Kindred (Book 1 The Kindred Series) (20 page)

  
He was staring down at her, his emerald
eyes
stormy and intense
.
He was waiting for her to say something, waiting for her reaction. Cassie could not find words; she could only manage a simple, reassuring smile.

   The tension eased from him
.
H
is eyes crinkl
ed
with the bright smile that lit his
wonderful
face. Cassie couldn’t stop herself from
grinning back at him.
“
I’ll be
fine;
the library was one of the first things Melissa showed me
the other day
.”
He
said
easily, as if what he had just said
to her
had not left her
as
shaken as a baby’s rattle.

  
Swallowing heavily, Cassie tried to calm the turmoil racing through her. If it had been
just
a
pick up
line
, she did not want him to know that he had just caught her hook, line, and sinker.
“Of course it was.”

   They reached her class far faster than she would have liked. Hesitating in the hall, she turned to him, reluctant to let go. “I’ll see you
soon
,” he said softly, his eyes rapidly scanning her
face, seemingly trying to remember every detail of her.

   Cassie nodded, not fully trusting her
self
to speak. She half felt li
ke crying, which was completely crazy
, it wouldn’t be that long before she
saw
him
again
. She ho
p
ed. His hand tightened around hers,
his skin
burn
ed
into her
s
. He took a step closer
,
and for a moment Cassie
was certain that he was going to kiss
her
. She held her breath in anticipation,
her entire body clamor
ed
for the feel of his lips against hers.

   Instead
,
he squeezed her
hand briefly and re
leased it
quickly. Cassie felt the loss of his touch as
acutely as
a knife
to her heart
. Her entire being ached for
it
again. She couldn’t move as he
slipped away, disappearing into the remaining crowd.

CHAPTER 9

   Devon folded his arms over his chest, leaning against the wall
as
he waited
impatiently
for the bell to ring. He had tried to sit through the whole study hall thing, but he didn’t understand what he was s
upposed to be doing
,
or
why he even had the class. But then again, he didn’t understand any of this high
school stuff. They were like rats in a maze, going through the same thing day after day
.

   He supposed education was a good thing; he simply had no use for it. Maybe if he was
a
human
in this day and age
he may
have
need
ed it
,
but
he wasn’t
.
W
hen he had been human
,
he
’
d had schooling because he had been a member of the aristocracy
,
and it had
been expected
of him
.
But e
ven before he’d
died,
he’d seen
no reason to continue with his education
.
Even as a human h
e h
ad
simply
taken everything he wanted
,
with no regard for
whom
he hurt in the process
. And when he’d died he’d become even worse
, far
far
worse
.
It was not a fact he was proud of, it was just a fact that he had to live with
,
and try to atone for
,
every day
of his lonely
existence
.

   An existence that somehow wasn’t as lonely whenever she was near.

   Now, staring at the empty hall, he wondered if he had missed out on something
.
His
,
had been a long existence
.
H
e’d thought that he had done everything
there was to do
; apparently he had forgotten one thing.
H
e
just
wasn’t so sure
that
he wanted the experience
, it was tiring
. He
did want
her
though. He wanted to see her and touch her, and
he wanted to
be near her
, and she spent a good chunk of her time within this building
.

   His dreams had been nothing compared to the reality of her, but he had
known that they would
n
’
t be. Her skin was even softer, warmer, and gentler. The feeling of rightness she brought
to him was amazing. It was something he had never expected to experience in his life, but now that he had it, he
was not going to let it go.
Ever
.

   Though he knew wh
ere
his fierce possessiveness of her might
be
com
ing
from, he was
still unwilling
to explore that
possibility, or
reality
,
yet. There was still a chance that he could walk away from her
even if he
didn
’
t want to. Her safety was number one
as far as he was concerned,
and she could never be truly safe with him in her life. He needed to be able to walk away, but if what he suspected was true, there was a good possibility that
he may not be able to
.

 
He had meant what he
’
d said
to her
earlier,
he was not lost when she was near
. He was whole in a way that he had never been whole before, not even when he had been alive
.
When she was near, h
e did not feel adrift in a world where he was not welcome among humans
,
or vampires.
She was an anchor in a world that was cold, uncaring, and cruel. I
f staying here, torturing himself in high sc
hool was the only way to
be close to her
then he was going to suffer through the cla
sses like everyone else
.

  
He shifted slightly, the discomfort in his veins growing by the second. He should have fed before
he came here
today
, but he hadn
’
t realized how hard it would be to
keep
control
around her. She was a temptation that he couldn
’
t resist, not
anymore;
especially
now that
he had touc
hed her.
And n
ow
that he had felt her,
he
knew he
would never stop
touching her
.

   The only problem
was
that
the burning in his veins had kicked into hyper
drive the minute his skin had brushed against hers. The sweet scent of her
blood
had slammed into him
, causing his mouth to water and his body to burn with the fierce hunger that
engulfed
him. It had taken every bit of self restraint he had not to rip her against him and sink his teeth into her delicate white throat
,
draining the delicious blood that flowed through her veins
.

 
He had not touched a drop of
human
blood in a hundred and thirty seven years, and until that moment he had never felt the desire so fiercely
,
or so acutely.
He had never had his control nearly shattered, never nearly snapped and drained a person simply from touching th
em. But
as much as she unsettled him
,
and rattled his
firm
restraint
, she
had
also
calmed him in a strange
way. His baser instincts
were
held at bay as her delicate fingers curl
ed around hi
s
.
Touching her
had
lock
ed
the demon
inside him
back in its cage;
it had
calm
ed
his raging urge to drain the
blood from her
even more than it had enticed it
.
Whatever
spell she had cast over him h
a
d
him completely ensnared.

  
G
lanc
ing
at the clock on the wall
,
h
e shifted slightl
y, growing impatient to see her, growing
completely
impatient with the high school life.
Over seven hundred years old and he was lurking in the hallways of adolescent teenagers, and all
because o
f a girl. Granted
,
she was an exceptional girl, and he was captivated by her, but never had he gone to such lengths for a woman before. He had
never
thought that he would either
. And he was fairly certain that this was only the beginning
of what he would do for her
.

   The annoying bell rang suddenly, its sound
was
exceptionally sharp in his sensitive ears
, but it was a welcome distraction from his disconcerting thoughts
.
Stepping
away from the wall, his arms f
e
ll back to his side
s
as he
eagerly
waited for her to emerge from the class. Doors were flung open around him, chatter spill
ed
into the halls
as students emerged. He was barely aware of the
hu
m
ans
as they filtered around him,
the boys
instinctively leaving a larger gap then they would with anyone else.
T
he girls
drifted closer, “accidentally” bumping into him, giggling
flirtatiously
as they
openly admir
ed
him
.

 
He ignored them,
his attention fixed upon the people fil
i
ng out of Cassie’s class. He could smell
her;
feel the beat of her tiny, delicate heart
. She appeared in the doorway,
her mouth
parting
,
her step falter
ing
slightly
as she caught sight of him
.
The small redhead that had been speaking to her broke off abruptly
,
her brown eyes widen
ed
in surprise.

   He did not think about it
as
he
instinctively
reached his hand out to Cassie
, relief fill
ed
him as her fine boned
fingers
slid into his, locking tight.
The beast inside of him
quieted
instantly
.
T
he burning in his veins lessen
ed
as her presence soothed the
edgy
rawness in him. He could not separate from her again. If he did
,
he would not make it through the rest of this day.

   Her smile was
easy and bright as she stared up at him, the sight of her beautiful face calming him even further. “Um yeah, I’ll talk to you later Cass.”