Ashes (Book 2 The Kindred Series) (5 page)

“I think they would be a little expired
anyway,” Melissa said softly, her dark eyes twinkling with
amusement.

“No wonder you’re always so bored,”
Cassie murmured. Devon flashed a beautiful, heart stopping grin
that melted the last of her worry over his startling ability to
control people’s minds. “What were you saying before I interrupted
you? What else can you do?”

His grin faded, his eyes became distant
and hard once more. “I draw people to me, luring them with an
inherent ability to attract them. It is especially strong with
women.”

Cassie’s eyebrows drew sharply
together. The more he spoke of his abilities, the less she liked
them. His looks were more than enough to draw any woman, and she
was sure some men to him, never mind adding this to it. “Like a
Venus flytrap,” Luther said softly.

“Yes, very much so.”

“Does anyone escape?” Chris asked
sharply.

Devon stiffened, anger radiated from
him. “I haven’t tasted human blood in a hundred and thirty seven
years,” he retorted fiercely. Then his eyes darted to her,
lingering on the scratches that still marred her neck. Scratches
that had been far deeper, and far more life threatening, earlier in
the evening. Cassie felt her face redden as horror curdled through
her. He had gone so long without tasting blood, until her
foolishness had nearly gotten her killed. And if it hadn’t been for
the healing agent in his saliva that closed her wounds, she would
have bled to death. “Until tonight,” he mumbled softly.

Hunger flared briefly through his eyes,
heating them and turning them dark as he met her startled gaze.
Need poured from him in waves that left her breathless and frozen.
She could feel the fierce battle he waged with himself as he
struggled to control his desire for blood. Her blood. Though she
should be petrified by his obvious longing to drain her, she was
amazed to discover that she was also oddly tantalized and
fascinated by it. She was terrified and excited to realize that she
wanted him to taste her, that she wanted to know what it would feel
like to have him do so. She wanted to be the one to ease his
hunger, and his desire.

Excitement tore through her at the
thought, her toes curled as yearning flared hotly through her body.
He was the only thing she saw; he became the only thing in the room
as every cell in her being focused upon him. Eyes widening
slightly, they darkened even more as he picked up on the longing
tearing through her. His hand tightened around hers, his body went
taut as he pinned her with his intense, loving gaze.

Luther cleared his throat loudly,
coughing forcefully. Heat flared through Cassie’s face as she was
torn away from Devon, and back to the room, and reality. Chris and
Melissa were studying the far wall, obviously trying to ignore the
scene before them. Luther had pulled his glasses off, and was
cleaning them gently with his shirt. Face burning, Cassie could not
bring herself to look at her grandmother, she was sure she would
burst into flames if she did.

“
What made you stop drinking
human blood?” Luther inquired after a few more awkward seconds. He
blinked at Devon as he slipped his glasses on, apparently happy to
see that Devon was no longer looking at her.

Devon shrugged, shifting slightly.
“Things change.”

Cassie frowned her eyes darting
hesitantly back to him. She was also relieved, and slightly
disappointed, to find his attention focused on Luther. Eyebrows
drawing questioningly together, Cassie couldn’t help but wonder
what had caused this change, and why Devon did not seem to want to
elaborate upon it.

“And before this change, were you a
killer?” Chris demanded, his hands fisting at his sides.

“Yes.” The simple word, and the cold
tone of it, hung heavily in the air. Cassie’s heart thumped loudly
as she bit on her bottom lip, trying hard not to judge him harshly.
“I cannot change the past though; there is nothing that I can do
about it. I have spent over a hundred years trying to atone for my
sins.”

“And have you?”

“No.”

Cassie studied Devon’s hard profile.
His jaw was clenched tight, a muscle jumped in his cheek as he
stared hard at Chris. Though his tone was flat, his hand had
tightened around hers as he sought comfort and forgiveness from
her. Cassie stroked her thumb gently over his cool skin, trying
hard to assure him of her unwavering love.

“The sun,” Melissa said, obviously
looking to change the tense subject. “How are you able to go out in
the sun?”

A small smile curved Devon’s lips, his
eyes warmed with amusement. “Well, that took awhile. As my powers
grew, I began to gradually expose myself to the suns deadly rays.
Slowly, I was able to expose myself to more and more of it,
building up a sort of immunity to it.”

“How long did that take?”

Devon shrugged, his tight grip on
Cassie eased slightly. “I’ve been working on it for about three
hundred years now. I still burn easily if I am exposed for too
long, and it depletes my powers a little faster than I would like,
but at least I’m able to be in it for periods of time without
bursting into flames.”

“Why would you take such a risk in the
first place?” Cassie asked softly, horror filling her at the
realization that he could have been killed.

He glanced down at her, his smile
slipping slightly. “In the beginning, simply to see if I could. I
knew of one other vampire that had succeeded in being able to walk
about in daylight, and I wasn’t about to be second best to anyone.
But then I began to remember what it felt like to be in the sun, to
feel the heat of it.” He shrugged again, his gaze darting to the
far wall. “I missed it. I wanted it back.”

“And it allowed for more hunting time,”
Chris guessed.

Devon’s face was impassive as he turned
toward him, but tension hummed through his body once more. Cassie
hated the conflict between them, but there was nothing that she
could do about it right now. Chris would either come to accept
Devon, or he wouldn’t. But eventually he would have to realize that
they must get along, because Cassie wasn’t going to part with
either one of them.

She only hoped that it didn’t get to
the point where they couldn’t be near each other. Chris was her
rock, her best friend, without him she would have been lost long
ago. But Devon was her heart, her soul. She would be nothing
without him. Swallowing heavily, she shoved away her fear and
worry. It had only been a few hours, she was sure that with more
time Chris would come to see that Devon was not a monster. Chris
would come to see that Devon was good, and that he would do
anything to keep her safe, and protected.

“Yes,” Devon answered.

Cassie fought a shudder as she tried to
block out the awful image of Devon killing innocent, unsuspecting
people. She tried desperately to block out the murder and terror
that he must have reigned down upon those innocents. That was not
the Devon standing next to her now, she had to remember that. She
did not know what had made him change, what had made him stop
killing, but she did know that the man beside her now was kind,
compassionate, and loving. He was not a killer anymore.

Still, she could not shake the
uneasiness that clung to her. “Can Julian go out in the sun?” she
asked softly.

“I don’t know, but I doubt it,” he
answered slowly. “Julian has always relished in the darkness, and
in the misery and pain of our existence. He would not relish the
warmth of the sun’s rays.”

“But it would expand his hunting time,”
Chris said flatly.

Devon simply nodded. Cassie shifted
slightly, pulling the blanket off her lap. Devon glanced sharply
down at her, taking a step forward in an attempt to stop her if she
tried to rise. Cassie frowned fiercely at him as she shook her
head. She had no intention of going anywhere, not yet anyway, the
blanket was just hot and confining now. Besides, she was perfectly
fine and she didn’t need him hovering over her like a mother
hen.

Cassie waved him off as she swung her
legs to the floor, feeling better without the cloying blanket on
her. She knew it was not the weight of the blanket that truly
bothered her, but all the awful events and truths that had come
out. Unfortunately, there was no easy way to throw them
off.

“Does Julian have the same powers as
you?” Cassie inquired, fearful of the ability for mind control in
Julian’s hands.

Devon shook his head, his eyes troubled
and dark. “He does not have mind control, but he does have
Psychometry.”

“Psycho what?” Cassie asked, not at all
liking the sound of it.

Devon stared silently down at her,
displeasure radiating from him. “Psychometry, it’s the ability to
learn about a person by touching them, or by touching an object
that they have touched. He gets impressions from these things, he
can tell what has happened in the past, and he can learn about
you.”

“Well that’s not so bad, at least it’s
not mind control,” Chris said with a pointed look at
Devon.

Devon shook his head, ignoring Chris’s
baiting. “No it’s not mind control, but Julian uses it to get
inside a person’s head, to torture them, to taunt them. He can
learn about you, your abilities, your families, whatever he wants
to know about you. It’s fun for him to drive a person crazy with
his knowledge of them, before killing them. He likes to see them
break mentally first. It’s not mind control, but with the way that
Julian uses it, it’s even worse.”

Cassie’s mouth dropped, Chris inhaled
sharply, and Luther cleaned his glasses off again. Melissa leaned
heavily against the fireplace mantle, but her grandmother remained
unmoving. “Wonderful,” Melissa moaned, rubbing the bridge of her
nose.

“Psycho, just psycho, that’s all I need
to know about that ability,” Chris mumbled.

The heartbeat in Cassie’s chest began
to increase; the palms of her hands became sweaty. Cold terror
crept through her. “He touched me,” she managed to croak
out.

Devon’s eyes were fierce, his hand hard
on hers. “He won’t ever touch you again,” he vowed. “And he will
never get close enough to use his knowledge against
you.”

“But he does have knowledge of
me?”

Though she could tell that he wanted to
sugarcoat it, that he did not want to be brutally honest with her,
in the end, he was. “Yes, but he didn’t touch you for long so he
probably only had a brief glimpse into you.”

Cassie blinked; it was the only
reaction she could make. He knew about her. That monster knew about
her! What did he know? What had he seen? Cassie’s fingers curled
into the blanket, she was suddenly ice cold, but she knew the
blanket would do little to warm her. Devon knelt beside her, gently
nudging her chin up.

“He won’t get near you again,” he
promised softly.

Though she managed a nod, she did not
feel relieved. She had seen that thing, she had felt it’s evil.
There was no stopping it, not until it was dead. And it was still
very much alive. Inside she was as cold as a freezer.

Sighing softly, Devon stroked her face
gently before turning back to the others. “And what powers do you
possess?” he inquired.

Chris and Melissa exchanged a panicked
look, apparently uncertain how much they wanted to reveal about
themselves. “I speak to the dead.”

It was the first time her grandmother
had spoken since Cassie had been released from the hospital.
Apparently where Chris and Melissa were still hesitant, she had
decided to give her trust wholeheartedly. Cassie’s heart warmed,
she knew how hard it was for her grandmother. She had lost so much
to vampires over the past twenty years, and yet she was willing to
trust Devon with one of her most intimate secrets.

Her grandma’s sky blue eyes were clear
and warm as they briefly met Cassie’s gaze. She sat casually in the
recliner in the corner of the room, her small legs drawn up beneath
her. Her strawberry hair had been pulled into a loose ponytail that
fell to her shoulders in gentle waves. Though she was in her late
fifties, she still looked as if she were in her thirties. Cassie
hoped she looked that good at her grandmother’s age. Hell, she
hoped she even made it to thirty, never mind her
fifties.

“A whisperer,” Devon said
softly.

Her grandmother’s mouth quirked in a
small smile as she nodded. “Apparently you know a lot about our
kind.”

“Seven hundred years is a long time to
learn things.”

Her grandmother chuckled softly; her
eyes twinkled as she nodded. “I suppose so. It puts us at a
disadvantage though.”

Devon was silent for a moment,
pondering her words. “But you must know that The Hunter line and
vampires share the same abilities. That is why I know a lot about
them. Why many vampires know a lot about your abilities, and why
you know a lot about our abilities.”

“Some of us do,” Luther muttered,
shooting a pointed look at Chris and Cassie, who looked quickly
away. Cassie was not in the mood for another one of his lectures
about their lack of knowledge, and unwillingness to learn more,
about their ancestry and heritage.