leaving them
both staring after her in shock. Devon was the first to recover.
“Go,” he said softly.

Chris’s eyes darted back to him.
“Devon…”

“Go,” he growled. It killed him to send
another man with her, even if it was Chris, but he could not go
with her, and she needed someone. He was not wanted at her side
anymore, and to try and get closer to her may very well just push
her over the edge. She was standing on a thin precipice as it was,
he did not want to be the one that shoved her over. He ached to be
the one that comforted her, that held her, but it was not to be.
Not anymore. Agony twisted through him, but he stood stiffly, his
gaze clashing with Chris’s stunned, agonized one. “Go.”

Chris shook his head. “She’ll come
around,” Chris said softly. “She’s just…” He broke off, sighing
softly as he ran a hand wearily through his already disheveled
hair. “Well, I don’t know what she is right now.”

Chris’s voice trailed off, his eyebrows
drew sharply together. He shoved his hands into his pockets but did
not move. He looked so lost, so confused and tortured. “That’s not
Cassie,” Chris mumbled.

No, it wasn’t Cassie, Devon knew that.
What he didn’t know was whether Cassie would come back to them, or
if her grief and anger would consume her. “You have to go Chris.
She needs someone right now.”

Chris’s gaze darted to him and then
back to the doorway. Finally, he settled on Devon again. “I’ll talk
to her.”

“It won’t help, not now.”

Chris opened his mouth, and then
snapped it shut. Sadness enveloped him. Not only was Chris dealing
with his own pain, but Devon’s and Cassie’s were beating against
him, tearing down his walls, pounding his soul. “Go.”

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. Ducking his
head, Chris moved stiffly out the door, his broad shoulders slumped
in defeat.

Devon fought the urge to follow after
him, to follow after her. She needed him now, even if she didn’t
know it. She needed him, but she did not want him. He had to accept
that, he had to know it. He turned stiffly back to the body, back
to Lily. Her face was still uncovered, her lips pale, her skin the
color of death. Yet she somehow she still looked refined,
elegant.

Moving slowly over to her, he clasped
hold of her cold, rigid arm. She had been so accepting of him. She
had never turned against him, even when the others, including
Cassie, had been weary of what he was. There had been so much life
and love inside of her. He had seen many dead bodies in his long
life, but this was the first one that truly upset him. Not only
because it had caused Cassie so much pain, but also because he had
truly liked the woman too.

“I’ll take care of her,” he promised,
knowing that it would be the only thing Lily would care
about.

Lifting the sheet, he dropped it gently
back over her. His soul was beaten, he was weary and aching and so
very hurt. There was a tight knot of pain in his chest, an aching
loss that he wasn’t sure he could survive. He had lost the only
thing that mattered to him, the only person he had ever truly
loved.

Yet, he couldn’t acknowledge that loss,
not now. There was too much he had to deal with. The first of which
was what he had seen in Cassie’s eyes just moments ago. There had
been something about her that he had been trying to puzzle out for
the past few weeks. Something about her abilities, or lack thereof,
that had been nagging at him. There were so many things that didn’t
make sense; he just hadn’t known who to turn to in order to help
him figure it out.

Now, he did.

Turning from the morgue, Devon made his
way slowly outside. The sun’s rays did little to warm him as he
made his way toward his car. Hitting the alarm button, he threw the
driver’s side door open and slid inside. He drove slowly through
the winding back streets, trying to puzzle out everything that had
just happened. The flash of red he had seen in Cassie’s eyes
haunted him as he made his way toward Luther’s house.

***

The hazy fog of anger that enshrouded
Cassie was a welcome relief to the agony that kept threatening to
rise up and consume her. She could not escape the image of her
grandmother’s face, so cold and almost unrecognizable. Where was
her smile, the light in her eyes, where was the welcoming, loving
hug that she gave so easily?

Gone. Forever.

Neither could she forget the haunted,
pained, hurt look that had filled Devon’s eyes when she had turned
against him. She wavered briefly in her determination, and then her
anger snapped welcomingly back into place. There was no room for
regret in this new world of hers, no room for wavering. There was
only room for revenge, and she wanted that more than anything else
right now.

Including Devon.

“Cassie…”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” She
cut Chris off sharply, wanting no sympathy, no condolences right
now. She didn’t want love anymore. It only left her vulnerable,
open to hurt and pain. It was something that she had known before
Devon arrived, something that she had lived by. But he had made her
forget about it, for a little while anyway. Today she had been
forcefully reminded of it. Today she had been slapped in the face
with it.

Devon had made her love, and hope, and
dream again. They were all things that she knew would get her hurt,
but she had been unable to stop herself from doing them in his
presence. He had opened her up, made her vulnerable, and she hated
him for that. She hated him for making her forget about the pain
and death that encompassed her life. If he hadn’t arrived, then
none of this would have happened. Julian wouldn’t be here without
Devon, and Cassie would have been better prepared for the loss of
her loved ones. The loss of her grandmother still would have hurt,
but it would not have devastated her to this degree. It would not
have shattered her in this way.

But Devon had come, and he had opened
her up, and now she was an empty shell of the person he had made
her. All that existed in this body was anger. There was no room for
hope and love in here. Not when revenge was consuming her. Fisting
her hands, Cassie stared unseeingly out the window. She would get
Julian. She would destroy him. And she did not care if she died in
the process; she almost hoped that she did. She wanted all of this
to end.

She didn’t want to live like this
anymore.

She just had to make sure that she took
that monster with her when she went. Chris turned into her
driveway, parking beside Luther’s car. Cassie stared silently at
the small Cape house. It had always seemed so welcoming and
inviting before. It had always been her home. Now it seemed
foreign, alien; cold. How could it be a home when the person who
had made it such was gone? It couldn’t, that was the simple and
only answer.

It was no longer her home, but that
didn’t matter as she didn’t plan on living here for much longer.
Chris turned toward her, his eyes weary and wounded. She didn’t
meet his gaze, she simply couldn’t. He had always been more like a
brother than just her friend, and she didn’t want to love him. Not
anymore. If something happened to him too…

Cassie shut the thought down. If
something happened to him, she would deal with it. She would
survive it. It would not destroy her.

Although, it would. No matter how much
she told herself that it wouldn’t, Chris’s death would still level
her. Cassie shuddered, the anger flitting momentarily away as
sorrow rose swiftly up, nearly choking her. What had she done? What
was she becoming?

Her head bowed, her shoulders heaved.
Chris reached out to touch her but she jerked away from him,
knowing that his touch would unravel her completely. She could not
unravel, not here, not now. There was someone that needed to die
first.

Chris’s hand hung briefly in the air
before falling limply back to his side. Forging her walls of anger
once more, Cassie shoved the door to his beat up Mustang open.
Climbing swiftly from the car, she marched up the walkway, climbed
the stairs, and thrust the door open. The house was just as cold
inside as it had looked outside. Melissa, Dani, and Luther were in
the living room, their heads shot up as she stormed into the foyer.
Chris trudged slowly in behind her.

Dani and Melissa were huddled upon the
couch, tears marred both their faces, and their eyes were
bloodshot. Luther was in his customary spot at the fireplace
mantel, his arm resting on top of it. Though he was not currently
crying his eyes were bloodshot and swollen as well. Melissa hurried
toward her; her normally neat hair in disarray. Her onyx eyes
shimmered with tears, sorrow radiated from her. Holding out her
hands, Melissa reached for her, but Cassie took a swift step back.
Fury filled her.

“Don’t,” she ordered
briskly.

Melissa’s hands fell to her sides,
confusion marred her pretty features. Luther and Dani had also
started to come forward, but they both stopped only feet behind
Melissa. “Cassie…”

“Did you see this coming?” Cassie
demanded her voice almost unrecognizable due to the anger that
filled it.

Melissa’s dark eyebrows shot up in
surprise, her mouth parted slightly. She glanced briefly at Chris,
who still hung back, looking more like a kicked puppy then the man
that Cassie knew so well. He gave an almost imperceptible shake of
his head that caused the fire inside of Cassie to rise up a level.
“Did you?” Cassie fairly barked.

“No!” Melissa gasped. “No Cassie of
course not, if I had I would have stopped it…”

“You couldn’t have stopped it, we
couldn’t have stopped it. There was no stopping it. There is no
stopping any of it.”

The four of them stared at her in
disbelief; Chris shifted uncomfortably, his head bowed low. “We
could have helped, somehow,” Melissa whispered.

“There is no help.”

Cassie turned away from them, resting
her hand on the banister as she made her way upstairs. She needed
to take inventory of her weapons, make sure that she was well
supplied. She would need them for when she went hunting
later.

“Cassie, where is Devon?”

She turned back at Luther’s question,
noting the worry and fear that radiated from his wide grey eyes.
“No longer welcome in this house.”

The only thing that broke the profound
silence was the chiming of her grandmother’s cherished grandfather
clock. Cassie shuddered as she reached the top of the stairs, she
ignored the eyes she could feel boring into her back.

CHAPTER
22

Devon slid down in his seat, his eyes
fixed on the house across the street. He should have known that
Luther and Melissa would not be here. Of course they would be with
Cassie. But that was ok; he was willing to wait for as long as it
took. He just hoped that Melissa did not come back with Luther.
This was not something that he wished to discuss in front of
her.

Sliding lower in his seat, Devon tried
to keep his mind off of Cassie, and the agony that continued to
twist in his gut. He didn’t think he could stand to lose her, but
he had. And though he felt empty and hollow, he couldn’t help but
wonder if it was for the best. There was the obvious danger and
threat that Julian and Isla represented, but he was also a danger
to her. He could control himself around her, for now, but he didn’t
know for how much longer. It was a fact he had realized a few weeks
ago, when he had realized exactly what she was to him. Either they
end it, or eventually she would have to join him. Though neither
option had appealed to her, he had known that in the end she would
choose life, a family, and humanity over darkness and
death.

Over him.

And who could blame her? Certainly not
him. But he hadn’t been ready to lose her just yet, he had wanted,
needed more time with her. More time might have made it easier to
release her. But even as he thought it, he knew he lied. It never
would have been easy to release her, and more time together would
have made it even worse. She meant far too much to him for him ever
to be able to release her easily.

If he could have released her at
all.

He tried to shut the thought down. He
tried to blame it on the demon inside him, but he knew that the man
was thinking the same thing. Neither man nor beast could have let
her go without a fight. He still wasn’t sure that he
could.

When all of this was over, he knew that
he would have to get as far away from her as possible if he was
going to avoid changing her by force. Something he knew she would
never forgive him for, but he wasn’t so certain that he even cared
about that anymore. Not if it meant being able to keep her with him
forever.