In that moment, when he found her, when their hands joined, her life was irrevocably changed. The course of her destiny forever altered. Over the years that followed, Cassie often wondered if she would have run screaming from him, and the changes that he would bring to her life.

Though, she eventually came to realize that there was no outrunning destiny. It was very much like the Reaper in that way, as there was no escape. And like The Reaper, destiny could be cruel, unfair, and indiscriminate. Though these were things that Cassie later learned, she was still ill prepared for her life to be forever changed, her innocence to be shattered that day.

Nor was she prepared for the day when he walked into her life four years later, forever altering it, and her, once again.

CHAPTER 1

Cassie ducked low, spinning as she threw a swift roundhouse kick. Her foot connected solidly with the twisted creature, catching it beneath its chin and knocking it back a good five feet. The startled grunt of surprise and pain it issued was music to her ears. The man/monster got caught up on a headstone and flipped over top of it; it sprawled out on its back in the thick grass, its legs momentarily caught up over top of the headstone. Cassie sprang gracefully to her feet, slipping the stake easily from her belt loop. The creature’s eyes widened upon her, he had expected an easy kill. Its eyes turned a fierce red as his face twisted into an animalistic snarl of fury.

The rage that blasted from him pounded against her but did not slow Cassie down. She had grown accustomed to the hatred over the few past years. However, she didn’t know if she would ever become accustomed to the bloodlust that poured from the monsters in nearly suffocating waves. It was daunting to know that something wanted to rip out her throat and drain the blood, and life, from her.

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

And the death of someone. Preferably 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 foot as he threw his hands behind his head and thrust himself elegantly to his feet. Cassie eyed him with wary 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. Thrusting the stake out, his forward momentum was enough to drive it deep into his chest cavity and pierce his deadened heart. He looked at her in shock and horror, his face contorted in pain as she twisted the stake 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 done. There was no reversing this death. Cassie waited until he stopped struggling, and his eyes clouded over, before she ripped her lucky stake free. In life, he 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.

There could be no regret in her life; there could never be any regret. It would only eat her alive, and she hadn’t been the one to originally end his life. She could not question the where’s and why’s of her life. It was simply her duty, her birthright. Though she didn’t always enjoy it, and often resented it, she was good at killing, and she helped to keep people safe and protected 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. The 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 widened as she braced herself for his attack. Her dark eyes twinkled brightly in the moonlight.

In their lives it 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 embraced their heritage. Then again, Melissa had been raised with the knowledge of what she was. And Chris was a teenage boy; anything he could beat up, punch, kick, and maim was fun for him. However, 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 never relished in the fighting, or the killing.

Well, that was not entirely true. There were times when she loved the thrill of the fight, times 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 that had confined her to a life she had never even imagined could exist, and had never wanted.

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.