She had only one hope.
“Devon will find us,” she whispered.
Julian snorted in disgust. “Keep dreaming princess.”
She rounded angrily on him, her hands fisted as she glared furiously up at him. “He will come!” she retorted.
He stared at her for a moment longer before bending down to look her in the eye. “I have no doubt that he is looking for you princess, it is only a matter of how is he going to find you?”
Cassie stared silently back at him, her mouth parting slightly. She had no idea how, and she didn’t want to think about the how, she just wanted to believe that he would. There had to be a way, someway, it was the only hope that she had, and if she lost it she was going to go crazy in this small cell. Swallowing heavily she forced herself to defiantly return his steady stare. “Devon will find a way,” she insisted. “Maybe Liam…”
He quirked an eyebrow again, his full mouth curved in amusement as he shook his head. “Liam talks to animals, not much help there. In fact, my ability was probably the only hope that they did have, and I’m not going to do them a damn bit of good in here.”
Cassie’s nostrils flared as she exhaled sharply. Her sudden lethargy was forgotten as fear and distress rolled through her. “It’s not like you would have helped them anyway,” she muttered.
He offered her a small smile. “Don’t be so quick to judge princess, I’m full of surprises.”
She blinked at him in shock, twisting on the cot in order to ease the crick in her neck that her position was causing her. “You would have helped them?” she demanded disbelievingly, resting her hands on the windowsill as she knelt before him.
He grinned at her in amusement, flashing all of his white teeth as he winked devilishly. “If I thought it would be fun I would have.”
Cassie was baffled by his behavior and cavalier attitude. The Julian she knew was ruthless, monstrous, and a cold hearted killer. This Julian was nothing like that one. This Julian seemed almost light hearted and carefree, which seemed completely out of sorts with their environment and horrendous situation. Cassie shook her head, trying to rid herself of the confusion swirling through her.
“I don’t get you,” she said softly.
He dropped onto the bed beneath his window and propped his arm on the sill to study her. “That’s the way I like it.”
Cassie glared back at him. “You told Isla about my grandmother, you sent her there to kill her!”
Another surge of anger somehow managed to burst past the drug induced lethargy clinging to her. It didn’t come raging out of her like it did the night she’d killed Isla, but it coiled through her chest like a serpent unwinding from a rock. Then, whatever they had shot her up with, and whatever they were pumping into her room, took hold of her again. It was almost instantaneous; the anger rose up and was swiftly doused.
Cassie gazed helplessly around, feeling trapped and claustrophobic, pathetically helpless, and suddenly very lethargic again. She blinked, trying to clear the fog from her mind. She didn’t want to go to sleep. If she fell asleep, she wouldn’t see them coming for her. If she fell asleep, they would get to her again. Cassie shuddered in terror, instinctively drawing her knees up against her chest in a poor attempt to soothe herself in some way.
“I didn’t send Isla after your grandmother.”
Cassie turned slowly back toward him. She struggled to clear her hazy mind, barely grasping hold of what they had been talking about. She shook her head as the tendrils of clouds continued to move in, slithering through her brain. She closed her eyes, just needing a moment to gather her thoughts.
“Hey! Hey!” Cassie’s head snapped up at the loud banging. She started in surprise at her surroundings, having briefly forgotten about the horror that surrounded her. “Hey!” Her head whipped around, her eyes widening as Julian slapped his hands against the glass one more time. “Stay awake! I’m talking to you!”
Cassie blinked dazedly at him, trying to pull herself out of the mist surrounding her. She managed a small nod, focusing blearily on him. “I’m awake.” Her voice sounded thick, groggy, her tongue felt funny, too heavy.
“I did not send Isla after your grandmother.”
Cassie frowned at him, her eyes narrowed slightly as he touched upon that awful subject. “Then how did she know who my grandmother was?” Cassie demanded her words slightly slurred due to her strange tongue.
Julian’s eyes burned into hers. “I may have known about your grandmother, and I may know many other things about you, but I can assure you that it was never your grandmother that I was after.”
When Cassie remained staring questioningly at him, he continued. “It was you.”
She glared at him, her hands dug into her legs in an attempt to keep herself awake. She was slightly unnerved by the fact that he knew things about her, but then she had known for a long time that he did. Just what exactly, and how much, did he know about her? “You told Isla about my grandmother though,” she growled.
Anger spurted through her when his mouth quirked in amusement. “No princess, I didn’t. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out about your grandmother, or you. Even Isla, who had many admirable attributes but not too much in the way of brains, was able to put two and two together.” Cassie’s scowl deepened at the mention of Isla’s attributes. “I told her to stay away from your grandmother.”
“Why would you do that?” she demanded.
He tilted his head to the side, studying her carefully. “I didn’t want to poke the bear, not yet anyway.”
Cassie blinked at him in stunned surprise. “Excuse me?”
“I wasn’t ready to disturb the hornet’s nest I sensed inside of you. But Isla didn’t care about my warnings, or heed them. She was too bent on trying to get her revenge.” His eyes drifted toward the glass behind her. “She paid for that.”
“Is that why you tried to keep Devon from getting to me that night, so that Isla could get what she deserved? Or me for that matter?” she accused fiercely, not believing what he was saying to her at all.
Julian sat back slightly on his heels. She could almost see the wheels turning in his brain, trying to decide what he did, or did not want to reveal. Finally, he shrugged and leaned forward again. “No, I intervened because I had to be certain, and no matter how much I had advised Isla against it, she did give me the opportunity I needed to observe you,” he said softly.