“Devon…”
His eyes were hard, his jaw set as he met her gaze. “We need to know Cassie. Everything. I can make him tell us all of it.”
“Even if it drives him crazy?” Annabelle inquired softly. Cassie’s head snapped toward her, grateful for someone with a little reasoning. “Can you live with that Devon?”
“Yes.”
Annabelle hesitated for a moment before she nodded; her strawberry curls bounced around her shoulders. “Ok then.”
“Devon…” Cassie started.
He grasped hold of her shoulders, silencing her protest. “We’ll give him the choice to tell us, or not, but either way he will reveal what he knows. It will be his choice if he survives it, or not.”
“Survives it?” Cassie croaked.
“It will not kill him, but it won’t leave him the same.”
Cassie looked wildly around. She hated the man for everything he had done to her, and to her friends, but she could not do this to him. “No, we cannot do that. We are not these people! We are better than this. We are better than him!”
“The children Cassie,” Melissa said softly. “We have to find those children before any more harm can come to them. Think of all they have lost so far, we must save their lives.”
Cassie shook her head, hating their reasons, hating the fact that she knew they were right. Pulling away from Devon, she straightened her shoulders and turned to storm back into the room where her father was tied. His head was bowed, but he lifted it as he heard her approach. She studied him carefully, trying to find something she could relate to in him, some spark of humanity, but she found none.
Why on earth did she feel bad about hurting him when he’d felt no compunction about hurting her?
“We need to know what you know,” she told him crisply. He simply stared at her, his face emotionless, his eyes flat. “I know that Julian is useless against you.” His hard mouth quirked to one side in amusement. “But Devon’s not.”
The smile slipped from his face, his eyes darted worriedly behind her as the others filtered further into the room. “I will fight it.”
“And he will destroy you if you do. You will either tell us, or you won’t be the same afterward. Those are your only choices. You have until tomorrow to decide.”
She turned away from him, suddenly needing to escape. Needing to get as far from this monster as possible before she snapped completely. Her skin itched, her heart beat rapidly in her chest; her need to escape became almost frantic. Devon came swiftly toward her, seeming to sense her intense desperation. “Come on.”
Taking hold of her hand he led her into the small side room. Cassie was surprised to find a ladder door pulled down into the middle of the room. She frowned at it, her gaze darting up the ladder to the dark space beyond. “What is that?”
“The attic. Luther found it while we were gone.”
He helped her up the ladder, staying behind her as she climbed swiftly up the rickety stairs. She stepped into the small attic space, glancing around at the wooden beams that ran across the ceiling, and the old curtains that covered the tiny windows. It was slightly colder up here; she wrapped her arms around herself in an attempt to fight off the chill.
Devon appeared behind her, crouching down to avoid the beams that ran across the ceiling. Moving slowly along, he was bent nearly double as he tugged a group of sleeping bags from behind a few old boxes. “I put these up here earlier. I thought you might need some time alone.”
Cassie nodded, tears of gratitude burning her eyes as he laid the sleeping bags swiftly out. He made a makeshift bed quickly before turning back to her. She could only stare at him for a moment, admiring the play of shadows across his magnificent face, and the glow in his emerald eyes. Her heart swelled with love and pride. He was hers and there was nothing that she wouldn’t do for him, nothing that she would not give him.
“You know they have already given me vampire blood, and I am no different than I was before.”
He looked slightly taken aback by her words. His mouth parted in surprise, his eyes widened slightly. But she could also sense the spark of hunger, want, and need that shot through him. The hunger and need that he would never admit to, and tried to keep as hidden from her as much as possible though she knew that it was always present. “Cassie…”
“I want this Devon,” she whispered.
He stared at her for a moment, hesitant and worried. “As do I,” he groaned in a hoarse voice. “But there is no way of knowing what would happen if you were changed.”
She bit her bottom lip nervously, hating the fact that he was right, hating the fact that she could not be with him completely right now. It had taken her awhile to even decide that she wanted to join him. And it seemed that from the moment she had decided she wanted it, everything had gone to hell, everything had aligned against them ever being together completely. She didn’t want to think that it was some sort of omen, didn’t want to think that the fates had aligned against them, but it was hard not to sometimes. She just had to remind herself that it was not fate that had aligned against them, but horrid men like the ones tied up below.
Taking a deep breath, Cassie decided to try another route, one that would give them both what they wanted. “Then don’t change me, not yet anyway. Not until all of this is over, and I won’t be needed for the battle as much...”
“Cassie!” he hissed, his hands fisting. “This has nothing to do with needing you in battle, and everything to do with my fear over what could happen to you.”
Cassie sighed softly as she nodded. “I know that Devon,” she whispered, hoping to ease the tension radiating from him. “But I want to be with you forever, and once this is over I want you to change me, consequences be damned.”
“Cassie…”
“But until then, I just want to know what it is like to taste you, to have your blood inside of me.”
He inhaled sharply, his hands fisted so tight that the corded muscles of his arms stood out starkly. She could see the fierce war he was waging with himself, the struggle for control that he was trying to maintain. She thought that he would deny her again, that he would argue with her. Instead, he bent to pull the sleeping bags back, holding his hand out as he beckoned welcomingly to her. Cassie’s heart leapt into her throat, excitement tore through her. She desperately needed this, desperately needed him. She did not hesitate as she hurried forward, slipping her hand easily into his.