Inferno (Book 4 The Kindred Series) (6 page)

“I never thought it was wrong,” Dani
breathed. “I thought your relationship was special, different;
good.”

Her eyes darted over the two of them,
before glancing briefly at Julian. His lip curled into a snarl, his
eyes darkened as he glowered at her. Cassie was irritated by the
confusion and doubt she sensed from Dani, but then again Dani had
witnessed Julian kissing her. And though Cassie knew what that kiss
had meant Dani had no way of knowing. “It is,” Cassie said
softly.

Dani shot her a questioning look.
Cassie met her gaze head on refusing to be judged by the girl that
had nearly gotten her killed, and had gotten her tortured. “The
Commission also wanted us to make sure that any of The Hunter’s we
met was not The Hunter’s that have nothing,” Dani
continued.

Cassie started in surprise, stunned and
completely mystified by her strange words. “The ones who have
nothing?” Luther inquired a sharp edge to his voice.

Dani nodded slowly, she swallowed
heavily. “The evil ones amongst us. The Hunters that
turn.”

Horror rolled through Cassie, she took
an involuntary step back as Dani’s gaze darted to her. Devon
stopped her backward momentum, resting his hand in the hollow of
her back as he sought to steady and comfort her. Cassie turned into
him, needing his comfort more than anything right now. His arms
wrapped tight around her as she rested her head against his chest,
taking solace in his solid presence.

Luther released the curtain he had been
holding as he took an angry step toward Dani. “The evil ones? Are
you mad?”

Dani shook her head fervently. “No,
it’s true! There are evil ones amongst us, and Cassie is one of
them!” Devon hissed sharply, his hands tightened almost painfully
upon her. Dani shook her head quickly, her hair flying around her
as she took a frightened step back. “Or that’s what I believed
anyway. It’s what I was told from the time I was a
child!

“They said that the ones with no power
would eventually turn into mindless monsters that sought to destroy
everything in their path! When I first met Cassie I didn’t believe
what they had said, I thought that they had lied to me, or that
they had been wrong. I thought that there was no way she could turn
against someone, no way she’d hurt someone, and then…”

“And then you saw me kill Isla,” Cassie
said softly when Dani trailed off. Her mind flashed back to that
night, and the overwhelming anger and hatred that had consumed her.
She had been a monster that night, and if it hadn’t been for Devon
she very well could have been lost to the rage trying to overtake
her. “And you were scared.”

Dani’s lower lip began to tremble, and
despite her best intentions not to have it happen, Cassie felt her
heart softening toward the girl. “Yes, and I thought that they had
been right. I knew then that there was something wrong with you,
and I was so very frightened that one day you would hurt one of
us.”

“And you called your brother?” Luther
inquired his voice tight with anger and disbelief.

“Yes. When Joey left me behind, he went
back to the people that had helped to raise us. He came back
here.”

Horror curdled through Cassie as the
true depth of Dani’s betrayal set in. “He didn’t leave you behind
because you actually wanted to stay. He left you behind to spy on
us.”

Panic flared through Dani as her eyes
darted wildly around. Though she appeared to be looking for an
escape, they all knew that there wasn’t one for her. Her mouth
opened and closed, her eyes rolled wildly in her head. She looked
like a crazed horse that had been trapped and cornered. The only
difference was that Cassie would have sympathy for the horse; she
had none for this girl.

“Well!?” Chris shouted causing Dani to
jump in surprise.

“Yes,” she admitted in a strangled
voice.

Chris sneered at her, his eyes raked
her with disgust. Melissa remained unmoving, her face hard though
her eyes narrowed minutely. Luther cursed loudly as he slammed his
fist into the sill. “We trusted you!” he exploded.

Cassie jumped in surprise, more rattled
by Luther’s lack of composure than Dani’s admission. Luther was
always stoic, he was almost robotically in control of his anger.
“Luther,” Melissa said softly.

Luther scowled at her as he turned on
his heel, pacing restlessly back to the window. He cast one last
scathing glare at Dani before turning his attention to the day
beyond. “What happened when you called your brother?” Cassie
inquired, surprised by how composed her voice still was.

Dani swallowed nervously, her hands
clenched tightly before her. Though she knew that she was
surrounded by people that hated her, she seemed to have regained
her composure. “The Commission has grown stronger over the years;
some lost members have even been relocated. They have been working
here for many years doing new research.”

Dani broke off; her gaze focused on her
hands. She was twisting them back and forth in what had to be a
painful manner. “They were trying to create more Hunter’s!” Chris
gasped, taking a startled step back as the realization sank
in.

Cassie shuddered, burying her face in
Devon’s chest for a moment as she tried to retain her swiftly
unraveling composure. “Yes,” Dani said softly. “Our race needs to
be rebuilt before it is completely extinguished. Otherwise there
will be no protection for the human race against the
vampire’s.”

“We are not all monster’s you know,”
Liam grated.

Dani nodded, her hands turning red as
she continued to twist them. “I know that, but for the most part,
you are.”

Liam glared at her for a moment longer,
drawing Annabelle closer to him. “In order to create new Hunter’s
you need vampires. That’s why I was captured,” Julian
deduced.

Cassie lifted her head as Julian began
to pace restlessly back and forth, running his hand through his
hair. He was like a caged tiger ready to snap, but he had to stay
in control for awhile longer. They needed more answers, and as much
as she had grown to despise Dani, she could not allow Julian to
kill her while in a state of rage. Cassie truly believed he was
trying to better himself, and killing Dani was not the way to do
it.

“Yes,” Dani admitted. “And they also
needed you for your power. They tried using younger vamps, but it
didn’t work out well. The Commission felt that if they could get
their hands on an Elder, it might make a difference. They felt that
might be the key that they were missing in order to get the
combination of human and vampire blood right.” Julian shot her a
fierce glare, his eyes momentarily flaring red.

“And they couldn’t take Devon, they
couldn’t be sure that they would be able to keep his ability for
mind control locked down. And they didn’t know if they could keep
him under control, especially…” She broke off, her gaze darted to
Cassie. “Especially since they didn’t think they would be able to
control Devon with Cassie around. So they took Julian.”

Devon’s hands had tightened on Cassie;
his attention was focused on Julian, who looked about ready to rip
the store apart with his bare hands. Cassie clung to Devon,
fighting back the shudder of terror and dread that wanted to shake
her. Devon rested his cheek against her hair. “Breathe love, just
breathe.”

She hadn’t even realized she had
stopped breathing until that moment. It exploded out of her,
leaving her shaken and on the verge of tears. They wouldn’t have
been able to control Devon in there. He would have lost complete
control of himself if he had seen what they did to her every day,
seen what they had put her through. And they probably would have
destroyed him. The thought left her hollow, cold, barely able to
breathe as she held him against her, trying not to shed the tears
in her eyes.

“But they couldn’t figure it out,” Dani
continued in a shaky voice, watching them wearily. “Everyone knew
that The Hunters had been created from vampires, but no one knew
how, and no matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t get the
combination right.”

Cassie inhaled sharply, her fingers dug
deeper into Devon’s arm. He held her gently, his hands rubbing over
her as he tried to put some heat back into her suddenly chilled
body. “So they ended up creating monsters,” Cassie whispered. “They
created the monster’s that are running loose in this town right
now?”

“Yes, but they didn’t mean to. They
were trying to do right; they were trying to protect
people.”

Cassie stared at her in disbelief, her
mouth suddenly dry, and her heart thumping loudly in her chest.
“How did I not know anything about this?” Luther demanded fiercely.
“Why had I never heard about the other Hunter’s like Cassie, but
you were told about them?”

Dani was silent for a moment, she
licked her lips nervously. “It was only The Commission that knew
about the ones with no powers, and what they could become. They
kept it hidden from the other Guardians.”

“Why would they do that?” Melissa asked
softly.

“To limit the liability,” Luther
answered his voice full of horror at the realization. “The
Commission could take out The Hunter without having to deal with a
fight from their Guardian. And most Guardians would put up a fight
against them; they would die to protect their Hunter. But if The
Guardians weren’t informed about the dangers that the lack of
abilities might hold, then The Commission could make the death or
disappearance of The Hunter look accidental; they could blame it on
vampires. Their Guardian’s never had to know what had really
happened to them.”

Cassie’s stomach rolled, nausea swept
through her. She clung tighter to Devon, needing his strength and
support. Melissa looked like she was going to cry as her shimmering
onyx eyes met Cassie’s. No one spoke; Cassie didn’t think any of
them could find the words after Luther’s observation.

“That’s why some of the people in this
town are simply gone, and others have been viciously murdered,”
Annabelle whispered. “The ones that were taken, and experimented
on, have come back to hunt the innocents. And the other people in
this town were members of The Commission, Guardian’s, or Hunter’s
and they were down there with you.”

Dani bit hard on her trembling bottom
lip. “There were a few escapes before tonight,” she
admitted.

“And tonight all hell broke loose,”
Julian muttered.

“Yes.”

“How many escaped?”

Dani shook her head, looking completely
helpless and out of sorts. “I don’t know how many were down there
to begin with, or how many were able to break free.”

Everyone was silent as they digested
this new tidbit of information. “What happened there tonight?”
Luther inquired.

Dani shook her head. “I don’t know for
sure, they had been having problems with the security. Those things
weren’t as easily drugged as the two of you.” Devon’s hands
twitched on Cassie as he glanced sharply down at her. She shook her
head, not wanting to go into the details of that place right now.
Not wanting to recall it at all, but knowing that it would haunt
her for the rest of her life. “They were too crazed, too wild and
unstable to be suppressed so easily. But I thought that they were
getting it under control.”

“Why didn’t they just destroy them? Why
were they keeping them alive?” Luther demanded.

Dani simply shrugged, her mouth opened
and closed briefly before she shook her head helplessly. “They
wanted to try and use them, wanted to try and gain control of them
somehow.”

Cassie shuddered as Chris swore
violently. Luther and Melissa simply gaped at Dani, shock and
horror on their faces. Liam and Annabelle remained unmoving, as
still as stone as they clung to each other. “And you call us
monster’s!?” Julian spat, his fury nearly palpable in the room. “In
all of my long lifetime I have never leveled an entire
town!”

Dani was shaking now, tears streamed
down her face. “I didn’t know what was going on there, what they
were trying to do! I trusted them, they helped to raise me. They
kept me safe and alive during a time when Joey and I had no one. I
thought that I was doing good!”

Dani’s voice broke on a sob; she hugged
her arms tight around her middle. “Why was that place built in the
bottom of a school?” Cassie asked quietly, hoping her tone would
help to keep Dani and everyone else calmer.

“It’s under a school?” Chris demanded
sharply.

Cassie shot him a censuring look as she
shook her head. There was enough anger and animosity in this room
right now without adding to it. “Yes,” Cassie informed him.
“Dani?”

Dani shook her head, tears streamed
silently down her cheeks. “It was originally a bomb shelter that
was built in the late forties. They had decided that it would be a
good place to turn into a laboratory, to keep all of their records,
and a good place to hide just in case something should happen. It
is where they hid during The Slaughter. After The Slaughter they
began to gather as many Hunter’s and members of The Commission here
as they could. The school was built on top of it in the sixties
because they felt it was a good cover for what was hidden beneath
the foundation.”