Ashes

Luther was the man that trained them, and helped guided them in their journey as Hunter’s. And that was the real reason Cassie spent such a vast amount of time at their house, why she had been distant and vague and oddly frightened in the dream that they had shared. He now understood her words from the dream lake. Now understood what she had meant when she had said, “Out there everything is hard. Out there, this cannot be.” For her, everything in the world was hard, he had wanted to keep her sheltered from the dark realities of his life, but at the time he had not realized that she was already fully inundated with the true cruelty of the world.



“There wasn’t any time for camp once Luther and Melissa came.” She had told him in the dream, and at the time he had been confused and lost, but now he realized that she was not able to attend camp once Luther and Melissa had come to tell her that she was not a normal child; that she was in fact far from normal. And Luther was her Guardian, the one that would help her through the hard transition this realization would cause.



Luther was the reason that Cassie had fought him so hard when Devon had first arrived. Devon could not find it within him to be resentful toward Luther though. In fact, Luther had probably helped to keep Cassie alive. He may have been too blinded by his infatuation with Cassie to recognize what Chris, Melissa, and Cassie were upon his arrival, but Julian hadn’t, and other vampire’s would recognize it too. Luther had helped to prepare them for this, had helped to make sure that they would be prepared for the monsters of the world, and able to defend themselves against them. Luther’s training was the only thing that had saved her from Julian’s attack.



“Cassie will be devastated if something happened to Chris. She would never forgive you Devon if you hurt him. Never,” Luther said fervently.



Devon met Chris’s bulging gaze once more. He didn’t want to harm the boy; he had actually grown to like him over the past couple of weeks. But his anger and frustration over this awful day were getting the best of him. Besides, the last thing he ever wanted was to hurt Cassie.



Taking a step away from him, he released Chris with a small shove back. Chris slid down the wall, stumbling slightly forward before regaining his balance. He leveled Devon with a fierce glare as he rubbed his bruised throat, but he didn’t attack again. Devon moved slowly back to the bed, planting his body in between them and Cassie as he folded his arms firmly across his chest. Though he knew that they would not hurt her, he couldn’t shake the insane urge to protect her from them.



Chris took another step toward him, bristling over Devon’s protective behavior. Luther grasped hold of his arm, holding him in place. “What did you do to her?” Chris nearly bellowed, shaking with the rage that flowed through him.



Devon glared fiercely at him, but to his credit, Chris did not back down. Though he was annoyed by Chris’s condemning tone, he did admire the boy’s pride and determination. “If I had done this to her, she wouldn’t be here right now.”



Chris sputtered, trying to shake his arm free of Luther’s grasp, but he would not release him. “And what the hell does that mean!?” Chris exploded.



Devon took a step closer to him, his arms falling back to his sides. “It means that she would not be here. It means that I would have kept her for myself,” Devon snarled.



Disbelief and horror radiated from all of them, their eyes darted swiftly to her prone form. Devon bristled slightly, but he did not move. “How is she?” Luther asked quietly, apparently deciding to ignore Devon’s comment.



Devon’s gaze darted briefly back to her pale, frail form. “The doctor said she will be fine.”



Melissa began to cry. Devon blinked in surprise as the normally calm, stoic girl, burst into loud heart wrenching sobs. She moved slowly around Devon, her tear filled eyes wary upon him as she hurried to the other side of the bed. “I was so scared,” she whispered, her voice mournful and lost. “I thought she was dead, I thought that we had lost her. When I saw it…”



Her voice trailed off as tears choked her. “Saw it?” Devon inquired sharply, his hackles rising over her statement. She had seen something that could have prevented all of this, and she had done nothing to stop it?



Melissa glanced at him, her onyx eyes bright with tears. She did not answer as she turned her full attention back to Cassie. “What the hell is going on here?” Chris demanded fiercely. “He’s a monster! We should be destroying him!”



“I’d like to see you try. You have never come up against the likes of me boy, you will not win this battle,” Devon muttered in a low growl.



Chris’s eyes spit blue fury, but he did not make another heedless charge. Apparently he was a quick learner. “I think it’s safe to say that Devon is not one of the bad guys,” Luther muttered softly, his eyes narrowed and questioning behind his Lennon style glasses. The soft hint of his English accent was even more pronounced due to his stress and confusion.



“Is that possible?” Melissa asked quietly, wiping the tears from her cheeks.



“Anything is possible, I suppose,” Luther replied with an easy shrug, though his eyes were intent and inquisitive upon Devon.



Devon bristled slightly under his scrutiny, but he remained where he was, mainly because he was not going to release Cassie’s hand again. “Who did this to her then?” Chris demanded sharply.



Devon hesitated, not sure how much he wanted to tell them. But he knew that the anger in the room would not be diffused if he refused to tell them anything. And though he would prefer to keep some things to himself, Cassie’s happiness was by far more important to him than his pride. “Julian did.”



They exchanged quick, confused looks before focusing upon him once more. “Who is Julian?” Luther asked softly.



Devon shook his head, not wanting to get into a detailed explanation of that just yet. “He’s a monster,” Devon answered simply.



“That’s the pot calling the kettle black,” Chris retorted.



Devon’s head snapped up, his eyes narrowed fiercely on Chris. “You don’t know what I am and am not! But you keep pushing me and you will find out!” he spat.



Chris’s eyes widened slightly, and for the first time a bolt of fear flashed through them. “Easy, this is not the place for this. I am sure that Devon will give us some answers later, but Cassie will also want those answers. Now, let’s just calm down. Fighting is not solving anything, and it’s not helping Cassie any. He did save her life,” Luther reasoned.



Chris stared coldly at Devon, but wisely kept his mouth shut for a change. “Have you called her grandmother?” Devon demanded briskly.



Luther shook his head, pushing his glasses up his nose as he glanced worriedly at Cassie. “No, we had to get Marcy to the hospital first, and in all honesty, we thought she was dead. That’s something that is better to tell a loved one in person.” All of their gazes were inquisitive, and doubtful, as they studied Devon like an odd bug that they didn’t understand.



Devon nodded, his hand tightened briefly upon Cassie’s. He didn’t take offense to the fact that they had her thought her dead; it was the nature of most of his kind to kill after all. And at one time he had not been the exception to that rule. If it hadn’t been for Annabelle, he would still be a monster, destroying and killing whenever the mood struck him.



“How is Marcy?” he asked softly.



“She’ll be ok,” Melissa whispered, wiping the remaining tears from her cheeks. “She’s lost a lot of blood but she’ll survive.”



“Yeah, now we have to worry about how we’re going to explain all of this to her,” Chris muttered.



“I’ll take care of that.”



Their gazes flew back to him, their eyes narrowed questioningly. “How do you plan on doing that?” Chris demanded.



Devon shook his head, not willing to divulge any of his secrets before they agreed to divulge some of theirs. And he knew that they would have secrets too. Hunter’s possessed some of the same abilities that vampire’s did; he just wasn’t sure which ones they had, and he couldn’t leave himself vulnerable to them.



“I have my ways,” Devon murmured.



Chris’s eyes narrowed sharply, his lip twisted into a sneer, but he did not push further. “I saw you coming, but I didn’t see you,” Melissa whispered, looking dazed and lost.



Devon started in surprise, his eyes widening as he turned back toward her. She was studying him with a deep, penetrating stare that unnerved him slightly. “Excuse me?” he asked in confusion.



She blinked in shock, shaking her head. Her raven hair fell forward, shielding her pretty features as she turned quickly back to Cassie. Luther moved to Melissa’s side, resting his hand lightly on her shoulder as he lifted the phone and punched in some numbers. Chris moved slowly to Cassie’s other side, his gaze still weary on Devon as he rested his hand lightly on Cassie’s arm.



Devon bristled slightly, his eyes narrowed as he fought the urge to leap over the bed at Chris, knocking his hand away from her. Instead, somehow, he managed to keep control of himself. Devon had suspected for awhile that his feelings for Cassie were more than just normal, had feared that they were more intense and binding than that. He was now beginning to truly realize that he had been right. However, if he didn’t regain firm restraint of himself, someone was going to get hurt and that was something that he couldn’t allow to happen.



Especially not now, not when Cassie’s life still hung in the balance and her friends were surrounding him. Friends that were also trained to hate him, fight him, and try to kill him. Friends that wanted nothing more than to see him dead.



He glanced back at Cassie’s prone figure. If she survived this, would she hate him too? Would she also want him dead? A shiver racked through him at the thought. He couldn’t stand it if she hated, or condemned him. He would not survive it if she turned him away. He would not be able to stay rational.



Whatever she decided when she awoke would affect both of them. She held both of their destinies in her hands; he could only hope that she did not destroy his. Did not destroy him. He returned Chris’s fierce glare with one of his own as he slid his hand back into hers. He clung tightly to her, needing her warmth to keep him tethered, needing her presence to soothe his wildly swaying emotions. She was the only thing that could keep him grounded in a world that was wildly unstable for him right now. She was the only thing keeping him sane, the only thing that was keeping him from destroying this room in a fit of rage.



Pulling up a chair, he sat next to her, ignoring the surprised looks that Chris, Melissa, and Luther shot him. He didn’t care what they thought; he was not leaving her side until she was awake. He was not leaving her side unless she told him to.



For now he could only hope that Cassie woke up again, and that she did not spurn him when she did.



CHAPTER 2



Devon shifted in discomfort. His muscles had stiffened long ago, his legs were cramped, his back sore from the hard chair. Luther had left as the sun broke over the horizon, taking Chris and Melissa with him to check on Marcy. They had not been gone long, but he knew that they would be returning soon. Cassie’s grandmother sat silently across from him, her hand rested lightly upon Cassie’s arm. Though she kept most of her attention focused on Cassie, she would glance questioningly at him every once in awhile. Her eyes were sometimes the color of the sky, at other times they were a deep, distant brown. He didn’t know what brought on the change of color, but it was fascinating to watch.



Though Cassie’s grandmother had not spoken a word to anyone since she had arrived, Devon knew that she had something to say to him. He just wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to hear it. He was greatly afraid that the deceptively delicate looking woman would tell him to stay away from her granddaughter, and that was something that he could not do. Not until he was sure that Julian was gone for good. He could not leave Cassie until he knew she was completely safe. Even then, he wasn’t sure he would be able to leave her. He needed her; she was a part of him. She was his everything.



Finally, Cassie’s grandmother turned to him, her eyes a bright blue once more. “Thank you,” she said softly.



Devon’s hands tightened on the arms of the chair, his eyebrows lifted questioningly. “For what?” he asked quietly.



She swallowed heavily. “For saving her, she’s all that I have.” Tears shimmered briefly in her eyes before she turned quickly back to Cassie. “Thank you.”



Devon leaned forward, his back cracking as his muscles protested the movement. Folding his hands before him, he studied the small woman intently. “Cassie’s parents were killed during the attack?”



She lifted a dainty strawberry blond eyebrow; her eyes were sharp and fierce as she studied him. “Is that what your kind calls it? The attack?”