Ashes (Book 2 The Kindred Series) (6 page)

Devon looked questioningly at her. She
defiantly met his gaze, her jaw clenching tightly. She did not want
to discuss it right now. “The Slaughter,” Cassie said softly, her
thoughts turning to the murderous rampage that had stolen her and
Melissa’s parents, and Chris’s father from them. The vampire’s may
not have known which Hunter’s possessed which abilities, but they
had known the kinds of abilities that they would come up against.
And they had been prepared for them, where as The Hunter’s had not
been prepared for the sudden, violent onslaught.

“I had no part in that, I swear. I was
far removed from any of the inner circles, far out of the loop when
that occurred. I wouldn’t have taken part even if I had known.”
Cassie wanted to believe him. She found she did believe him. It was
a strange realization considering everything that had transpired in
the past twenty four hours, but though he had never told her what
he really was- she’d never told him either- he’d never done
anything to hurt her. He’d had many chances to kill her, to use
her, to drain her, and he had never once taken that
opportunity.

“They will keep coming for you,” Devon
continued. “Not only do they want The Hunter line extinguished, but
also because your blood is very strong, very powerful. There is no
greater rush than a Hunter’s blood. There is nothing more
empowering and the effect of it lasts for years. It can be
irresistible.”

Cassie stared wide eyed at him, her
hand slowly fluttered up to her neck. He had resisted it. He had
tasted her blood and he had turned away from it. Was there
something wrong with it? Cassie’s brow furrowed as the disturbing
thought occurred to her. She had no special “gifts” like her
family, Chris, and Melissa. Did that somehow make her blood less
appealing?

She didn’t know why that thought
bothered her so much, she should be happy that she was not a magnet
for vampires. But for some unfathomable reason, she was not happy.
She was ashamed to admit that for once, she wanted to be special
too. She had been denied “gifts”; she did not want to be denied
this too. No matter how unreasonable her thoughts were, she could
not shake them.

“Well who brought Mr. Good News to the
party?” Chris muttered, folding his arms over his chest as he
scowled at the floor.

Devon glanced back down at her, his
forehead furrowed in worry, his eyes dark and stormy. Cassie
frowned up at him, confused by his turbulent expression. “This is
good; we have an insider’s view. He can help us,” Luther said
softly.

A muscle twitched in Devon’s jaw,
hardness settled over his features. His fingers tightened briefly
around hers. “Yes, but I think that the best thing for all of you
is to leave…”

“No!” Cassie cut in sharply.

Devon continued speaking as if she had
never said a word. “I can defeat Julian, but he’s brutal, and
merciless. He’ll keep on coming, and I cannot be everywhere at
once. If you leave, then I will protect the town, I will keep
everyone safe…”

“I’m not leaving you here!”

“And I will meet up with you when I am
done here.”

Cassie opened her mouth to protest
again, and then snapped it shut as she glared fiercely up at him.
Luther and her grandmother were staring eagerly, practically
salivating over his suggestion. It had been a fight to get the two
of them to agree to let Cassie, Chris, and Melissa stay in town in
the first place. Now Devon had given them the excuse they needed to
rip the three of them out of there as quickly as they
could.

“We are not leaving,” Cassie grated
through clenched teeth.

“Cassie, you must listen to reason.
Devon can protect this town better then the three of you, and we
must keep you alive.”

She turned her fierce glare on Luther,
not wanting to hear anymore. “We are here to protect
people…”

“Which Devon can do.”

Cassie launched angrily to her feet,
the throw pillow that had been sitting in her lap fell loosely to
the floor. Devon lurched toward her, for the first time not moving
as effortlessly as a panther as she caught him off guard. She shook
off his hand on her elbow, glaring fiercely at him as he reached
for her again.

“I’m fine!” she snapped before spinning
on Luther. “What good is being a Hunter if we have to run all the
time?”

Luther glanced briefly at Devon, his
grey eyes weary as they met Cassie’s once more. “Not all of the
time Cassie, only when it’s prudent.”

“
Prudent?” she snorted. “Is
that what all of our ancestors did, turn tail and run whenever
things got hard?”

“Well no, of course not. But there
aren’t enough Hunter’s left that we can risk your lives. We must
keep you safe, the line must continue on.”

“
Wait, wait, wait!” Melissa
threw up her hand, taking an angry step forward as her onyx eyes
blazed with fury. “So what you’re saying is that we must be kept
alive in order to continue the line? It has nothing to do with us?
We’re just needed for breeding!? What freaking century is
this!?”

Luther colored slightly, his glasses
slid down his nose as he shook his head fiercely. “No, of course
not! But you must understand how important it is that the line
continues. How important it is that you are kept alive to kill
other vampires. For there are others, it’s not just Julian. And
although you cannot kill them all, you can get a lot. There are few
left that are as powerful as Devon and Julian.”

He glanced at Devon who nodded sharply
in agreement. Devon’s gaze was still weary and disgruntled as he
watched Cassie intently. She shot him a dark look, aggravated that
he had given Luther and her grandmother the leverage they needed to
remove the three of them from town. “And what if you can’t stop
him?”

Devon quirked an eyebrow; a flicker of
amusement crossed his amazing features. “I can.”

She didn’t appreciate his cocky,
arrogant demeanor. A fact she let him know with a fierce look that
caused his amusement to fade. “How do you know that for
sure?”

Devon’s eyes wandered over the room,
doubt flickered across his features. He turned back to her, a
steely resolve settling over his features. “I made Julian what he
is, I can defeat him.”

The silence that followed his
confession was profound. A pin dropping would have resounded
through the room. Cassie was the first to recover. “What do you
mean made Julian what he is?” she asked sharply.

His eyes were hard, distant as he swung
toward her. He had already shut himself off in preparation for her
turning against him. “Julian and I were once good friends, I helped
to mold him into the vampire he is. He is nearly six hundred years
old, we spent almost three hundred of those years traveling the
world together, wreaking havoc wherever we went. I am the one that
taught him the joy of the hunt, the torture, the mental anguish.”
He paused for a moment, a muscle twitched in his cheek. “The
pleasure that could be found in drawing out the kill.”

Cassie’s legs went to rubber; she sat
limply on the couch. It had been too long of a night. Clasping her
hands before her, she bent her head, uncertain how to deal with the
turbulent emotions tumbling through her. What kind of a monster had
Devon been? What had he done to people? She shuddered, trying hard
not to fall apart as her hands tightened.

“I see,” Luther, the first to recover
after the shocking revelation, whispered the words.

Cassie lifted her head slowly, trying
hard to breathe through the constriction clenching at her chest.
“Why?” Cassie mumbled.

His eyes were rock hard as he met her
gaze. “Because I could. What I am now is not what I was then. I
cannot take it back. I cannot change my past, no matter how much I
may want to.”

She stared at him for a moment longer,
her mind tripping over his words as she tried hard to assimilate
everything he was telling her. There were many things that he could
not change, she was beginning to realize. So many things. Cassie
took a deep breath, trying hard to keep control of her wildly
swinging emotions.

“Alright, fine, you were once great
friends: you think you can defeat him…”

“I know I can.”

Chris shot Devon an angry look,
aggravated at being cut off. “But we are still not
leaving.”

“Chris…”

“No Luther, we made the decision to
stay, and we are sticking by it. Devon himself said that he could
not be everywhere at once. He will need our help. If even one
person dies because we left, then we would be responsible for that
death. That is something that I cannot live with, and I’m sure that
Cassie and Melissa can’t either. And I sure as hell hope that you
can’t.”

Luther gaped at him for a moment, his
eyes wide behind his glasses. “No, of course not!” he declared
angrily.

“I don’t want you here.” Devon’s hands
fisted as he stared hard at Cassie. “He’ll come for you the
most.”

Her eyebrows shot up, her mouth parted
in surprise as confusion and fear surged up. “Why?”

Sighing wearily, he ran a hand through
his already disheveled black hair. “He’s smelled your blood; he’s
already been denied what he wanted, when he wanted it. Plus, he
knows that you are mine. He’ll want to destroy that.”

Though she thought she should be
offended by the “you are mine statement”, she was oddly thrilled by
it. If any other boy had ever said that to her, she would have
laughed in their face and walked away. But with Devon, she was his,
completely, utterly, and for as long as she could have him. And as
much as she was his, she hoped that he knew that he was also hers.
Their bond could not be severed; it ran deeper than the Mariana
Trench. She had never thought that something like this could exist.
But it did, and it was permanent, right, and so very true and
real.

“Why?” She felt like a parrot, but it
seemed to be the only word she could get out.

“Because Julian wants to destroy
anything good and right in the world, he hates it all. And he hates
the fact that I have turned against my nature. He wants me to be
the way that I once was.”

Cassie shuddered. “Like him?” Melissa
asked quietly.

Devon hesitated briefly. “Worse,” he
said flatly.

A thick silence descended upon the
room. Though the answer was blunt, Cassie sensed the regret,
sorrow, and pain behind the word. “Why did you change?” she asked
softly.

“That’s a long story.”

Cassie wasn’t so sure if it was a long
story, or if he simply didn’t want to talk about it. Either way,
she wasn’t going to push him. She already had enough information to
digest without having more heaped onto her. “Well that’s all fine
and good, but we’re not leaving,” Cassie said firmly. Devon’s eyes
were hard and fierce, anger flashed through them as he turned
toward her, a muscle twitched in his jaw. “You won’t change my
mind, or theirs, so don’t argue with us.”

The muscle twitched even more, she
could hear his teeth grinding. “We cannot change what we are, or
what has been,” she couldn’t help but add, her eyes narrowing
pointedly as she reiterated his words. She had to accept him for
what he was, and he had to do the same with her. “You just have to
accept it, as we have.”

Muscle twitching violently, he turned
slowly away from her. His shoulders were set stiffly, his hands
fisted at his sides so tightly that his knuckles had turned white.
She had aggravated him immensely, she knew that, but she felt no
remorse for it. They would not run from this, or any other problems
that arose. They had to stay; it was their duty, hell it was in
their blood. It was who they were, who they were born to
be.

Luther shook his head, resting his arm
on the mantle as he pulled his glasses off, cleaning them once
more. It was his habit to clean them whenever he was irritated, or
needed time to think. It was probably a little of both at the
moment. “Tell him what the two of you can do.” Luther stared at
Chris and Melissa as he slid his glasses back on. They exchanged
weary glances once more, still hesitant to reveal their
secrets.

CHAPTER
4

“If the three of you insist upon
staying then Devon will need to know of your abilities in order to
utilize them in the best ways possible.” Luther’s voice was tinged
with aggravation as he stared hard at them.

Devon knew very well the annoyance the
man was feeling. It was taking every ounce of self-control he had
not to grab hold of Cassie and forcefully remove her from this
house, and this town. If it weren’t for the fact that she would
hate him, and possibly never forgive him for it, he would. His
hands clenched tighter at the thought of anything bad happening to
her. When he saw Julian again, he was going to rip him limb from
limb for what he had done to her earlier.

He glanced down at her, fighting his
baser, more animalistic urges. Not only was he battling with
himself not to remove her from this town, but he was also fighting
the fierce urge to taste her once more, possess her. Her blood had
been the sweetest nectar he had ever experienced. He had never even
dreamed of anything tasting so delicious or possessing so much
power. The memory of it was enticing, luring, and delectable. It
was everything that the beautiful woman sitting stiffly beside him
was.