Kindred (Book 1 The Kindred Series) (37 page)

   Cassie’s mouth parted slightly, shock cours
ed
rapidly through her as cries of delight
,
and
loud
clapping sounded through the room. It was mostly
the
girls
that
applauded and shouted,
making it apparent
which side
of the
nomination
he had received. Cassie
turned slowly back to him. He was sitting stiffly in his chair, a blank expression on his face, but a hard gleam in his eyes. This was not his thing, not at all, and it was more than obvious that he didn
’
t want
it
. She wasn’t entirely sure he
even
knew what it meant.

   Then he moved swiftly, sliding elegantly from his chair as he rose gracefully. He glanced down at
Cassie
, warmth momentarily melting the
ice
in his eyes
. Gently relea
sing her, he moved
swiftly and
elegantly
to stand beside Chris. The cheers grew louder, the higher pitch
of the girl
’
s voices
reverberat
ed
in the large cafeteria. Though some of the boys clapped, including Chris
, most did not.

 
This time
,
Marcy did not urge everyone to quiet down
as she smil
ed
brilliantly
. Instead
,
she waited patiently
for
the commotion
to
stop
.
Anger filled Cassie as she glanced around the cafeteria,
taking
not
e
of
all the girls star
ing
ravenously at Devon. Marcy was the worst offender, as her crush on Ch
ris had obviously switched to Devon
. Though
Cassie
knew that
Devon
did not want any of them, she still didn
’
t like t
he fact that they all wanted
him
. And not a one of them gave a damn that he was alread
y with her.

   “It’s ok,” Melissa
said softly, leaning forward to be heard over the commotion.

   “I know.”
   “Then why are you glaring
at every girl in this room
like you want to hit
them
?” she inquired.

  
“Maybe not
every
girl.”

  
“Just Marcy?”
Cassie couldn’t stop the laugh that escaped her as she shook her head at Melissa’s teasing.

  
Cassie tried to catch
Devon
’s eye
,
but he
did not look at her again as he st
udied the other boys
. Jack
and
Hector were playfully pushing each other; Mark was wearing a goofy grin and fl
ex
ing his muscles. Chris was standing
quietly, his arms folded over his chest, but he was beaming from ear to ear
as he winked at the girls closest to him
. They all looked so young and immature, Devon seemed vastly older and
out of place amongst them
.

   Cassie’s heartbeat picked up, her hands curl
ed
on the table. Who was he? She wondered again.
Why did he seem so far beyond her age, and everyone else’s?

   “Now the nominees for homecoming queen,” Marcy continued
when the noise finally quieted down. “The nominees are
Amanda Jenkins, Sharon Crosby, Kelly Standish, Cassandra Fairmont
…
” Loud cheers and whistles erupted around the room as she rose, but unlike Devon
,
her appreciative audience was mostly male.

 
Cassie flushed hotly as she sli
pped from the table
.
S
he tried to keep her shoulders straight
as she
hur
r
ied
to stand beside Kelly.
T
he dark
,
angry looks f
rom
most of the girls in the room
followed her, along with the leer
ing stares of the boys. Her skin crawled with the mixed emotions bla
zing against her
.
T
r
ying
to keep
a
s c
ollected as she could
,
she kept her face expressionless
, but inwardly she was a seething mass of
turmoil
.

  
Marcy sighed loudly
, tapping impatiently
a
t the microphone to get everyone’s attention. Slowly the
caterwauling died down
with only a few whistles and shout
s
still
piercing the air
. Devon’s face had become even harder, his jaw clenched tight as he met Cassie’s gaze briefly.
It was apparent that he disliked the attention of the men toward her, almost as much as she did.
She wished that she could reach out and touch him
;
she
desperately
need
ed
the comfort that he always brought her.

 
“And finally,” Marcy continued with a bright grin on her face. “Myself.”

   There was more applause
, but it was not as enthusiastic
,
and Marcy was
un
able to hide her annoyance.
“
H
ere are your nominees for king and queen, voting will begin in two weeks
.
E
veryone
,
consider your candidates
carefully
and vote on the
people
you think deserve it most. Thank you all.”

   Marcy
dismounted fr
o
m her chair
, eagerly accepting the congratulations she received
as she made her way through the crowd
. Cassie wished she could be as thrilled as Marcy
, but she had
never wanted popular
ity
, never wanted the attention that came with it
.
Unfortunately
she had been launched into the role
during her
freshman year
,
when
puberty set in.

   It had taken her awhile to learn how to deal with the sudden influx of
interest.
Over the years she had gotten a lot better
with
it, but she still
did not like
being thrust into the spotlight.
And she most certainly did not want to be swamped by a bunch of people trying to congratulate her. She was not surprised that most of them were boys.

  
Devon
was
also
surrounded by a group of well
wishers, most of them girls, but a few of the guys had appeared to shake his hand. He looked highly uncomfortable as Ariel Drake grasped hold of his hand
,
clutching it tightly
, nearly falling over him as she leaned close
.
C
assie fought back a smile of amusement
as he gave
Ariel
a wan smile while discreetly trying to free his hand from her death grip.
He finally succeed
ed
but Janet and Jenna Howe
immediately
pounce
d
upon him. Cassie heaved a sigh, realizing that she w
ould
have to rescue him if he was ever going to get free of the swarm
of girls
. And from the look on his face, he was in desperate need of rescuing.

 
Mark Johnson stepped swiftly in front of her
, blocking her attempt
at reaching
Devon
.
Fi
ght
ing
back the fierce urge to groan and roll her eyes
,
Cassie met his dark, stormy gaze
.
“Hello Cassandra, I’ve been trying to get you alone for the past few days, but you’re always busy.”

   Cassie glanced back at Devon, but now
he was
encircled by Linda Drake, Helen Potts, and Marcy had reappeared. He was never going to get free on his own now.
“I’m sorry Mark…”

   She tried to
move
around him, but he sidestepped, swiftly blocking her path.
She frowned up at him, aggravated by
the
interruption
.
“I just wanted to congratulate you Cassandra.”
Mark always called her by her f
ull
name;
she suspected it was because he thought it would separate him from everyone else
in her life.
It did not.
His eyes sparked as his gaze ran appreciatively over her.
Unable to stop herself, she
took an involuntary step back
.
She
hat
ed
the way his leering
look
always
made
her feel as if he could see right through her clothes
.
H
er skin
began to
crawl
in disgust
. “Maybe
you’ll be my queen.”

   As much as the idea made her stomach turn, Cassie managed a brief nod.
“
M
aybe.”

   She tried to sidestep him again, but once again he blocked her path. Her aggravation level mounting, she folded her arms firmly over her chest
as she stared fiercely at him.
“I was thinking that maybe we could go to B’s and S’s tonight,” Cassie was already shaking her head, but he continued on. “Maybe catch a
movie.”

   “No Mark, I’m sorry.”

  
He blocked her path o
nce
more when she tried to escape him.
This t
im
e however, there was no amusement, or leering, in his fierce gaze. Cassie was stunned by the depth of anger that radiated from his deep brown eyes. “Is this because you’ve become the new guy’s toy?”

   Cassie blinked in surprise, and then anger flared through her. “I
’
m nobody’s toy Mark!” she snapped.

  
“Slut then?”

  
The word snapped a
ll
t
he anger
out of her
as shock and horror rolled
forth
. She had never been
called that before,
never
been
verbally attacked like this before. Oh, she had been called many things over the years, but never this, and not
with
t
his much
anger, and hatred. It was th
e
hatred that shocked her most, leaving her speechless and shaken. She had never been hated before, never thought it would feel like this. It lef
t her hollow and uncertain.

   She took a step back,
just wanting to escape now,
but he followed her. His eyes
burned as he bore down upon her,
his mouth
pursed
,
and
his large shoulders set stiffly. She did not fear for her physical
safety
,
she didn’t think he would do anything here, and she knew that she was stronger
than he was. If she could fight off a vampire, she could fight off one very angry teenage
boy
, but
it was the last thing that she wanted to do in
a
crowded cafeteria.
However, s
he was
concerned about what he would say next
,
and she was
certain that she didn
’
t want to hear
any
m
ore
of it
.

   “You know what you are Cassandra, you’re just a tease. You’re a twisted bitch that loves to tease people, playing with their emotions and
wrapping
them around your little finger.”