Kindled (Book 3 The Kindred Series) (29 page)

 
She could not
summon
the fierce sense of anger and
betrayal
that should be directed at Dani. An anger a
nd
hurt
that would g
ive her the power, and ability, to get
up and moving
again
if she experienced enough rage.
She didn’t even have the strength to wonder what the hell was going on, or how Dani was even remotely involved with this.

   No, she could only sit helpless in her tortured
, frazzled
body.

  
Her eyes rolled as movement caught her attention
.
F
igures
began to
emerg
e
from the woods. Her head lulled to the side as four men reached the porch, climbing swiftly up the stairs. Dani handed the
taser
gun over to the first man
,
who gave her a brisk nod.

   “Good job.
The others?”

   “They’ve been taken care of.”

   Cassie uttered a garbled moan of pain as her heart constricted. Taken care of? What did that mean? Taken care of
how
? Fear for her friend
’
s safety gave her a new strength.
She lurched forward, trying to regain her footing in a desperate attempt to break free. She had barely moved a foot before a fresh bolt of electricity slammed her backward.

   Her legs kicked spasmodically, blood
from her wounded tongue
spurted from her mouth as a choked cry escaped
her
. “You were right, she is tougher than we
’
d thought,” another man said softly. “Two
taser
shots and
s
he
’s
still
trying to get up
.
Tranquilize her.”

   Another cry escaped as they came at her, a syringe in hand. Cassie tried to get the strength to move, but her limp legs and arms refused to cooperate with her. Hands seized hold of her, pinning her against the wall. A shrill, unintelligible
noise escaped her as the needle
jabbed
into her arm
,
and the plunger was pushed.

CHAPTER 14

   Chris woke to the feel of tiny hands
scrambling over him, then tugging at something. He groaned as he cracked an eye
lid
, surprised to find Annabelle kneeling before him, her delicate
eye
brows drawn tightly together in frustration.
He blinked in surprise, trying to figure out what was going on, and just what the hell she was tugging at.

   His throat was unnaturally dry, painful. His tongue felt funny, and was that burnt hair that he smelled? He swallowed heavily, trying to wet his parched throat in order to find
words. What
had happened? His gaze darted to the video game he had been playing. The screen was still
on, his car
was
crashed into a wall;
a prompter ask
ed
if he wished to continue. The only thing he wished to do was figure out what the hell was going on.

   Annabelle grunted in frustration and then jerked hard on something. Chris’s hand went with
her. H
e glanced sharply down, surprised to see
a
rope falling away from his wrist. “What…” the word came out as a croak
. He swallowed heavily as Annabelle’s sea colored eyes came up to his. The terror in her gaze was almost enough to make him lose his voice again. “What happened?”

   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
min
d 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 th
is
damn chair!”
   His voice reverberated loudly around the room
,
it
echo
ed
in his ears. He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself but failing miserably. Cassie was gone; someone
, or some
thing
,
had taken her. He cursed viciously slamming his fist down on the table. His soda rattled, some of it splash
ed
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
every
thing
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 slowl
y 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. I
f 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 cha
nce 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 stil
l knows in his heart that she
is
his
. He cannot live without her Chris.”

   “W
ill 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 a
void 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 fr
ont of him.

   Footsteps sounded on the porch. Chris
braced himself
as
the
steps
hesitated for a moment before stomping into the house.
D
evon’s fury pound
ed
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.