Kindled (Book 3 The Kindred Series) (34 page)

   He sat back on his heels, running his hand wearily through his disordered hair. His gaze went slowly to the window behind her. Cassie glanced sharply up at the vents wondering what they were pumping into the room; she was suddenly very tired and weary.
“How did they get you?”

  
“That little bitch’s nut job brother…”

   “Joey,” she
supplied, stifling a yawn
.

   He scowled down at her, folding his
thickly
muscled arms over his broad chest. “You call him what you want to
,
and I’ll call him what I want to. Nut job has telekinesis, the ability to move things with his mind,” he elaborated at her confused look. “
Three of them took me down with electricity, and one with a drugged dart. Then
nut job
pinned me down like a damn bug while the others came forward to drug me
even further
.
Freaks.”

   Cassie quirked a
n
eye
brow at him,
she was
unable to stifle her next yawn.
“It’s a war remember
, you were just enjoying reminiscing about the near destruction of my race
.
This war has
been going
on
for
over
a thousand years.
I thought you, of all people, would enjoy it.
”

   His eyes darkened, his hands pressed flat against the glass once more.
He leaned toward her, his nose nearly touching the glass as he stared at her.
“War’s result in blood and death.
If they had killed me that would be understandable, honorable
even
, but this is a bloody
freak
show! This is not war; this is a bunch of madmen
who have lost their minds.
”

  
C
assie stared sleepily up at him;
a shiver work
ed its way
through her at his words. He was right, they
were
madmen. And it had been madmen and scientists
that created the Hunter line to begin with. Cassie’s fingers dug into her arms as she tried to keep herself under control and free of panic.

  
“Just like they did before,” she mumbled her eyes darting fearfully back to the shadowed glass.

   “Yes,” Julian agreed softly. “Just like before,
ex
cept now
we
are the ones trapped
in these cages like rats.”
   She couldn’t help but give
him
an amused look. “So you would rather be dead then?”

   “Wouldn’t you?”

   Her smile slipped swiftly away
. A shudder tore through her at the mere thou
ght of what they might do
, of what they were
going
to do
them
. And she was fairly
certain
that even her worst fears didn’t begin to
scratch the surface of what these
monsters
intended for the two of them. She had never
truly wanted to die. There had been a brief period
,
after her grandmother’s death
,
where she
had considered her life nearly over, and she had not been frightened by that fact
.
B
ut
, she had not truly
wanted
to die
,
no matter how much she had thought she did.
But now, well n
o
w she found that she
might end up
vastly preferr
ing
death to their current circumstances.

   She had only one hope.

   “Devon will find us,” she whispered.

  
Julian snorted in disgust. “Keep dreaming princess.”
   She rounded angrily on him, her hands fist
ed
as she glared furiously up at him. “He will come
!” she retorted.

   He stared at her for a moment lon
ger before bending down to look
her in the eye. “I have no doubt that he
is
looking for you princess, it is only a matter of
how
is he going to find you?”

    Cassie stared silently back at him, her mouth parti
ng slightly. She had no idea
how
,
and
she didn’t want to think
about the how, she just
wanted to believe that he
would
. There had to be a way, someway, it was the only hope that she had
,
and if she lost it she was going to go crazy in this small cell. Swallowing heavily she forced herself to defiantly return his steady stare. “Devon will find a way,” she insisted. “Maybe Liam…”

   He q
uirked a
n
eye
brow
again
, his
full
mouth curved
in amusement as he shook his head. “Liam talks to animals, not much help there.
In fact,
my ability was
probably the only hope that they did have
,
and I’m not going to do them
a damn bit of
good in here.”

   Cassie’s nostrils flared as she exhaled sharply. Her sudden lethargy was forgotten as fear and distress rolled through her.
“It’s not like you would have helped them anyway,” she muttered.

   He
offered her
a small smile. “Don’t be so quick to judge princess, I’m full of surprises.”

   She blinked at him in s
hock
, twisting on the cot in order to ease the crick in her neck that her position was causing
her
.
“You would have helped them?” she demanded
disbelievingly
, resting her hands on the
window
sill as she knelt before him.

   He grinned at her in amusement, flashing all of his white teeth as he winked devilishly. “If I thought it
would
be fun
I would have
.”
   Cassie
was
baffled by his behavior and cavalier attitude. The Julian she knew was ruthless, monstrous, and a cold hearted killer.
This Julian was nothing like th
at one
. This Julian
seemed almost light hearted and carefree
, which seemed completely out of sorts with their environment
and horrendous situation
. Cassie shook her head, trying to rid herself of the confusion swirling through her.

   “I don’t get you,” she said softly.

   He
d
ropped
onto the bed beneath his window
and
propp
ed
his arm on the sill
to
stud
y
her. “That’s the way I like it.”
   Cassie glared back at him. “You told Isla about my grandmother, you sent her there to kill her!”

  
Another surge of anger
somehow managed to burst past the drug induced lethargy clinging to her. It didn
’
t c
ome raging out of her like it di
d th
e
night she’d killed
Isla, but it coil
ed
through her chest like a serpent unwinding from a rock
.
Then, whatever they had shot her up with, and whatever they were pumping into her room
,
t
ook
hold of her
again
. It was almost instantaneous; the anger rose up and was swiftly doused.

   C
assie gazed helplessly around
, feeling trapped and claustrophobic, pathetically helpless, and
suddenly very lethargic again. She blinked, trying to clear the fog from her mind. She didn’t want to go to sleep. If she fell asleep, she wouldn’t see them coming for her. If she fell asleep
,
they
would
get to her
again
. Cassie shuddered in terror, instinctively drawing her knees up against her chest in a poor attempt to soothe herself in some way.

   “I didn’t send Isla after your grandmother.”
   Cassie turn
ed
slowly back toward him. She struggled to clear her
hazy
mind, barely grasping hold of what they had been talking about. She shook her head as the tendrils of clouds continued to move in, slithering through her brain.
She closed her eyes,
just needing a moment to gather her thoughts.

   “Hey! Hey!” Cassie’s head snapped up at the loud banging. She star
t
ed in surprise at her surroundings
, having briefly forgotten about the horror that surrounded her
. “Hey!” Her head
whi
pped around, her eyes widening as Julian slapped his hands against the glass one more time. “Stay awake
!
I’m
talking
to you!”
   Cassie blinked dazedly at him, trying to pull herself out of the
mist
surrounding
her. She managed a small nod, focusing blear
il
y
on him. “I’m awake.” Her voice sounded thick, groggy, her tongue felt funny, too heavy.

   “I did
not
send Isla after your grandm
other
.”

   Cassie frowned at him, her eyes narrow
ed
slightly as he touched upon
th
at
awful subject.
“Then how did she know
who my grandmother was
?” Cassie demanded her wo
rds slightly slurred due
to her strange tongue.

  Julian
’s
eyes burned into hers. “I may have known about your grandmother, and
I may know
many other things about
you
, but I can assure you that it was
never
your grandmother that I was after.”

   When Cassie
remained
star
ing
questioningly at him, he continued. “It was
you
.”

   She glared at him, her hands d
u
g into her legs in an
attempt to k
eep herself awake.
She was slightly unnerved by the fact that he knew things about
her
, but then she had known for a long time that he did. Just what exactly, and how much, did he know about her?
“You told Isla
about my grandmother though,” she growled.

   Anger spurted through her when his mouth quirk
ed i
n
amusement. “No princess,
I didn’t. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out about your grandmother
, or you
.
Even
Isla
, who had
many admirable attributes
but not too much in the way of brains,
was able to put two and two together
.” Cassie’s scowl deepened at the mention of Isla’s attributes. “I told her to stay away
from your grandmother
.
”

   “Why would you do that?” she demanded.

   He tilted his head to the side, studying her carefully. “I didn’t want to poke the bear, not yet anyway.”
   Cassie blinked at him in stunned surprise. “Excuse me?”

   “I wasn’t ready to disturb the hornet’s nest I sensed inside of you
.
B
ut Isla didn’t care about my warnings, or heed them.
She was too bent on trying to get her revenge.
” His eyes drift
ed
toward the glass behind her. “She paid for that
.”

   “
Is that why you tried to keep
Devon from getting to me
that night, so that Isla could get what she deserved? Or me for that matter?
”
she accused fiercely, not believing what he was saying to her at all.

   Julian sat back slightly on his heels. She could almost see the wheels turning
in
his brain, trying to decide what he did, or did not want to reveal. Finally
,
he shrugged and leaned forward again.
“
No, I intervened b
ecause I had to be certain,
and no matter how much I had advised Isla against it, she did give me the opportunity I needed to observe you
,
” he said softly.