Tears slipped silently down her face, she turned back to the window, despising the board covering it. “What about Devon?” she whispered.
Julian shifted again, a small ripple of motion that she barely caught, but suddenly he was before her. Gently clasping her chin, he lifted her face to him. His ice eyes burned into hers, the intensity in them left her breathless. “I swear to you that I will do everything I can to help the both of you figure this out. I won’t leave you alone in this, but Devon needs time to himself. He needs to be alone now Cass, before he hurts someone. You have to accept that fact.”
Her lower lip trembled as he gently wiped the tears from her cheek with his thumb. The intensity in his eyes burned away, it was replaced with a yearning that nearly broke her heart. For a moment Cassie froze, frightened that he would kiss her again. She stared pleadingly back at him, praying that he wouldn’t. With a soft sigh, he dropped his head to hers, cradling her face gently for a moment before kissing her forehead quickly and pulling swiftly away.
Cassie watched silently as he stalked back across the room, his back as stiff as a board, his body humming with tension. Cassie ducked her head; unable to meet Chris or Liam’s gazes, she turned her attention to the rest of the room and all the people she cared about. Patrick and Joey did not count, but her gaze landed upon them. Joey’s head was bowed as he slept in his chair, but Patrick was awake and watching them intently. The creatures had never gone for them.
Cassie frowned, her arms folding over her chest as she studied them a new discomfort began to grow inside of her. Why hadn’t the creatures gone for them? The one had targeted her because it had seen her, and recognized her, and hated her. But they would have recognized these two, and no matter how much they may have hated her, their hate for these two would have to be worse. There is no way that it could not be, not with what these two had done to them.
She took a step toward them, her head tilted to the side, as the wheels in her mind began to spin rapidly. And then, she knew. Her mouth dropped, her eyes widened as she gaped at the two men. “Cassie?” Chris inquired softly.
She took another step toward them, her heart hammering, and her throat dry. She thought of the creatures that had escaped from here, thought of the ones still lurking within the shadows, and her skin crawled with disgust and horror. The icy tentacles of terror crept steadily up her neck, causing her hair to stand on end. How many of them were still out there, hunting, plotting?
“Cassie?” Chris asked again, an edge of fear making his voice sharper than normal.
She turned slowly toward Julian, her heart hammering with terror. “You need to go find him Julian,” she whispered. “Please, you need to go now. He can’t be out there alone, it’s too dangerous. They’re far smarter than we thought, far smarter.”
Julian stared at her for a moment, his eyes hooded and distant. Frustration filled Cassie, panic clenched at her chest as she thrust a finger at Patrick and Joey. “That one recognized me from in there; he came at me because he recognized me. You think that he, that they didn’t recognize them. That they didn’t want to kill them too! Of course they did, but they didn’t go after them. Why? Because they were tied to the chairs, they were easy targets; they knew that they could take them without a problem. Those creatures knew that they had to come for us first, that they had to take us down in order to get to them. They planned everything, they calculated everything. We already knew that they ambushed us, but we assumed it was the same as wolves hunting a deer. We didn’t realize just how much thought process and intelligence they do still have. Julian you have to go get him, they’re out there and they’re going to come back, or they are going to trap him. He can’t be alone Julian, he can’t! They’ll kill him if he is!”
Julian simply continued to stare at her a moment longer before his gaze turned slowly toward the two men tied to the chairs. Anger and hatred flitted swiftly over his defined features. “How much reason do they have?” he growled.
Patrick shifted slightly, wiggling his hands behind his back. His eyes were cold, flat, as he met Julian’s furious gaze. “Far more than we would have liked. It’s why we were destroying them, they were more dangerous than we had realized.”
Cassie shuddered as disgust and revulsion filled her. He sounded as if he were simply talking about rabid animals and not human beings with families and lives. She found herself wishing that the creatures had killed him when they broke in. “They had realized you were going to destroy them all and they plotted their escape,” Cassie breathed.
“Bastard!” Julian hissed.
Patrick showed no signs of remorse as he met Julian’s fierce gaze. “Insanity,” Luther whispered. “Complete insanity.”
“Julian,” Cassie breathed. He turned slowly toward her. “Julian someone has to warn him, please Julian.”
He hesitated for a moment before nodding briskly. “I’ll find him.”
“You can’t go out there alone.”
“I’ll be fine.”
Cassie reached for him as he grabbed hold of the door. Terror flooded her, she wanted Devon safe, but she didn’t want Julian to be hurt in the process. “Take me with you.” He shook his head, his hand clenching hold of hers. “Take someone with you.”
“I’m not leaving you with even less numbers in here than before. I will be fine princess.”
Her fingers tightened upon his, clinging to him for a moment longer. “Don’t call me princess,” she whispered.
He grinned at her before releasing her hand. “Anything you say. You are to stay in here, do you understand me?” Cassie nodded. “I mean it Cass, you stay inside I’m trusting you on this one. I can’t save you both.”
She managed another small nod. Chris, having risen from the chair, pulled her back a step. She watched in terror as Julian slipped out the door.
CHAPTER 14
“Cassie.” She turned briefly away from the small hole she had found in another window. Annabelle stood nervously by her side, her tiny hands clenched tight. “Cassie maybe you should get some sleep, you must be exhausted.”
Cassie shook her head as she turned away. She was exhausted, her entire body ached from being so stiff and anxious, but she would not rest until Julian and Devon returned to her safely. Besides, she could not go to sleep when they were still so very vulnerable to attack. It was only a matter of time before the creatures regrouped and came back at them in full force, unless they had decided to spread out from the town in search of easier victims. Though, with the cunning and thirst for vengeance the creatures appeared to have, she did not think they would leave this town until they had extracted their revenge.