Kindled

Annabelle sighed heavily as she tugged at his other hand, freeing the last rope that had kept his arm in place. Annabelle sat back on her heels, studying him worriedly. “Dani happened.”



“Excuse me?” he choked out.



Annabelle nodded as she rose swiftly to her feet. She kept her hand on Chris’s arm as she reached around him, grabbing a can of soda from the table. She thrust it at him, studying him worriedly as he took a small sip. “How are you feeling?”



Chris shook his head, grateful for the drink. His mind was rapidly clearing but he was beginning to realize that he was going to wish that it hadn’t. “Where’s Cassie?”



Annabelle shook her head, her eyes growing dark with concern and fear. “She’s gone.”



“Gone? Gone where?” he demanded sharply, nearing spilling his soda as he lurched forward.



“I don’t know,” she whispered. “We’ve been out for hours Chris. They could have taken her anywhere by now.”



Chris’s heart jumped in his chest, pounding against his ribs with the force of a jackhammer. He stumbled to his feet, nearly tripping over the video game controller that had fallen at his feet. Annabelle steadied him before he could take a header through the flat screen. Panic tore through him, causing his temples to throb painfully with the rush of his blood.



“We have to find her!” he gasped. Cassie was his best friend, he was supposed to have kept her safe, and he had lost her. And he had lost her to God only knew who. “What the hell happened!?” he nearly bellowed.



“Chris calm down,” Annabelle said softly. “Please, just calm down, we need to think. We have to figure out who came here, who took her. And we have to be rational to do it.”



“I don’t even know what happened, one minute I was playing a game, and the next you were untying me from this damn chair!”



His voice reverberated loudly around the room, it echoed in his ears. He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself but failing miserably. Cassie was gone; someone, or something, had taken her. He cursed viciously slamming his fist down on the table. His soda rattled, some of it splashed over the side, but everything remained standing.



“Feel better?” Annabelle asked quietly.



No, he felt like an idiot, he felt torn and tormented, and panicked. He felt like tearing this house down, then the woods, and then whatever else he could get his hands on, but none of that would do them any good. He took another deep breath, running his hand through his hair as he tried to steady himself.



He didn’t understand where the full force of this panic and anger was coming from. Yes, he should be terrified, and worried, but this bad…



His thoughts trailed off as realization dawned on him. It was not him that wanted to rip the house down, or the woods, or everything in his way. It was Devon. Devon was near and his emotions were so strong, and so forceful, that Chris was picking up on them, and being affected by them. He looked at Annabelle, dismay making his heart race even faster. His skin became flushed as a cold chill swept down his spine.



“Devon’s almost here,” he said softly.



Annabelle’s eyes widened in horror, her mouth parted slightly as she glanced swiftly to the window. “How bad is he?”



“Bad,” Chris whispered, shuddering.



Annabelle turned slowly back to him, her hands fisted slightly. “Chris, I think you should go somewhere else, at least until he calms down. He’s going to be on a rampage, and he’s not going to care who is in his way.”



Chris gaped at her, aghast at the thought. “I’m not hiding,” he responded coldly.



“It’s not hiding Chris, but he is not going to be controllable, and if you get in his way we may not be able to stop him. When a vampire’s mate is threatened, or lost to them, they do not think rationally. What is going to come through that door is not the Devon you know. What is going to come through that door will destroy anything that gets in between him and Cassie.”



“Well we aren’t in between them,” Chris grated. “And I’m not leaving you alone with him.”



“I am sure that Liam is with him. Maybe even the others still.”



Chris tried to sort through Devon’s emotions to see if there were others with him, but it was impossible to tell beneath all of the fury and terror. Devon’s emotions threatened to bury him beneath their fierce, sucking tidal wave. He had thought that Devon’s misery and pain had been bad when Cassie had broken up with him, but this was far far worse. This bordered on the edge of insanity.



“He’s going to kill us all,” Chris whispered, suddenly convinced of it. Devon was strong enough, and savage enough right now to destroy them, and not even bat an eyelash. He could kill hundreds of people before someone ever stopped him. If someone, other than Cassie, even could.



Annabelle glanced fearfully at him, her delicate jaw set tight, her sea green eyes hard and determined. “As long as Cassie is still alive then we have a chance of reaching him. If she is dead, then there will be no stopping him. A vampire without their mate is as good as dead.”



“She has to be alive,” Chris said softly. “She has to be.”



“Do you know that for sure?”



Chris shook his head; the only thing he knew for sure was that he was not ready to face the loss of his best friend, or the loss of his own life for that matter. “No, I don’t, but even,” he broke off, swallowing heavily. “Even if she is dead, I thought they didn’t complete the ritual. I mean Cassie is still human. They aren’t mates then, right?”



Annabelle had made her way over to the window; she glanced sharply back at him as she studied the dark night. “He still recognizes her as his mate. He still acknowledges it as a fact; he still knows in his heart that she is his. He cannot live without her Chris.”



“Will he know if she is still alive if the bond wasn’t completed?”



“For our sakes, let’s hope so,” she whispered.



“He’s here.”



Annabelle stepped away from the window. The light of the moon and the television cast an eerie glow about the living room that did little to ease the tension, and chill, that had taken up residence inside him. Over Annabelle’s shoulder he could see a figure emerging from the woods, moving with so much speed that it was nearly a blur amongst the trees. Chris took an involuntary step back, trying to avoid the rage emanating from that blur.



“Where’s Liam?” he whispered.



“He’s not as fast as Devon.” Annabelle moved closer to Chris, stepping slightly in front of him.



Footsteps sounded on the porch. Chris braced himself as the steps hesitated for a moment before stomping into the house. Devon’s fury pounded against him as he made his way slowly into the foyer, his silhouette appeared in the doorway. He held something in his hand; his head was bowed over it. For a single moment he fingered it gently before lifting his head to slowly look at them.



Chris inhaled sharply as Devon’s blood red eyes narrowed upon them. Annabelle straightened her shoulders, but Chris could feel her fear. “Where is she?” Devon growled, his eyes flaring to the color of a glowing ruby.



“Devon, you need to calm down,” Annabelle said softly.



He took a step into the room. “Who took her?”



“Devon…”



“Who Annabelle!?” he bellowed so loudly that the windows shook.



Annabelle jumped slightly, pushing Chris back as she moved away. “That is what we need to figure out,” she said softly. “But I believe it was The Commission.”



Chris glanced sharply at her. He didn’t want to be associated with anything, or anyone, that may have had something to do with Cassie’s disappearance. Unfortunately The Commission was something that he could be associated with. Devon was irrational right now; he might very well blame Chris for Cassie’s disappearance. “How long ago?”



“Devon look, we need to figure this out. If you could just calm down, we may be able to trace her location. Her blood is inside of you.” Chris glanced sharply at Annabelle, shock riveted him. Cassie had allowed Devon to feed from her? He didn’t know why he was so surprised; it made sense for them to want that connection after all. He just hadn’t suspected that it had happened already. “I know you have fed from her. I can smell it, and sense it, in the power radiating from you.



“That power is also making you even more irrational now. You just need to calm down,” Annabelle continued softly, her tone conveyed a reasoning that didn’t appear to be reaching Devon.



Another blur caught Chris’s attention moments before fresh footsteps hit the porch. Liam appeared behind Devon, his silver eyes instantly latched upon Annabelle. Though Chris had been afraid to move even an inch, Liam strode swiftly past Devon as he hurried to Annabelle’s side. Chris could sense their longing for each other, but they did not touch as Liam reached her side.



“We, all of us, we can find her Devon,” Annabelle continued gently. “With all of our gifts…”



“Before they hurt her?” Devon growled. “Can we find her before they hurt her?”



Annabelle glanced sharply back at Chris, her eyes caring but fearful. “We can find her. If she is still alive, we can find her. And she is alive, right Devon?”



Chris could read the truth in the softening of Devon’s features. Relief flowed through Chris; his shoulders slumped as joy suffused him. Cassie was alive. His best friend had not been lost, yet. There was still time to get her back. Hopefully before she was hurt too badly, or Devon went completely insane.



Headlights filtered over the windows, tires crunched in the snow. Doors opened and slammed, running footsteps sounded over the driveway and then up the steps. Melissa and Luther burst through the door, skidding to a halt when Devon turned rage fueled eyes on them. Luther shoved Melissa back a step, Liam moved instinctively closer to them.



“Devon please come in and sit down,” Annabelle coaxed. “Please.”



Devon didn’t move. He remained standing like an opposing avenger sent straight from the depths of hell. Chris only prayed he would not turn that wrath upon them, though he still appeared very close to doing so. “No,” he growled. “Tell me what happened here.”



Annabelle looked helplessly around. “At least let me turn on some lights. Let us get comfortable, so we can try to formulate a game plan.”



Devon remained unmoving, his face hard, his eyes on fire. Annabelle moved slowly away, hedging toward the light switch by Devon. Liam bristled slightly beside Chris, but didn’t move to go after her as she neared Devon. The lights flared on, causing everyone to blink in surprise. “What happened?” Liam inquired, glancing around the living room.



Chris slowly took in the room, noting the rope on the floor by the chair where he had been tied. He glanced at the bowl of soup he had eaten shortly before utter blackness had claimed him. A bowl of soup that Dani had made for him.



“Dani happened,” he muttered in horror, Annabelle’s words completely sinking in for the first time. He hadn’t known what to make of her statement earlier, but now, with nausea twisting through his belly, he completely understood what she had been trying to say. “Dani did this.”



“Yes,” Melissa said flatly. Disgust, anger, and frustration darkened her face. “Yes she did.”



Chris frowned at her, sensing more behind her words. “You had a vision?”



Melissa nodded briskly. “Too late though, they’re almost always too late!” she spat.



“But what exactly did she do?” Chris demanded, his frustration getting the best of him. “I was playing the video game, and next thing I know I was waking up tied to a freaking chair! And why? Why did she do this?”



“I think there was something in your soup,” Annabelle answered. “Some kind of drug, you were out cold when I got down here.”



“And where were you?” Liam asked quietly, the tension in his voice belying his soft tone.



Annabelle ducked her head slightly; her long lashes fell to cover her eyes. “Upstairs,” she admitted. “Dani came into my room, and we were talking. She was saying that she was scared, confused,” Annabelle’s delicate forehead furrowed as she tried to recall the conversation. “I remember giving her a hug, and then nothing. I was tied to my bed when I woke up, the hair on my arms still slightly singed.”



“She electrocuted you,” Liam growled.



Chris took a small step away from him, not liking the anger rapidly building inside him either. They already had one very pissed off vampire to deal with, they didn’t need another one. Annabelle nodded. “I believe so.”



Liam let out a low growl. Annabelle went to him, taking hold of his hand as she turned toward Melissa. “What did your vision show you?”