Anomaly (Causal Enchantment) (5 page)

“What?
I’ve had enough.” I wiped the blood from my chin.

Amelie and her brother exchanged
another
raised stare. One that finally spiked my irritation.

“Would you two stop doing that? I get it. I’m not normal
! But you’re starting to freak me out!”

Amelie
gestured at Veronique and Julian. “Those two haven’t so much as looked up to acknowledge you since you stepped in here, and yet you just waved this away with a ‘no thanks’?” Her ringlets whipped through the air as her head spun back, scowling. “And your eyes! They didn’t change.”

“Uh
… I’m sorry?” I said a silent prayer of thanks.

Amelie
’s pretty face pinched in thought for a long moment. I caught her swift movement a second before a snapping sound followed by sharp pain rocketed through me.

“Amelie!” Caden roared through my cry as Amelie dropped my arm
. It hung limply next to my body, my forearm bone protruding through my skin.

“You broke my arm!”
I shrieked in horror. “Are you insane?” No sooner had the last word crossed my lips than the bone began to fade. Before my eyes, it vanished and the wound sealed itself. Mouth agape, I flexed my hand to test my strength. Perfectly normal, once again.

“
At least we know you can heal like the rest of us,” Amelie explained.

“And what if she couldn’t?”
Caden snapped.

“Well
, then, I guess she wouldn’t be jumping in front of any bullets now, would she!” Amelie retorted. “But you’re right. We should tell Sofie about this.”

“
Tell Sofie about what?” a voice called out behind us, making me jump. Even with my new abilities, I guess the woman was still capable of sneaking up on me.

“Nothing,” flew out of my mouth. I gave Amelie and Caden a
stern look. Whatever the reason for my lack of blood-crazed desire, I hadn’t crumpled in a fit of agony or died when I consumed it. We needed to focus on New York City and not my personal issues. For once.

Unfortunately, Sofie
was always on DEFCON One alert status as it related to me. “Why aren’t you feeding, Evangeline?” It sounded like an accusation.

“I’m just taking a break.”

“Taking a break?” Her stunning, delicate features pinched up. “No fledgling takes a break once they’ve started. That’s simply …” Sofie’s eyes flashed wide. She muttered something in French that I couldn’t understand but, by her tone, I knew she was upset. Turning hard eyes at Caden, she exploded. “She didn’t hunt, did she? You lied to me!”

“
I’m fine, Sofie!” I cried out but she wasn’t listening, her hands finding their way to Caden’s chest, shoving him against the wall.

“
Don’t worry about me, Sofie. You should worry about—” My words cut off as thin purple ropes sprung from Sofie’s fingertips. I followed them with my eyes as they coiled around my body, the ends disappearing into me like cool little fingers slipping into my flesh. Not painful but certainly not pleasant. “What are you doing?”

A pause. And then the tentacles retracted.
“You can see those?” she hissed, her eyes even wider than a moment ago.

“
Yes. I can feel them too,” I clarified, repeating my question. “What were you doing?”

“
You shouldn’t be able to see it.” The long tendrils appeared again. They reached out for me, more cautiously this time. Part of me wanted to run but I stayed, curious as to what she may discover.

I stayed still while she prodded around my body, her face a mask of consternation. After a few moments, they final
ly retreated.

“And?” Caden and Amelie asked in unison.

“And … nothing.” She frowned. “I found nothing unusual.”

“Does that mean she’s fine?” Caden pushed. “Are you worried?”

An odd, soft smile touched Sofie’s mouth. “I’m always worried about Evangeline.”

“You don’t need to worry about me anymore,” I said.

Her hypnotic green eyes twinkled. “And yet, I will never stop.” I smiled because I knew it was true. Most would call me insane for accepting Sofie’s offer of employment and climbing into a plane with her, only twenty-four hours after stumbling into her café. I had nothing to leave behind at that point. Except loneliness and sad memories.

Little did I know at the time that
I was no stranger to her.

She
had been watching over me since I was days old.

Since that time, after all the secrets and lies and motives were finally revealed, one painful layer at a time,
Sofie had become like a mother to me. A super-powered, overprotective mother with more escape routes than one could fathom.

I was stuck in a moment of reflection when
Mortimer appeared, trailed by Kiril.

“
It’s done. We’re ready.” Not batting an eye, Mortimer strolled over to Veronique, his cold brown eyes instantly warming. He leaned down to whisper, “I’ll be back before you even know I’m gone.” His light touch on her shoulder earned him a growl and a sideways glare, and I caught a glimpse of those hideous eyes for the first time. I cringed. It was ironic that vampires were designed to be such irresistible creatures to their prey, and yet their weakness—their lack of control around human blood—revealed their true hideousness so noticeably.

Mortimer chuckled, his eyes still on Veronique
. “You’re going to be awfully embarrassed when I tell you that you growled at me.” Murmuring in French, Mortimer leaned down to place a quick kiss on her head before stepping away, a nostalgic look on his face. He’d waited so long for a chance to see her again, with the hope that she would choose him over Viggo. And she had. Despite our tumultuous past, I was happy for him.

Finally, Mortimer’s
attention shifted to me. “Why aren’t you feeding?”

That is the question of the day, isn’t it?
Max said from behind me, having slinked in.

“I already have,”
I responded evenly, tired of this line of questioning. There was a war coming. There were more important things to focus on.

Mortimer
glared at Sofie, his thick, dark brow furrowed with accusation. “Why isn’t she like them?”

“I don’t know, Mortimer,” she bit back crisply
, taking several steps toward the end of the exit tunnel. “You can ask the Fates if you’d like, but I’m not going anywhere near them again. Besides, we have a war to deal with and we’re wasting precious time.”

I turned to follow them out.

Sofie stopped abruptly and spun around on her heels. “I knew it!” she hissed. Now it was Caden’s turn to receive an accusatory glare. “You didn’t tell her, did you?”

I eyed
him guardedly. “Tell me what?”

With a heavy sigh, Caden averted his eyes
. “You’re not coming with us, Evie.”

What?
“You’re not leaving me here!” After all we’d been through, I wasn’t going to sit in this mine while the rest of them put themselves in danger. I wasn’t going to be separated from Caden. Again!

“We need you to stay here, with Julian and Veronique, and we don’t have time to argue
,” Sofie cut in. “Plus, now we need someone to make sure that Celine and Brian have a bag of blood in their hands the moment they awaken.”

“Who are Celine and
Brian?”

“
Kait’s and Galen’s humans.”

Right.
The deal
. Turning their humans for them. That’s what they’d been fighting over earlier. “Kiril can do that,” I objected. “Right, Kiril?”

Kiril’s bushy brow arched
.

“No, he can’t. They may get confused and bite him,”
Sofie said.

But
… “I’m not fragile anymore!” I was running out of arguments, my voice sounding whiny. I hated whiny. I also had no interest in being a babysitter.

Sofie grab
bed my hands, her hard mask softening for just a second. “We cannot bring fledglings in to fight fledglings. We can’t watch over any sitting ducks. You’ll be fine here. Safe. And we will see you
soon
.”

Sofie was impossible to sway
, so I didn’t bother. I simply whispered, “Keep them safe.
Please
.”

“We
’ll all be fine. Fledglings are easy to kill. It’s just as matter of finding them,” she assured me. With a pursed lip, she vanished, followed by Mortimer.

“She’s right,” Caden whispered, pulling me into his taut body
. Amelie strolled over to Julian, presumably to say her goodbyes. She got the same savage growl, along with a hand swat.

I made my last attempt on Caden.
“I understand why they can’t go but I’m not like them, Caden! I haven’t lost control.”

“
Not
yet
,” he corrected, shaking his head. “I hate leaving you here but I can’t worry about you out there, Evie, and that’s all I’d be doing. Plus, do you really think you’re ready to go into New York City and hunt down a hundred fledglings and
kill
them? Do you even know how to kill someone?”

I bur
ied my face in his collarbone, absorbing the feel and smell of him one last time before he left me, the very thought a hollow ache in my core. He was right. Though it was apparently now part of my DNA, I didn’t know the first thing about killing. Truth be told, I had no desire to exterminate anything. Except perhaps Viggo, and even then, I wasn’t sure if I had it in me to actually pull the trigger, so to speak.

Having me there
could endanger everyone. Including Caden.

“
Promise
me that you’ll stay here?” he whispered.

I
nodded in silence, knowing the fight was lost.

He
lifted my face to meet his jade eyes. “We’ll be back before you know it,” he assured softly. “Don’t worry. You’ll be fine. Bored, maybe. But fine.”

“What if a
n unsuspecting human comes out here and I accidently kill them?”

Caden
gave me a one-shoulder shrug. “Then we’ll know you’re normal.” My flat glare made him chuckle. “No one’s going to wander into these mines in the dead of winter and if they do, Max and the wolves will scare them away.” Pressing his lips to my cheek, I felt a cool, hard object placed within my grasp. A cell phone. “Galen may be an ass, but he’s a smart one. He’s got us all set up. The guy thinks he’s a Navy Seal.” Caden’s smirk fell from his mouth after a moment. “If you need to call me for anything, then call. And if I don’t answer, don’t worry. We’re just busy, is all.”

I wrapped my arms tightly around his shoulders.
We’d waited so long, been through so much to be able to stand here like this, and now that we could, I was afraid it would be taken away from me. Would that be the finale to the Fates’ sick game? Would they take Caden away from me? Would it be at Viggo’s hands, as Mortimer predicted? I didn’t want the world to fall apart but living in a world without Caden, forever, felt even more unbearable.

Chapter Two
– Sofie

“How long before the snow turns crimson?” Mage mused, overlooking the crime scene. Investigators and police sifted through a city block’s worth of still-smoldering rubble under countless temporary spotlights. They’d easily be here through the night and into tomorrow.

The others
in our little task force lined the edge of the rooftop at the other corner, a row of solemn soldiers, watching. The grim view held even Bishop’s tongue. Not that long ago, we’d been confined to the walls that once stood there.

It was only yesterday that I
’d used up every last ounce of my magic to incinerate Viggo and Mortimer’s building, intent on burning all evidence that would give witnesses watching in horror from the gates credence to their stories. They would probably still find remains, though. Human and witch. Perhaps some of the Ratheus vampires. The place was too big to engulf completely and I doubted that the underground levels had been fully destroyed. That’s where they’d find the blood vault and, if that hadn’t been destroyed, many more questions would be raised.

“I don’t know if this is the right plan, Mage,” I admitted, softly enough that the words would not carry over to the others.

“You already know what my thoughts are, Sofie. But you made your call and there can be no waffling, especially in front of others. You asked them to believe in you, to give you their loyalty. They need to see you as a leader or this will never work.”

“Why can’t we ma
ke the decision together? Why must there be one leader?” I muttered, more to myself.

Of course, Mage provided an answer. She always had an answer.
“Because you can’t. It never works.” I’ve learned not to question Mage. The vampiress had lived for five thousand years—the original vampire in her world. She’d already survived one human apocalypse in her own world of Ratheus. And she’d been right about
everything
so far.