Inferno

Afraid that any movement would immediately draw their attack, Cassie remained frozen, barely breathing. They had weapons gathered by the windows, but she didn’t think she would have enough time to get her crossbow, let alone fire it, before the creatures were upon them. She wasn’t even certain she would have enough time to warn the others first.



Taking a steadying breath, Cassie remained unmoving as she whispered to Annabelle. “How are they doing?”



Annabelle didn’t look at her, but she could feel her confusion over the fact that Cassie was no longer watching. “Another one has arrived, but they’re ok.”



The creatures would probably keep sending one or two in at a time in order to keep three of the stronger fighters occupied. Though she knew now that these monsters had enough sense to realize it was probably a suicide mission, they would do what the larger group wanted. They would sacrifice themselves in order for the others, more than likely the leaders, to feed and murder. Cassie shuddered at the organization, the brutality of it, and the thought process that had led them here.



Patrick had said that they did react, but only when murder, mayhem, and feeding were involved. Apparently even he had underestimated these creatures, to what might be all of their ultimate downfalls. They shifted slightly but did not attack. She didn’t know why they were waiting, they knew that she could see them, knew that she was watching them, but they remained immobile.



What were they doing? She wondered frantically, trying to get into their thought processes, trying to understand what was going on. But she could not understand them, it was impossible.



“Ok, ok good,” she breathed. “Annabelle, get away from the door.”



Annabelle shot her a look, and then froze. She turned slowly, her hand resting against the door as she moved on the chair. Her strawberry curls fell around her shoulders, her rosebud mouth parted in surprise, but she did not move. Beside her, Chris froze, his hand tightened around the curtain to the point that Cassie thought he was going to rip it from the window. Luther stiffened, but did not move. Melissa turned slowly, her onyx eyes, as dark as the room, widened in shock.



Though they were all aware of the monsters now within the room, the creatures still did not move. Patrick and Joey had turned in their chairs, their mouths dropped; terror was etched onto their features. Where was Dani? Cassie’s gaze darted past the creatures. She could not see the bathroom that Dani had bolted into, Cassie didn’t know if she was still in there, or if these monsters had gotten to her first. Though Cassie still did not trust the girl, her power would come in handy right now.



Very handy.



“What are they doing?” Melissa whispered.



Cassie had no answer for that. She found it more terrifying that they weren’t moving, then if they had already attacked. And then two more emerged from the dark. Cassie’s heart flipped, panic gripped her hard. She could barely breathe. Ten on seven. The seven of them were strong fighters, if Dani was still alive, but these odds were far worse than she would have ever wanted.



And yet they still did not move.



“There’s more,” she breathed in horror. “They’re waiting for them.”



Chris cursed violently; he finally released the curtain as he spun toward them. Patrick and Joey began to make horrified sounds as they bounced their chairs back, all pretense’s at trying to stay unnoticed forgotten in the face of these numbers. Cassie spun, they could not wait for them to attack their numbers would only swell if they did.



Hefting the crossbow, she slid a bolt expertly in as she heard the sudden explosion of movement behind her. They were coming, and they were coming fast. She spun back around, taking aim at the first one coming at her. She fired swiftly; the bolt was off target as it slammed into the creatures shoulder, barely knocking him off of his onward rush.



Annabelle leapt off of her chair, lifting it quickly she used it like a lion tamer as she slammed it into the chest of the one rushing at her. It fell back a few feet before lunging forward again. Cassie managed to get another bolt into place, taking aim she fired it, finding satisfaction as the bolt hit home. The creature made no sound as it fell back, its hands clenched its chest as it began its death wither upon the ground.



Cassie froze; her mouth dropping as the creature continued its silent death throes. “Jesus,” Melissa whispered, stunned into immobility too.



They were being silent, even in death, they were being silent. They wanted to keep this attack as quiet as possible. The thought process that went with that fact was staggering. For a moment no one moved as they tried to blend this new information in with what they had thought they’d known. Even Joey and Patrick had frozen; their mouths were wide as they stared at the creature that lay upon the floor, silenced forever now.



What were these things? Cassie wondered, trying hard not to completely unravel. Were they more human than they had all originally thought? Or were they even more demon? If they were more human should they even be killing them, or should they be trying to save them?



She didn’t have time to weigh those questions out; these creatures would not give her that time. Fear for her own life far outweighed the guilt, and doubt, that flared through her as the rest of the creatures raced toward them. Shocked into immobility by the creatures silent death, Cassie had not thought to reload her crossbow. Lifting it high, she slammed it hard into one of the monsters chests as it reached her. Using the crossbow as a barrier, she held it off of her as she struggled to regain control of this awful situation.



She punched another hard in the cheek as it reached for her. He fell back from the force of the blow, but the one with the crossbow in its chest continued to claw and swipe at her. They may have had the sense to plan this silent ambush, but when it came to fighting, the bloodlust took complete control of them. They had no reason, no sense, as the desire to murder and destroy overtook them. Cassie slammed the crossbow harder, shoving the thing further back as the other one launched at her again.



A pain filled cry rent the air. Terror filled Cassie, but she could not take her eyes off of the creatures attacking her in order to see how Melissa was doing, or how badly she had been hurt. Chris shouted, and then another monster went flying by Cassie, its hands clenching at the knife buried deep in its chest.



Continuing to use the crossbow as a shield, she focused her attention on the other one that kept coming back at her. Its reddened eyes were narrowed with fury as it clawed and flailed in unnerving silence. Trying not to let her panic and terror overcome her, she swung another punch at it.



The thing ducked at the same time that it grabbed hold of her fist. A strangled cry escaped her, but she could not tug her hand free of its grasp. Her hand tightened on the crossbow as she continued to fend the other one off while trying to tug her hand free. The creature’s eyes spit red fury as it tugged her closer; its grip on her hand was painful.



“Why do you get to be normal still?”



Cassie froze, her eyes widened as horror filled her. She gaped at the thing, frozen in startled surprise by the fact that it spoke. That it could speak! She had not associated speech with these half crazed, wild things. She would have thought it was impossible, but it was speaking to her, and it was making sense, even if its voice was the most horrid thing she had ever heard. It was low and grating as it slithered out of him like a snake crawling out of a hole. The sound of it sent chills down her spine, it made her blood run cold as terror pounded across her.



It could speak, and its thought processes were far more advanced than she had thought! Shaken, confused, disoriented Cassie could not move. And its question, its question! Why did she get to be normal? How did this creature know what had been done to her? How did it have enough reason to understand any of this?



The world seemed to slow, Cassie’s eyes narrowed as she studied it. The features of it were a mangled blur of human and monster. Its red eyes were filled with hate and hunger. But there was something oddly familiar about it.



Then, she remembered. She had been locked in her cell still, before Dani had rescued her. One of the creatures had peered into the window, tried to get into her cell, hoping to kill her, wanting to destroy her. It (no not it, this thing before her), had been chased off by Dani’s power.



But now it had returned. It knew that she had been in that laboratory too, knew that she had emerged, not unscathed, but certainly not the same thing that these monsters had become. It knew that she had emerged much better off than they had, and it hated her for it.



“Why!?” it snarled.



Cassie had no answer for it, she could not think of one. It was not fair that she had come out almost normal after what had been done to all of them, but that was not her fault. She had not done this to them, she had not done this to herself. It should not blame her, but it did.



Cassie opened her mouth, but before she could respond it ripped her forward. Having been shocked into immobility, Cassie was thrown off balance by the sharp tug. She staggered, trying to keep hold of her crossbow at the same time that she tried to regain her footing. A hand entangled in her hair, causing a sharp cry of pain to escape her as her head was ripped roughly back.



She swung her fist up, hoping to connect with something, anything but coming up with nothing but air. Panic rose up to drown out her stunned surprise. She was surrounded, and at the moment they had the upper hand. Using the crossbow, she slammed it hard into the chest of the one she had been fending off, knocking him back a good five feet. Using the brief reprieve, she turned toward the one with its fingers entangled in her hair.



Before she could do anything, it jerked her hair back and struck with the unnerving speed of a cobra. Her terror, confusion, and disbelief were swiftly buried by the pain that rushed up to swamp her. A scream rose in her throat, but it strangled there, unable to break through the agony that seared through her veins.



Devon had said that it was painful to have blood drained against your will, but this was far worse than anything she ever could have imagined. Her muscles froze; her lungs stopped working, her veins burned as the blood was unwillingly, and greedily, sucked from it. Her skin fired with pins and needles that poked her more rapidly than any tattoo gun. She felt as if a million fire ants were crawling over her, nibbling at her, tearing at her flesh as they ripped it away from her.



She wanted to scream, but she could not get the air into her lungs to do so. She wanted to cry, but her eyes were also on fire and they burned away the tears that formed in them. She wanted to fight back, to move, but her limbs had locked into place, her muscles were as unbendable as rocks. She wanted to do many things, but all she could do was stand in shattering agony as she listened to the disgusting, slurping sounds of her blood being ripped from her.



The one she had shoved back came at her again. Her arm had frozen with the cross bow up, her fingers clenched tight around the trigger. It knocked the crossbow aside, snapping her arm back, but she still did not release the crossbow. Even when it snatched hold of her arm and sank its teeth deep.



A groan finally escaped her, or at least she thought it did, but she couldn’t tell beyond the explosion of pain that seemed to shatter her skull. Red and white lights blazed before her eyes, she wanted to fall, wanted to curl up and die, wanted to do anything that would get her away from this.



She barely heard the small cry before she felt the small rumble in the earth, the power being sucked from it. She dimly realized that Dani had arrived, that she was drawing energy from the ground, getting ready to release it. Cassie felt a small amount of relief, it would be ok now. But before Dani could release her power on a blast that would have rocked the earth, shook the walls, and rattled the glass within the windows, one of the creatures pounced upon her. Dani fell back with a startled cry as the wave of her power was abruptly cut off.



Cassie’s vision blurred, darkness pulled at her, trying to draw her under, trying to pull her away from the pain that held her within its iron tight grasp. Horror filled Cassie, she tried to gather enough of her wits past the pain in order to try and regain some kind of control of herself. But she could not push the pain away enough to do so. Terror filled her as she realized the darkness was going to win, and she knew it was a darkness she would never wake from.



CHAPTER 13



Devon’s head snapped up as he felt the strange pulsing electricity within the earth. He knew what that pulse was; knew what the familiar rumble in the earth meant. He braced himself for the jolt that inevitably followed it, braced himself so as not to get knocked on his ass. But the earth did not rock, the jolt did not come.



Confusion filled him; he stood for a moment, his attention fixated on the store as the electricity swiftly receded from the air. Julian was kneeling beside him, his brow furrowed as he stared at the store in confusion. He rose slowly from the wreckage of the creature before him. Liam stepped forward, stopping beside Devon as he searched the silent storefront.



There was no sound, no movement that he could see within the interior, but something was wrong. He knew it. He had become so focused on the kill, the thrill of the hunt, the murder and blood. So focused on the release of his anger and frustration, and his desire to feed and appease the demon inside of him, that he had shut himself off to Cassie, shut his mind away from hers. He knew that they had grown so close that there were times that she knew him better than he knew himself. He didn’t want her to even have an inkling of the joy, and pleasure, that he had taken from the death of the things scattered about him.