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.”
Cassie simply stared hard at her for a moment, her stomach rolling and heaving, her extremities felt like ice. She was well aware of the fact that The Commission had taken up base in the U.S. during World War II. They had fled England when it was being bombed on a regular basis, and it became too risky to stay in Europe any longer. They had taken up residence in the U.S. but no one, outside of The Commission, had known the exact location of where they had escaped to. Now they had all stumbled across that location by incredible misfortune.
“How long have they been doing experiments down there?” Cassie managed in a choked voice.
Dani glanced swiftly over them, her eyes full of horror and terror. “Since the beginning,” she whispered. “But they became more frequent after The Slaughter.”
There was a collective inhalation of breaths, a stunned silence hung heavy in the air. “So it was only a matter of time before all hell broke loose,” Luther muttered, turning sharply on his heel to stare back out the window. “I was always proud of what I was…” he broke off shaking his head in disgust. “Now it makes me sick.”
Cassie’s heart ached for Luther, but there were no words that would help him feel better. No words that would help any of them feel better about what they were hearing. “So this town was built around The Commission, these people are mainly here, or were here, for The Commissions purposes?” Devon asked softly.
Dani was silent for a moment before nodding slowly. “Yes,” she whispered.
Cassie choked softly, bile rose rapidly up her throat as horror threatened to consume her. Devon’s hold on her tightened, he pressed her firmly against his chest, his hands entwining in her hair as he kissed her forcefully. “Did the people know?” Melissa asked softly.
“I don’t think so,” Dani whispered. “Very few were ever taken into the laboratory, until recently, and I’m sure The Commission went for people outside of this town as well.”
“I’d like to kill you myself,” Chris muttered in revulsion.
Cassie didn’t disagree with him. “How involved in this were you?” Julian asked softly.
Dani shook her head. “This is the town where we stayed after our parents were killed; I even went to the school until eighth grade. That was when The Commission decided to send Joey out in search of other Hunter’s and Guardian’s, but I didn’t know about the laboratory until recently.”
Cassie’s stomach was twisted into a tight knot; she was having a hard time breathing through the horror constricting her chest. She glanced up at Devon, trying not to lose control of her emotions and temper. Dani’s betrayal had almost cost Cassie and Julian their lives. It had almost cost her Devon and her friends. If she allowed her anger to grow, Cassie was fairly certain that she may very well kill Dani.
“Where do I come in on all of this?” Cassie asked quietly, knowing that she didn’t want to hear the answer, but having to ask the question.