Dani shot her a questioning look. Cassie met her gaze head on refusing to be judged by the girl that had nearly gotten her killed, and had gotten her tortured. “The Commission also wanted us to make sure that any of The Hunter’s we met was not The Hunter’s that have nothing,” Dani continued.
Cassie started in surprise, stunned and completely mystified by her strange words. “The ones who have nothing?” Luther inquired a sharp edge to his voice.
Dani nodded slowly, she swallowed heavily. “The evil ones amongst us. The Hunters that turn.”
Horror rolled through Cassie, she took an involuntary step back as Dani’s gaze darted to her. Devon stopped her backward momentum, resting his hand in the hollow of her back as he sought to steady and comfort her. Cassie turned into him, needing his comfort more than anything right now. His arms wrapped tight around her as she rested her head against his chest, taking solace in his solid presence.
Luther released the curtain he had been holding as he took an angry step toward Dani. “The evil ones? Are you mad?”
Dani shook her head fervently. “No, it’s true! There are evil ones amongst us, and Cassie is one of them!” Devon hissed sharply, his hands tightened almost painfully upon her. Dani shook her head quickly, her hair flying around her as she took a frightened step back. “Or that’s what I believed anyway. It’s what I was told from the time I was a child!
“They said that the ones with no power would eventually turn into mindless monsters that sought to destroy everything in their path! When I first met Cassie I didn’t believe what they had said, I thought that they had lied to me, or that they had been wrong. I thought that there was no way she could turn against someone, no way she’d hurt someone, and then…”
“And then you saw me kill Isla,” Cassie said softly when Dani trailed off. Her mind flashed back to that night, and the overwhelming anger and hatred that had consumed her. She had been a monster that night, and if it hadn’t been for Devon she very well could have been lost to the rage trying to overtake her. “And you were scared.”
Dani’s lower lip began to tremble, and despite her best intentions not to have it happen, Cassie felt her heart softening toward the girl. “Yes, and I thought that they had been right. I knew then that there was something wrong with you, and I was so very frightened that one day you would hurt one of us.”
“And you called your brother?” Luther inquired his voice tight with anger and disbelief.
“Yes. When Joey left me behind, he went back to the people that had helped to raise us. He came back here.”
Horror curdled through Cassie as the true depth of Dani’s betrayal set in. “He didn’t leave you behind because you actually wanted to stay. He left you behind to spy on us.”
Panic flared through Dani as her eyes darted wildly around. Though she appeared to be looking for an escape, they all knew that there wasn’t one for her. Her mouth opened and closed, her eyes rolled wildly in her head. She looked like a crazed horse that had been trapped and cornered. The only difference was that Cassie would have sympathy for the horse; she had none for this girl.
“Well!?” Chris shouted causing Dani to jump in surprise.
“Yes,” she admitted in a strangled voice.
Chris sneered at her, his eyes raked her with disgust. Melissa remained unmoving, her face hard though her eyes narrowed minutely. Luther cursed loudly as he slammed his fist into the sill. “We trusted you!” he exploded.
Cassie jumped in surprise, more rattled by Luther’s lack of composure than Dani’s admission. Luther was always stoic, he was almost robotically in control of his anger. “Luther,” Melissa said softly.
Luther scowled at her as he turned on his heel, pacing restlessly back to the window. He cast one last scathing glare at Dani before turning his attention to the day beyond. “What happened when you called your brother?” Cassie inquired, surprised by how composed her voice still was.
Dani swallowed nervously, her hands clenched tightly before her. Though she knew that she was surrounded by people that hated her, she seemed to have regained her composure. “The Commission has grown stronger over the years; some lost members have even been relocated. They have been working here for many years doing new research.”
Dani broke off; her gaze focused on her hands. She was twisting them back and forth in what had to be a painful manner. “They were trying to create more Hunter’s!” Chris gasped, taking a startled step back as the realization sank in.
Cassie shuddered, burying her face in Devon’s chest for a moment as she tried to retain her swiftly unraveling composure. “Yes,” Dani said softly. “Our race needs to be rebuilt before it is completely extinguished. Otherwise there will be no protection for the human race against the vampire’s.”
“We are not all monster’s you know,” Liam grated.
Dani nodded, her hands turning red as she continued to twist them. “I know that, but for the most part, you are.”
Liam glared at her for a moment longer, drawing Annabelle closer to him. “In order to create new Hunter’s you need vampires. That’s why I was captured,” Julian deduced.
Cassie lifted her head as Julian began to pace restlessly back and forth, running his hand through his hair. He was like a caged tiger ready to snap, but he had to stay in control for awhile longer. They needed more answers, and as much as she had grown to despise Dani, she could not allow Julian to kill her while in a state of rage. Cassie truly believed he was trying to better himself, and killing Dani was not the way to do it.
“Yes,” Dani admitted. “And they also needed you for your power. They tried using younger vamps, but it didn’t work out well. The Commission felt that if they could get their hands on an Elder, it might make a difference. They felt that might be the key that they were missing in order to get the combination of human and vampire blood right.” Julian shot her a fierce glare, his eyes momentarily flaring red.
“And they couldn’t take Devon, they couldn’t be sure that they would be able to keep his ability for mind control locked down. And they didn’t know if they could keep him under control, especially…” She broke off, her gaze darted to Cassie. “Especially since they didn’t think they would be able to control Devon with Cassie around. So they took Julian.”
Devon’s hands had tightened on Cassie; his attention was focused on Julian, who looked about ready to rip the store apart with his bare hands. Cassie clung to Devon, fighting back the shudder of terror and dread that wanted to shake her. Devon rested his cheek against her hair. “Breathe love, just breathe.”
She hadn’t even realized she had stopped breathing until that moment. It exploded out of her, leaving her shaken and on the verge of tears. They wouldn’t have been able to control Devon in there. He would have lost complete control of himself if he had seen what they did to her every day, seen what they had put her through. And they probably would have destroyed him. The thought left her hollow, cold, barely able to breathe as she held him against her, trying not to shed the tears in her eyes.
“But they couldn’t figure it out,” Dani continued in a shaky voice, watching them wearily. “Everyone knew that The Hunters had been created from vampires, but no one knew how, and no matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t get the combination right.”
Cassie inhaled sharply, her fingers dug deeper into Devon’s arm. He held her gently, his hands rubbing over her as he tried to put some heat back into her suddenly chilled body. “So they ended up creating monsters,” Cassie whispered. “They created the monster’s that are running loose in this town right now?”
“Yes, but they didn’t mean to. They were trying to do right; they were trying to protect people.”
Cassie stared at her in disbelief, her mouth suddenly dry, and her heart thumping loudly in her chest. “How did I not know anything about this?” Luther demanded fiercely. “Why had I never heard about the other Hunter’s like Cassie, but you were told about them?”
Dani was silent for a moment, she licked her lips nervously. “It was only The Commission that knew about the ones with no powers, and what they could become. They kept it hidden from the other Guardians.”
“Why would they do that?” Melissa asked softly.
“To limit the liability,” Luther answered his voice full of horror at the realization. “The Commission could take out The Hunter without having to deal with a fight from their Guardian. And most Guardians would put up a fight against them; they would die to protect their Hunter. But if The Guardians weren’t informed about the dangers that the lack of abilities might hold, then The Commission could make the death or disappearance of The Hunter look accidental; they could blame it on vampires. Their Guardian’s never had to know what had really happened to them.”
Cassie’s stomach rolled, nausea swept through her. She clung tighter to Devon, needing his strength and support. Melissa looked like she was going to cry as her shimmering onyx eyes met Cassie’s. No one spoke; Cassie didn’t think any of them could find the words after Luther’s observation.
“That’s why some of the people in this town are simply gone, and others have been viciously murdered,” Annabelle whispered. “The ones that were taken, and experimented on, have come back to hunt the innocents. And the other people in this town were members of The Commission, Guardian’s, or Hunter’s and they were down there with you.”
Dani bit hard on her trembling bottom lip. “There were a few escapes before tonight,” she admitted.
“And tonight all hell broke loose,” Julian muttered.
“Yes.”
“How many escaped?”
Dani shook her head, looking completely helpless and out of sorts. “I don’t know how many were down there to begin with, or how many were able to break free.”
Everyone was silent as they digested this new tidbit of information. “What happened there tonight?” Luther inquired.
Dani shook her head. “I don’t know for sure, they had been having problems with the security. Those things weren’t as easily drugged as the two of you.” Devon’s hands twitched on Cassie as he glanced sharply down at her. She shook her head, not wanting to go into the details of that place right now. Not wanting to recall it at all, but knowing that it would haunt her for the rest of her life. “They were too crazed, too wild and unstable to be suppressed so easily. But I thought that they were getting it under control.”
“Why didn’t they just destroy them? Why were they keeping them alive?” Luther demanded.
Dani simply shrugged, her mouth opened and closed briefly before she shook her head helplessly. “They wanted to try and use them, wanted to try and gain control of them somehow.”
Cassie shuddered as Chris swore violently. Luther and Melissa simply gaped at Dani, shock and horror on their faces. Liam and Annabelle remained unmoving, as still as stone as they clung to each other. “And you call us monster’s!?” Julian spat, his fury nearly palpable in the room. “In all of my long lifetime I have never leveled an entire town!”
Dani was shaking now, tears streamed down her face. “I didn’t know what was going on there, what they were trying to do! I trusted them, they helped to raise me. They kept me safe and alive during a time when Joey and I had no one. I thought that I was doing good!”
Dani’s voice broke on a sob; she hugged her arms tight around her middle. “Why was that place built in the bottom of a school?” Cassie asked quietly, hoping her tone would help to keep Dani and everyone else calmer.
“It’s under a school?” Chris demanded sharply.
Cassie shot him a censuring look as she shook her head. There was enough anger and animosity in this room right now without adding to it. “Yes,” Cassie informed him. “Dani?”
Dani shook her head, tears streamed silently down her cheeks. “It was originally a bomb shelter that was built in the late forties. They had decided that it would be a good place to turn into a laboratory, to keep all of their records, and a good place to hide just in case something should happen. It is where they hid during The Slaughter. After The Slaughter they began to gather as many Hunter’s and members of The Commission here as they could. The school was built on top of it in the sixties because they felt it was a good cover for what was hidden beneath the foundation.”
Cassie simply stared hard at her for a moment, her stomach rolling and heaving, her extremities felt like ice. She was well aware of the fact that The Commission had taken up base in the U.S. during World War II. They had fled England when it was being bombed on a regular basis, and it became too risky to stay in Europe any longer. They had taken up residence in the U.S. but no one, outside of The Commission, had known the exact location of where they had escaped to. Now they had all stumbled across that location by incredible misfortune.
