Fear curdled through Cassie but she abruptly pushed it aside. There was no room for fear here, there never had been. There never would be. “Go Dani,” Melissa urged gently.
She turned to hurry away, but Cassie grabbed hold of her arm, and slipped her cell phone into Dani’s hand. “Call Devon,” she said softly, hoping that Isla could not hear her over the rising crescendo of the wind, and the door.
Dani stared fearfully up at her, her eyes watering with tears. She nodded abruptly and fled the room. “Come on,” Chris urged.
He reached forward and pulled the door open. Cassie winced slightly as the sharp sting of the icy wind hit her. The sneakers she slipped on did little to barricade her feet against the cold snow. It trickled down inside of them, freezing against her sockless skin. She wanted to hug herself against the cold, but she didn’t dare keep her hands occupied with anything at the moment. She would need them to defend herself soon enough.
Isla smiled at them as she released the young boy. He fell back into the snow, barely lifting his head before letting it drop again. Cassie took a step toward him, wanting to go to the boy, to save him, but Chris halted her. “Where’s your friend?” he inquired coldly, raising his voice to be heard across the distance.
Isla shrugged a dainty, bared shoulder. She had to be freezing, but she showed no signs of it. “I wanted this to just be the two of us; Julian graciously agreed to it.”
The two of us? Cassie’s gaze darted worriedly to Chris and Melissa, terror filled her. The two of us would not include them. She was certain of that. And they would not leave her, so what exactly could Isla have planned that would get rid of them?
***
“That was the most I could find on any of the other Hunter’s with Cassie’s ability, or lack thereof.”
Devon stared out the window as Luther finished speaking. His hands clenched and unclenched, his mind raced at a hundred miles an hour. He didn’t know what to think about what Luther had just told him. “But you found records of the one Hunter like Cassie dying in a strange manner? Of her acting differently than the others?” he asked softly.
“Yes, strange behavior was recorded about her before she died, or The Commission killed her.”
Devon turned sharply, anger boiled through him. “Killed her?” he demanded sharply.
Luther nodded as he rubbed at his temples. “Yes, The Commission would not want to admit that there was a mistake somewhere in the bloodline of The Hunters, and they wouldn’t want anyone else to know about that mistake. They would want to make sure they buried it, even if it meant destroying the only piece of evidence there was. The girl herself.”
Disgust curdled through Devon’s stomach at the thought of the cold hearted bastards that ran The Guardian’s and The Hunter’s. At one point The Commission had consisted of the twelve oldest Guardians, and they had dictated where every Hunter and Guardian would go. Devon had no idea how many of them were left, if any, after The Slaughter. After hearing Luther’s words, he hoped that they were all dead, because if they weren’t…
If they weren’t, they would come for Cassie.
Fury tore through him at the thought. He shook as he tried to control his rage, his hands fisted at his sides as he fought the urge to smash the walls. “They destroyed the girl,” he growled.
Luther’s eyes were broken, lost, as he met Devon’s gaze wearily. “I believe they did. It was only pure luck that I ran across a book with notes from that particular Hunter’s Guardian in it. He didn’t want her death covered up, he wanted what happened to her to be known, but unfortunately he didn’t have a choice.”
“The Commission made him cover it up?” Devon inquired.
Luther hesitated, his eyes darted nervously around the room. “I think they killed him.”
Devon’s eyes widened, his hands fisted even harder as his mouth dropped. “What?” he demanded sharply.
“The girls name was Gertrude, her Guardian Henry, died shortly after she was killed. Both of their deaths were recorded as means unknown. After Gertrude there were no more Hunter’s like Cassie. For over three hundred years, every Hunter has had some ability. Cassie is the first Hunter not to have one in a very long time.”
Devon blinked in surprise. The Guardian’s knew how every one of their kind had died, along with their Hunter’s. They kept meticulous notes about it, notes that Devon had tediously helped to sift through. Every one of the Hunters and Guardian’s had been painstakingly accounted for from the moment of their creation, to the moment of their demise. That this particular Hunter, and Guardian, had somehow slipped through the cracks was a giant red flag that something was wrong.
“I see. Does The Commission know you were looking for this information?”
Luther closed his eyes and dropped his head into his hands. “I don’t know. I tried to keep the search as quite as possible, but with everyone as scattered as they are, I did have to reach out to more people than I had wanted to. It was one of these people that helped me locate the book about Gertrude. It had been in his vast collection, buried in his basement, forgotten. I don’t think he even knew he had it when he allowed me access to his collected works.”
“But if he did?”
Luther shook his head, his grey eyes were lost; his hair was in even more wild disarray as he continued to tug anxiously at it. “I don’t consider him close enough to say that I trust him.”
If he still breathed, Devon knew that he would not be able to do so anymore. “Does The Commission still exist?” Devon growled, worry for Cassie’s safety gnawing at him.
Luther sighed heavily. “They are not as powerful as before, but yes, they still exist.” Luther paused for a moment, hesitant as to whether or not to continue. Then, he just plunged on. “Devon, I don’t think Gertrude is an isolated incident. I think The Commission may have killed off all of the others like Cassie, or at least they did after Gertrude.”
Devon froze as shock slammed through him. “What?” he asked softly, his voice choked.
“Before Gertrude there was at least one Hunter every few decades with no abilities. After, there were none. I think The Commission began to kill them off in order to limit the liability that these Hunter’s represented to them.”
Devon’s legs almost buckled, he had to lean against the door jam in order to keep himself upright. “Are you serious?” he croaked out.
Luther sighed softly as he pulled his glasses swiftly off. “I believe in what I do, Devon. I believe that I help in the world, that I am part of a good cause. But I know that The Commission was full of a bunch of very old fashioned, uppity individuals that would not allow any imperfection, and to them these Hunter’s were a liability. They would fear whatever happened to Gertrude, what could happen to Cassie…”
Luther broke off, his unspoken words hung heavily in the air. Devon knew what he had been unwilling to say though. If The Commission somehow did know what Luther had been digging for, and why he had been digging for it, then they might come for Cassie. They would not take any risks with the Hunter bloodline. They would want to cover up any proof that there might be faults within the line, and Cassie was that proof. He needed to get Cassie out of this damn town; there was far too much danger here for her. Unfortunately, it was something that she absolutely refused to do. Cursing violently, Devon spun and began to storm back the other way.
They might try to take her away from him if she stayed in this town, and if they knew where she was. They would not want a living reminder of the genetic abnormality in the Hunter line, and that was all they would see Cassie as. They would see her as dangerous, volatile, and unstable. And although the Hunter and Guardian line had been decimated, she would be considered a liability to them, and The Commission would not want that.
“Cassie is not an imperfection,” Devon growled.
Luther nodded as he slid his glasses on. “I know that,” he said softly. “But to them she would be, and it could not be allowed. If they thought that the other Hunters like her were a danger, or a threat to The Commission in any way, then they would have destroyed them.”
Devon stood in stunned silence for a moment longer, barely able to form a coherent thought. Fury boiled through his veins at the thought of those men sitting back, idly deciding who would live, and who would die. “So, The Slaughter may very well have saved her life,” Devon said softly.
Luther was silent for a moment, his thoughts focused on the massacre that had robbed many Hunter’s and Guardian’s of their lives. “As ironic as that is, yes. The Slaughter may very well be the reason that she is still alive.”
Anger surged through Devon. “They’ll come for her, if they know what you were looking for, they’ll come for her.”
“There aren’t enough of them left to bother her Devon,” Luther didn’t sound completely convinced himself. “And we don’t even know if anything will come of what I uncovered.”
Devon wasn’t completely convinced. “Do we tell her?”
Devon’s phone went off, the default ringer loud in the oppressive room. He fished it out of his pocket, his chest tightened at the sight of Cassie’s name. He didn’t know what to say to her right now, he didn’t know if he could keep the stress out of his voice. He almost slipped the phone back in his pocket, but she would only worry if he didn’t answer, and the last thing he wanted was to cause her anymore stress.
He held up a finger to Luther as he walked a few feet away. “Hello.”
“Devon! Devon! You need to get back here as soon as possible! Now!” A voice rushed over the line.
He froze, blinking as he tried to place the strange voice on the other end of his phone. It certainly wasn’t Cassie’s. “Dani?” he asked in surprise.
“Yes, yes,” she replied impatiently. “You need to get back here now! Isla’s outside, and they’re outside with her, I have to go help them!”
Devon stood for a stunned moment after the line went dead. Then panic and terror tore through him. Dropping the phone, he raced past a startled Luther, throwing the door open. “Devon!” Luther shouted in surprise.
“Cassie’s!” he yelled back at him.
Leaping into the storm, Devon drew on every ounce of power that Cassie’s blood had given him as he raced into the night.
No matter how fast he moved, he was terrified that he would not get to her in time.
CHAPTER 9
Cassie took a step closer to Melissa and Chris, fear rolling through her. Isla had not moved yet, but there was a strangely superior smile on her face. In the air, Cassie could suddenly feel a strange, sizzling power beginning to build. Terror froze her as she glanced worriedly at Chris and Melissa, who had the same horrified looks of realization on their faces she was certain was on hers. She recalled belatedly that they had never asked Devon what Isla’s power was. What she was capable of doing. The backdoor slammed open moments before Isla released her power in a brutal rush of electricity.
A terrifying jolt seemed to turn the world upside down. Cassie shook her head, trying to ease the accelerated beat of her heart. Her skin tickled strangely, her hair stood on end. She looked down, surprised to see that the ends of her arm hair were singed. The stench of burnt flesh and hair hung heavy in the damp air.
She glanced wildly around her, spinning in a circle when she realized that Chris and Melissa were no longer standing beside her. Nausea and horror spiraled through her; she raced toward where they lay, unmoving on the ground.
“No, no, no!” she cried, falling to her knees in the snow beside Chris.
Grasping hold of his arm, she was horrified by the burns that marred his pale skin. But she instantly felt the beat of his heart, the warmth of his skin. Glancing at Melissa she was relieved to see the subtle rise and fall of her chest. Thankfully they were alive, but they had been completely knocked out.
Dani fell into the snow beside her, her gold flecked eyes wide with horror. Cassie recalled what Devon had said about the abilities of a Grounder. When a vampire and a Hunter met up, they cancelled each other out. That was why Dani was still on her feet, but why was she?
Cassie glanced worriedly back at Isla. Apparently Isla had more practice at controlling her power than Dani did. She could control who she wanted to take out with her blast of electricity, and who she did not. Cassie shuddered, terror crept down her spine; she had to keep Isla at bay. She had to keep Isla from her friends, but she had no idea how she was going to do it. “You need to get them inside,” she whispered to Dani.
Dani’s eyes widened, her gaze darted past Cassie to Isla. “I can’t leave you out here.”
“She won’t let me get inside, she might let you. You need to get them out of here.”