Annabelle couldn't move; she couldn't look at the new presence she sensed behind her. Liam turned slowly toward her. "What have you done?"
Annabelle could only shake her head as she tried to form coherent words. "Not. Me. Devon. Julian." She sounded like a caveman, but they were the only words that could escape her constricted throat.
Liam's eyes came back to her. "Annabelle..."
"I love you," she whispered.
A blur drew her attention away from Liam's beautiful silver eyes. She swallowed heavily and braced herself as she finally focused upon the new addition to the group. Cassie moved swiftly across the ground, so fast in fact that Annabelle could barely follow her. Her knot of apprehension nearly doubled in intensity. No new vampire should be able to move like that. Hell, she couldn't even move that fast yet.
Yet Cassie covered the hundred and fifty feet, and was by Devon's side, in the mere blink of an eye. "Cassie," Melissa breathed as she eagerly stepped forward.
Liam held his arm out to keep her from going any closer. "Stay back."
"But..." Melissa's mouth parted as her hand flew up to cover it. "Cassie?"
It was the question in Melissa's voice that terrified Annabelle most. Gathering her strength, she turned back toward the creature that knelt by Devon's side. Her hand was on his shoulder, her gaze locked on his as he gazed up at her.
"Cassie?" Devon's voice was choked with awe and disbelief as his gaze scanned her face. His hand trembled as he reached up to cup her cheek with his hand. "Cassie?"
She didn't respond to him as she took hold of his hand and squeezed it. Luther's feet scraped across the ground as he took a step forward. Cassie's head turned toward the sound. Luther froze, Melissa staggered back a step, and Dani let out a small moan. Annabelle's hand clenched around Liam's, but she found her legs locked in place as those horrifying, alien, completely inhuman eyes blazed out at them. They were far brighter, and far more terrifying than anything Annabelle had ever seen before.
Cassie didn't seem to recognize any of them as she stared forward unblinkingly. Liam pulled Annabelle closer to him as he tugged her back a step. "As it was meant to be, so has she risen."
Matthew's whispered words pierced the oddly still night. It was only then that Annabelle's attention was brought back to the startled Elders who stood frozen at the edge of the woods. She suddenly realized that the remaining creatures had fled into the woods to escape from the newest presence. The knot in her stomach twisted even tighter at this realization. Those creatures didn't fear much, they had attacked the Elders without hesitation, but they feared Cassie.
She was pretty certain that wasn't a good sign. In fact she would lay money on it being a very bad omen.
Cassie touched Devon's face tenderly once more before slowly rising to her feet. Her golden hair was a wild tangle that blew around her in the chilly winter breeze as she faced The Elders. Her shoulders were stiff, her eyes intense as her gaze slid over them. Though blood still covered her skin and shirt, the gash in her stomach had healed during her transformation.
Her gaze finally locked on Robert and the glow of her eyes intensified. "How about you throw one of those things at me?" she inquired.
Annabelle shuddered as she took another step away from Cassie. She didn't know what had awakened in Cassie's place, but even she could sense that it was something that none of them had ever seen before.
***
Devon stared up at Cassie, unable to believe that she was here, unable to believe that she wasn't dead. She wasn't lost to him.
Or was she?
She had touched him with all the reverence and love that he so dearly cherished. Her touch had been the same, but even he could tell that she wasn't. Her eyes, those damn strange eyes that had blazed so hotly yet seemed almost unseeing as she'd met his gaze.
Her clothes were still bloody, there was so much blood, but the gaping wound that had torn through her beautiful skin was gone, healed during her transition. But transition, how was that possible? He shook his head as he recalled their last encounter. He'd given her a lot of blood, but it couldn't have been enough to get her completely, and safely, through all of the changes.
His head turned as movement caught his attention. Julian and Chris were emerging from the store to stand at the edge of the sidewalk. Devon's nostrils flared, anger sizzled through him as he caught the scent of their blood in the air. Suddenly, he understood. His blood may not have been enough to see her through the transition, but if Julian gave some of his too it would have been. Chris's blood had brought her back completely.
The thought of Julian's blood inside her sent his temper spiraling nearly out of control again. She was his, or at least she had been. He wasn't even certain what she was anymore.
But that didn't matter; none of it mattered, not as long as she was still here. She was still with him, and she was alive again. Sort of.
She didn't turn to look at him as he rose to stand behind her. The Elders remained unmoving as they studied her. For the first time since he'd met the man, Devon saw true worry in Zane's eyes, in all of their eyes. Though Cassie hadn't possessed any of the extra Hunter or vampire abilities when alive, there was no way to know what she could do now. What she may might be able to do to them all.
"Bet you wish you hadn't jumped the gun now Robert." Cassie's hushed voice carried easily through the still night. Robert's eyes flickered, exasperation blazed from him as he shifted, but he didn't make a move to attack her. Not yet. Cassie's gaze latched upon Adon and Anastasia, the two people that Devon could still control but hadn't thought to do so during his craze. "Bring them to me," she whispered.
Devon started as his gaze swung to her. How did she know he had control over those two when he'd never told her, and just what did she plan to do with them? He remained frozen, unable to do as she asked, he wasn't certain that he wanted to do what she asked. He didn't know what had become of her, and he was loathe to see her harmed again. He was afraid she would reveal herself as some monster that would have to be destroyed.
That was something that he could never do.
She turned toward him. "You have control over them so I can't take it from you. Bring them Devon."
He refused to break her gaze as she stared at him. Just what kind of abilities had she awakened with? He sensed her power was more than mind control, sensed that it was far more than anything anyone had ever possessed. "Cassie..."
Her eyes were like molten lava as they focused upon him. "It's ok."
Though the words were meant to reassure, they didn't. He still didn't know what he was dealing with, but he'd never been able to refuse her anything. She hadn't given him a reason to distrust her, and if there was one person he'd always had faith in it was Cassie. She just wasn't a person anymore, but he wasn't going to give up on her now, not when she may need him the most.