Devon set the crossbow against his shoulder again. "I think it's time to play."

"I've been waiting to play for awhile now." Julian cracked his knuckles as his lip curled back to reveal one of his gleaming fangs. "This is going to be better than cotton candy."

"You are the strangest being I've ever met," Devon informed him.

Julian was still smiling as he brushed past him and headed toward the kitchen. A puddle of water about a half an inch deep coated the floor and part of the hallway rug. The fire had spread to Cassie's elbows, though it wasn't burning her and the sweater she wore was untouched by the flames. It seemed that if the flames stayed against her they wouldn't burn anything, but the sparks that shot off burned whatever they hit. He'd never seen anything like it. He knew Adon never would have been able to create such a thing without setting everything on fire or being engulfed and consumed by the flames.

He could only stand and stare as pride bloomed in his chest. She was so determined and focused. She wasn't the teenage girl who had shied away from him outside of B's and S's. She wasn't the frightened woman that had escaped the school with Julian; she was no longer the uncertain and terrified vampire that had risen from death. She was confident and proud, and there would be no stopping her.

He stepped forward as the last of the glass melted beneath her hands and water poured in around her. A muscle twitched in her cheek as she took a step back. "Oh no," she whispered seconds before Elspet took control of the water and it rushed up from the floor.

Devon lunged forward and grabbed hold of Cassie. He pulled her against his chest and covered her with his body as the droplets drove against them in ice cold shards that nearly pushed him to his knees. Screams filled the kitchen; he could barely lift his head against the stunning tumult. Cassie's fingers dug into his shirt, her hands still radiated heat as she clutched at him.

Water splashed against the floor in a cascading echo that reminded him of hundreds of water balloons bursting. The ensuing silence echoed in his ears as he straightened up. "I must have that power," Cassie ground out between her chattering teeth.

Devon brushed her tangled wet hair over her shoulders. "You're going to have to beat Julian to her."

Julian looked like a drowned rat as he pushed the hair back from his forehead. "I'm going to rip that mermaid to shreds and flush her down a toilet. She's mine Buttercup, stay away from her."

"Well at least one good thing came out of the ice bath." Chris wrapped his arms around himself as he shivered. His lips were already turning a shade of blue. "We can get outside."

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"Two good things came out of it, she's tired," fresh flames flickered from the tips of Cassie's fingers and circled back up around her hand to her wrist. "I'm not."

CHAPTER 21

The last place Luther felt like being was in the bowels of this building, in a place that still had Cassie's blood staining the floor, and two charred bodies in the middle of the aisle. It sure wasn't the place that he would like to have a bunch of kids. "Put the younger ones in there, I'm going to need help getting these bodies out of here though," he told the older boy.

The teen herded the children into the first side room and closed the door. Luther stared at the still ajar steel door they'd entered through. He was half tempted to leave it open, but he knew The Elders could be in this room before he even heard them enter the basement. He took a steadying breath and slid the heavy door shut.

The teen had reentered the hall when Luther turned around. His light brown eyes were suspicious as he eyed Luther. "I'm not one of them. I mean I was, I am a Guardian, but that duty means something entirely different to me than it did to these people. I'll die before I let anyone hurt you again," Luther said honestly.

"You killed Anne."

Luther straightened his shoulders as he met the teens unwavering gaze. He appeared fifteen at most but his eyes were those of an old man. "I did."

"Thank you."

Luther didn't know how to take that. He hoped that one day they would be able to offer these children some sort of a normal life, but he wondered if they'd ever be able to ease the damage that had been done to them. "Do you feel comfortable helping me with the bodies?"

"Completely."

Luther didn't know how to take that either. He found some discarded sheets on the floor, sheets he suspected contained Cassie's blood as he lifted them up and tossed one to the young man. He knew it was the young man that had been in the kitchen when he'd first arrived in the orphanage, but he couldn't recall his name. "My name's Luther."

"Lou."

Luther wrapped the first body up in one of the sheets before nodding to Lou to grab his feet. Luther tried to ignore the feel of the charred remains as they carried him into the room that Lou indicated. If he hadn't just gotten a clean bill of health from his doctor he thought he might have had a heart attack when he spotted the hideous contents in the small bathroom.

"What were they doing?"

He hadn't realized he'd spoken aloud until Lou responded. "Nothing good."

Luther didn't feel one bit of remorse about unceremoniously dropping the man on the floor. They hauled the woman into the room next and Luther slammed and locked the door. He dropped the remaining sheet over Cassie's puddle of blood on the floor. He found the vision of that far more disturbing than the charred marks on the floor.

"Do you know where the exits are out of here?" Luther inquired.

"I only knew that some of the children that came down here never came back."

A shiver ran down Luther's spine, he thought he might become violently ill. "You never came down here?"

"They only brought The Hunters here."

"And you're not a Hunter."

"No, the little ones are The Hunters. They're the only ones left," Lou couldn't meet his gaze as he focused on the floor.

"It wasn't bad enough that the vampires hunted us to near extinction, but these madmen were helping them to destroy us too." Luther simply couldn't wrap his head around it, everything he'd always known had been a lie, and yet he still firmly believed in what he did and what he was. If they managed to make it out of this he would continue to do what he believed in, but this time there would be no madmen left to undo it all. "We'll start in that room and work our way through them. We have to find out how Anne escaped here."

Lou nodded but he was paler than he'd been before as they entered the first room off the hall. Luther tossed the cot aside as the house above him seemed to shudder. He held his breath, his head tilted back as he waited to see if the crashing bang of the house collapsing would accompany the shudder.




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