Staggering back to her feet she spun toward The Elders at the same time that Octavia used her telekinesis to throw her back a good ten feet. She barely had time to right herself before she spotted the massive tree branch coming at her like a missile. Cassie flung her hands up and sent the branch spiraling away seconds before it would have impaled her through the chest.
Joey leapt in front of her and lifted the thing that looked like a flame thrower to his shoulder as Cassie regained her footing. Hundreds of arrows exploded from it in a puff of smoke that trailed above him. They shot through the air on a deadly trajectory with Octavia. One of the versions of Zane leapt forward to block some of them but the rest crashed into Octavia and a grouping of the newer vamps The Elders had brought with them. Octavia didn't receive a killing blow but a handful of other vampires kicked and squirmed in their death throes as they fell into the snow.
"Thanks," Cassie muttered.
Joey nodded as he tossed the weapon aside and broke out a crossbow. "I owe you more than that."
Cassie wasn't going to argue with that statement, but she didn't have time to agree with him either. She plunged back into the fray, aiming for the weakened Octavia as she spotted Devon honing in on his brother.
***
Devon dodged the first boulder Robert threw at him and managed to avoid the crack in the earth Robert started to open. He leapt over the growing crater and collided with his older, and yet strangely younger, brother. Seizing hold of Robert's throat, he propelled him backward as they crashed into the snow and tumbled over top of each other. Images of Robert stabbing Cassie exploded through his head as the demon within him burst free. He would feel no regret over this. In fact, he would enjoy every moment of it.
"Miss me brother?" he growled as he lifted him up and smashed him into the snow. Robert clawed at Devon's hand as he tried to break Devon's hold upon him. Skin broke beneath his grip and blood began to trickle around his fingers as he dug into the flesh and sinew of Robert's throat.
Robert seized hold of his arm but Devon only dug in deeper as his brother tore at his forearm. He gave up on trying to knock Devon's grip free and began to wildly strike at Devon. Blood trickled from broken skin near his right eye but it didn't deter him as he dodged Robert's next punch. His lips skimmed back to reveal his fangs as bloodlust and pleasure pulsed through him. He no longer saw his brother but the man that had murdered Cassie, the man that he was going to relish in destroying.
A boulder crashed into his back, pitching him forward over Robert. His hold was knocked loose enough that Robert was able to get his legs in between them. Devon tried to right himself but he was unable to do so before Robert flipped him over his head. He spun in the air and landed on his feet in a crouch in the snow.
Devon didn't hesitate as he launched back at him. He didn't see Zane, or at least a version of Zane, until the oldest Elder hit him in the side. Devon tumbled into the snow and bounded back to his feet. Red filled his vision as a bellow ripped from him. He leapt forward and managed to grab hold of Robert again as the ground beneath him began to open up. He leapt over the massive pit, but instead of trying to take Robert down again, he picked him up and heaved him across the ground.
Robert flew a good fifty feet through the air before crashing into a tree. His entire body jerked from the impact and his arms flailed as he plummeted to the ground. Devon froze in mid step when he picked up on a fresh scent wafting through the air. He turned away from his brother as he sought Cassie amongst the fray. She was near Julian and Chris, Elspet's remains littered the ground by Julian's feet and Octavia was trying desperately to escape Cassie's relentless approach.
Cassie became rigid, her head shot around as her eyes met his across the clearing. Devon abandoned the pursuit of his brother as he raced across the snow covered field toward her. He was almost to her when the woods erupted with motion and a fresh horde of newly created vampires spilled forth.
CHAPTER 22
Luther stared at the closed door to where they'd placed the bodies. He wanted to go back in there about as much as he wanted an ogre to hit him upside the head with a tree branch. Lou stood at his side, his head tilted as his breath came a little more rapidly. "There's still the room with the children," Luther reminded him. "We'll look there first."
Lou was ashen as he took a step back from the closed door and hurried toward the room with the children. They were huddled close to each other on the cot and floor. The boy that was fond of Cassie shimmied off the cot and teetered over to him on pudgy legs. He stayed close by Luther's side as he searched every inch of the room only to come up empty again. Lou was as white as a ghost when Luther turned back to him.
"Stay here with them; I'll let you know if I find anything," Luther told him.
Lou followed Luther into the hall, where he stayed outside of the children's room. Luther rested his hand on the knob of the room with the dead and braced himself to enter it again. He tried not to absorb the details as he moved quickly through the room, but the memories would be forever seared into his brain, as would the smell.
He'd never been so happy to escape somewhere as he was to step out of that room and close the door. He wiped his arm across his forehead as he met Lou's gaze across the way. Luther helplessly glanced up and down the hall and then his gaze slid to his feet, perhaps there was something there he'd missed. He studied the gray reflective floor as he moved around the hall.
Lou started to do the same thing down the other end of the hall, searching around his feet as he turned in concentric circles around the floor. "Here," Lou called to him.
Luther hurried to his side as the kid knelt to examine the bottom of the wall. If Lou hadn't been pointing it out to him, Luther would have missed the small crack where the floor met the wall. He ran his fingers over it and felt a nearly imperceptible flow of air against the tips of them. Luther ran his hands up and down the wall in search of something to open it with, but he found nothing.
He was growing increasingly frustrated as he rose to his feet and stared at the solid surface before him. The children hovered in the doorway as they watched them. "It has to be somewhere," Lou muttered as he shoved himself to his feet. "You don't think it would be so cliché as to be one of the fixtures or something like that."
Luther stared at the plain light fixture before him. "No." But even so he grabbed hold of it. He tried to pull it down but it didn't move, with a quick turn of his wrist he twisted it to the right. It turned beneath his grasp as a low hiss of air escaped from the wall and a panel slid away.