Kindred (Book 1 The Kindred Series) (3 page)

   Though it was slightly overwhelming
,
it did not slow her down,
and
did not cause her
to
hesitat
e
. There was no room for
hesitation
here.
The smallest
distraction
c
ould get her, and her friends, killed. No, her entire focus had to be upon
the creature
, and de
stroying i
t
.
She could not allow
human emotions to slip in here;
there was no place for them now
.
Here, t
here could only be the fight.

  
And the death of someone.
P
referably not her.

   Though she had
the creature
down, she was not fooled into thinking that she had him beat.
Bracing herself, she leaned slightly back on her left f
oo
t as he threw his hands behind his head
and
thrust
himself elegantly to h
is feet. Cassie eyed him with w
ary amusement; he was predictable.

   With a fierce snarl, he lunged at her, racing across the ground with the grace inherent to his kind. Cassie did not kick out at him again, did not throw another punch. She simply ducked low, spinning around as he raced past her
.
T
hrust
ing
the stake out
,
h
is forward momentum
was enough to
dr
i
ve
it
deep into
his chest c
avity
and
pierc
e
his deadened
heart. He looked at her in shock and horror, his face
contort
ed
in pain as she t
wisted
the st
ake deeper
.

   He fell back, his body
convulsing as he clawed at the stake. Though he tried to rip it free, it was more than obvious that the damage had been d
one. There was no reversing
this
death. Cassie waited until he stopped struggling, and his eyes clouded over, before
she
ripp
ed
her
lucky
stake
free
.
In life, h
e had
only
been a year or two older than her,
barely a man yet. Though Cassie felt a twinge of regret
about
killing
him,
she quickly buried it.

 
T
here
could be
no
r
egret
in her life
; there could
never
be any regret.
I
t would only eat her alive
, and she
had
n’
t
been
the one
t
o
originally
end his life
.
She could not
question the where’s and why’s of her life. It was simply her duty
, her birthright
.
T
hough she didn
’
t always enjoy
it
,
and often resented it, she was good at
killing
,
and
she
helped to
ke
e
p people safe and
protect
ed
by doing it
. Even if
people
didn
’
t know
that she was helping them
.
 

  
She turned her attention back to Chris and Melissa. Chris
was struggling back to his feet as he
had been knocked flat
.
T
he vampire they were fighting rushed past
Chris
,
focusing
on what he
apparently
(and wrongly)
thought was the weaker female. Melissa grinned
back
at
the creature
in amusement
, her stance widen
ed
as she braced herself for his attack
. H
er dark eyes twinkl
ed
brightly in the
moonl
ight.

  
In their lives
i
t was just another night in paradise
,
Cassie thought with a sigh
.

  
Shaking her head,
Cassie moved slowly toward them.
Unlike herself, Chris and Melissa relished in the fight, the hunt
, and the kill
. They
both
loved what they were
,
and
eagerly embrac
ed
their heritage
.
Then again, Melissa had been raised
w
ith the knowledge of what she was. A
nd Chris was a
teenage
boy;
anything he could beat up, pu
nch
,
kick, and maim was f
un for h
im.
H
owever
,
Cassie
was not a boy
,
and she
had
been oblivious to
what she was
until
Luther and Melissa
had
walked into her life
at thirteen
. She had
ne
ver
relish
ed
in
the
fighting
, or
the
killing
.

   Well, that was not entirely true. There were times
when
she loved the
thrill of the
fight
,
ti
mes when she loved the fact that she was making the world safer one murderous vampire at a time. She did
not
like the fact that
this life
had been forced upon her by birth, or that her life expectancy
had been
drastically lowered by a flip of the cosmic switch.
She chafed against the bonds t
hat had confin
ed
her to a life she h
ad never even
imagined
could
exist
, and
had
never wanted
.

   But what choice did she really have?
S
he could not turn her back on what she was
. Innocent
people would
die
if she did
.
She may
hate her
role in life
, but
s
he could
n
o
t live with herself
if
people w
ere killed
because she was
n
’
t there
to protect them. She could not live with the fact that Chris or Melissa might be hurt
,
or
killed
,
because she was
too
selfish
,
and
t
o
o
scared to accept her birth right, her destiny.

   Destiny, she had learned, was a cold bed fellow. One that left her chilled
to the bone, and hollow inside.
Destiny
had left her vulnerable to the
more brutal
side of life, and
it
would likely destroy her before she ever saw her twenty-fifth birthday.

   A loud grunt shifted her attention back to the
battle Melissa was still waging. Chris had regained his feet, but Melissa was wearing the trademark grin she displayed when she already
knew the outcome of
a
fight
. Cassie sighed softly;
she
wip
ed
her hands on her jeans as she joined Chris.

   “I don’t see how it can be a
ny
fun when you already know what’s going to happen,” he
complained
.

   “Just think about how much fun it will be
if
she
ever
fore
sees a battle she loses,” Cassie retorted dryly.

   Chris shrugged
and
nodd
ed
slowly. Shoving a strand of sandy blond hair off his forehead, he sighed wearily as he shoved his hands in his pockets. “Yeah
,
that would suck.”

   Melissa lunged suddenly, shoving the stake forward in a killing
blow. With a satisfied grin she
ripped her stake free,
flipped
it
in the air,
and
ca
ught
it lightly before shoving it into her belt. “It will never happen though; I’m never g
oing to lose!
”
she announced proudly
, smiling brightly
.

   Cassie bit back her retort.
There was
no need
to
remind them that that was probably what every Hunter had be
l
ieved
,
until the Grim Reaper had call
ed
for them far too early.

   Sighing in aggravation
Cassie
wrapped her arms around herself, not understanding the strange melancholy
enshroud
ing
her
lately. B
ut
try as she might,
she could not
shake the misery that c
lu
ng
to her like a second skin
.
Her funk was not a good place to be; becoming worn down by her life would only get her killed sooner.

   “Of course not,” Chris agreed.

   “Yeah,” Cassie mumbled absently.

   Melissa’s onyx eyes focused intently on Cassie, her pretty face scrunch
ed
slightly as she studied her. Cassie
prickled
under the scrutiny, but she had
g
rown accustomed to Melissa’s fixed stares
. It was
a
look Melissa often
wore
when s
he
was
tr
ying
to decipher
the
future paths
a
person
might
take. Cassie never asked
about
her future, she didn
’
t want to know,
but
she was
certain that Melissa had
already
glimpsed
some of it.
Although,
Melissa
nev
er let onto whether it was good
or bad
,
and that was the way that Cassie liked it
.

   Cassie broke the stare first, becoming slightly unnerved as Melissa’s gaze went on longer than normal. Shaking her head, Melissa broke into a beautiful grin that showed off her perfect white teeth.
“Let’s dispose of these guys
.
   Between the three of them it did not take long to drag the bodies into the woods
and
hid
e
them within the shadowed interior.
Cassie didn
’
t worry that the
bodies
would be
discovered.
O
nce day broke the bodies would burn away, all evidence of their existence
would
disappear into a pile of ash. The animals would not come for these bodies either, there was nothing but evil for them here.

 
“
I’m hungry,”
Melissa
announced
wiping
the dirt from her hands
.

   “Yeah
,
me too,”
Chris agreed, patting his flat stomach.