She didn’t know why that thought bothered her so much, she should be happy that she was not a magnet for vampires. But for some unfathomable reason, she was not happy. She was ashamed to admit that for once, she wanted to be special too. She had been denied “gifts”; she did not want to be denied this too. No matter how unreasonable her thoughts were, she could not shake them.

“Well who brought Mr. Good News to the party?” Chris muttered, folding his arms over his chest as he scowled at the floor.

Devon glanced back down at her, his forehead furrowed in worry, his eyes dark and stormy. Cassie frowned up at him, confused by his turbulent expression. “This is good; we have an insider’s view. He can help us,” Luther said softly.

A muscle twitched in Devon’s jaw, hardness settled over his features. His fingers tightened briefly around hers. “Yes, but I think that the best thing for all of you is to leave…”

“No!” Cassie cut in sharply.

Devon continued speaking as if she had never said a word. “I can defeat Julian, but he’s brutal, and merciless. He’ll keep on coming, and I cannot be everywhere at once. If you leave, then I will protect the town, I will keep everyone safe…”

“I’m not leaving you here!”

“And I will meet up with you when I am done here.”

Cassie opened her mouth to protest again, and then snapped it shut as she glared fiercely up at him. Luther and her grandmother were staring eagerly, practically salivating over his suggestion. It had been a fight to get the two of them to agree to let Cassie, Chris, and Melissa stay in town in the first place. Now Devon had given them the excuse they needed to rip the three of them out of there as quickly as they could.

“We are not leaving,” Cassie grated through clenched teeth.

“Cassie, you must listen to reason. Devon can protect this town better then the three of you, and we must keep you alive.”

She turned her fierce glare on Luther, not wanting to hear anymore. “We are here to protect people…”

“Which Devon can do.”

Cassie launched angrily to her feet, the throw pillow that had been sitting in her lap fell loosely to the floor. Devon lurched toward her, for the first time not moving as effortlessly as a panther as she caught him off guard. She shook off his hand on her elbow, glaring fiercely at him as he reached for her again.

“I’m fine!” she snapped before spinning on Luther. “What good is being a Hunter if we have to run all the time?”

Luther glanced briefly at Devon, his grey eyes weary as they met Cassie’s once more. “Not all of the time Cassie, only when it’s prudent.”

“Prudent?” she snorted. “Is that what all of our ancestors did, turn tail and run whenever things got hard?”

“Well no, of course not. But there aren’t enough Hunter’s left that we can risk your lives. We must keep you safe, the line must continue on.”

“Wait, wait, wait!” Melissa threw up her hand, taking an angry step forward as her onyx eyes blazed with fury. “So what you’re saying is that we must be kept alive in order to continue the line? It has nothing to do with us? We’re just needed for breeding!? What freaking century is this!?”

Luther colored slightly, his glasses slid down his nose as he shook his head fiercely. “No, of course not! But you must understand how important it is that the line continues. How important it is that you are kept alive to kill other vampires. For there are others, it’s not just Julian. And although you cannot kill them all, you can get a lot. There are few left that are as powerful as Devon and Julian.”

He glanced at Devon who nodded sharply in agreement. Devon’s gaze was still weary and disgruntled as he watched Cassie intently. She shot him a dark look, aggravated that he had given Luther and her grandmother the leverage they needed to remove the three of them from town. “And what if you can’t stop him?”

Devon quirked an eyebrow; a flicker of amusement crossed his amazing features. “I can.”

She didn’t appreciate his cocky, arrogant demeanor. A fact she let him know with a fierce look that caused his amusement to fade. “How do you know that for sure?”

Devon’s eyes wandered over the room, doubt flickered across his features. He turned back to her, a steely resolve settling over his features. “I made Julian what he is, I can defeat him.”

The silence that followed his confession was profound. A pin dropping would have resounded through the room. Cassie was the first to recover. “What do you mean made Julian what he is?” she asked sharply.

His eyes were hard, distant as he swung toward her. He had already shut himself off in preparation for her turning against him. “Julian and I were once good friends, I helped to mold him into the vampire he is. He is nearly six hundred years old, we spent almost three hundred of those years traveling the world together, wreaking havoc wherever we went. I am the one that taught him the joy of the hunt, the torture, the mental anguish.” He paused for a moment, a muscle twitched in his cheek. “The pleasure that could be found in drawing out the kill.”

Cassie’s legs went to rubber; she sat limply on the couch. It had been too long of a night. Clasping her hands before her, she bent her head, uncertain how to deal with the turbulent emotions tumbling through her. What kind of a monster had Devon been? What had he done to people? She shuddered, trying hard not to fall apart as her hands tightened.

“I see,” Luther, the first to recover after the shocking revelation, whispered the words.

Cassie lifted her head slowly, trying hard to breathe through the constriction clenching at her chest. “Why?” Cassie mumbled.

His eyes were rock hard as he met her gaze. “Because I could. What I am now is not what I was then. I cannot take it back. I cannot change my past, no matter how much I may want to.”

She stared at him for a moment longer, her mind tripping over his words as she tried hard to assimilate everything he was telling her. There were many things that he could not change, she was beginning to realize. So many things. Cassie took a deep breath, trying hard to keep control of her wildly swinging emotions.

“Alright, fine, you were once great friends: you think you can defeat him…”

“I know I can.”

Chris shot Devon an angry look, aggravated at being cut off. “But we are still not leaving.”

“Chris…”

“No Luther, we made the decision to stay, and we are sticking by it. Devon himself said that he could not be everywhere at once. He will need our help. If even one person dies because we left, then we would be responsible for that death. That is something that I cannot live with, and I’m sure that Cassie and Melissa can’t either. And I sure as hell hope that you can’t.”

Luther gaped at him for a moment, his eyes wide behind his glasses. “No, of course not!” he declared angrily.

“I don’t want you here.” Devon’s hands fisted as he stared hard at Cassie. “He’ll come for you the most.”

Her eyebrows shot up, her mouth parted in surprise as confusion and fear surged up. “Why?”

Sighing wearily, he ran a hand through his already disheveled black hair. “He’s smelled your blood; he’s already been denied what he wanted, when he wanted it. Plus, he knows that you are mine. He’ll want to destroy that.”

Though she thought she should be offended by the “you are mine statement”, she was oddly thrilled by it. If any other boy had ever said that to her, she would have laughed in their face and walked away. But with Devon, she was his, completely, utterly, and for as long as she could have him. And as much as she was his, she hoped that he knew that he was also hers. Their bond could not be severed; it ran deeper than the Mariana Trench. She had never thought that something like this could exist. But it did, and it was permanent, right, and so very true and real.

“Why?” She felt like a parrot, but it seemed to be the only word she could get out.

“Because Julian wants to destroy anything good and right in the world, he hates it all. And he hates the fact that I have turned against my nature. He wants me to be the way that I once was.”

Cassie shuddered. “Like him?” Melissa asked quietly.

Devon hesitated briefly. “Worse,” he said flatly.

A thick silence descended upon the room. Though the answer was blunt, Cassie sensed the regret, sorrow, and pain behind the word. “Why did you change?” she asked softly.

“That’s a long story.”

Cassie wasn’t so sure if it was a long story, or if he simply didn’t want to talk about it. Either way, she wasn’t going to push him. She already had enough information to digest without having more heaped onto her. “Well that’s all fine and good, but we’re not leaving,” Cassie said firmly. Devon’s eyes were hard and fierce, anger flashed through them as he turned toward her, a muscle twitched in his jaw. “You won’t change my mind, or theirs, so don’t argue with us.”

The muscle twitched even more, she could hear his teeth grinding. “We cannot change what we are, or what has been,” she couldn’t help but add, her eyes narrowing pointedly as she reiterated his words. She had to accept him for what he was, and he had to do the same with her. “You just have to accept it, as we have.”

Muscle twitching violently, he turned slowly away from her. His shoulders were set stiffly, his hands fisted at his sides so tightly that his knuckles had turned white. She had aggravated him immensely, she knew that, but she felt no remorse for it. They would not run from this, or any other problems that arose. They had to stay; it was their duty, hell it was in their blood. It was who they were, who they were born to be.

Luther shook his head, resting his arm on the mantle as he pulled his glasses off, cleaning them once more. It was his habit to clean them whenever he was irritated, or needed time to think. It was probably a little of both at the moment. “Tell him what the two of you can do.” Luther stared at Chris and Melissa as he slid his glasses back on. They exchanged weary glances once more, still hesitant to reveal their secrets.

CHAPTER 4

“If the three of you insist upon staying then Devon will need to know of your abilities in order to utilize them in the best ways possible.” Luther’s voice was tinged with aggravation as he stared hard at them.

Devon knew very well the annoyance the man was feeling. It was taking every ounce of self-control he had not to grab hold of Cassie and forcefully remove her from this house, and this town. If it weren’t for the fact that she would hate him, and possibly never forgive him for it, he would. His hands clenched tighter at the thought of anything bad happening to her. When he saw Julian again, he was going to rip him limb from limb for what he had done to her earlier.

He glanced down at her, fighting his baser, more animalistic urges. Not only was he battling with himself not to remove her from this town, but he was also fighting the fierce urge to taste her once more, possess her. Her blood had been the sweetest nectar he had ever experienced. He had never even dreamed of anything tasting so delicious or possessing so much power. The memory of it was enticing, luring, and delectable. It was everything that the beautiful woman sitting stiffly beside him was.

At the moment he didn’t know if he wanted to force her to leave, or taste her more. No, he did not simply want to taste her he wanted to change her, possess her. He wanted to make her immortal, he wanted to keep her safe, keep her with him, and alive, for eternity. As a Hunter she was far too vulnerable to the dangers and hurts of the world. She was far too susceptible to death. A shudder ran up his spine, his eyes closed briefly as a surge of bloodlust rippled through him.

Being around her was a constant battle with his darker, more twisted side. But it also brought out the best of him, drawing him into a light he had never expected to find, completing him in a way that he had never thought possible. Her love and unwavering faith in him, even after the events of the night, were far more than he deserved from his life, and something that he had never expected to find. Now that he had her though, he was not letting her go. When it came down to it, he would do anything to keep her with him, and safe. Even if it meant that he had to drag her from this town and risk earning her wrath.

Eventually his feelings would cause problems between them. Somewhere along the way their relationship would come to a dangerous head, and he would have to make a decision she may end up hating him for. But now was not that time, and he was not willing to dwell on such unpleasantness. Now was a time for strategizing, and learning as much as he could about the people around him. If they had abilities that would aid him in his hunt for Julian, then he would use them in every way he could.

He would do whatever it took to keep her safe.