Inferno (Book 4 The Kindred Series) (16 page)

She would find them if it was the last
thing she did.

“How did you make these creatures so
strong?” she inquired, wanting to hear what he had to say for
himself, before Julian got his hands upon him.

His glance once more returned to the
window. “You know if they break in here, I’m vulnerable to an
attack while tied to this chair.”

Cassie’s eyes narrowed as she glared
fiercely at him. She knew what he wanted. If she released him, he
would tell her, but there was no way she was releasing him. She
didn’t trust him enough to release him. She didn’t trust him enough
to even give him a damn leg back. “I’ll just have to make sure they
don’t get near you, if I’m motivated enough,” she added coldly,
hoping that he got her point as well.

He quirked an eyebrow, his jaw clenched
tightly before he nodded. “I suppose you will.” They stared hard at
each other for a long while before he finally nodded. “Vampire
blood alone wasn’t working, we couldn’t figure out the combination.
So we decided to add a new blood, with the vampire
blood.”

Cassie stared silently at him, no
longer having the capacity to be horrified or surprised. “So you
added mine.”

It was not a question, just a statement
of fact that she already knew. “Yes.”

She didn’t want to hear anymore, there
was nothing left for her to hear. She turned away, needing to get
some distance between them before she turned back. “Why did you
give me Julian’s blood?”

He shrugged to the best of his ability.
“To see what it would do. To see if it would make you stronger, or
if eventually you would become one of them. And either way it would
have been interesting to see the effects on you.”

Cassie closed her eyes, her hands
fisted tightly. “You must feel like a real hero, running all of
those experiments, testing them on your own daughter.”

“You’re not my daughter.”

She blinked in surprise, unable to
understand why his words would still cause a stab of pain to her
heart. This man should mean nothing to her, but unfortunately he
didn’t. “You’re right, I’m not.” She turned away from him, meaning
to leave, meaning to get as far away from this monster as possible.
She wanted nothing to do with the man that claimed the same DNA as
her. But call her a masochist there was one more thing that she had
to ask. “Why didn’t you come for Chris and I when we were
younger?”

He studied her for a long while, a
muscle in his cheek twitched slightly. “I was injured in the
battle, by the time I recovered enough to come after you, your
grandmother had already fled the state. I didn’t know where you
were, or anything about you, until Luther started poking into the
history of The Hunter’s, and Joey arrived here. I’m glad I didn’t
find you.”

Cassie couldn’t stop the tears that
burned her eyes as she nodded slowly. If he had found her, he would
have destroyed her the moment he realized she didn’t have any
abilities. Or she would have been locked away and experimented on
until she went insane, or her body finally gave out on her. “So am
I,” she whispered.

She moved swiftly away from him, unable
to listen to anymore. She turned the corner to find Devon and
Julian standing by the coolers. They were large, dark, and
powerful. Their eyes were agleam in the light coming from the
coolers, their postures rigid and hard. Cassie could feel the anger
and hatred radiating from them in waves. Luther stood behind them,
the lenses of his glasses gleaming. Anger had made the lines in his
face harsher. Chris was leaning against one of the glass doors, his
arms folded over his chest as he stared hard into the darkened room
behind her.

Melissa stood silently beside Chris,
her onyx eyes glistened with unshed tears. Her black hair spilled
across her shoulders, the blue highlights in it gleamed in the
light of the cooler. Dani was immobile, her eyes wide in horror,
her mouth parted slightly as she stared behind Cassie. Annabelle
and Liam stood close together, their hands entwined tightly.
Annabelle’s sea green eyes gleamed brightly while Liam’s oddly
silver eyes were narrowed with anger. She hadn’t heard any of them
enter the room.

“You ok?” Devon asked
softly.

“Yes.”

She moved into him, wrapping her arms
around his waist as she rested her head on his chest, savoring in
the hard strength he radiated. No matter what happened, no matter
how awful things were, as long as he was here she didn’t care. As
long as he was here she could get through anything. He enfolded her
tightly, his hand wrapping around the back of her head as he
cradled her tightly.

“How much did you hear?” she asked
softly.

“Most of it,” Devon answered, his eyes
dark and distant, his body tense with anger.

“I’ll go watch him, you need to get
some rest,” Julian said, turning to move away.

“Julian.” He turned back to her an odd
gleam in his crystalline blue eyes. “We will need to learn what he
knows.”

Julian flashed a heart stopping grin at
her, his white teeth flashed brightly in the dark night. “Oh, it
will be my pleasure,” he purred.

Cassie frowned, knowing that she should
feel bad about what Julian might do to him, but unable to find the
energy to do so. She was too tired now to feel sympathy and
compassion for someone that had never shown her, or Julian, any.
But she knew that she could not allow Julian to be cruel to
him.

“Not tonight Julian, and not cruelly.
We can’t sink to his level, no matter how much we would both like
to.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Luther said on a
sigh. He pulled his glasses off, cleaning them as they all stared
questioningly at him.

“Of course it matters! The children!”
Cassie retorted sharply when Luther did not continue.

Luther shook his head as he slid his
glasses back on. “Yes, yes, of course the children matter,” he said
quickly. “That is not how I meant it to sound. We must find the
children, but Julian will be unable to help us do so.”

“Like hell I won’t,” Julian snarled,
taking a step toward Luther. “If you have a problem with me hurting
him…”

“I don’t,” Luther said
flatly.

Cassie started in surprise; her eyes
were wide as they darted to Chris and Melissa. Chris’s eyebrows
were in his hairline; Melissa gaped at Luther in shock. None of
them had ever heard Luther sound so uncaring. “Luther,” Cassie
breathed.

He glanced toward her, his grey eyes
hard and unyielding. “My main mission in life is to see you all
safe. That man out there is a danger to that safety, and to the
safety of many others. We need to know what he knows, no matter how
it has to be done. Even if he is your father.”

Cassie didn’t know how to react to
that. She burrowed closer to Devon, trying hard to keep control of
her swaying emotions. This had been a very long, very tiring, awful
day. “Then why don’t you want me to do my thing?” Julian
growled.

Luther’s gaze briefly met Cassie’s
before darting to Julian. “Because Derek had, has, psychokenesis
too.”

Luther’s tone was bitter, anger
simmered in his eyes as they met Cassie’s startled gaze. Though
Luther had never met her father, Cassie knew that he had always
respected and admired him. They had believed that Derek had given
his life in order to help keep Chris and Cassie alive. And there
were only three things that Luther cared about and they were
Melissa, Chris, and Cassie. To Luther, the fact that Derek was
still alive, and a threat to the three people he cared about most
was an ultimate sense of betrayal to Luther and their entire race.
To Luther, Derek was already dead.

Julian cursed loudly, his lip curled
into a sneer as his hands fisted tightly. He wanted nothing more
than to exact his revenge on Derek for everything that had been
done to him. But if Julian and her father (no not her father,
Derek) had the same ability, then they would cancel each other out.
Julian would be useless against him.

Julian swore again and slammed his hand
onto a shelf. Cassie, Chris, and Luther jumped slightly as cans
rattled across the floor. Devon swung down, scooping one of the
cans easily up. He shot Julian a censuring look as he tossed the
can to him. “Keep the noise down.”

Julian’s head snapped toward him, his
eyes narrowed fiercely as they flashed a violent red. Cassie
inhaled sharply, greatly afraid that Julian would finally unravel.
Greatly afraid that being denied his revenge would shove him right
over the edge. Devon grabbed hold of Cassie’s arm, pulling her
swiftly behind him as he braced himself for an attack.

“Don’t!” Cassie cried, dodging Devon’s
questing grasp as she jumped back in between them. “Julian stop!”
She placed her hand on his chest as she spun toward Devon. His eyes
were also now a fierce red as he reached toward her again, seeking
to get her out of Julian’s range. “Stop Devon, it’s
fine.”

She allowed him to seize her hand in
order to try and calm him down. He tried to tug her away, his red
eyes darting fiercely to Julian as Julian’s fingers wrapped lightly
around her hand, pressing it tighter to his chest. Cassie turned
slowly back to him, hating the pain and need she sensed in him as
his ice blue eyes met hers. His fingers squeezed briefly around
hers before he released her slowly.

Cassie stared helplessly back at him as
Devon tugged her away, pulling her against his chest as he
enveloped her in a tight hug. “Stop doing that!” he hissed low in
her ear, his lips pressed close to her.

Cassie shivered as she hugged him
briefly. He hated it when she put herself in his way, or any
vampire for that matter, but there were times when she needed too.
Times when she had to step in to keep Devon from killing someone.
Especially now, she could not allow him and Julian to kill each
other simply because they were frustrated with the situation. As
they all were.

“I’m fine,” she assured him.

He rested his lips against her neck for
a brief moment as he struggled to regain complete control. Finally,
he pressed a soft kiss against her skin before pulling away. Cassie
turned toward Julian, but his attention was now focused upon
Luther, his eyes still their beautiful ice blue color. “Are you
certain of this Luther?” Julian’s voice was gravelly, harsh with
his disappointment about not being able to drag the answers he
wanted from Derek.

Though he tried not to, Cassie felt his
eyes dart to her. She smiled wanly at him, hating his pain. She
truly did love him, and she wanted him to be happy, but
unfortunately she was not the person that could give him that
happiness. Maybe, when they all got out of this and Julian knew
what he wanted for certain, he would find himself a wonderful woman
that made him feel the same way that she felt for Devon.

For a moment hurt lingered in Julian’s
eyes, then they sparked with their usual amusement and he winked at
her. Cassie grinned back at him, relieved to see her friend
again.

“Yes, I’m sure. Every Guardian knew
what the other Hunter’s were capable of. It was recorded into the
books, and the Guardians were informed of them in case they ever
needed certain abilities from a Hunter. Especially Hunter’s with an
ability like Derek’s, which is powerful and very handy, as you well
know.”

Julian smiled a little as he nodded.
“Yes I do, except for now.”

“Can you make him tell us?” Cassie
asked softly, craning her neck to look up at Devon.

He bit on his bottom lip for a moment,
his gaze briefly meeting Julian’s hard one. Julian’s eyes gleamed;
a small spark lit them as he lifted an eyebrow at Devon. Cassie
tensed as she glanced questioningly between the two of them. It was
more than obvious that there was something she was not getting
here.

“He will fight it Cassie,” Devon
replied slowly.

“So?”

“If he fights it, it will be painful.
Very painful.”

Cassie swallowed heavily, hating the
idea of causing pain to anyone, but it was necessary to find out
what Derek knew. “Ok, well that’s not good, but…”

“If he fights it and I still burrow in,
he could go mad.”

Cassie’s eyes widened, her mouth parted
in horror as her heart flipped over in her chest. Go mad? Devon
could actually drive him insane? Cassie shuddered at the thought,
and the sheer strength of his power. “But will you still be able to
find out what we need to know?” Chris asked.

“Chris!” Cassie hissed in disapproval,
shock shooting through her.

“It needs to be done,” Liam stated
flatly.

Cassie glanced wildly around, searching
for someone that would agree with her. Unfortunately, she seemed to
be the only one that found something wrong with this scenario. She
turned toward Devon, hoping to find some support from him, but she
knew there would be none. He would do whatever it took to keep her
safe, even if it meant destroying her father’s mind.

“Devon…”

His eyes were hard, his jaw set as he
met her gaze. “We need to know Cassie. Everything. I can make him
tell us all of it.”

“Even if it drives him crazy?”
Annabelle inquired softly. Cassie’s head snapped toward her,
grateful for someone with a little reasoning. “Can you live with
that Devon?”