He lifted his eyebrow, tilting his head slightly to the side. “No, they didn’t give me anything like that.”
“But they took your blood too?” she inquired.
He nodded as he ran his hair through his platinum hair. His eyes were distant, troubled. “Yes, they did.”
Cassie folded her hands in her lap, careful not to look at her arm again as she curled up on the bed once more. “I think I’m going to lose my mind,” she admitted softly.
“You can’t do that.”
“And why is that?”
“Cause I can’t be stuck in this hell hole by myself.”
She chuckled softly, but a single tear slid down her face as she rested her head against the glass again. “If it weren’t for this glass you would rip out my throat.”
He laughed. “I’m not so sure I could take you princess, and like I said before, I do enjoy my existence.”
“But you would give it a try?”
His eyebrow cocked in amusement. “I do love a challenge, but no, probably not.”
She turned her head to look at him, surprised to find him curled up next to her again, his head resting above hers, his shoulders pressed against the glass by hers. Once again she was struck by the fact that if the glass wasn’t between them, they would be touching. She found that the thought didn’t make her stomach turn as much as it once had.
He was not such a bad guy, for a cold blooded killer, she amended silently.
“Then why did you come after me the night of the homecoming dance? You had touched me before that night. Hell, you almost killed me before that night.”
His grin widened, his eyes twinkled brightly. “Yeah, that was a good night,” he replied wistfully. Cassie shot him a fierce look that only made his smile widen. “Oh come on princess, we had fun that night.”
“Yeah it was a blast,” she muttered.
“It was,” he agreed, remembering the night with a lot more fondness than she did. Then again, he hadn’t almost bled to death. “I didn’t get much of an impression off of you that first time we met. If you do recall, I barely got my hands on you.”
“Just enough to slit my throat open, and don’t tell me that was fun,” she muttered.
“Not as much fun as our fight at your homecoming dance. That was a blast.” He only grinned at her as she scowled back at him. “That was when I really discovered what you were. And if you do recall, I tended to stay away after that.”
Cassie was silent, her head bowed. “Yes, you did,” she whispered. “Do you think Devon is close to finding us?”
Julian snorted softly. “He’s not looking for me princess, at least not here anyway. But no, I don’t believe so.”
“Are you always so pessimistic?” she inquired.
He grinned at her, his eyes twinkled with amusement. “Just pragmatic. We don’t even know where we are, for him to track us down...” He shook his head, his eyes closed briefly. “Would be a miracle.”
Cassie was silent for a moment, trying hard not to let her doubt and fear swamp her. “I believe in miracles.”
“No, you believe in Devon.”
Cassie looked at him in surprise. “Excuse me?”
“You don’t believe in miracles, you believe in Devon.”
She stared silently at him, contemplating his words. She did believe in Devon, she did have faith that he would find her. That faith was the only thing getting her through this, the only thing keeping her sane. She nodded briefly. “Yes, yes I do. He will find us. He won’t give up until he does.”
“No, he won’t.” Though he agreed with her, she could tell that Julian didn’t put much faith in the words. “But the likely hood of him finding us is small; we need to come up with a plan. We need to get ourselves out of this.”
“How?” she whispered miserably, her gaze darted toward the dark mirror opposite her. She was afraid that they were listening, that though she couldn’t see them, they could still hear her.
“You.” Her eyebrows drew questioningly together as she slowly turned toward him. “When I touched you it was a shock of power unlike any I have ever felt before. If we’re going to get out of this, you are going to have to find that power…”
“I can’t control it, and they have me drugged,” she interrupted sharply.
“You can break through it, I know that you can.”
Cassie met his fevered gaze. “You don’t want me to,” she said softly.
“Yes, I do. We need to get the hell out of here princess, before they kill us, or turn us into something….”
Cassie frowned as his voice trailed off, her heart turned over at his words. “Turn us into something?”
His eyes were hard as they met hers briefly before nodding toward her arm. “What do you think they gave you?”
She refused to look at her arm again; she would vomit if she did. And she sure as hell didn’t want to think about what they had put in her. She would go crazy if she did. “I don’t know. I don’t want to know.” He was silent for a moment, his eyes hard, and the band of white momentarily flashing red. “Should I be worried, Julian?” she breathed.
He shook his head, his eyes becoming normal again. “No princess, you’re fine, but they will give you more. Maybe even something else. We can’t stay here and be their guinea pigs.” Cassie bowed her head to her knees; she had to fight against the fierce shivers that wanted to wrack her. Her flesh was chilled, goose bumps covered her skin. “I know you believe in Devon, but you have to face the fact that he may not be able to find us. Between the two of us, we can get out of here.”
“Or I could turn on you,” she replied miserably.
He was silent for a moment, his jaw clenched tightly. “I can take care of myself princess.”
“Yeah, that’s why you’re here,” she retorted, tired of being called princess.
He stared at her, his eyebrows raised sharply. A muscle twitched in his cheek before he burst into loud laughter. Cassie’s mouth parted in surprise, his laugh was actually very nice. It was warm, and bright, and had a surprising amount of humor in it. She found herself watching him in fascination, unable to stop herself from smiling along with him.
His strange blue eyes twinkled with amusement as his laughter faded away and he turned his attention back to her. “Very true princess, very true. But let’s not worry about me in this; let’s worry about getting our asses out of here.”