Kindred (Book 1 The Kindred Series) (8 page)

   “Cassie! Cassie!”

  
The call of her name
was like a bucket of
ice
thrown onto her
.
I
t
slammed
her
harshly
back to reality. Th
e strange spell shattered around her, snapp
ing
her head around
as
her gaze focus
ed
upon Marcy
.
For the first time, Cassie was
actually thankful for Marcy’s
obsessive, overeager
ways. She needed a reprieve
from
the stranger
in order
to gather her wits again, and calm the racing of her fiercely pounding heart.

   Marcy thrust a piece of paper
at
her
as she came to an abrupt halt in front of Cassie
.
Her leaf green eyes were bright and enthusiastic as she grinned up at Cassie, her pretty face aglow in the light coming from the restaurant.
“My cell
number
, call me later so that we can go over some ideas.”

 
Cassie stared at the paper, unable to fully form a coherent response.
She managed a brief nod
as she
shov
ed
it
into her pocket. “Hey Marcy,” Chris greeted, nodding to her as he grinned brightly.

   Marcy turned five shades of red, a bashful
smile
spread across her lips as she ducked her head. Chris’s grin grew even wider; he folded his arms over his chest
and
rock
ed
back slightly on his heels. Melissa rolled her eyes, shoving
at
him as she pushed him forward a step. “You can flirt
some other time,”
she muttered, soft enough
so
that Marcy couldn
’
t hear.

   “Tomorrow,” Marcy said quickly
before hurrying away.

   Cassie glanced briefly back at the man, not surprised to find his gaze still focused
intently
upon her.
She thought that she should be unnerved, or even a little frightened by his intense scrutiny of her
,
she wasn’t. In fact, she was still thoroughly excited and entranced by it. She found herself unable
,
and unwilling to move for a moment, but Chris tugged her sharply forward, his displeasure with her still apparent. The man quirked a dark eyebrow at her, but
other than that
he remained
completely still.

 
She allowed herself to be pulled
away
, not because she wanted to leave, or flee from this stranger anymore. No, she allowed herself to be pulled forward simply because she didn
’
t know
what else to do. And no matter how much she wanted to, she could not stand there gaping at the stranger like a complete idiot
.
Which is exactly what she looked like.

   Cassie shook her head, tearing her gaze away from the man. The odd sense of loss encompassed her once more, but it was not a
s suffocating this time.
She
chanced a quick glance back at him, not surprised to find that he had turned to watch them
leave
. There was a hungry gleam in his emerald eyes that sent a shiver of fear and desire down her spine.
He looked like he wanted to devour her, and she found that she didn
’
t mind
that thought
at all. In fact, she thought she might like being devoured by him.

  
T
hat
fact
just confused and flustered her even more.
She shouldn’t want this, but she did.

***

  
C
assie slid the window open
and
lean
ed
on the sill as she met Chris’s twinkling gaze.
“Why don’t you just use the door?”

   He shrugged as he heaved himself through the window.
A
s big and muscular as he was, he was surprisingly agile
and graceful
.
It was why he was the star of the football team
.
W
ell that
,
and his enhanced speed and strength gave him an advantage
.
“The window’s more fun.”

   Cassie
shook her head as she closed
the window
again
, leaving it
slightly cracked
to allow
the cool September air
to flow through
.
Chris
moved swiftly around
t
he room,
he
plopp
ed down on her bed and crossed
his long legs before him
.
Resting his elbow on his knee, he s
natch
ed
the remote
up and
turned
on
the TV.
Though he f
lipp
ed
idly through the channels, his easy demeanor
was
belied by the fierce tension she sensed running through him.

   S
igh
ing
softly
,
she walked over to sit beside him. She di
dn’t have to ask what was wrong
she knew it was his mother again. If h
e wished to talk about it,
he would. If not, they would sit silently until
he was ready to go to sleep on the air mattress tucked under
t
h
e
bed for him.

   “Is your grandma home?”
he inquired
softly
.

   His gaze was focused on the TV, but most of his attention was on her.
“No, she went to the church social tonight
.
T
here’s left over lasagna in the fridge for you if you want some.”

   He shrugged, sett
i
ng
the remote down as
he
found the
Red Sox game. “Someone
did
t
a
k
e my fries,
”
he muttered.

   Cassie couldn’t help but grin as she shoved lightly on his arm. “There were only a few left.”

   “The last ones are always the best.”

  
Laughing softly, she
pushed
him again.
“Do you want me to heat some
for you
?”
she
inquired
though she
kn
e
w that was exactly what he was trying to guilt her into doing.

   He turned t
o her, smiling s
oftly
as he nodded. “Think you owe me.”

   Cassie climbed to her feet, shaking her head at him. “You’re lucky I love you.”

   H
e
flash
ed
his bright
grin
with the easy charm that most girls could
n
’
t resist. “You’d better!”

  
Cassie was still shaking her head as she m
a
de
her way downstairs
.
S
he may have been born an only child, but
she
still had an annoying, two week older brother. Fi
nd
ing
her way easily through the darkened
halls
she
entered
the kitchen.
She didn’t
bother with the lights
,
she could see almost as well with the light
s off as she could with them on.
S
he pulled the door of the fridge open and
removed
the
hefty piece of
lasagna
her grandmother had set aside for Chris
.
Un
-
wrapping it
,
she
tossed it into the microwave
and hit the buttons
.

  
Leaning against the sink, she stared out at the dark night, her mind not on the street before her, but on the
strange
man
from earlier
.
She had done nothing but think about him since
arriving
home. He preoccupied her every thought
, her every mo
m
ent.
She could not get him out of her head, could not rid her skin of the strange electricity
he had created in her
.

 
Her body
hummed
with
a
fierce
need to see him again, to touch him, and
to
finally ease the tension
knotted
through her.
Instinctively she knew that if she coul
d just see him again, just touch
him, than things would be better.
She could not
shake
the
feeling of
rightness
that had filled her
from
the moment
she
laid eyes upon
him. It was
as
if s
he knew him, as if her very
soul
knew his.

  
The thought filled her with excitement, but also with a level of fear that she couldn
’
t shake. She shouldn
’
t feel this way about someone she didn
’
t know
.
It
made no sense
to
feel this
intense of a
connection with a complete stranger
. Though she tried to remain logical
,
she could not shake the certainty that
what she felt was
right
and good
.

  
S
he hated it when Chris came to her
house
lost and angry,
however
she
was
grateful for the distraction
he
now
offered
from her strange thoughts and emotions
. But now
that
she was alone again
,
t
he
stranger
was back on her mind, back in her system. She
was
truly
afraid that she would never
feel normal
again
until she touched him, and knew exactly how he felt. Though she already knew he would feel exquisite.

  
If
she saw him again.
The thought of never seeing him again
sent her heart racing
in fear
.

   Cassie shook her head fiercely, desperately trying to rid herself of her strange,
irrational
thoughts. She w
as acting crazy, she was
feeling
crazy. Maybe everything that had happened to her over the past four years had
finally
caused her to lose her mind.
‘
How many people could actually know of
the existence of
vampire
’
s, and fight them
, and not go a little crazy?’ she wondered absently.

  
Not many
.

   Something moved amongst the shadows, drawing her gaze sh
arply back to the street
. The shadows shifted
again
, moving slightly before settling down
once more
. Cassie focused intently upon them, but they didn
’
t move again, and nothing emerged from the
copse of trees at the edge of the
yard.

  
The sudden beep of the microwave caused her to jump in surprise,
spinning
her
toward the
machine
. She shook her head, aggravated with herself for allowing someone to affect her
this
much.
And a stranger no less.
She didn’t know him, what she felt for him could not be real, and
he
should not be
affecting
her
this way
. Hell, s
he didn’t even
know his name
.