But what choice did she really have? She could not turn her back on what she was. Innocent people would die if she did. She may hate her role in life, but she could not live with herself if people were killed because she wasn’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 too 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 wiped her hands on her jeans as she joined Chris.
“I don’t see how it can be any fun when you already know what’s going to happen,” he complained.
“Just think about how much fun it will be if she ever foresees a battle she loses,” Cassie retorted dryly.
Chris shrugged and nodded 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 caught it lightly before shoving it into her belt. “It will never happen though; I’m never going 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 believed, until the Grim Reaper had called for them far too early.
Sighing in aggravation Cassie wrapped her arms around herself, not understanding the strange melancholy enshrouding her lately. But try as she might, she could not shake the misery that clung 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 scrunched slightly as she studied her. Cassie prickled under the scrutiny, but she had grown accustomed to Melissa’s fixed stares. It was a look Melissa often wore when she was trying 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 never 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 hide them within the shadowed interior. Cassie didn’t worry that the bodies would be discovered. Once 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.
“What else is new?” Cassie inquired lightly.
His handsome face lit up as he threw his arms casually around both their shoulders. “B’s and S’s,” he suggested.
“Ugh you’re going to become a giant puddle of grease if you keep eating at that place,” Melissa groaned.
Chris shrugged as they began to make their way through the darkened cemetery. “What can I say? I love my grease.” He smiled brightly, pulling them tighter against his side. “I’m a growing boy.”
“You’re arteries are growing closed!” Melissa retorted.
Chris rolled his eyes and leaned closer to Cassie. “Please rescue me from the vegetarian Nazi.”
Cassie chuckled softly and shook her head at him. “You’re on your own with this one.”
Cassie tried to keep her gaze focused straight ahead, but despite her best intentions not to, she glanced back to the edge of the dark cemetery, and the thick woods. Though it was quiet now, it was from there that the two vampires had emerged tonight. She didn’t know why, but for some reason vampires were attracted to the cemetery. She thought it might be because they had never had a proper burial of their own, but she had no way to know what the monsters thought, or why they acted like they did.
She spent far too many of her nights with Chris and Melissa, stalking out the cemetery and waiting to see what might pop out of the woods. She also spent far too many nights hanging out around restaurants, and busy places, trying to keep people safe from the monsters that lurked in the night. By reading the papers and keeping an eye on the news, they were usually able to discern when a vampire was hunting in the area.
When reports of strange disappearances, or wild animal attacks started to surface, they all knew they were going to be in for long nights, and long weeks, until the things causing the disappearances and deaths were caught and destroyed. “Wild animal” was often the term used to describe anything that the authorities couldn’t fully explain, or understand, in the area. To the three of them, it usually meant vampire, as there were few dangerous wild animals on Cape Cod. Cassie didn’t know what the authorities told themselves in order to go to sleep after these attacks, and their poor explanation about the deaths. Nor did she particularly care.
She sometimes envied them their blissful, deep rooted denial though. She could never experience it again. When she read about the “wild animal” attacks, there was no peaceful denial for her to slip into. There was only hunting, stalking, skulking, and death.
A momentary flash of guilt shot through her, shaking her slightly with its ferocity. She was not the one that had killed these monsters first, she reminded herself forcefully. That had been some other monster, not her. The lives of the vampires they hunted had been forfeit long before the three of them ever came along. If the men they had killed tonight had not been stopped, they would have caused even more death and destruction. More innocent lives would have been lost; they had done the right thing here. Though she kept telling herself this, it did not ease the knot of guilt that encircled her.
Cassie’s gaze darted over the darkened headstones. The night was quiet, but she couldn’t help the chill that crept down her spine. She spent half of her nights in this cemetery, but she never got used to the coldness that enveloped it, the pain that suffused it. Loss and anguish permeated the air, lingering remnants from the living that had been left behind to mourn their lost loved ones.
Making their way slowly out of the wrought iron gate, Cassie allowed them to lead her down the quiet street toward the center of town. The sidewalk was dark; streetlights had not been placed this far away from the center of town. Cassie glanced toward the woods surrounding them, her eyes narrowed as she studied the darkened recesses. An owl hooted, fluttering from the branches of an oak to a maple. The leaves of the trees were a bright green against the dark night. Nothing else stirred, not even a mouse emerged. It seemed that even the animals sensed the gloom in the air and did not want to come out.
Reaching the end of the road, they made a right toward the large rotary marking the center of town. From the giant rotary five roads branched off, leading toward back streets and residential homes. But the first fifty to a hundred feet of each road was packed with stores, restaurants, and bars.
They finally reached the streetlights that lit the sidewalks and roads. A few cars were driving around the rotary, their headlights bounced across the pavement, music filtered from their open windows. People wandered the streets, enjoying the places still open at this time of night.
Though it was almost nine, there was still a large crowd gathered around B’s and S’s. The fro
nt of the burger place was bright against the dark night. An old wooden sign hung from the side of the building, the name Burger’s and Shake’s was spelled out in bright red lettering. Burger’s and Shake’s wasn’t a very original name, but it was the two things the restaurant did best. It was also the two things that most people stuck to, as the rest of the menu was a little iffy at times. That was the main reason why B’s and S’s had been designated the teen hang out for the past twenty years, as people over the age of twenty one rarely ate there again.
“What do you guys want?” Chris asked, removing his arms from their shoulders.
“Strawberry shake and fries,” Cassie answered.
“Garden salad, but make sure that it is freshly washed, and no dressing,” Melissa told him.
Chris and Cassie rolled their eyes. Chris was still shaking his head as he wound his way swiftly through the crowd gathered around the outdoor picnic tables. It wouldn’t be long before the tables were taken in, and the outdoor area was closed for the winter. Until then, everyone was enjoying the last bit of good weather that September had to offer.
Cassie and Melissa made their way to one of the few empty tables in the back. Eager greetings followed their every step as people turned toward them. They returned them politely, but neither of them stopped to talk. Cassie barely got her butt on the seat before Marcy Hodgins, the class president, was standing beside her.
“Hey Cassie, I was wondering if you had started planning for the homecoming dance.”
Cassie fought the urge to groan and roll her eyes. She had been head of the dance committee since freshman year, but every year it became harder and harder to find the time to dedicate to planning the dances. And this year she simply didn’t feel like doing it at all. She had not planned on running for the dance committee again, but earlier this year she had been automatically voted in.
“Homecoming isn’t for another two months Marcy,” she gently reminded the girl.
Marcy fidgeted slightly, her hands clasped and unclasped before her as Cassie’s answer obviously irked her. “Yes, but it will need a theme, decorations, fliers.”
Cassie sighed heavily. “Maybe you should just find someone else this year…”
“But you’re the best!” Marcy interrupted loudly. “You did a great job last year, and now that we’re seniors don’t you think we deserve the best memories possible!”
Cassie shot Melissa, a just shoot me now, look. Melissa smiled brightly, annoyingly, in return. “Of course I do Marcy, but I’m really busy this year…”
“I’ll get you more help!”
Cassie didn’t know if she wanted to scream in frustration, rip her hair out, or throttle the obtuse girl. Instead, she shoved all of her irritation aside, and forced a bright smile. “I’ll work on it Marcy.”
“Let me know if you need anything, anything at all.”
“I will.”
“Also, I do have a few ideas for themes that I would love to run by you. Maybe we can get together after school tomorrow to discuss them.”
Cassie’s hands clenched as she tried hard to keep a tight hold on her patience. Marcy meant well, but sometimes her OCD was enough to drive a saint to murder, and Cassie was far from a saint. She glanced at Melissa again, silently pleading for some sort of reprieve, but it came in the form of Chris as he dumped their food on the table.
“Hey Marcy,” he muttered absently, his mind on the food he was rapidly dolling out.
Marcy’s pretty face flooded with color as she ducked her head shyly. Cassie lifted an eyebrow, she turned to Melissa who grinned brightly back at her. “Well… I uh… I have to go, but I’ll talk to you tomorrow, ok Cass?” Marcy stammered out.
“Of course,” Cassie replied happily, glad to be free of the girl and amused by her obvious crush on Chris.
Marcy made a hasty retreat back to the table of girls she had been sitting with. Cassie turned eagerly back to Chris. He looked as if he was trying to solve the problems of the world, his eyebrows drawn tightly together in concentration. His attention was focused upon the shakes as he lifted the lid on one before plopping it down in front of her.
“I think someone has a crush on you,” she teased lightly.
“Huh, what?” He glanced up, a handful of fries, her fries, already halfway to his mouth. Before he could eat them all, Cassie surreptitiously slid her plate away from him as he scanned the dwindling crowd. “Who?” he demanded.
“Marcy.” Chris’s frown deepened as he looked toward the girl who was determinedly not looking their way again. “Short brunette just speaking to me,” Cassie reminded him.
Chris snapped out of his food trance as he grinned down at her. “No way, Marcy’s to prim and proper, likes the more refined guys.”
“Well you are definitely not refined, but she does have a crush on you,” Melissa insisted.
“Why, did you see something in my future?” he asked eagerly.
Melissa rolled her eyes as she shook her head. “I am not your crystal ball Chris.”
He rolled his eyes at her as he propped his leg on the bench. Striking a pose, he rested his arm on his leg, and gazed intent at Marcy. “Very sexy with the mouthful of fries,” Cassie teased.
“You know it.” He flashed a bright grin as he popped more fries in his mouth and sucked noisily on his shake.
“Don’t you think she’s a little much?”
His blue eyes twinkled merrily as he shook back his disheveled hair. “I’m a teenage boy Cassandra, there is no such thing as a little much to me. All girls are acceptable.”
“Ugh!” Melissa and Cassie both groaned as Cassie threw a fry at him.
He dodged it easily, catching it before it hit the ground and popping it into his mouth. “You’re gross,” she told him laughingly.
“But you love me.”
She couldn’t argue with that. Turning away from him, she focused her attention on her greasy fries, and delicious shake. Cassie glanced across the table; Melissa had a distant look on her face as she poked absently at a cucumber. To any passersby it simply appeared as if Melissa wasn’t hungry, but Cassie knew that Melissa’s concentration was actually fixed upon something that no one else could see.
This was not one of her fleeting glimpses of the future either, but a full premonition of something to come. It was one of the premonitions that took Melissa over, and held her hostage until it was done. A chill ran down Cassie’s spine, she hated these moments. They always left Melissa drained, and with an old, knowing look in her eyes that went far past her seventeen years.
Chris leaned slightly forward, his handful of french-fries forgotten as he studied Melissa intently, worry etched his brow. Melissa shook her head, she broke free of the claws hooked into her as her onyx eyes snapped into focus again. She did not seem as beat down by this vision as she was by many of the others, but a secret look lingered in her dark eyes.
“Did you see my death?” Chris inquired like he always did when one of these premonitions seized hold of her in his presence.
She smiled at him, shaking back her black hair as she popped a cucumber in her mouth. “Not this time.”
Chris shrugged as he ran a hand through his shaggy hair. “Just remember, if you ever do see it, you had better tell me.”
“You wouldn’t want to know,” Cassie and Melissa replied simultaneously.
They grinned at each other across the table. “You owe me a Coke,” Melissa quipped.
“You don’t drink Coke.”
“You owe me something then.”
Melissa chewed on her cucumber before grabbing a tomato. Cassie studied her questioningly, wondering what Melissa had seen, but she didn’t really want to know. The thought of knowing scared her. Besides, Melissa would not tell them, not unless their lives were on the line. And even then, Cassie didn’t want to know what Melissa saw, not unless there was a way to stop it.
And most of the time, there wasn’t.
It was very rare that Melissa ever saw anything she wanted to,
but she had no choice as her “gift” overtook her whenever it wanted.
Although, to be fair, Cassie had to admit she was a little disappointed she hadn’t inherited a “gift” like Chris and Melissa had. Apparently they ran rampant through The Hunter line, but for some reason Cassie had come up short. She definitely would not want the ability to see the future, like Melissa, for she didn’t want to bare that cross, and she wasn’t sure that she could handle it. But she wouldn’t have minded Chris’s talent of being able to read people, to know what they were feeling, and to know who and what they were, good or bad, upon meeting them. And unlike Melissa, Chris was able to keep people blocked out, and control his ability if he wanted to.
But then, any ability would have been better than the nothing she had been given. Well, unless she counted her ability to fight, and fight well, as a gift. And she was a good fighter, she was even better than Chris and Melissa. But, to her, that was not a gift. She didn’t care if the people she killed were no longer human, it bothered her to kill at all, and it bothered her even more that she was outstanding at it.
It was a fact that wore at her every day, slowly eating at her spirit. She sometimes wondered if that was where the growing hole inside of her had come from; if that was the reason she had been feeling less and less like herself lately. Maybe all of the death and murder that surrounded her had started to take away bits of her soul. Whatever it was that was missing, or off in her, she desperately needed to find it, and fix it.
She could not keep living like this. She could not keep going on without knowing why she was so lost, and why she couldn’t shake her misery. She needed to drown out the feverish need for something more that had encompassed her. She needed something to ease the pain that suffused her. She had been living with the emptiness for the last few months, but over the past two weeks it had gotten worse. The hole had become a chasm within her soul, ripping her open, leaving her raw and exposed.