He was anything but boyish though with his hard, lean, svelte body, and immortal status. No, Devon was most certainly not a boy; he was not even a man. He was, in fact, her worst enemy. He was the one thing that she had hated for the past four years of her life. The one thing she had despised since she had discovered what she truly was. She had hated vampires ever since she’d learned that her parents, and Chris’s father, had not been killed in a car accident together. In fact, they had been murdered by a group of Elder vampires that had banded together with the sole purpose of destroying the Hunter line. A line that she, and everyone she cared about, was a member of.
If it wasn’t for Chris’s mother Mary getting Cassie and Chris to safety, they also would have been slaughtered in the strike. As it was, Mary had barely escaped with them.
Devon seemed to sense the dark turn that her thoughts had taken. His small smile faded as his hand tightened around hers. He took a step closer, the strength of his body burned against her, heating her suddenly chilled skin. Her heart thudded harder at the proximity of his body, her toes curled as she fought the desperate urge to pull him into her embrace. She held tight to him in the hopes of reburying the past, and blocking out the awful events of the night. Unfortunately there was still too much to deal with before she could allow herself to be lost in the warm comfort of him.
Though she had already told them about the other vampire that had attacked her tonight, there was still much more to know. Especially from Devon. Luther shifted his stance, drawing Cassie’s attention back to the thin man. His eyebrows were raised slightly as his grey eyes studied Devon intently over the top of his John Lennon style glasses. His graying brown hair was uncharacteristically disheveled as he continued to run his fingers anxiously through it.
“How old are you?”
Cassie felt the loss of Devon’s gaze as he swung his attention back to Luther. Cassie stiffened slightly, not sure she wanted to know the answer to that question. She had dated an older boy once, for about a week, and he had only been a year and a half older than her. Being the girl with the boyfriend who could possibly be a couple hundred years older was something entirely different, and more than a little frightening.
Devon let out a small sigh, his fingers entwined with hers. “I have been a vampire for seven hundred and fifty-two years. In total, I’m seven hundred and seventy-one.”
Cassie’s breath exploded from her. Her eyes spun wildly to him as her hand clenched tightly upon his. “Crap,” Chris breathed. Cassie felt that was the understatement of the year.
He was nearly a millennium older than her! Seven hundred and fifty four years to be exact! No wonder he seemed so much older than all of the students around him, even if he had been alive he would have been out of high school by now. It was far more of an age difference than she ever could have imagined, ever would have wanted to imagine! Nearly eight hundred years was a long time to have been alive. It was a very long time to have wandered the earth, living amongst humans and monsters. She didn’t even want to think about the number of women he had known over the years. She knew how the girls at school flocked to him, wanted him, and threw themselves at him. All women did. Over seven hundred years of women falling all over him was more than she could bear to consider at the moment.
She found herself barely able to breathe through the tight knot of jealousy and disbelief that stuck in her throat. His gaze swung back to her, his emerald eyes piercing. They swirled with worry and a desperate need for her to understand, for her not to turn against him. It was that fervent need that finally allowed the air to filter back into her brutalized lungs.
Jealousy had no place here. Nor did confusion and hurt. He needed her now, and no matter how frightened, lost, and envious she was, she could not turn against him. She had to live in the present; she had to stay grounded here. She would go crazy if she didn’t. His past was his past, and no matter how scared she was of it, she could not let it destroy their present. For no matter how many women he had known in his past, she knew she was his everything now.
Biting nervously on her bottom lip, Cassie managed a small nod. His shoulders relaxed visibly, his eyes sparkled with love. Even though he had never told her that he loved her, she knew that he did. She knew it with absolute certainty. He would die for her; she felt that with every fiber of her being, with every cell that fired within her. They had been empty and incomplete without each other, but somehow destiny had brought them together. And they fit seamlessly with each other.
“You must be very powerful,” Melissa said softly.
Devon nodded, his eyes tenderly scanning Cassie once more. “Yes,” he said simply, flatly.
“What can you do?” Melissa prodded when Devon didn’t say anymore.
With a small sigh he focused on the other four people in the room. Melissa’s exotically slanted onyx eyes were intent upon Devon, narrowed with curiosity. Her hair, free from its customary French braid, fell around her shoulders in thick black waves that ended just beneath her shoulder blades. Her slender, graceful body was seemingly at ease as she leaned against the fireplace, but tension hummed just beneath her outwardly calm surface.
Devon shrugged absently. “I am stronger and faster than a human.”
“So aren’t all vampires. So aren’t we,” Chris retorted.
Devon lifted an eyebrow at Chris, amusement crossed his magnificent face. “But I’m even stronger than most, far more in fact. My senses are keener than theirs. My hearing is better, my eyesight better. Most would not survive a fight with me.”
Chris’s sapphire eyes narrowed doubtfully as he gazed fiercely at Devon. Hostility hummed through his large, football players build. Despite his size, Chris moved with a grace and agility that were surprising and impressive. That was one of the reasons he was the star on the football team. His sandy blond hair was a mess from tugging on it as he paced restlessly back and forth, only pausing once in awhile to pierce Devon with a fierce, accusatory glare.
Chris was angry; it would not take much for him to attack Devon. That was something that Cassie could not let happen, for although she didn’t think Devon would hurt Chris, she knew that Chris would not take losing the fight well. Nor did she want to see a fight between two of the people she loved most in the world.
“Except for the one you ran into last night,” Chris grumbled.
Devon bristled, his shoulders stiffened angrily. “I can defeat Julian,” he growled.
Chris took an angry step forward. “Then why didn’t you?”