Kindled (Book 3 The Kindred Series) (42 page)

   “Do you think there are answ
ers here?” Melissa asked
.

   “There is something here,” Chris
answered quietly
. “And a whole lot of nothing.”

   “I don’t understand,” Melissa replied.

   “There’s no
thing out there.
No w
ildlife, no people, just
nothing
.”
   Melissa leaned forward, her hands grasping hold of the back of Devon’s seat. “Are you saying that this is some kind of strange ghost town?”

   “I don’t know
what it is,
b
ut it’s not normal.”

   “Do you think Cassie is here somewhere?”

   “I don’t know what to think,” Devon
answered when Chris remained silent
. “I do know I have never been in a place like this
.”

   He turned his blinker on
,
but ended up driving past the gas station as none of the lights were on. “It
is
two o’clock in the morning,” Luther reminded him. “We’ll be lucky if we can get a room
at the motel
.”

   “Hmm,” Devon agreed, keeping his eyes focused on the dark woods surrounding them.

   “This place is creepy,” Melissa muttered, sitting back in her seat. “I keep waiting for zombie’s or hill people to come out and attack us.”
   Devon wasn’t going to say that he agreed with her, but he couldn’t shake the thought of such a thing either.
They pulled up to the motel, but all the lights were off. Though there were four cars in the parking lot, the place had a deserted air
about
it. Devon stepped slowly from the vehicle, his senses on high alert as he scanned the parking lot.

   He did not hear people moving around inside the building, could not pick up the faint beat of human hearts.
He couldn
’
t hear them rustling around
in their
sleep, couldn
’
t hear the
ir
breathing, or
snoring. “It’s so quiet,
”
Melissa breathed.
   “There’s no one in there,”
Devon told them
.

   Melissa and Chris glanced sharply at him, but Luther had retreated back to the SUV in search of something. “Are you certain?” Chris inquired.

   “Yes.”

   “Bu
t the cars,” Melissa argued
.

   “
This place is empty.”

   “According to this map
Cedarville is
twenty-two
square mil
es with a population of two hundred and fifty people
. This is the only
m
otel on the GPS and it appears that Cedarville mainly
consists
of dairy farms
,
”
Luther announced as he returned from
the
SUV with a map book in his hands.
“Though they do have a small center of town, and a school.”
  
“We need to go in there and see if there are any clues a
bout what happened to these people,
”
Devon told them.
   “Wait,” Chris said, grabbing hold of his arm. “What if you’re wrong? What if there are people still in there?
We can’t just go barging in.
”

  
Devon stared at him for a moment before pulling his arm free. “There is no one left in there, and even if there
was
,
I w
ould
just
change their memories.”
Chris was still hesitant, his eyes doubtful as he gazed back at the motel. “We’re wasting time, we need to go.”

   Devon didn’t wait for them as he made his way swiftly across the parking lot
.
Snow crunched under his feet as he moved, the wind whipped around him. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his jacket
, barely noting the chill.
He needed answers, and he needed them now.
S
tepp
ing
onto the sidewalk that ran down the front of the
building
, he went for the first room he came across
.
H
e tested the door handle, not surprised to find it locked.

   Grasping hold of the door handle, he pulled down hard, ripping it free.
“
Devon!
”
Melissa hissed, huddling deeper into her coat as she joined him on the walkway.

   He didn’t give her a second thought as he shoved the door open and flipped on the light switch. The room was in neat order, the bed made. There was no lingering scent of human within, no bags marking this as one of the rooms that had been occupied. He didn’t bother to close the door before moving swiftly onto the next
one
.

  
He went quickly through the next few rooms, finding all of them as
deserted as the first. Finally
he came across a room that
had obviously been occupied. He stepped into the room, glad to be out of the cold air and howling wind. The comforter on the bed had been turned down, a suitcas
e sat on a chair beside the bed;
the top of it
was
open.

  
A
n old Married
With
Children episode
was
running
on the TV
.
Devon barely glanced at the TV; his attention was riveted
on the empty room. There was no sign of a struggle, but the room was completely empty, the person seemed to have vanished.
He glanced back at the suitcase;
it appeared to be all men’s clothes.
There were no answers to be found here.

   He moved swiftly back out of the room, hurrying down the walkway.
He went rapidly through the rest of the rooms, but there were no answers to be found in any of them either. Another man appeared to have been staying in one of them, and a couple in another. He arrived at the manager’s
office, frustration and anger boiling through him as he grabbed hold of the knob.

   “Wait,” Melissa whispered, seizing hold of his arm.

   He turned slowly toward her, surprised by the pallor of her skin, the firm set of her full lips.
There was a haunted look about her
black
eyes that made his blood run cold. He had seen that look on her face before,
seen
the horrifying knowledge of what was to come. The last time he had seen it he had lost the only thing that mattered to him, the only person he had ever truly cared about.

   “Cassie?” he breathed.

   She shuddered, taking an un
steady breath
as she snapped out of the premonition
. “No,” she moaned
, shaking her head as she took a small step back.
“No.
That room, it’s a
wful, just awful.
”

   Luther took hold of her shoulders as she turned away
, looking as if she were about to throw up
. His eyes were haunted as they met
Devon’s briefly. Bracing for whatever it was that Melissa had seen
Devon turned the handle, surprised
to
find it
un
locked. Twisting the knob, he shoved the door open
;
the smell of blood instantly swamp
ed
him.
For a moment the beast in him reared to fierce life
, hunger sprang forth as the sweet scent assailed him.

   He inhaled sharply, closing his
eyes
against the
demon
that
cla
mored
at his insides.
His teeth had elongated instantly at the smell, they bit sharply into his lower lip. “Are you ok?” Chris inquired
tremulously
.

   Fisting his ha
nds, Devon
managed a small nod.
It
still
took him a few moments longer to regain complete control. Taking a deep breath, he ground his teeth tightly together as he flipped on the light switch. His eyes widened, disgust and excitement roll
ed
through him in equal measures.

  
He hated the part of himself th
at was excited by the carnage of
the room
,
but he couldn’t stop it. Hell, he had caused this
,
and worse
,
in his long life.

   But even with that knowledge, he was
also
disgusted by the death and destruction of the room. “My God,” Chris breathed.

   “This has nothing to do with God,” Devon
replied
crisply
.

   He moved
slowly into the room, stepping over the broken bits of chair that littered the floor.
Papers were scattered about, mixed with the blood that was spattered
everywhere. A large smear of blood
covered the back wall. It was apparent that the victim had been lifted to the ceiling and
then pulled back down to the floor.
The custom
ary
hotel painting
of a serene landscape
h
u
ng
on the wall
,
it
was
completely out of place
amidst all
of
the destruction
and mayhem
.

  
Devon stepped around the desk;
the feet of the victim c
a
me into view.
He
shuddered, his hands fist
ed
even harder as he fought against the bloodlust threatening to consume him.
He stepped completely around the desk
, bracing himself
for the rest of the mayhem
.

   His breath wheezed out of him, his eyes widen
ed
at the slaughter before him. The manager’s
body was sprawled across the floor, his arms and legs twisted at an odd angle as his back had been broken. His neck was turned to the side,
his
unseeing brown eyes focused upon the ceiling.

He had been mauled, his stomach torn open,
his intestines were gone, and
his throat
was
nearly ripped out.

   Horror filled Devon, his skin turn
ed
to ice as his gaze darted quickly over the room. There was not enough blood here for the
savage
wounds. It had not been a human attacker
that had done this, b
ut it had not been a vampire either.
No vampire would eat the intestines, as
had happened here.

   The breath hissed out of him as he took a
swift step back. “We need to go!
” he
ordered
sharply
.

   “What is it?” Luther demanded.

   Devon’s gaze darted to the back door, the one that more than likely
led
to the manager’s apartment.
He didn’t sense another presence back there, but he wasn’t so sure that he
would. “Chris?” he inquired
.

   Chris looked at him, then rapidly around the room. Shaking his head he looked back over at Devon. “I don’t sense anyone,” he said softly.

   Devon nodded, but it did not soothe the fierce tension
that
knot
ted
his stomach. “Come on, we need to get out of here.”

   “What is the matter?” Luther asked sharply.

   “Halfling,” Devon answered, turning swiftly away from the body.
  

  
“Wai
t! What?” Chris sputtered
.
“One of those monster things?
One of those th
ings that you were scared
Cassie
might become?”

   “Yes.”

   Luther paled as he took a step back. Devon moved to
ward them, shoving them
out the door. Melissa was still huddled
outside
, her cheeks red from the cold, her eyes shadowed
,
dark
, and haunted
.
She
did
n’t need to go inside to know the horror
that lay
within.

  
Devon studied the dark
night, his senses on hyper
alert
as he watched for any sign of movement. “Come on, we can’t stay here.”