Kindled (Book 3 The Kindred Series) (7 page)

CHAPTER 4

   Cassie
crossed her legs, folding her arms firmly over her chest as she leaned against the large oak behind her. She kept all of her senses honed on the night around her, sea
rching for something, anything, in the
dark
.
Well, anything other than Devon, who she knew was lurking in the woods at the edge of the cemetery. She resented his presence, but there was nothing that she could do to stop him
from being there
.

   He would not leave, and she was certain that Julian and Isla would not make an appearance with him
there. Frustration
and anger boiled through her. She just wanted all of this to be over, but she wasn’t even going to have the chance to start it. Not as long as Devon, Chris, Melissa, and Dani hovered around her like nervous mother hens.

   And with the way that one of them was constantly with her, she wouldn
’
t have an opportunity to escape any time soon. She wanted to smash her fist into something, instead she settled for clenching her hands so tightly that her fingernails dug painfully into her palms. “How long do you want to stay out here for?” Chris asked softly.

   Cassie turned slowly toward
him, trying hard to keep a tight rein on her temper. She didn
’
t want them
to
see how aggravated she was by their presence, and Devon’s. They had to think
that she was ok with this; they had to believe that they could start leaving her alone.
Because if they
didn’t start to leave her alone, she was going to go freaking crazy.
Because if they didn’t, then she would never get her chance to go after Isla and Julian, she would never get her chance to exact her revenge.

   “Not much longer,” she answered absently.

   Chris continued to study her for a moment longer before
turning away. Cassie
watched
the woods impassively, taking note of the few creatures that stirred within its shadowy depths. If the animals were about then Julian and Isla were not. Unclenching her hands, she reached
down
to
strok
e
her fingers over the stake she had in the waistband of her jeans. It did little to reassure her as she knew she would not be using it tonight.

   Dani shivered, huddling deeper into her thick winter coat as the wind howled over the open expanse of the cemetery.
Cassie sighed heavily, stepping away from the tree as pity finally sank in past the hard shell surrounding her. “Let’s go,” she mumbled.

   Dani breathed a sigh of relief
as she scurried swiftly to her feet. Chris and Melissa looked just as relieved as they hurried to join her. Cassie turned on her heel, not truly acknowledging their pres
ence’s as she made her way swiftly over the snow covered landscape.
The snow crunched beneath her boots, but it was hard enough now that she didn
’
t sink into it.

   She was aggravated
and frustrated
that
Julian and Isla had not made an appearance. She needed to draw them out, she needed to get free of her friends, and her
guard dog
somehow. Cassie glanced at the woods. Though she could not see
Devon
, she knew that he was out there, keeping pace with them, watching over her.

   Anger blazed through her. She turned stiffly away from the woods, not wanting to acknowledge him
in any way. She knew that ignoring him would not make him go away, but she didn
’
t know what else to do. She didn
’
t know how to make him
leave
. There was nothing more that she could say
,
or do
,
to make him understand that the best thing for both of them was to
be
apart.

   The best thing for her was
to get this over with so she could be free of the misery and rage consuming her.

   “Cassie?” She turned slowly toward Chris, feeling stiff and wooden. “Are you ok?”

   She frowned, nodding as she realized that she had stopped walking. “Fine,” she muttered.

   Shoving her hands in her pockets,
she kept her head bowed as she hurried toward Chris’s car.
She climbed silently inside, her hand twitching back to the stake at her side.
She watched
unseeingly out the window as Chris made his way swiftly through the cemetery, the center of town, and eventually to her house.

   She stared at the quiet house, allowing herself
a moment to grieve for the warmth and happiness that used to enshroud the structure. It had none of that now. Now it was cold, lonely, a place that she hated, and that
now
only served as a constant reminder of all of her mistakes, and all
of her failings. And there were so very many of them
.

   She had failed miserably in all she had set out to do, and her grandmother had been the one to pay for
those
mistakes
.

   Cassie shuddered as she slipped from the car, not looking up as she made her way to the door. Flinging the door open, she barely felt the heat on her chilled skin as she flipped on the lights.
“How about some food?”
Melissa inquired softly.

   “Not hungry.”

   Cassie tossed
her coat into the hall closet
and kicked off her
boots
. She felt drained, exhausted, completely beat, but she knew that she would not get any sleep tonight. She never slep
t
anymore, nightmares plagued her continuously. She moved slowly into the living room
and
plopp
ed
down on the couch. She turned the TV on, but she didn
’
t watch it
as
she stared unseeingly at the flashing screen, not absorbing the
scenes
or sounds.

   Chris sat stiffly beside her, folding his hand
s
before him
as he leaned
his elbows
on his knees
. “Are you sure you don’t want some food?”

   She nodded, absently flipping through the channels, though she was not looking for anything. She had nothing to look for anymore.
Nothing to see.
She
was
nothing
now
.

   Cassie curled her legs underneath
her
and
rest
ed
her head on the
throw
pillow. She remained unmoving, barely breathing as crashing waves of rage and
absolute
misery
washed through her. She felt like a wildly swinging pendulum of emotions and she
hated it. She wanted off of the rollercoaster that was her life now.

   She didn
’
t
know
how much longer she could take all of this. She was rapidly falling apart and there was nothing that she
could do to stop it. She had to find Julian and Isla soon. She knew that if she could just make them pay
for
what
they had done to her grandmother than
everything would be better.
Revenge
had
to make her feel better,
m
ainly because she knew she would not survive the battle, but it would be worth it just to make them pay.

   She had to find them soon though, because she was fairly certain that she was not going to survive this
agony
for much longer.
She wasn’t even sure how her body was still running with very little sleep and almost no food, but it would only be a matter of time before it shut down. She just had to
find Julian and Isla before she shut down completely, or snapped and lost it.

***

   Devon watched
from the shadows as
Cassie slipped through the halls.
She had taken to wearing black sweaters,
and
hoodies
,
in an attempt to keep herself hidden from the world. Though she may not draw as much attention from her fellow classmates
as she used to
, he couldn’t fail to notice her. No matter how hard she tried to make herself invisible, he would always be able to
see
her.

  
She kept her head bowed, her golden
hair spill
ed
out from under the hood
she had pulled over her head
. The
habitual
dark
glasses
she
now
wore
were firmly in place
again
, blocking out the startling beauty of her violet blue eyes
. Beneath the
dark
hood her skin was pale;
the normal rosiness of her cheeks
was
gone.

   She had lost
weight;
her clothes were baggy on her,
her face thinner. She
was
lean
with an
athletic
grace
, but with the weight loss the muscles in her arms stood out even more,
and
the bones in her hands were clearly visible as she clutched her books tight to her chest. Her face had thinned out considerably. She had always been beautiful, shockingly so, and she still was but it was a more refined beauty. She appeared older,
more mature
,
as
the youthful chubbiness of her cheeks
had
fad
ed
away
to reveal the elegant planes of her
delicate fe
atures
.

   She didn’t look at anyone as she slid into
the girl’s locker room.
Moving like a wraith, she o
bviously
did
n
’
t
want to be noticed
as she disappeared around a corner
. “What’s with the sunglasses?”
Devon inquired, turning as
Chris
appeared at his sid
e
and
lean
ed
against the locker
next to
Devon
.

 
“She says the light hurts her
eyes now.”

   Devon glanced at the harsh fluorescents. They were bright ag
ainst his eyes, but he’d
had a lot of practice with adjusting his
sensitive vision
to them. “You don’t believe her?”

   Chris sighed heavily, shifting his feet. “I believe that she believes it, but I think it’s just another way for her to
try and
hide herself away
.”
   Devon nodded thoughtfully;
though he suspected that
hiding herself
was part of the
reason
he knew that it was not all of it. “She’s still not eating.”
  
“No, not much anyway.
Probably just enough to keep her going.”