She was aggravated and frustrated that Julian and Isla had not made an appearance. She needed to draw them out, she needed to get free of her friends, and her guard dog somehow. Cassie glanced at the woods. Though she could not see Devon, she knew that he was out there, keeping pace with them, watching over her.
Anger blazed through her. She turned stiffly away from the woods, not wanting to acknowledge him in any way. She knew that ignoring him would not make him go away, but she didn’t know what else to do. She didn’t know how to make him leave. There was nothing more that she could say, or do, to make him understand that the best thing for both of them was to be apart.
The best thing for her was to get this over with so she could be free of the misery and rage consuming her.
“Cassie?” She turned slowly toward Chris, feeling stiff and wooden. “Are you ok?”
She frowned, nodding as she realized that she had stopped walking. “Fine,” she muttered.
Shoving her hands in her pockets, she kept her head bowed as she hurried toward Chris’s car. She climbed silently inside, her hand twitching back to the stake at her side. She watched unseeingly out the window as Chris made his way swiftly through the cemetery, the center of town, and eventually to her house.
She stared at the quiet house, allowing herself a moment to grieve for the warmth and happiness that used to enshroud the structure. It had none of that now. Now it was cold, lonely, a place that she hated, and that now only served as a constant reminder of all of her mistakes, and all of her failings. And there were so very many of them.
She had failed miserably in all she had set out to do, and her grandmother had been the one to pay for those mistakes.
Cassie shuddered as she slipped from the car, not looking up as she made her way to the door. Flinging the door open, she barely felt the heat on her chilled skin as she flipped on the lights. “How about some food?” Melissa inquired softly.
“Not hungry.”
Cassie tossed her coat into the hall closet and kicked off her boots. She felt drained, exhausted, completely beat, but she knew that she would not get any sleep tonight. She never slept anymore, nightmares plagued her continuously. She moved slowly into the living room and plopped down on the couch. She turned the TV on, but she didn’t watch it as she stared unseeingly at the flashing screen, not absorbing the scenes or sounds.
Chris sat stiffly beside her, folding his hands before him as he leaned his elbows on his knees. “Are you sure you don’t want some food?”
She nodded, absently flipping through the channels, though she was not looking for anything. She had nothing to look for anymore. Nothing to see. She was nothing now.
Cassie curled her legs underneath her and rested her head on the throw pillow. She remained unmoving, barely breathing as crashing waves of rage and absolute misery washed through her. She felt like a wildly swinging pendulum of emotions and she hated it. She wanted off of the rollercoaster that was her life now.
She didn’t know how much longer she could take all of this. She was rapidly falling apart and there was nothing that she could do to stop it. She had to find Julian and Isla soon. She knew that if she could just make them pay for what they had done to her grandmother than everything would be better. Revenge had to make her feel better, mainly because she knew she would not survive the battle, but it would be worth it just to make them pay.
She had to find them soon though, because she was fairly certain that she was not going to survive this agony for much longer. She wasn’t even sure how her body was still running with very little sleep and almost no food, but it would only be a matter of time before it shut down. She just had to find Julian and Isla before she shut down completely, or snapped and lost it.
***
Devon watched from the shadows as Cassie slipped through the halls. She had taken to wearing black sweaters, and hoodies, in an attempt to keep herself hidden from the world. Though she may not draw as much attention from her fellow classmates as she used to, he couldn’t fail to notice her. No matter how hard she tried to make herself invisible, he would always be able to see her.
She kept her head bowed, her golden hair spilled out from under the hood she had pulled over her head. The habitual dark glasses she now wore were firmly in place again, blocking out the startling beauty of her violet blue eyes. Beneath the dark hood her skin was pale; the normal rosiness of her cheeks was gone.
She had lost weight; her clothes were baggy on her, her face thinner. She was lean with an athletic grace, but with the weight loss the muscles in her arms stood out even more, and the bones in her hands were clearly visible as she clutched her books tight to her chest. Her face had thinned out considerably. She had always been beautiful, shockingly so, and she still was but it was a more refined beauty. She appeared older, more mature, as the youthful chubbiness of her cheeks had faded away to reveal the elegant planes of her delicate features.
She didn’t look at anyone as she slid into the girl’s locker room. Moving like a wraith, she obviously didn’t want to be noticed as she disappeared around a corner. “What’s with the sunglasses?” Devon inquired, turning as Chris appeared at his side and leaned against the locker next to Devon.
“She says the light hurts her eyes now.”
Devon glanced at the harsh fluorescents. They were bright against his eyes, but he’d had a lot of practice with adjusting his sensitive vision to them. “You don’t believe her?”
Chris sighed heavily, shifting his feet. “I believe that she believes it, but I think it’s just another way for her to try and hide herself away.”
Devon nodded thoughtfully; though he suspected that hiding herself was part of the reason he knew that it was not all of it. “She’s still not eating.”
“No, not much anyway. Probably just enough to keep her going.”
Biting into his lower lip, Devon fought back his frustration and anger. He hated being so impotent and useless, especially now, when she needed him most. If he could just reach her, if any of them could just reach her. “There has to be something we can do,” he whispered.
Chris lifted his eyebrows. “Doing the best we can. Nothing helps. And with Luther leaving....”
Chris’s voice trailed off, Devon turned toward him, feigning surprise. He knew that Luther had left, but Chris, Melissa, and Dani still did not know that he and Luther had been talking, researching about Cassie, and coming up against a solid wall of nothing. There was nothing about any of the Hunter’s like Cassie in the multitude of books that Luther possessed. It was the most frustrating, boring experience of Devon’s long life. Though they had been unable to find it they knew there had to be something out there about the other Hunter’s that had been like Cassie, and Luther was determined to find it, even if it meant leaving at a very bad time.