Kindled (Page 42)

Annabelle shook her head, her eyes growing dark with concern and fear. “She’s gone.”

“Gone? Gone where?” he demanded sharply, nearing spilling his soda as he lurched forward.

“I don’t know,” she whispered. “We’ve been out for hours Chris. They could have taken her anywhere by now.”

Chris’s heart jumped in his chest, pounding against his ribs with the force of a jackhammer. He stumbled to his feet, nearly tripping over the video game controller that had fallen at his feet. Annabelle steadied him before he could take a header through the flat screen. Panic tore through him, causing his temples to throb painfully with the rush of his blood.

“We have to find her!” he gasped. Cassie was his best friend, he was supposed to have kept her safe, and he had lost her. And he had lost her to God only knew who. “What the hell happened!?” he nearly bellowed.

“Chris calm down,” Annabelle said softly. “Please, just calm down, we need to think. We have to figure out who came here, who took her. And we have to be rational to do it.”

“I don’t even know what happened, one minute I was playing a game, and the next you were untying me from this damn chair!”

His voice reverberated loudly around the room, it echoed in his ears. He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself but failing miserably. Cassie was gone; someone, or something, had taken her. He cursed viciously slamming his fist down on the table. His soda rattled, some of it splashed over the side, but everything remained standing.

“Feel better?” Annabelle asked quietly.

No, he felt like an idiot, he felt torn and tormented, and panicked. He felt like tearing this house down, then the woods, and then whatever else he could get his hands on, but none of that would do them any good. He took another deep breath, running his hand through his hair as he tried to steady himself.

He didn’t understand where the full force of this panic and anger was coming from. Yes, he should be terrified, and worried, but this bad…

His thoughts trailed off as realization dawned on him. It was not him that wanted to rip the house down, or the woods, or everything in his way. It was Devon. Devon was near and his emotions were so strong, and so forceful, that Chris was picking up on them, and being affected by them. He looked at Annabelle, dismay making his heart race even faster. His skin became flushed as a cold chill swept down his spine.

“Devon’s almost here,” he said softly.

Annabelle’s eyes widened in horror, her mouth parted slightly as she glanced swiftly to the window. “How bad is he?”

“Bad,” Chris whispered, shuddering.

Annabelle turned slowly back to him, her hands fisted slightly. “Chris, I think you should go somewhere else, at least until he calms down. He’s going to be on a rampage, and he’s not going to care who is in his way.”

Chris gaped at her, aghast at the thought. “I’m not hiding,” he responded coldly.

“It’s not hiding Chris, but he is not going to be controllable, and if you get in his way we may not be able to stop him. When a vampire’s mate is threatened, or lost to them, they do not think rationally. What is going to come through that door is not the Devon you know. What is going to come through that door will destroy anything that gets in between him and Cassie.”

“Well we aren’t in between them,” Chris grated. “And I’m not leaving you alone with him.”

“I am sure that Liam is with him. Maybe even the others still.”

Chris tried to sort through Devon’s emotions to see if there were others with him, but it was impossible to tell beneath all of the fury and terror. Devon’s emotions threatened to bury him beneath their fierce, sucking tidal wave. He had thought that Devon’s misery and pain had been bad when Cassie had broken up with him, but this was far far worse. This bordered on the edge of insanity.

“He’s going to kill us all,” Chris whispered, suddenly convinced of it. Devon was strong enough, and savage enough right now to destroy them, and not even bat an eyelash. He could kill hundreds of people before someone ever stopped him. If someone, other than Cassie, even could.

Annabelle glanced fearfully at him, her delicate jaw set tight, her sea green eyes hard and determined. “As long as Cassie is still alive then we have a chance of reaching him. If she is dead, then there will be no stopping him. A vampire without their mate is as good as dead.”

“She has to be alive,” Chris said softly. “She has to be.”

“Do you know that for sure?”

Chris shook his head; the only thing he knew for sure was that he was not ready to face the loss of his best friend, or the loss of his own life for that matter. “No, I don’t, but even,” he broke off, swallowing heavily. “Even if she is dead, I thought they didn’t complete the ritual. I mean Cassie is still human. They aren’t mates then, right?”

Annabelle had made her way over to the window; she glanced sharply back at him as she studied the dark night. “He still recognizes her as his mate. He still acknowledges it as a fact; he still knows in his heart that she is his. He cannot live without her Chris.”

“Will he know if she is still alive if the bond wasn’t completed?”

“For our sakes, let’s hope so,” she whispered.

“He’s here.”

Annabelle stepped away from the window. The light of the moon and the television cast an eerie glow about the living room that did little to ease the tension, and chill, that had taken up residence inside him. Over Annabelle’s shoulder he could see a figure emerging from the woods, moving with so much speed that it was nearly a blur amongst the trees. Chris took an involuntary step back, trying to avoid the rage emanating from that blur.

“Where’s Liam?” he whispered.

“He’s not as fast as Devon.” Annabelle moved closer to Chris, stepping slightly in front of him.

Footsteps sounded on the porch. Chris braced himself as the steps hesitated for a moment before stomping into the house. Devon’s fury pounded against him as he made his way slowly into the foyer, his silhouette appeared in the doorway. He held something in his hand; his head was bowed over it. For a single moment he fingered it gently before lifting his head to slowly look at them.

Chris inhaled sharply as Devon’s blood red eyes narrowed upon them. Annabelle straightened her shoulders, but Chris could feel her fear. “Where is she?” Devon growled, his eyes flaring to the color of a glowing ruby.