Cassie nodded. That was fine; she didn’t particularly care how they got the information, only that they got it. She was not going to leave those children lost and adrift in the world, possibly being tortured like their unlucky friends had been. She would find them, and she would make sure that they were safe afterwards. She would make sure that they didn’t suffer anymore than they already had.
She would find them if it was the last thing she did.
“How did you make these creatures so strong?” she inquired, wanting to hear what he had to say for himself, before Julian got his hands upon him.
His glance once more returned to the window. “You know if they break in here, I’m vulnerable to an attack while tied to this chair.”
Cassie’s eyes narrowed as she glared fiercely at him. She knew what he wanted. If she released him, he would tell her, but there was no way she was releasing him. She didn’t trust him enough to release him. She didn’t trust him enough to even give him a damn leg back. “I’ll just have to make sure they don’t get near you, if I’m motivated enough,” she added coldly, hoping that he got her point as well.
He quirked an eyebrow, his jaw clenched tightly before he nodded. “I suppose you will.” They stared hard at each other for a long while before he finally nodded. “Vampire blood alone wasn’t working, we couldn’t figure out the combination. So we decided to add a new blood, with the vampire blood.”
Cassie stared silently at him, no longer having the capacity to be horrified or surprised. “So you added mine.”
It was not a question, just a statement of fact that she already knew. “Yes.”
She didn’t want to hear anymore, there was nothing left for her to hear. She turned away, needing to get some distance between them before she turned back. “Why did you give me Julian’s blood?”
He shrugged to the best of his ability. “To see what it would do. To see if it would make you stronger, or if eventually you would become one of them. And either way it would have been interesting to see the effects on you.”
Cassie closed her eyes, her hands fisted tightly. “You must feel like a real hero, running all of those experiments, testing them on your own daughter.”
“You’re not my daughter.”
She blinked in surprise, unable to understand why his words would still cause a stab of pain to her heart. This man should mean nothing to her, but unfortunately he didn’t. “You’re right, I’m not.” She turned away from him, meaning to leave, meaning to get as far away from this monster as possible. She wanted nothing to do with the man that claimed the same DNA as her. But call her a masochist there was one more thing that she had to ask. “Why didn’t you come for Chris and I when we were younger?”
He studied her for a long while, a muscle in his cheek twitched slightly. “I was injured in the battle, by the time I recovered enough to come after you, your grandmother had already fled the state. I didn’t know where you were, or anything about you, until Luther started poking into the history of The Hunter’s, and Joey arrived here. I’m glad I didn’t find you.”
Cassie couldn’t stop the tears that burned her eyes as she nodded slowly. If he had found her, he would have destroyed her the moment he realized she didn’t have any abilities. Or she would have been locked away and experimented on until she went insane, or her body finally gave out on her. “So am I,” she whispered.
She moved swiftly away from him, unable to listen to anymore. She turned the corner to find Devon and Julian standing by the coolers. They were large, dark, and powerful. Their eyes were agleam in the light coming from the coolers, their postures rigid and hard. Cassie could feel the anger and hatred radiating from them in waves. Luther stood behind them, the lenses of his glasses gleaming. Anger had made the lines in his face harsher. Chris was leaning against one of the glass doors, his arms folded over his chest as he stared hard into the darkened room behind her.
Melissa stood silently beside Chris, her onyx eyes glistened with unshed tears. Her black hair spilled across her shoulders, the blue highlights in it gleamed in the light of the cooler. Dani was immobile, her eyes wide in horror, her mouth parted slightly as she stared behind Cassie. Annabelle and Liam stood close together, their hands entwined tightly. Annabelle’s sea green eyes gleamed brightly while Liam’s oddly silver eyes were narrowed with anger. She hadn’t heard any of them enter the room.
“You ok?” Devon asked softly.
“Yes.”
She moved into him, wrapping her arms around his waist as she rested her head on his chest, savoring in the hard strength he radiated. No matter what happened, no matter how awful things were, as long as he was here she didn’t care. As long as he was here she could get through anything. He enfolded her tightly, his hand wrapping around the back of her head as he cradled her tightly.
“How much did you hear?” she asked softly.
“Most of it,” Devon answered, his eyes dark and distant, his body tense with anger.
“I’ll go watch him, you need to get some rest,” Julian said, turning to move away.
“Julian.” He turned back to her an odd gleam in his crystalline blue eyes. “We will need to learn what he knows.”
Julian flashed a heart stopping grin at her, his white teeth flashed brightly in the dark night. “Oh, it will be my pleasure,” he purred.
Cassie frowned, knowing that she should feel bad about what Julian might do to him, but unable to find the energy to do so. She was too tired now to feel sympathy and compassion for someone that had never shown her, or Julian, any. But she knew that she could not allow Julian to be cruel to him.
“Not tonight Julian, and not cruelly. We can’t sink to his level, no matter how much we would both like to.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Luther said on a sigh. He pulled his glasses off, cleaning them as they all stared questioningly at him.
“Of course it matters! The children!” Cassie retorted sharply when Luther did not continue.
Luther shook his head as he slid his glasses back on. “Yes, yes, of course the children matter,” he said quickly. “That is not how I meant it to sound. We must find the children, but Julian will be unable to help us do so.”
“Like hell I won’t,” Julian snarled, taking a step toward Luther. “If you have a problem with me hurting him…”
“I don’t,” Luther said flatly.