Dani’s lip trembled as she glanced guiltily at Cassie. “I thought that you would hurt one of us,” she whispered. “So I told The Commission about you. I didn’t know what else to do.”
“Talk to one of us. Tell us your fears!” Devon exploded. Cassie grabbed hold of him as he took an angry step toward Dani, truly fearing that he would hurt her, if not kill her. He stopped moving but his eyes flared bright red. “You could have come to us. We saved your worthless life. It would have been far better if I had just let Julian rip your throat out when he had the chance!”
“I second that,” Julian muttered, drawing a sharp look from Cassie.
“Devon stop. Julian, don’t egg him on,” Cassie warned.
“I thought I was doing a good thing!” Dani wailed. “I helped them capture Julian because he was our enemy! I was helping to rid the world of him. And they… and they told me that they could help Cassie,” she said brokenly. “They promised me that they wouldn’t hurt her, and that they could make her better. They promised me she would be returned afterward. I didn’t know what they were going to do to you Cassie, I really didn’t! I never would have done it if I had known!”
Dani broke off, tears rolling freely down her face as she looked at the hostile faces surrounding her. Devon’s grip on Cassie had tightened; his body was as taut as a bowstring. She knew that if he had not been holding her, he would have gone after Dani, and he would have killed her.
“I am sorry,” Dani whimpered.
“Ok fine,” Cassie said after a few moments. “Let’s say you really did want to help me, and you didn’t know what they were going to do. What I want to know is why they were so interested in me, why didn’t they just kill me?”
Dani glanced toward the window, her brow furrowed slightly. “Because you were somehow able to survive, you were somehow able to control the darkness inside you after you killed Isla. You were able to come back from it when that darkness tried to claim you.”
“But that was only because Devon helped me back,” Cassie said softly.
Dani shook her head as her attention returned to Cassie. “They didn’t know that for sure though. They had to take a chance that you might be able to come back on your own.”
Cassie closed her eyes, fighting against the frustration and confusion that was threatening to pull her under. “But they kept me drugged in there; they never let me lose control. They never gave me a chance to try and come back on my own.”
“No, you were too valuable to them. If you lost control, you might be able to break free of the drug induced stupor like the others had. But if they could keep the human in you calm, they could try to discover the secret of what made you work. What makes you only rarely volatile? And could they make you stronger, but still allow you to control it?”
A strange new sensation began to creep through Cassie’s stomach. There was an awful ringing in her ears. She recalled all the blood they had taken from her, the stuff they had injected her with. What had they been trying to do to her?
“What did they give me in there? What were they trying to prove with those injections?” she whispered, her voice choked and hoarse.
Dani’s eyes were wide and terrified as she glanced nervously around the room, seemingly unwilling to answer Cassie’s question. Devon turned slowly toward Cassie, his eyebrows furrowed tightly as he stared hard at her. His eyes traveled slowly over her body, his eyes turning a fiery red. His nostrils flared suddenly and she could almost feel him inhaling her scent. Confusion emanated from him as he clung to her.
Ice ran through Cassie’s veins in the face of Dani’s petrified expression and the strange shaking that was suddenly taking hold of Devon. Dani glanced wearily back at Julian again before focusing her attention on Cassie and Devon once more. “They wanted to see how much blood you could handle,” Dani whispered. “How much vampire blood you could take. Julian’s blood.”
“That explains it,” Chris breathed.
Cassie’s gaze swung wildly toward him, he was staring at her with dawning, horrified comprehension. His eyes were wide and frightened. Cassie opened her mouth to question him, but before she could say anything, all hell broke loose.
CHAPTER 4
“Son of a bitch!” Devon roared, releasing Cassie as rage flared hotly through him, completely encompassing him in its grip.
Cassie tried to grasp hold of him again, fearful of what he might do, but he had already moved swiftly out of her reach. Grabbing hold of the glass countertop, he lifted it as if it weighed no more than a feather, and flipped it off of the back wall. It crashed loudly off the wall, metal twisted as glass shattered. Cassie flinched, jumping back as glass scattered around her feet, and bounced off of the mountain boots she had found. Knives, jewelry, and other assorted miscellaneous clattered loudly as it splayed across the floor.
Devon stormed forward, fury radiated from him as he went straight at Dani. Dani let out a frightened cry, her face turned white as she scrambled to get out of his way. Liam and Chris moved to intercept Devon’s murderous rampage, knocking Devon back a few feet as he reached for her. Dani let out a terrified scream, ducking low as she darted behind Luther and Melissa.
“Devon calm down! Devon!” Liam shouted trying to stop him as Devon seized hold of a rack of winter hats and gloves.
Melissa cried out, darting to the side as the rack sailed at her head. Annabelle scurried to help Liam, glancing anxiously at Cassie, but Cassie found that she couldn’t move. Dani’s words were just beginning to fully sink in. They had given her Julian’s blood! They had pumped her full of vampire blood! Maybe that was the reason she felt so connected to Julian now, but although that idea sounded reasonable, it didn’t feel right. She felt a bond with Julian because they had formed a strong bond while being held captive together. It had nothing to do with his blood, and everything to do with the man that she had come to know.
Liam grabbed hold of Devon’s arm, trying to hold him back. Devon swung him forward, slamming him into the wall with a resounding thud that shook the store as he seized hold of Liam’s throat. A picture fell somewhere in the distance, glass shattered as it hit the floor. Windows rattled in their frames as Liam’s feet kicked against the wall, his face turning bright red as Devon squeezed harder. It appeared that Devon wanted to rip his head right off.
Chris launched himself at Devon’s back, trying to pull him off, but Devon flung him away as if he weighed no more than a feather. Cassie gasped in horror as Chris skidded across the floor; he smashed into a rack of magazines, knocking it over. He pawed at the rack, shoving it off of him and tossing it away. Melissa rushed to his side, helping him to his feet as Devon slammed Liam off the wall again.