Cassie sat by the window with her legs drawn up against her chest and her chin resting upon her knees as she stared at the hushed street. The sun had come up a few hours ago, but she had yet to speak since they'd arrived back here. There was so much to ask, so much to know, but she didn't want to know any of it. She was tired of being blindsided by fate, and she was very tired of being betrayed by those who were supposed to care for her.

She turned her head to stare across the room at the man who claimed to be her father. She had never known him, but she had once loved the idea of him. This man was none of the things she'd dreamed him to be.

He stared back at her; his eyes were narrowed and ringed with bags from lack of sleep. His arms and legs had been tied to the chair; there would be no escaping for him, and she would make sure of that. She turned away from him and tightened her grip on her legs. In the far back she could hear murmured words, and from down below she could hear the whispers of Devon and Julian's conversation. Joey had been placed downstairs as it had been decided it was best to keep the two of them separated.

Everyone had moved away from her after the first few hours. Her father hadn't said a word either, despite Luther's incessant and furious questions. Cassie had the odd feeling he would speak to her, if she asked, but she wasn't willing to ask. Not right now anyway.

Shadows played off of the street as skeletal branches clicked against the sky. There was no sign of life, not even a bird chirped in the distance. "My grandmother used to talk about you and my mother once in a while," she finally said. "Apparently she didn't know you very well."

His head tilted to the side as he studied her. "Where is Lily?" he inquired.

A twinge tugged at her heart, guilt and loss swamped her. "Dead."

He grunted quietly. "And I'm sure it was one of these monsters."

They stared at each other. "No, it was another monster."

"And where is that one?"

Cassie swallowed heavily as her hands fisted against her legs. "I killed her. Something I'm sure Dani has already informed you of."

"You have your mother's spirit. Though I'm sure she is better off dead than seeing what you have become."

Unwilling for him to see her distress over his words, she turned her attention back to the deserted street. "My grandmother was very proud of me, for everything I did. She accepted Devon, she welcomed him into her home, and she welcomed him into our lives. She loved me, and she was the best person I have ever known. She would not be proud of you, however. She loved you like you were her own son, and she would despise everything you are now. I am not ashamed of myself, of what I am, or who I love, but you should be."

Cassie knew she should leave, but she was unable to bring herself to move. "How did you survive The Slaughter?" she inquired.

His feet shuffled briefly against the wooden floor. "We were all taught how to fight, how to use our abilities, and how to be a survivor."

"And you're a survivor?"

"Yes."

"And my mother?"

"Was not."

Cassie was unable to stop herself from shooting him a fierce look. "Did you even love her or me?"

His dark blue eyes were hostile in the small amount of light penetrating the room. "That is why I have made it my quest to make sure these monsters are eradicated forever."

"By creating even worse monsters?"

"We were trying to help."

"And you created things far worse than anything we could have ever imagined. You made these things, and you destroyed this town. You destroyed hundreds of people only to have your own creations turn against you. Good job, Dr. Frankenstein."

He stared back at her unblinkingly. "And you've crawled into bed with a monster. I made a mistake; you made a choice."

Cassie wasn't going to bother to deny his accusation or defend herself. Not to him. She realized he wasn't entirely sane. There would be no changing his mind, and she didn't particularly care to try. Whatever had happened to him over the years had completely changed him from the man her grandmother had loved and admired greatly.

"What is your ability?'

He grinned at her as he shook his head. "That's my secret."

Cassie glared at him but decided to let it go for now. They would find it out one way or another. Cassie folded her hands before her as she rested her elbows on her legs. "The ones down there aren't the same as the other ones I encountered. They're stronger, faster, and they seem even more blood thirsty. How and why did you make them?"

"We were doing some different experimentation, to see what would go right, and give us the best results. Give us the best fighters. There were some failures along the way."

Cassie winced at the word failures. They had been humans, people with families and loved ones. People that had lived, loved and laughed, until these lunatics had gotten a hold of them. Now they were monsters with no rational thought other than to mangle and destroy. "Why would you keep them alive?" she managed to ask.

He finally turned his attention back to her. "To study them of course, to see if they could be controlled and to see how they thought and reacted to things."

Cassie swallowed back her loathing as she fought the urge to flee the room and this monster. Her father. "I thought they didn't think."

"They do. They react to external stimulation, to blood, to movement. And they think about death and violence, and blood. They do react, and they do think."

"Where are the children? Did you do this to them also?" His silence made her heart pump louder; her skin chilled as if an icy hand had grabbed hold of the back of her neck. "Did you?"

"Some of them."

It took all Cassie had not to throw up or fly across the room and attack him. She remained immobile, for to move would only instigate one of those two reactions. She took a deep breath as she strived to keep herself under control. She couldn't stand the thought of coming across children who were like the other monsters in this town. She couldn't stand the thought of having to kill one of those innocent beings.

"The children were even more unstable than the adults. We don't know the reason why, but they were not viable as further candidates in our experiments."

Bile rushed up her throat, but she was able to shove it back down. Her legs quivered as she climbed to her feet, but she couldn't sit anymore. She couldn't look at him anymore; she knew she would kill him if she did. She couldn't be the person who killed her own father, no matter how much she thought he deserved it.

"How many children are out there, running free now?" she choked out.

"The children were all destroyed, as I said they were even more volatile and uncontrollable than the adults. They couldn't be allowed to survive. The havoc they would have wreaked would have been unstoppable."

Cassie was disgusted by the relief filling her. She couldn't have destroyed a child; no matter what kind of monster it was, she couldn't have killed it. She hated herself for feeling grateful none of them would have to do so. She hated her father even more for putting her in this horrendous situation.

Tears shimmered in her eyes but she wiped them quickly away. "And the other children?" she asked. "The ones you didn't put down?"

She knew he was waiting for her to look at him again. Straightening her shoulders, Cassie turned toward him and managed to keep her face as impassive as possible. She instinctively knew he wouldn't approve of weakness, and would shut her out because of it. "They were shipped off," he finally answered.

"Where?"

His mouth quirked into a sneer as he studied her impassively. "Like I would tell you. I don't want you anywhere near those children."

Cassie snorted as she shook her head. "You don't have to tell me anything," she retorted. "I can just have Julian forcefully drag the memories from your mind. I'm sure you know what he is capable of. I'm also certain the experience can be extremely uncomfortable, if he wants it to be."

Her father paled visibly. "I am aware of what Julian is capable of, but I will not tell you."

That was fine; she didn't particularly care how they got the information, only that they got it. She wasn't going to leave those children lost and adrift in the world, possibly being tortured like their unlucky friends had been. She would find them, and she would make sure they were safe afterwards. She would make sure they didn't suffer anymore than they already had, if it was the last thing she did.

"How did you make these creatures so strong?" She was interested in hearing what he had to say for himself, before Julian got his hands on him.

His glance once more returned to the window. "You know if they break in here, I'm vulnerable to an attack while tied to this chair."

If she released him he would tell her, but there was no way she was releasing him. She didn't trust him enough to even give him a leg back. "I'll just have to make sure they don't get near you, if I'm motivated enough," she added coldly, hoping he got her point too.

"I suppose you will." They stared at each other before he finally nodded. "Vampire blood alone wasn't working; we couldn't figure out the combination. So we decided to add a new blood with the vampire blood."

Cassie had lost the capacity to be horrified or dumbfounded. "So you added mine."

"Yes."

"Why did you give me Julian's blood?"

He shrugged to the best of his ability. "To see what it would do. To see if it would make you stronger, or if eventually you would become one of them. Either way it would have been interesting to see the effects his blood would have on you."

"You must feel like a real hero, running all of those experiments, testing them on your own daughter."

"You're not my daughter."

She was unable to understand why his words were still like a stab to her heart. "You're right, I'm not." She turned away from him, meaning to leave, meaning to get as far away from this monster as possible. But call her a masochist there was one more thing she had to ask. "Why didn't you come for Chris and I, when we were younger?"

A muscle in his cheek twitched. "I was injured in the battle, by the time I recovered enough to come after you, your grandmother had already fled the state. I didn't know where you were, or anything about you, until Luther started poking into the history of The Hunters, and Joey arrived here. I'm glad I didn't find you."

Cassie couldn't stop the tears burning her eyes as she nodded. If he had found her, he would have destroyed her the moment he realized she didn't have any abilities. Or she would have been locked away and experimented on until she went insane, or her body finally gave out on her. "So am I."

She rigidly moved away from him, unable to listen to anymore. She turned the corner to find Devon and Julian standing by the cold cases. They were large and powerful as their eyes glistened in the illumination from the coolers. Cassie could feel the animosity radiating off of them in waves. Luther stood behind them, the lenses of his glasses shone like cat eyes, and anger had made the lines in his face harsher. Chris was leaning against one of the glass doors, his arms folded over his chest as he stared into the darkened room behind her.

Melissa stood beside Chris, her onyx eyes glistened with unshed tears. The blue highlights in her black hair glistened in the light from the cooler. Dani was immobile, her mouth parted as she stared behind Cassie. Annabelle and Liam stood close together with their hands entwined. Annabelle's sea green eyes gleamed while Liam's oddly silver eyes were narrowed in concern.

"You ok?" Devon asked.

"Yes."

She moved into him and encircled his waist; she rested her head on his chest as she savored in the strength he radiated. No matter what happened, no matter how awful things were, as long as he was here she could get through anything. "How much did you hear?" she inquired.

"Most of it," Devon informed her.

"I'll go watch him, you should rest." Julian turned away and hurried into the store.

"Julian." There was an odd gleam in his crystalline blue eyes when he turned back to her. "We will have to learn what he knows."

Julian flashed a feral grin at her. "Oh, it will be my pleasure," he purred.

Cassie thought she should feel bad about what Julian might do to him, but she was unable to find the energy to conjure up those feelings. She was too tired to feel compassion for someone who had never shown her, or Julian, any. But she couldn't allow Julian to be cruel to him.

"Not tonight Julian and not cruelly. We can't sink to his level, no matter how much we would both like to."

"It doesn't matter." Luther pulled his glasses off and cleaned them as they all stared questioningly back at him.

"Of course it matters! The children!" Cassie retorted when Luther didn't continue.

Luther shook his head as he slid his glasses back on. "Yes, yes, of course the children matter," he said quickly. "That's not how I meant it to sound. We must find the children, but Julian will be unable to help us do so."

"Like hell I will be unable to," Julian snarled. "If you have a problem with me hurting him…"

"I don't," Luther stated flatly.

Cassie started in surprise, Chris's eyebrows shot into his hairline, and Melissa openly gaped at Luther. None of them had ever heard Luther sound so uncaring. "Luther," Cassie breathed.

His gray eyes were unyielding as they met hers. "My main mission in life is to see you all stay safe. That man out there is a threat to you and many others. It is essential we know what he knows, no matter how it has to be done, even if he is your father."

Cassie didn't know how to react to that. She burrowed closer to Devon as she tried to keep control of her swaying emotions. "Then why won't you let me to do my thing?" Julian demanded.

"Because Derek had, has, psychokinesis too."

Luther's tone was bitter, irritation simmered in his eyes as they met Cassie's. Though Luther had never met her father, Cassie knew he’d respected and admired him. They had believed Derek had given his life in order to help keep Chris and her alive. There were only three things Luther cared about, and they were Melissa, Chris, and her. To Luther, the fact Derek was still alive, and a threat to the three people he cared about most was an ultimate sense of betrayal. To Luther, Derek was already dead.

Julian cursed loudly, his lip curled into a sneer as his hands fisted. He swore again and slammed his hand onto a shelf. Cassie, Chris, and Luther jumped a little as cans fell off and rattled across the floor. Devon swung down and scooped one of the cans up. He shot Julian a censuring look as he tossed the can to him. "Keep the noise down."

Julian's eyes flashed a sadistic shade of red. Cassie was frightened that being denied his revenge would shove Julian right over the edge. Devon grabbed hold of Cassie's arm and pulled her behind him as he braced for an attack.