Including Devon.
“Cassie…”
“I don’t want to talk about it.” She cut Chris off sharply, wanting no sympathy, no condolences right now. She didn’t want love anymore. It only left her vulnerable, open to hurt and pain. It was something that she had known before Devon arrived, something that she had lived by. But he had made her forget about it, for a little while anyway. Today she had been forcefully reminded of it. Today she had been slapped in the face with it.
Devon had made her love, and hope, and dream again. They were all things that she knew would get her hurt, but she had been unable to stop herself from doing them in his presence. He had opened her up, made her vulnerable, and she hated him for that. She hated him for making her forget about the pain and death that encompassed her life. If he hadn’t arrived, then none of this would have happened. Julian wouldn’t be here without Devon, and Cassie would have been better prepared for the loss of her loved ones. The loss of her grandmother still would have hurt, but it would not have devastated her to this degree. It would not have shattered her in this way.
But Devon had come, and he had opened her up, and now she was an empty shell of the person he had made her. All that existed in this body was anger. There was no room for hope and love in here. Not when revenge was consuming her. Fisting her hands, Cassie stared unseeingly out the window. She would get Julian. She would destroy him. And she did not care if she died in the process; she almost hoped that she did. She wanted all of this to end.
She didn’t want to live like this anymore.
She just had to make sure that she took that monster with her when she went. Chris turned into her driveway, parking beside Luther’s car. Cassie stared silently at the small Cape house. It had always seemed so welcoming and inviting before. It had always been her home. Now it seemed foreign, alien; cold. How could it be a home when the person who had made it such was gone? It couldn’t, that was the simple and only answer.
It was no longer her home, but that didn’t matter as she didn’t plan on living here for much longer. Chris turned toward her, his eyes weary and wounded. She didn’t meet his gaze, she simply couldn’t. He had always been more like a brother than just her friend, and she didn’t want to love him. Not anymore. If something happened to him too…
Cassie shut the thought down. If something happened to him, she would deal with it. She would survive it. It would not destroy her.
Although, it would. No matter how much she told herself that it wouldn’t, Chris’s death would still level her. Cassie shuddered, the anger flitting momentarily away as sorrow rose swiftly up, nearly choking her. What had she done? What was she becoming?
Her head bowed, her shoulders heaved. Chris reached out to touch her but she jerked away from him, knowing that his touch would unravel her completely. She could not unravel, not here, not now. There was someone that needed to die first.
Chris’s hand hung briefly in the air before falling limply back to his side. Forging her walls of anger once more, Cassie shoved the door to his beat up Mustang open. Climbing swiftly from the car, she marched up the walkway, climbed the stairs, and thrust the door open. The house was just as cold inside as it had looked outside. Melissa, Dani, and Luther were in the living room, their heads shot up as she stormed into the foyer. Chris trudged slowly in behind her.
Dani and Melissa were huddled upon the couch, tears marred both their faces, and their eyes were bloodshot. Luther was in his customary spot at the fireplace mantel, his arm resting on top of it. Though he was not currently crying his eyes were bloodshot and swollen as well. Melissa hurried toward her; her normally neat hair in disarray. Her onyx eyes shimmered with tears, sorrow radiated from her. Holding out her hands, Melissa reached for her, but Cassie took a swift step back. Fury filled her.
“Don’t,” she ordered briskly.
Melissa’s hands fell to her sides, confusion marred her pretty features. Luther and Dani had also started to come forward, but they both stopped only feet behind Melissa. “Cassie…”
“Did you see this coming?” Cassie demanded her voice almost unrecognizable due to the anger that filled it.
Melissa’s dark eyebrows shot up in surprise, her mouth parted slightly. She glanced briefly at Chris, who still hung back, looking more like a kicked puppy then the man that Cassie knew so well. He gave an almost imperceptible shake of his head that caused the fire inside of Cassie to rise up a level. “Did you?” Cassie fairly barked.
“No!” Melissa gasped. “No Cassie of course not, if I had I would have stopped it…”
“You couldn’t have stopped it, we couldn’t have stopped it. There was no stopping it. There is no stopping any of it.”
The four of them stared at her in disbelief; Chris shifted uncomfortably, his head bowed low. “We could have helped, somehow,” Melissa whispered.
“There is no help.”
Cassie turned away from them, resting her hand on the banister as she made her way upstairs. She needed to take inventory of her weapons, make sure that she was well supplied. She would need them for when she went hunting later.
“Cassie, where is Devon?”
She turned back at Luther’s question, noting the worry and fear that radiated from his wide grey eyes. “No longer welcome in this house.”
The only thing that broke the profound silence was the chiming of her grandmother’s cherished grandfather clock. Cassie shuddered as she reached the top of the stairs, she ignored the eyes she could feel boring into her back.
CHAPTER 22
Devon slid down in his seat, his eyes fixed on the house across the street. He should have known that Luther and Melissa would not be here. Of course they would be with Cassie. But that was ok; he was willing to wait for as long as it took. He just hoped that Melissa did not come back with Luther. This was not something that he wished to discuss in front of her.
Sliding lower in his seat, Devon tried to keep his mind off of Cassie, and the agony that continued to twist in his gut. He didn’t think he could stand to lose her, but he had. And though he felt empty and hollow, he couldn’t help but wonder if it was for the best. There was the obvious danger and threat that Julian and Isla represented, but he was also a danger to her. He could control himself around her, for now, but he didn’t know for how much longer. It was a fact he had realized a few weeks ago, when he had realized exactly what she was to him. Either they end it, or eventually she would have to join him. Though neither option had appealed to her, he had known that in the end she would choose life, a family, and humanity over darkness and death.