Inferno (Book 4 The Kindred Series) by Erica Stevens

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