Inferno (Book 4 The Kindred Series) (17 page)

“Yes.”

Annabelle hesitated for a moment before
she nodded; her strawberry curls bounced around her shoulders. “Ok
then.”

“Devon…” Cassie started.

He grasped hold of her shoulders,
silencing her protest. “We’ll give him the choice to tell us, or
not, but either way he will reveal what he knows. It will be his
choice if he survives it, or not.”

“Survives it?” Cassie
croaked.

“It will not kill him, but it won’t
leave him the same.”

Cassie looked wildly around. She hated
the man for everything he had done to her, and to her friends, but
she could not do this to him. “No, we cannot do that. We are not
these people! We are better than this. We are better than
him!”

“The children Cassie,” Melissa said
softly. “We have to find those children before any more harm can
come to them. Think of all they have lost so far, we must save
their lives.”

Cassie shook her head, hating their
reasons, hating the fact that she knew they were right. Pulling
away from Devon, she straightened her shoulders and turned to storm
back into the room where her father was tied. His head was bowed,
but he lifted it as he heard her approach. She studied him
carefully, trying to find something she could relate to in him,
some spark of humanity, but she found none.

Why on earth did she feel bad about
hurting him when he’d felt no compunction about hurting
her?

“We need to know what you know,” she
told him crisply. He simply stared at her, his face emotionless,
his eyes flat. “I know that Julian is useless against you.” His
hard mouth quirked to one side in amusement. “But Devon’s
not.”

The smile slipped from his face, his
eyes darted worriedly behind her as the others filtered further
into the room. “I will fight it.”

“And he will destroy you if you do. You
will either tell us, or you won’t be the same afterward. Those are
your only choices. You have until tomorrow to decide.”

She turned away from him, suddenly
needing to escape. Needing to get as far from this monster as
possible before she snapped completely. Her skin itched, her heart
beat rapidly in her chest; her need to escape became almost
frantic. Devon came swiftly toward her, seeming to sense her
intense desperation. “Come on.”

Taking hold of her hand he led her into
the small side room. Cassie was surprised to find a ladder door
pulled down into the middle of the room. She frowned at it, her
gaze darting up the ladder to the dark space beyond. “What is
that?”

“The attic. Luther found it while we
were gone.”

He helped her up the ladder, staying
behind her as she climbed swiftly up the rickety stairs. She
stepped into the small attic space, glancing around at the wooden
beams that ran across the ceiling, and the old curtains that
covered the tiny windows. It was slightly colder up here; she
wrapped her arms around herself in an attempt to fight off the
chill.

Devon appeared behind her, crouching
down to avoid the beams that ran across the ceiling. Moving slowly
along, he was bent nearly double as he tugged a group of sleeping
bags from behind a few old boxes. “I put these up here earlier. I
thought you might need some time alone.”

Cassie nodded, tears of gratitude
burning her eyes as he laid the sleeping bags swiftly out. He made
a makeshift bed quickly before turning back to her. She could only
stare at him for a moment, admiring the play of shadows across his
magnificent face, and the glow in his emerald eyes. Her heart
swelled with love and pride. He was hers and there was nothing that
she wouldn’t do for him, nothing that she would not give
him.

“You know they have already given me
vampire blood, and I am no different than I was before.”

He looked slightly taken aback by her
words. His mouth parted in surprise, his eyes widened slightly. But
she could also sense the spark of hunger, want, and need that shot
through him. The hunger and need that he would never admit to, and
tried to keep as hidden from her as much as possible though she
knew that it was always present. “Cassie…”

“I want this Devon,” she
whispered.

He stared at her for a moment, hesitant
and worried. “As do I,” he groaned in a hoarse voice. “But there is
no way of knowing what would happen if you were
changed.”

She bit her bottom lip nervously,
hating the fact that he was right, hating the fact that she could
not be with him completely right now. It had taken her awhile to
even decide that she wanted to join him. And it seemed that from
the moment she had decided she wanted it, everything had gone to
hell, everything had aligned against them ever being together
completely. She didn’t want to think that it was some sort of omen,
didn’t want to think that the fates had aligned against them, but
it was hard not to sometimes. She just had to remind herself that
it was not fate that had aligned against them, but horrid men like
the ones tied up below.

Taking a deep breath, Cassie decided to
try another route, one that would give them both what they wanted.
“Then don’t change me, not yet anyway. Not until all of this is
over, and I won’t be needed for the battle as much...”

“Cassie!” he hissed, his hands fisting.
“This has nothing to do with needing you in battle, and everything
to do with my fear over what could happen to you.”

Cassie sighed softly as she nodded. “I
know that Devon,” she whispered, hoping to ease the tension
radiating from him. “But I want to be with you forever, and once
this is over I want you to change me, consequences be
damned.”

“Cassie…”

“But until then, I just want to know
what it is like to taste you, to have your blood inside of
me.”

He inhaled sharply, his hands fisted so
tight that the corded muscles of his arms stood out starkly. She
could see the fierce war he was waging with himself, the struggle
for control that he was trying to maintain. She thought that he
would deny her again, that he would argue with her. Instead, he
bent to pull the sleeping bags back, holding his hand out as he
beckoned welcomingly to her. Cassie’s heart leapt into her throat,
excitement tore through her. She desperately needed this,
desperately needed him. She did not hesitate as she hurried
forward, slipping her hand easily into his.

He helped her between the blankets
before sliding in next to her and wrapping it tightly around them.
Cassie savored in the strength of his hard body, pressing herself
closer to him as he enveloped her. She could feel the excited hum
of tension radiating from him as she rested her cheek on his hard
chest.

He ran his hand over her hair and face,
caressing her gently. She lay with him for a long time, relishing
in him, and his love. She lifted her face to his, kissing him
gently, losing herself to the feel of his hard lips against hers,
losing herself to the wonder of him. His hand tightened on the back
of her head, pulling her tighter, deepening the kiss. Cassie’s body
thrummed with excitement, her heart hammered wildly in her chest as
she opened her mouth to his invasion.

His tongue swept in, caressing her,
loving her. Cassie sighed softly, going limp against him as she
gave herself over to his touch, smell, and taste. There was nothing
as wonderful as he was; nothing as all consuming and needed. And
she did need him, desperately. She needed every aspect of
him.

He rolled her slowly over, pressing her
into the sleeping bags as he continued to touch and caress her.
Unlike the other times when things had become this passionate and
intense, she felt no panic, no sense of self consciousness. She did
not think about the many women in his past, but only of him and
everything that he was to her, everything that he would always
be.

“Cassie,” he breathed in her
ear.

She shivered, her fingers curled into
his back as tears of pure joy burned her eyes. His lips pulled
back, his teeth brushed lightly over her neck as he scraped his
fangs against her skin. Cassie clung tighter to him, shaking in
anticipation of what was to come. She gasped, ecstasy filling her
when he bit deep. Tears spilled down her face, her fingers dug into
his hair as she cradled him against her. His contentment filled
her; his hunger suffused her. He encompassed her completely,
filling her with the golden warmth of his pure love and
joy.

He pulled slowly away from her, not
closing the wounds in her neck as he bit deep into his wrist.
Cassie winced at the pain it must have caused him, but he showed
not even a flicker of response. He watched her intently; his eyes
ablaze with desire and need as he lifted his wrist to her
mouth.

Cassie stared at him for a moment
before grasping hold of him and bringing his wrist slowly to her
mouth. His eyes widened and then narrowed with pleasure, his arm
tightened around her as he pulled her closer. Cassie hesitated, it
was blood after all, but it was the want in his eyes, the tension
and desire in his body that drove her forward.

He groaned when she bit down, his eyes
closed in ecstasy as he pulled her against his chest, holding her
gently. The blood was strange, metallic tasting and warm, but it
was not unpleasant, and in fact it had a sweetness to it that she
found surprising. Cassie drifted on the contentment that flowed
through her, drifted as he filled her. She could stay like this
forever, never changing a thing, never leaving the secure embrace
of his arms.

***

Devon watched Cassie as she slept
soundly, curled up on her side, her hands tucked beneath her head.
She was unbelievably beautiful and serene, her face lax, her
features gentle and calm. It was the first time he had seen her at
peace in so very long, even yesterday she had not slept soundly,
but had tossed and turned and moaned as if she were in pain. Not
today though, today she was an angel with no worries, no cares, and
that’s the way he wanted to keep it. At least for a little
while.

He cradled her gently, unable to
believe that she was his, unable to believe that she gave her love
and her blood to him so freely. Unable to believe that he had been
blessed with such a wonderful person, especially after everything
he had done in his long, miserable life. He nuzzled her hair
gently, savoring in the sweet scent of her. Though he could taste
the lingering remnants of Julian’s blood in her, he did not smell
Julian upon her anymore which was a good sign that Julian’s blood
was swiftly fading from her system.

It was his blood he smelled upon her
now, his blood that pulsed through her system, marking her as his
own. Even though he wanted her by his side forever, for now he was
more than content to hold her, taste her, and love her. He glanced
around the cramped room, grateful for its distance from the
others.

When they were out of this mess, he
would think about taking her completely. He might consider making
her his forever, but not here, not in this place, and not with the
horror haunting them outside of this building. And not with the
uncertainty of what that change might do to her hanging over their
heads. She deserved something special and wonderful, and she
deserved the peace she had not experienced in years. And he sure as
hell didn’t want her monster of a father anywhere near them when it
happened.

She stirred slightly, her long lashes
fluttered open. Her violet blue eyes were groggy with sleep, but
she smiled beautifully up at him. He bent to her, kissing her
gently, tasting his blood upon her lips as he relished in her. His
body tensed as he fought the intense desire to lose himself in her
completely. But he couldn’t do it, not right now anyway.

Pulling away, he caressed the silken
curve of her cheek. “How are you feeling?”

“Wonderful,” she purred, curling up
against him. “Simply wonderful.”

He couldn’t stop the satisfied grin
that spread over his face. “Good. Are you hungry?”

“Not hungry enough to leave here right
now.” He chuckled softly, pulling her tighter against him as he
rolled onto his back. She lay against his chest, her hair spilling
across the both of them. “When will you change me
Devon?”

He stiffened beneath her, his hands
clenched at her back. “Cassie, because you can handle vampire blood
does not mean that the change would not have dire consequences for
you.”

She yawned before shaking her head
forcefully. “It doesn’t matter.”

He sighed softly, stroking his hand
gently through her silken hair. He knew that it was what they both
wanted, desperately, but there were more consequences than what
might become of her. “And the fact that you will never see sunlight
again?”

She bit her bottom lip, her eyes
darkened as delicate frown lines marred her forehead. “It’s a small
price to pay.”

“Cassie…”

She shook her head as she propped her
chin on her hands to stare down at him. “I want this Devon, more
than I have ever wanted anything. I want nothing more than to know
that I will spend eternity with you.”

He groaned as he closed his eyes,
fighting against his baser urges. Fighting to stay under control
while her wonderful words echoed loudly in his head. “And if things
go wrong?”