Zane blurred as he came back at her again, but this time he split himself into three separate versions of himself. Cassie let the anger and power fuel her as she ducked one copy of Zane, and kicked out at the second. She had to discover the real version of Zane, but she'd lost him amongst the copies. She felt like a tourist trying to guess what shell the nut was under as two versions lunged at her. One's hand grabbed her by the hair and jerked her head brusquely back. She grabbed hold of his hands and used them to help lift herself as she kicked out at another Zane.
Power poured into her and warmed her from the tips of her toes to the top of her head. That had been the right Zane. An involuntary laugh escaped her. She clung to his hands as she closed her eyes and let her body absorb the fresh wave of energy that washed through her. She didn't know what had happened to her during the change but somehow she just knew that she could do this.
With her newfound abilities came a strange sort of knowledge about that power as she absorbed it. Concentrating on Zane's knowledge of how to make his astral projection work, Cassie split herself to create two other versions. A small gasp escaped as she felt her atoms separating and reforming into duplicates of herself. It was an amazing feeling and if she still had the ability to breathe, she would have been breathless.
Zane pulled her head further back, his finger trailed down the side of her neck as another version of herself tapped him upon the shoulder. He released her and took a staggering step back. A laugh escaped her as she knitted herself back into one whole person.
Zane took another staggering step away and roughly bumped into Anastasia. Though he tried to hide it, Cassie could see the apprehension in his eyes. "What are you?" he demanded.
Cassie tilted her head to the side as she eyed him. Good question, she didn't know what she was, but she did know that she didn't like the look in his eyes. She briefly recalled what he'd said about her eyes as terror slid through her body. At heart she felt almost exactly the same, but what if something was fundamentally wrong with her?
Her fingers fluttered back to the corners of her eyes but she couldn't feel any difference. She held her hands out before her as she turned them back and forth. They appeared no different either, but she knew somehow they were. They were no longer hands that only had the power to beat and maim and destroy. These hands held power, these hands could do things that her mortal hands hadn't been able to do.
Her gaze flitted over the now stilled crowd. The fight had stopped at Zane's words, at the trepidation they felt from the strongest vampire amongst them. They all turned curious eyes upon her. Devon was still holding his brother's arm as he watched her. Cassie could only helplessly stare back at him with her hands held out before her, and her body thrumming with the current of power that seemed to run through her now.
"What am I?" her words echoed Zane's but it was all she could think to ask. The uncertainty in Devon's gaze caused her stomach to drop. He had to know, Devon had to know what had become of her, what she was now. He had to know that she wasn't a monster, because right now she wasn't so sure. "Devon?" she breathed.
"A Phoenix." Cassie turned as Matthew glided toward her from the shadows. "A Phoenix rising from the ashes." She numbly stared back at him as he stopped before her. "A Phoenix," he whispered again. "Rising up to destroy us all."
Cassie recoiled from the strange man. "No, I..."
Before she could react, Matthew grabbed hold of her hands. Her cells absorbed his ability as eagerly as a plant absorbed sunshine. She tried to jerk her hands away from him, but he refused to relinquish her. Cassie's hands clenched upon him as Matthew's previous premonitions slammed into her head.
She bowed beneath the force of the visions that filled her, visions that ran so rapidly through her head that she could barely grasp hold of them. Her legs gave out and she fell to her knees. Tears filled her eyes as she saw herself as Matthew had seen her. A force unlike anything they had ever come across, and someone that could destroy them all. Someone that may very well lose control of everything she had awoken with.
Or she could become someone that could save them all, someone that could bring salvation to those in need if she didn't become corrupted, if she didn't become a vessel for evil. If she could keep control of the baser urges that craved more power, more blood, more death. Urges she could feel slithering beneath her skin even now.
"Let her go!" Devon roared.
Cassie lifted her head as Devon arrived at their side. His fangs were fully extended and his eyes a brilliant red as he reached for Matthew. "No," Cassie managed to whisper. "Devon, no." Devon turned toward her, but he kept hold of Matthew's arm. "It's ok, Devon. It's ok."
Though Devon's hold had to be hurting him, Matthew showed no signs of it as he continued to watch Cassie. "Absolute power corrupts absolutely," Matthew murmured. "It will be your choice which path you take, but tread carefully child for the path is treacherous."
A muffled sob escaped Cassie. Matthew was right; she didn't know what would become of her, which vision of herself she would become. Whether, she would become the monster that destroyed everything in its path, or the vampire that aided those in need of help. Everything was so uncertain, so unclear. The fact that Matthew had received two separate visions about her told her just how thin the precipice she stood upon was.
"Do you understand what you are?" Matthew inquired.
Cassie swallowed heavily as her head bowed low again. She understood that she was still an oddity. As a Hunter she'd been abnormal because she had possessed no powers. As a vampire she was peculiar because she possessed more power than any of them had ever seen, and at such a young age. Power that she wasn't sure she could control, but knew that she somehow must.
"No, but I will," she told him.
Matthew's hands squeezed hers as he bent low to her. His mouth brushed against her ear and he whispered so low that she knew only she could hear him. "Savior."
Cassie lifted her head as a new vision swam into her head. This one didn't show her covered in blood, sadistic, and deadly. Nor did it show her amongst the lost children, surrounded by her friends and Devon. This one was more imminent. This one didn't come from Matthew, but swam out of her mind and took her over in the way that she had seen many visions take Melissa over.
"Move!" she breathed.
She roughly jerked Matthew forward. Devon, thrown off balance by her sharp tug, stumbled back as Robert and Zane lunged forward at the same time. Though she had pulled Matthew mostly out of the way, the knife that Zane wielded still caught him in the back. Matthew fell forward and toppled onto her as his back was sliced open from shoulder to mid spine. Cassie watched in horror as Zane bore down upon Matthew, determined to kill one of his own entourage in an attempt to silence him. Cassie shoved Matthew aside and rolled out of the way seconds before Zane drove the knife into the pavement where they'd been standing. The knife slammed into the road so hard that the blade shattered upon impact.