Kindled (Book 3 The Kindred Series) (17 page)

 
But it was not the haunting beauty of the woman, or her sudden appearance that made Cassie freeze
instantly
.
No, i
t was the person by her side.
The boys
b
runette hair stood out in sharp
contrast to the sn
ow as it tumbled around him
in wet straggles
.
Snow was beginning
to coat h
is
hair, turning it a grayish brown color. Nausea curdled in Cassie’s stomach, a lump
of terror
lodged in her throat. Dani took a step closer to her, pressing against Cassie’s side.

   C
assie didn’t know what to say, what to do. Chris and Melissa moved closer,
huddling
tight against them. Isla flashed a smile at them, flicking the snow off of her as she shook back her
long
dark
hair. With a crooked finger she beckoned
tauntingly
for them to come outside. “What do we do?” Dani asked softly.

   Isla bent swiftly;
lifting the
boy from the ground
she
forc
ed
him
to h
is
feet
as she held the back of his shirt
.
Blood trickled down his neck, staining the thin shirt he wore.
Melissa gasped sharply,
while Dani moaned. The boy
was young, no more than twelve or thirteen. “We go out there,” Cassie said softly.

   “Cassie…”

   “We have to Melissa
.
W
e
h
ave
to
.”

  
Melissa sighed softly, nodding slowly.
“I know that, but I think we need to prepare
a little first
.”

  
Cassie bit nervously on her bottom lip as she studied the swirling snow.
Aside from Isla the scene was blessedly, deceivingly tranquil. The beauty of the snow was so out of place and wrong with the monster standing amidst it. It should be a fiery scene from hell out there, or at least thunder and lightning instead of the silent wonderland surrounding her.

   But no matter how surreal it all was, Cassie knew that they had to go out there and face it. That
she
had to go out there and face it.
“Get
the supplies, meet me out there,
”
she said softly.

   “Cassie.” Chris grabbed hold of her arm, halting her progress. “Melissa and I are coming with you. Dani, in the living room there’s a trunk…”

   “I know where it is,
”
Dani interrupted her voice bordering on hysteria.
   “Grab some supplies out of it and meet us outside, I have a feeling we’re going to need your ability the most.”

   “Julian would have warned Isla
about that,” Cassie said softly, fighting the urge to ring her hands nervously.

   “Is Julian out there
?” Melissa asked sharply, her
eyes
intent on Chris.

   Chris’s gaze became distant, his body stiff. He
was
silent for a moment and then he shook his head. “I don’t feel him out there, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t. He was able to keep himself cloaked from me before. Unless he wants us to know he’s
there, we won’t.”

   Fear curdled through Cassie but she abruptly pushed it aside. There was no room for fear here, there never had been. There never would be.
“Go Dani,” Melissa urged gently.

   She turned to hurry away, but Cassie grabbed hold of her arm,
and
slipp
ed
her cell phone into
Dani’s
hand. “Call Devon,” she said softly, hoping that Isla could not hear her over the rising crescendo of
the
wind
,
and the door
.

   Dani
stared fearfully up at her, her eyes watering with tears. She
nodded abruptly and fled the room. “Come on,” Chris urged.

  
He reached forward
and
pull
ed
the door open. Cassie winced slightly as the sharp sting of the icy wind hit her. The sneakers she slipped on did little to barricade
her feet
against the cold snow. It trickled down inside of them, freezing against her sockless
skin
. She wanted to hug herself against the cold
, but she didn’t dare keep her hands occupied with anything at the moment.
She would need them to defend herself soon enough.

   Isla smiled at them
as she
releas
ed
the young boy. He fell back into the snow, barely lifting his head before letting it drop
again
. Cassie took a step toward him,
wanting to go to the boy, to save
him,
but Chris halted her. “Where’s your friend?” he inquired coldly
, raising his voice to be heard across the distance
.

   Isla shrugged a dainty, bared shoulder. She had to be freezing, but she showed no signs of it. “I wanted this to just be the two of us; Julian graciously agreed to it.”

  
The two of us?
Cassie’s gaze darted
worriedly to C
hris and Melissa, terror filled
her. The two of us would not include them. She was certain of that. And they would not leave
her
,
so what exactly could Isla have planned t
hat would
get rid of them?

***

   “That was the most I could find on any of the
other Hunter’s with Cassie’s ability, or lack thereof
.”

   Devon stared out the window as Luther finished speaking. His hands clenched and unclenched, his mind raced at a hundred miles an hour. He didn’t know what to think
about
what Luther had just told him
. “But
you found records of the
one
Hunter like Cassie
d
ying in a strange manner
?
Of her acting differently than the others?
” he asked softly.

   “
Yes, strange behavior was recorded about her before she died, o
r
T
he
Commission killed he
r.”

   Dev
on turned sharply, anger boiled
through him. “Killed her?” he demanded sharply.

   Luther nodded
as he
rubb
ed
at his temples. “Yes, The
Commission
would not want to admit that there was a mistake somewhere in the bloodline of The Hunters
, and they wouldn
’
t want anyone else to know
about
that mistake
. They would want to
make sure they
bur
ied
it,
even if it meant destroying the only piece of evidence there was.
The girl herself.
”

  
Disgust curdled through Devon’s stomach at the thought of the cold hearted bastards that ran The Guardian’s and The Hunter’
s. At one point T
he
C
ommission had consisted of the twelve oldest Guardians, and they had dictated where every Hunter and Guardian would go. Devon had no idea how many of them were left, if any, after The Slaughter. After hearing Luther’s words, he hoped that they were all dead, because if they weren’t…

  
I
f they weren’t, they would come for Cassie.

 
Fury tore through him at the thought. He shook as he tried to control
his rage
, his hands fist
ed
at his sides as he fought the urge to smash the walls.
“
They destroyed the girl,
”
he growled.

   Luther’s eyes were broken, lost
,
as he met Devon’s gaze wearily. “
I believe they did
.
I
t
was
only
pure
luck
that I
r
a
n across
a
book with notes from
that particular Hunter’s Guardian
in it
. He didn
’
t want
her death covered up
, he wanted
what happened to her to be
known, but unfort
unately he didn’t have a choice
.
”

   “
T
he Commission
made him
cover
it
up
?”
Devon inquired
.
   Luther hesitated, his eyes dart
ed nervously
around the room. “I think they killed him.”
   Devon’s eyes widened, his hands fisted even harder
as his mouth dropped
. “
What?” he demanded sharply.

   “
The girls name was Gertrude, h
er Guardian Henry
,
died
shortly after she was
killed
.
Both of their deaths were recorded as
m
eans unknown
.
After Gertrude there were no more Hunter’s like Cassie. For over three hundred years, every Hunter
has
had
some
ability. Cassie is the first
Hunter
not to
have one
in a
very
long time
.
”

   Devon blinked in surprise. The
Guardian’s
knew how
every
one of the
ir kind
had
died
, along with their Hunter’s. They kept meticulous notes about it, notes that Devon had
tediously helped
to sift through.
E
very one of the Hunters and Guardian’s had been
painstakingly
accounted
for
fr
om
the moment of
their creation
,
to
the moment of
their demise
. That this particular Hunter
,
and Guardian
,
had
somehow slipped through the cracks
was a giant red flag
that something was wrong
.

   “I see.
Do
es The Commission
know you we
re looking for this information?
”

   Luther closed his eyes
and
dropp
ed
his head into his hands. “I don’t know
. I tried to keep
the search
as quite as possible, but with everyone as scattered as they are, I did have to reach out
to
more people
than I had wanted to
. It was
one of these people t
hat help
ed
me locate the book
about Gertrude
. It had been in his vast collection, buried in his basement, forgotten. I don’t think he even knew he had it when he allowed me access to his
collected works
.”

   “But if he did?”

   Luther shook his head, his grey eyes
were
lost; his hair was in even more wild disarray as he continued to tug anxiously at it. “I don
’
t consider him close enough to say that I trust him.”

  
If he still breathed,
Devon
knew that he would not be able to do so anymore.
“Does The Commission still exist?” Devon growled, worry for Cassie’s safety gnawing at him.

   Luther sigh
ed
heavily.
“They are not as powerful as before, but yes, they still exist.
” Luther paused for a moment, hesitant as to whether or not to continue. Then, he just plunged on. “Devon, I
don’t think Gertrude is an isolated incident. I
think
The Commission
may have killed off
all
of the others like Cassie, or at least they did after Gertrude.”