Ashes

“They were the first Hunters?” Cassie inquired softly.



Luther looked slightly uneasy as he shifted slightly. “Sort of,” he hedged.



Cassie lifted an eyebrow at his “sort of,” not liking the way he responded to her question. “What do you mean, sort of?” Chris inquired, temporarily forgetting the plate of food still on his lap.



Luther and her grandmother exchanged a look; Devon rested his hand upon her knee. Melissa’s gaze was focused upon the floor, her shoulders stiff. Cassie’s frown deepened, she didn’t like the sudden tension in the room, the hesitation that grasped them all. It was becoming more apparent that she was not going to like what Luther had to say. In fact, she was certain that she didn’t want to hear it at all.



Luther heaved a large sigh. Sliding his glasses off, he cleaned them on his shirt before slipping them back on. Cassie’s eyes widened slightly as he began to pace nervously. Luther never paced, and he was never nervous. Her hand tightened around Devon’s as a growing knot of worry and fear began to twist in her body.



“As a group, the humans were able to do some damage against the vampires, but not much. And when they came up against a more powerful vampire, they were useless. They were getting slaughtered and the vampires were becoming stronger. As the years passed the vampire’s numbers grew, and the human fighters dwindled as most became afraid to continue the battle.



“That was when they recruited the help of an emerging group of scientists.”



The last sentence hung heavily in the air, the knot in Cassie’s stomach turned into a noose that spread up her throat, threatening to choke her. A chill of apprehension swept down her spine. Though Chris still looked confused, there was a dawning horror inside her.



“And what did these scientists do?” Chris inquired, placing his plate on the table, his appetite apparently gone.



Cassie fought the urge to cover her ears, wanting to block out whatever else Luther had to say. It may have been a childish urge, but it was one that she desperately wanted to fulfill. “Experiments. When they were able to, they began to keep the vampires that they hunted.”



“And they experimented on them?” Chris looked confused as he glanced around the room. It was not that he wasn’t grasping what Luther was saying, it was that he didn’t want to. Cassie didn’t blame him.



“Yes.”



Cassie’s breath came quicker, her heart pounded loudly. Her skin was suddenly clammy, cold. “What kind of experiments?” Chris demanded, his tone taking on a hard edge.



Luther sighed softly. “They wanted to know how vampires worked, how they functioned. Where their powers came from.”



“And did they succeed?” Cassie asked in a choked voice.



“Somewhat, but not completely. They learned that the source of a vampire’s power comes from their blood. To become a vampire an exchange of blood is needed, and death must occur.”



Cassie turned slightly toward Devon, these were things that she knew, but for the first time she truly realized that he had died. That someone had killed him. Or he may have willingly allowed himself to be changed, may have embraced death for the promise of eternal life. Her forehead furrowed as she once again recalled how very little she knew of him. And she wanted to know so much more. However, right now she was learning more than she had ever wanted too, and her curiosity about Devon was going to have to wait.



“During the exchange of blood, the demon that lurks within the vampire is passed on, its hunger and thirst handed over to its victim. This demon blood is thought to be the source of the vampire’s power; it was also the reason why everyone believed that all vampires must be monsters and murderers.”



His gaze turned briefly to Devon, his grey eyes flickered slightly. “Obviously we were wrong.”



Devon looked briefly at Cassie as he nodded subtly. His face was tight with tension, and Cassie knew he was thinking about his struggle to keep himself restrained around her. “It is hard, but it can be controlled. Most simply do not want to control it; they enjoy the hunt, the thrill, the power. They revel in the evil, or at least their darker side does, and they have no desire to suppress it. Others may not even know that it can be done, but there are still others who do control it.”



Luther nodded, rubbing the bridge of his nose as he pinched it tight. “Yes, I understand that now. We should have understood it earlier, but arrogance and fear go a long way in keeping the truth hidden.”



Cassie lifted an eyebrow, her gaze darted worriedly to Devon before she turned to Melissa and Chris; panic was growing inside of her. Melissa was not as composed as normal; it was obvious that though she knew where this was going, she didn’t like it. There was a pinched look around her mouth, her eyes were narrowed slightly. Her normally neat hair was disheveled, strands of it framed her pretty face. Her eyes, usually a sparkling onyx were now as dull and flat as coal.



Chris rose suddenly, knocking the coffee table slightly with his knee. It skittered back, but he made no move to fix it as he paced restlessly away. Running a hand through his hair, he turned sharply toward Luther, pinning him with his gaze. His jaw clenched tightly, his broad shoulders were set as if he awaited a fierce blow. Which Cassie was certain they were going to receive.



“Where did our abilities come from?” Chris asked softly.



“When they discovered the source of the vampire’s powers they began to try to isolate it, hoping to combat the growing threat of the vampires. They could never successfully isolate the gene, but they began to experiment with trying to harvest that power into humans.”



A chill ran down Cassie’s spine, the hair on the back of her neck stood on end. Her hand clenched tighter upon Devon’s, but for the first time his touch was not enough to soothe her. Shifting uncomfortably, she found she was no longer able to sit still either. Sliding her hand free of Devon’s she launched to her feet, desperately wanting to flee the room and this conversation, but knowing that she couldn’t.



“And how did these experiments go?” she asked, her voice hoarse.



Luther hesitated, his grey eyes hard and distant. “At first, not well,” he admitted. “There were many failures, many were caught in between.”



“In between what?” Chris demanded.



“In between human and vampire. They were caught in a world where they were neither…”



“Neither?” Cassie croaked.



“A monstrosity,” Devon answered when Luther seemed unable to. “A thing that is neither human nor vampire, a creature that has no thought or reason, all it does is destroy. All it wants is blood and death.”



Horror flowed up Cassie’s throat; it burned into her esophagus as her stomach threatened to heave up its contents. She could picture these monsters, these things that were caught in between. Neither human nor vampire but a fiend even worse than anything any horror writer could have dreamed up.



“What happened to these things?” she asked quietly.



“They were destroyed,” Luther answered flatly. “Something like that could not be allowed to roam the earth, the destruction would be incalculable.”



“And these experiment victims were willing?”



“Some, but not all.”



Swallowing heavily, Cassie turned away, pacing to the doorway before turning back again. This time she did not return to Devon’s side, instead she felt the desperate need to be closer to Chris and Melissa. They were like her, they were feeling this too.



“And how did it all turn out?” Chris asked quietly when she stopped next to him.



“Eventually they succeeded in planting enough of the vampire blood into a human, without changing them completely, or leaving them in the void. Eventually they turned these humans into something more powerful, something that still seemed completely human but was stronger, faster, and possessed gifts and talents of their own.”



The truth was not shocking; it did not rock through her. She had expected it. She did not like it, but at least she had been braced for this blow. “And they became The Hunters,” she stated flatly.



“Yes.”



“And the genetic alterations, the changes that the vampire blood wrought in them were passed through the generations to their children?”



“Yes, even if a Hunter and a normal human are together, the Hunter genetics are stronger than the human’s DNA. Those children will inherit the Hunter line, develop abilities, and carry on the gene. Though for the most part, due to their difference’s, Hunters tend to stay with each other or with The Guardians. It’s rare when they went outside of those lines.”



Chris bristled, shifting slightly beside her. His father had gone outside of those lines, and his mother had been the one to pay for it. “And the experimenters, the perpetrators of this abomination, became The Guardians,” he stated bluntly, a hint of disgust in his voice.



Luther inhaled sharply as he nodded. “Yes. Originally The Guardians were meant to make sure that nothing happened to these humans, that they did not change in anyway.”



“They were meant to destroy them if they did,” Chris said dully, his voice distant.



“Yes, but fortunately nothing occurred, and as each generation emerged with no mutations The Guardians became relegated to the role of training the Hunters to fight, and hunt vampire’s. They also became keepers of the history; they stayed close to The Hunters to record each generation’s efforts, and to record them.”



“Well wasn’t that nice of them,” Cassie said, unable to keep the bitterness out of her voice.



“It needed to be done,” Luther said gently.



“Needed to be done!” Cassie nearly screeched. “They tortured human beings! They turned us all into monsters! They shortened our live spans!” She jabbed a finger at Chris, Melissa, and herself. “They sentenced us to a life of hell while they sat back on their haunches and recorded our history. Needed to be done my ass! They were cowards who were to afraid to try the experiment on themselves.”



“Cassie,” her grandmother said gently.



“They tore our families away from us!” her voice broke on a sob, her shoulders sagged in defeat.



The anger fled swiftly from her as despair rushed up to take its place. Devon was watching her, his eyes sad and knowing, his jaw locked tight. They had also torn him away from her, she realized with a start. If she had been human, if she had been normal, then maybe she would have embraced a life of immortality with him.



If she had been human she never would have known such hurt from vampires, she never would have known the cruelty that they had bestowed upon her loved ones. She would still have her parents, and a normal life, and a boyfriend who loved her and wanted to be with her for eternity. She imagined that it would all be very romantic and appealing to a human, but to her it was a world of darkness and blood and death. A world of horror and hurt. A world that she had been genetically altered to fight.



Or to embrace, she realized with a start. After all, her beginnings had come from his kind. She was far more like him then she had ever realized. She dealt out death and destruction also, and unlike Melissa and Chris, it was the only gift that she had received. She, more than the others, was the most like his kind. The only thing she was truly good at, and good for, was killing.



Devon’s expression changed as he rose swiftly to his feet, gliding with the elegant grace of a tiger. Moving slowly, as if afraid he would spook her away, he wound around the couch. She did not move as he came toward her, did not stiffen when his arms wrapped tightly around her. She leaned into his embrace, taking comfort in his strength and warmth.



“You are not a monster.” His voice was a breath in her ear. She searched his face questioningly. She was not surprised he knew what she had been thinking, he knew her well enough for that. But she needed to know that he truly believed what he was saying. His emerald eyes were fierce on her, his hand gentle as he caressed her face. “You never could be.”



Tears burned in her eyes and she rapidly blinked them back. Nodding, she rested her head against his chest, savoring in the comfort and peace that he brought to her. The constriction in her chest eased as she inhaled his familiar, enticing scent.



“I know that this is a lot to take in, a lot to understand,” Luther said after a few moments. “But something had to be done to stop the vampires. Imagine the world if there had never been any Hunters to stop their murderous rampages.”



“There are barely any Hunters now,” Chris said softly. “And it’s not so bad.”



“But things are different now. Then, the world was consumed with war and blood and death. Vampires roamed freely, killing and taking wherever they saw fit. The world is modernized now; the Elders want no part of it. They are content in the old ways, stuck there. The young ones are the danger, but there are fewer of them as the Elders have grown tired of creating, and the Hunters have always been able to take out the younger, weaker ones,” Devon said softly.

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