“And what must be done?” she demanded, tilting her chin defiantly.
He grinned at her, his long fangs flashing brightly in his tanned face. “You must be changed, of course.”
Cassie’s breath exploded out of her, she nearly fell over from the shock the words caused her. The silence that followed was so profound that she could hear one of the few rabbits left in the woods scurry back into its hole. The silence was so profound that she could hear the soft breaths of the people behind her. Even Devon, who had seemed so close to the edge, remained frozen, unmoving, paralyzed by the words that Zane had just issued.
Cassie was the first to recover her aplomb, the first to know how to respond. “Ok.”
Whereas Zane’s words had stunned everyone into silence, her single word caused an explosion of flurry and reaction so intense that she almost covered her ears to block out their protests. The only ones who did not start shouting their disapproval were Julian and Devon. They remained completely silent as they stared at her as if she had sprouted two heads, as if she were some alien from the planet Jupiter.
The Elders remained silent, watching intently as everyone that had been standing near the store completely forgot about The Elders. They rushed forward, their voices jumbled loudly together in their urge to be heard over everyone else. They approached steadily, each voicing their opposition. The only one that held back was Luther, he was also not screaming as he moved slowly toward them. His gray eyes were sad; the expression he wore was resolved, and slightly frightened. Throughout everything they had been through, she had never seen Luther frightened; she had not thought that it was possible.
Cassie could not tear her eyes away from his face. She could not look away from the man who had been like a father to her for the past four years. He looked as if he had lost her, or was terrified that he was about to. Cassie knew what her decision meant, knew what the consequences of it could be, but she no longer cared.
She had always known that they would come to a crossroad, that one day the choice would be forced upon them. But lately she had begun to fear that it would happen because Devon could no longer control himself and took her by force. If that happened he would always hate himself, even if she did come through the transformation unscathed. But if the choice was taken from them, if they were forced into it, then he could not blame himself, and the tension, misery, and instability he had been living with could be eased.
It would be ok, she would be ok. She firmly believed that, no matter what anyone else said. She would survive this, she would come through it. She had survived far worse and she was still intact. She would make it through this.
“It is settled then,” Zane declared. He folded his hands before him, as his eyes gleamed with satisfaction.
“The hell it is!” Devon exploded.
Cassie flinched slightly. She wanted to move away from the wrath that blasted from him, but she would not back down from this. “Devon…”
“This will not happen!” he interrupted fiercely.
“This will happen!” she retorted just as fiercely. “It has to happen Devon. It finally has to happen.” His eyes narrowed fiercely, the blood red color of them more than a little disturbing. “The choice has been taken from us. We can do this, I can survive this.”
His black hair fell across his forehead in a tumbled mess as he shook his head fiercely. “No, I will not take the chance…”
“The chance that you will snap and do it by force!? The chance that I will be killed and it will destroy you anyway? The chance that I may very well just grow old and die? What chance is it that you are unwilling to take Devon?”
“The chance that I will turn you into a monster!” he roared.
Cassie’s heart broke, pieces of it scattered about her feet. She understood his fear, his anguish, his terror, but he didn’t understand that this must be done now. She turned toward Zane, hating the smug look on his face. “If this happens, you will leave us all be?”
“Of course,” he purred.
“You can’t trust him Cassie,” Devon moaned.
She knew that, she was not a fool. But she also knew that The Elder’s would need them as much as they needed The Elder’s if they were going to take down the Halflings. The creatures in this town were far smarter, and more powerful, than any of them had realized. They needed help in order to thwart this problem. And so would The Elder’s, no matter how powerful they thought they were, they would not all survive the creatures in this town. They would lose a few of their own in the process, and that was a chance that Cassie didn’t think they were willing to take. There were too few of them left to risk losing any more of them.
“I know that,” she whispered. “But we cannot trust you either anymore.” Devon looked as if she had slapped him. She hated to hurt him, hated driving the knife deeper in order to get her own way, but it needed to be done. He needed to realize that this was the end of the road. Needed to realize that there was nowhere else for them to go. “And you can’t keep taking off whenever you feel yourself unraveling. I need you Devon, and if this continues on, I am going to lose you.”
His eyes flickered, pain radiated from him, but she saw a softening in his features. “Cassie…”
“There is no choice, the decision has been made,” Zane said firmly. “She will join us.”
Cassie shot Zane a fierce look as anger flitted over Devon’s features. She had just been starting to reach him but now she could feel his stubborn streak surging to life, wanting to deny Zane’s words. She also wanted to tell Zane that she would not be joining him, she would be joining Devon. Wanted to tell him that she would never be on their side, but she bit her tongue. She had a feeling that if she protested that statement holy hell would break lose. “Wait…”
“There are details to iron out of course,” Zane continued over Devon’s protest. “We will need to make a decision on what will happen to her if the change is not successful. We also must discuss what our relationship amongst each other will be when this is done. There must be a truce struck.”
“I will not let this happen,” Devon grated.
“If it does not happen, then we will fight, because she cannot remain the way that she is. We cannot allow a Hunter to exist that can turn into a monster at a moment’s notice. Apparently her kind used to have the decency to take care of them, but that doesn’t happen now.”
Cassie felt as if she had been slapped. Devon’s hands tightened around her as she took a small step back, horror curdling through her. “Zane,” Devon hissed in warning.