Inferno (Book 4 The Kindred Series) (7 page)

Cassie simply stared hard at her for a
moment, her stomach rolling and heaving, her extremities felt like
ice. She was well aware of the fact that The Commission had taken
up base in the U.S. during World War II. They had fled England when
it was being bombed on a regular basis, and it became too risky to
stay in Europe any longer. They had taken up residence in the U.S.
but no one, outside of The Commission, had known the exact location
of where they had escaped to. Now they had all stumbled across that
location by incredible misfortune.

“How long have they been doing
experiments down there?” Cassie managed in a choked
voice.

Dani glanced swiftly over them, her
eyes full of horror and terror. “Since the beginning,” she
whispered. “But they became more frequent after The
Slaughter.”

There was a collective inhalation of
breaths, a stunned silence hung heavy in the air. “So it was only a
matter of time before all hell broke loose,” Luther muttered,
turning sharply on his heel to stare back out the window. “I was
always proud of what I was…” he broke off shaking his head in
disgust. “Now it makes me sick.”

Cassie’s heart ached for Luther, but
there were no words that would help him feel better. No words that
would help any of them feel better about what they were hearing.
“So this town was built around The Commission, these people are
mainly here, or were here, for The Commissions purposes?” Devon
asked softly.

Dani was silent for a moment before
nodding slowly. “Yes,” she whispered.

Cassie choked softly, bile rose rapidly
up her throat as horror threatened to consume her. Devon’s hold on
her tightened, he pressed her firmly against his chest, his hands
entwining in her hair as he kissed her forcefully. “Did the people
know?” Melissa asked softly.

“I don’t think so,” Dani whispered.
“Very few were ever taken into the laboratory, until recently, and
I’m sure The Commission went for people outside of this town as
well.”

“I’d like to kill you myself,” Chris
muttered in revulsion.

Cassie didn’t disagree with him. “How
involved in this were you?” Julian asked softly.

Dani shook her head. “This is the town
where we stayed after our parents were killed; I even went to the
school until eighth grade. That was when The Commission decided to
send Joey out in search of other Hunter’s and Guardian’s, but I
didn’t know about the laboratory until recently.”

Cassie’s stomach was twisted into a
tight knot; she was having a hard time breathing through the horror
constricting her chest. She glanced up at Devon, trying not to lose
control of her emotions and temper. Dani’s betrayal had almost cost
Cassie and Julian their lives. It had almost cost her Devon and her
friends. If she allowed her anger to grow, Cassie was fairly
certain that she may very well kill Dani.

“Where do I come in on all of this?”
Cassie asked quietly, knowing that she didn’t want to hear the
answer, but having to ask the question.

Dani’s lip trembled as she glanced
guiltily at Cassie. “I thought that you would hurt one of us,” she
whispered. “So I told The Commission about you. I didn’t know what
else to do.”

“Talk to one of us. Tell us your
fears!” Devon exploded. Cassie grabbed hold of him as he took an
angry step toward Dani, truly fearing that he would hurt her, if
not kill her. He stopped moving but his eyes flared bright red.
“You could have come to us. We saved your worthless life. It would
have been far better if I had just let Julian rip your throat out
when he had the chance!”

“I second that,” Julian muttered,
drawing a sharp look from Cassie.

“Devon stop. Julian, don’t egg him on,”
Cassie warned.

“I thought I was doing a good thing!”
Dani wailed. “I helped them capture Julian because he was our
enemy! I was helping to rid the world of him. And they… and they
told me that they could help Cassie,” she said brokenly. “They
promised me that they wouldn’t hurt her, and that they could make
her better. They promised me she would be returned afterward. I
didn’t know what they were going to do to you Cassie, I really
didn’t! I never would have done it if I had known!”

Dani broke off, tears rolling freely
down her face as she looked at the hostile faces surrounding her.
Devon’s grip on Cassie had tightened; his body was as taut as a
bowstring. She knew that if he had not been holding her, he would
have gone after Dani, and he would have killed her.

“I am sorry,” Dani
whimpered.

“Ok fine,” Cassie said after a few
moments. “Let’s say you really did want to help me, and you didn’t
know what they were going to do. What I want to know is why they
were so interested in me, why didn’t they just kill me?”

Dani glanced toward the window, her
brow furrowed slightly. “Because you were somehow able to survive,
you were somehow able to control the darkness inside you after you
killed Isla. You were able to come back from it when that darkness
tried to claim you.”

“But that was only because Devon helped
me back,” Cassie said softly.

Dani shook her head as her attention
returned to Cassie. “They didn’t know that for sure though. They
had to take a chance that you might be able to come back on your
own.”

Cassie closed her eyes, fighting
against the frustration and confusion that was threatening to pull
her under. “But they kept me drugged in there; they never let me
lose control. They never gave me a chance to try and come back on
my own.”

“No, you were too valuable to them. If
you lost control, you might be able to break free of the drug
induced stupor like the others had. But if they could keep the
human in you calm, they could try to discover the secret of what
made you work. What makes you only rarely volatile? And could they
make you stronger, but still allow you to control it?”

A strange new sensation began to creep
through Cassie’s stomach. There was an awful ringing in her ears.
She recalled all the blood they had taken from her, the stuff they
had injected her with. What had they been trying to do to
her?

“What did they give me in there? What
were they trying to prove with those injections?” she whispered,
her voice choked and hoarse.

Dani’s eyes were wide and terrified as
she glanced nervously around the room, seemingly unwilling to
answer Cassie’s question. Devon turned slowly toward Cassie, his
eyebrows furrowed tightly as he stared hard at her. His eyes
traveled slowly over her body, his eyes turning a fiery red. His
nostrils flared suddenly and she could almost feel him inhaling her
scent. Confusion emanated from him as he clung to her.

Ice ran through Cassie’s veins in the
face of Dani’s petrified expression and the strange shaking that
was suddenly taking hold of Devon. Dani glanced wearily back at
Julian again before focusing her attention on Cassie and Devon once
more. “They wanted to see how much blood you could handle,” Dani
whispered. “How much vampire blood you could take. Julian’s
blood.”

“That explains it,” Chris
breathed.

Cassie’s gaze swung wildly toward him,
he was staring at her with dawning, horrified comprehension. His
eyes were wide and frightened. Cassie opened her mouth to question
him, but before she could say anything, all hell broke
loose.

CHAPTER 4

“Son of a bitch!” Devon roared,
releasing Cassie as rage flared hotly through him, completely
encompassing him in its grip.

Cassie tried to grasp hold of him
again, fearful of what he might do, but he had already moved
swiftly out of her reach. Grabbing hold of the glass countertop, he
lifted it as if it weighed no more than a feather, and flipped it
off of the back wall. It crashed loudly off the wall, metal twisted
as glass shattered. Cassie flinched, jumping back as glass
scattered around her feet, and bounced off of the mountain boots
she had found. Knives, jewelry, and other assorted miscellaneous
clattered loudly as it splayed across the floor.

Devon stormed forward, fury radiated
from him as he went straight at Dani. Dani let out a frightened
cry, her face turned white as she scrambled to get out of his way.
Liam and Chris moved to intercept Devon’s murderous rampage,
knocking Devon back a few feet as he reached for her. Dani let out
a terrified scream, ducking low as she darted behind Luther and
Melissa.

“Devon calm down! Devon!” Liam shouted
trying to stop him as Devon seized hold of a rack of winter hats
and gloves.

Melissa cried out, darting to the side
as the rack sailed at her head. Annabelle scurried to help Liam,
glancing anxiously at Cassie, but Cassie found that she couldn’t
move. Dani’s words were just beginning to fully sink in. They had
given her Julian’s blood! They had pumped her full of vampire
blood! Maybe that was the reason she felt so connected to Julian
now, but although that idea sounded reasonable, it didn’t feel
right. She felt a bond with Julian because they had formed a strong
bond while being held captive together. It had nothing to do with
his blood, and everything to do with the man that she had come to
know.

Liam grabbed hold of Devon’s arm,
trying to hold him back. Devon swung him forward, slamming him into
the wall with a resounding thud that shook the store as he seized
hold of Liam’s throat. A picture fell somewhere in the distance,
glass shattered as it hit the floor. Windows rattled in their
frames as Liam’s feet kicked against the wall, his face turning
bright red as Devon squeezed harder. It appeared that Devon wanted
to rip his head right off.

Chris launched himself at Devon’s back,
trying to pull him off, but Devon flung him away as if he weighed
no more than a feather. Cassie gasped in horror as Chris skidded
across the floor; he smashed into a rack of magazines, knocking it
over. He pawed at the rack, shoving it off of him and tossing it
away. Melissa rushed to his side, helping him to his feet as Devon
slammed Liam off the wall again.

“Devon no!” Annabelle screamed her
voice filled with terror as she raced over to try and pull Devon
off of Liam. “No, stop! Cassie! Cassie help me!”

It was the utter panic in Annabelle’s
voice that finally snapped Cassie out of her shocked stupor. Horror
filled her as she realized the extent of Devon’s rampage. He would
kill everyone in this room if he wasn’t stopped. Liam being his
first victim, and if he killed Liam, Annabelle was as good as gone
too.

Cassie raced forward, grabbing hold of
Devon’s arm as she tried to pull him away from Liam. “Devon stop!
Devon please!”

Tears streamed down Annabelle’s face as
she continued to pull uselessly at Devon’s arm. They were both as
effective as gnats. Pure panic began to tear through Cassie. She
had no idea how she was going to get Devon off of Liam, and
although Liam did not require air, his eyes were beginning to bulge
from his head.

“Devon!” she screamed in his ear, but
he did not seem to hear her through the bloodlust consuming
him.

And then it hit her,
bloodlust.

He was in the throes of it, and what he
wanted most was blood. And the blood he wanted more than anything
was her blood.

Cassie released him, darting back
toward the ruined counter in search of one of the knives. She fell
to her knees as she scrambled through the mess, ignoring the small
nicks the sharp glass left on her. Seizing hold of the first knife
she found, a wicked looking one with a six inch curved blade, she
jumped back to her feet. Chris was coming forward again, and Julian
appeared to have decided to help as he began to move in, but they
would only be two more useless fighters in the already overcrowded
ring.

“Stay back!” she snarled, thrusting the
knife at them as she rushed past.

“Cassie!” Julian shouted his eyes wide
with horror as he realized her intent. “Cassie no!”

He tried to intercept her, but she was
able to dart past him. She thrust herself in between Devon and
Liam, barely squeezing between them. Liam’s feet kicked against the
back of her calves. She could smell the tangy scent of his blood in
the room. The store pulsated with rage and need; it shook with the
fury of the battle being waged. “You don’t want him Devon,” she
whispered. “It’s my blood you want, take it instead.”

Tossing her hair back, she took the
knife and made a small slit at the base of her throat. For a moment
nothing happened, Devon didn’t even look at her. And then, the
scent of her blood seemed to penetrate the thick fog of his fury.
He turned slowly toward her, his red eyes fastened upon the blood
dripping down her neck.

Cassie straightened her shoulders,
trusting in the strength of Devon’s love to get them both through
this. He would take her blood, she knew that, and she would not
deny him. She only hoped that he did not kill her in the process.
“It’s ok,” she whispered. “Devon take it, take my
blood.”

He shoved Liam back, thrusting him away
as Devon released him. Liam stumbled, falling to his knees as he
pressed a hand to his wounded throat. Annabelle knelt beside him,
wrapping her arm around his back as they both scurried to get out
of the way. Julian came toward her, his face tight with worry, his
eyes gleaming at the sight of her blood. Cassie shook her head at
him, knowing that if Julian tried to interfere it would only result
in a blood bath.