by K. A. Tucker
“Four?” Lilly asked, her voice calm again as she sat back down, her eyes dancing over the group. “I see three here.”
“Yes, one of us is … indisposed at the moment,” Mage answered, a sad smile on her face. “And he’s good for nothing more than getting himself killed right now. Creating vampires to fight against humans is exactly how the war in my world began. We’ll do anything we can to avoid a repeat.”
The six of them shared a puzzled what is she talking about? look with each other before turning back to Mage. “Your world?” Lilly murmured, again with an impish grin. It was fascinating, watching her switch from authoritative and cool to inquisitive child.
Mage nodded. “Sofie can give you all the details. Sofie?”
Sofie explained in the shortest way possible—her spell to counter the venom issue, my curse, and bringing the Ratheus vampires back, only to find out it’s a parallel world.
“Bloody witches and their magic,” Kait hissed. “I wish you’d all just die! We wouldn’t be dealing with any of this!”
“Well, if we don’t get a handle on this soon, your wish will come true. No witch will survive when the vampires are desperate for blood,” Sofie answered coldly.
There was another long pause and then Lilly folded her arms across her flat chest. “And how do you propose we help you?”
Sofie heaved a heavy sigh, as if she already suspected what their answer would be and it wouldn’t be favorable. “Give me your allegiance.”
I choked back at gasp. Sofie was asking Viggo’s arch nemesis to bind herself to her for eternity? Suddenly, I wanted to hug Mortimer for divulging information to me, so I could follow along with the conversation, as crazy as it was.
There was a long pause and then all six of them burst out in laughter, wide-eyed looks of amused shock. “First you tell us about this other world and now you ask us bind ourselves to you. This just seems too …” Lilly said between chuckles. She stood and the others followed suit.
“It must be done. I need to know that I can trust you. That’s the only way,” Sofie answered, a touch of pleading in her tone. “All of you pledge your allegiance to me and we will keep our end of this.” She turned to give Viggo a nod.
He vanished. Three seconds later, he appeared in the exact spot holding a bronze container.
“Viggo …” Sofie’s eyebrows arched in that knowing way. With a heave of exasperation, he leaned down and placed it on the ground in front of him, a pained look on his face as if reluctant to part with it.
Whatever it was, I could tell it was important to Lilly by the way she shifted on her feet and took a step forward. Kait put a hand on her forearm to hold her back. I watched as Lilly swallowed several times, the muscles in her neck cording.
“Pledge allegiance, and it’s yours,” Sofie said softly.
Lilly’s pained eyes flickered back and forth between the bronze thing and Sofie, a silent debate battling inside her mind. I wondered which side would win. Finally, her face turned hard. “I don’t believe you. You’re lying about this war,” she stated, as if passing a court ruling. “We’ll be leaving now, with the urn. You promised it to me for coming here and listening.”
My heart jumped. No, Lilly, she’s not lying. If only you could see … “She’s telling the truth. I was there,” I blurted.
Six heads whipped in my direction; six unsympathetic gazes settled on me. I shrunk back into Caden, longing to dissolve into the marble floor.
Sofie didn’t seem fazed by Lilly’s reaction. “I was afraid you’d say that.” She turned to Mage.
“Would you all please pay close attention to Sofie?” Mage instructed in a smooth croon, soft enough to lull a baby to sleep. As one, their heads turned obediently. She was compelling them! “Go on. Show them. Show them my world,” she said.
With a steely glare of determination, Sofie closed the distance to Mage and clasped hands with her. Then they stood, side by side, hand in hand, not moving, not speaking. I knew, though, with certainty, that a lot was happening, and it involved Sofie’s magic.
Six catatonic faces gazed at Sofie. I leaned back against Caden, gripping his forearm tightly, desperate to see what Sofie was showing them. I studied Lilly’s pale blue eyes with fascination as they drifted through seven hundred years of war, death, escape, and the evolving hell that Mage had come to know—the hell that Earth would become.
Suddenly, tiny red lines spidered across those blue irises, destroying their delicate beauty, taking away all impressions of the child before me. They were now the eyes of a hungry vampire. The same hideous transformation was happening in each of them. I turned my face to the side to bury it against Caden’s chest, unwilling to watch what had haunted so many of my nights.
Sofie’s musical voice broke the silence. “So now you have seen firsthand what will happen. Do not doubt that it will happen here as well.” Six heads jerked as if slapped out of their trances, all of them looking between Sofie and Mage, their heads shaking back and forth absently.
And then, like a switch going off inside Lilly, I saw her eyes narrow at Mage, her hands flexed at her thighs. It didn’t take long to learn why. “She’s the original!” she shrieked, throwing an accusatory finger at Mage, unmasking the ancient vampiress for what she could do. But how did Lilly know what the original vampire could do when even Sofie hadn’t known?
The announcement knocked the others out of their bewildered state. Feral hisses exploded in the room, transforming the place into a pit of snakes. Caden’s arms constricted around my body until I struggled to breathe. I was sure this was it. I was sure the war would begin here. My heart stopped, waiting for the initial explosion, wondering who would survive, who else I would lose. A scream sat on the tip of my tongue, a plea of mercy. For the briefest of seconds, an eerie silence hung over the room.
Lilly’s head whipped around and her gaze held mine ... It was only a second but those eyes … they were intentionally on me. And then … they vanished. All six of them. The last thing I saw was the trailing red leather of Kait’s long jacket as she passed through the already shattered window. So quick, so sudden an exit that my mind barely registered the sting as something sliced into my flesh. Not until a wet feeling trickled along my skin and I glanced down to see red fluid flowing freely down my arm, crawling over Caden’s hand, dripping onto the cream marble tile floor did the throb begin.
Someone had attacked me, and I was sure it was someone with a cute short bob and sweet sky blue irises.
“Oh God,” Amelie moaned from her corner in the room, scrambling back against the wall. Caden whipped my body around to face me. He grabbed hold to stare at the gaping gash running half the length of my forearm. Dropping my arm, he held out his hand. It was coated completely in my blood.
So much blood.
I sucked in a gasp as I saw those tiny red lines began to form, to grow, to pulsate. To show his overpowering hunger for me. For my blood. Blood that would kill him with just one taste.
“Caden! Back up right now!” Sofie screamed, her voice sounding distant and muffled as my own blood pounded inside my head, terror locking every muscle in my body. Caden’s jaw tightened. Slowly, he slid backward away from me. One step, another, another, away from me and my toxic blood. Then he bolted out the broken window.
“Caden!” Sofie yelled, panicked. “Mortimer, Viggo, please stop him before he attacks them.”
Mortimer and Viggo obliged for once without a single word. As they passed me, I caught Viggo’s quick scan of my arm. His nostrils flared, the faintest lines of red forming in his eyes. Even Viggo was struggling.
The next few moments felt like an out-of-body experience. I hardly registered cool hands gripped around my waist. Mage, standing beside me and holding me steady in case I toppled over. I heard the sound of ripping fabric as Sofie ripped a strip off the bottom of her black turtleneck. My thoughts were consumed by one thing and one thing only: what would one drop of my blood do to Caden?
“Hold her arm up,” Sofie i
nstructed Mage, and my arm was instantly yanked up into the air. Sofie wrapped the strip around my bicep and tied it off, mumbling absently, “We have to stop the bleeding … get rid of this blood … Kiril!” she shouted. The door burst open and Yeti One appeared. “Towels. Now,” she ordered. He disappeared without a word.
A soft whimper sounded from somewhere in the room. Sofie’s head whipped around. “Max! Get Amelie out of here. Now!” she barked. Max didn’t need to do much. Amelie was already scurrying past with her head down, Julian following closely, his eyebrow drawn with worry as he looked at me.
I’ll be fine, I mouthed with uncertainty. Unless Lilly kills Caden … The thought buckled my knees. Mage’s firm grip held me upright.
Kiril appeared beside us with a handful of towels. Sofie wasted no time snatching them out of his hands. With adept fingers, she wound my arm tightly, careful to minimize my blood on her person. “How are you holding up?” she asked Mage through pursed lips.
“Just get it covered,” Mage said, her nose wrinkled as if she were fighting a repulsive odor. She was, to a degree. My blood, so teasing, so provoking … so noxious.
“Evangeline?” I heard my name called out, but I hardly recognized its owner. Someone was finally acknowledging me. “Are you dizzy? In pain?” the voice asked, like an underwater murmur.
“No …” I answered numbly, thinking that was the right answer as I stared at the pool of blood now formed on the floor beneath me. My toxic, leprous blood. My blood is poison. I am poison. I will kill Caden.
Just like Sofie killed Nathan. Then I’d be like her, laying flowers on a tombstone. The pattern in the marble floor began to swirl and dance beneath me. I lifted my eyes to the gaping hole where Caden had run out. He was gone now. Would he come back? He would be smart not to. It was only a matter of time before I killed him …
“Evangeline!” Sofie called out sharply.
My head snapped up. “What?” I barked, the edge in my voice unintentionally harsh.
She tempered her tone. “How do you feel?”
“Like my arm was just sliced open,” I mumbled, all the while an inner voice inside me screamed at the top of her lungs—uncontrollable, incoherent screeching. I gave my head a shake, trying to silence the rising panic. “What happened?”
“Lilly cut you with a piece of glass,” Sofie explained, “and your blood is exceptionally potent now.” She wrapped another towel around my arm. “Damn it! I wish I could heal this!”
“Exceptionally potent?” I echoed her slowly.
“Yes, it’s more enticing than it used to be. There’s something about it … I can’t peg what it is … it’s harder to resist.” She finished tying the rag, her jaw taut. “There. That should stop the bleeding for now.” I winced. The rag was tight.
“This is another part of this change I’m undergoing, isn’t it?” I couldn’t keep the reproachful tone out of my voice.
She blinked several times. Minty irises lifted to touch my face—unconcealed, raw emotion in them—and back down to my arm again so fast I almost missed it. With a heavy exhale, she whispered, “Yes. I believe it might be.”
Another sign of what was to come. I stifled a sob. “Fantastic. So the Fates have wrapped my diseased body up into a nice big bloody bow for you all!” I was yelling now but I couldn’t help it. It was that or break down and cry.
“You’re not diseased,” Sofie’s voice was now tranquil again but her words flat, dead.
“That’s easy for you to say. It’s not you! It’s never been you going through this!”
She flinched as my callous words slapped her across the cheek. But I didn’t let up. I took it one step further. Reaching forward, I grabbed onto her forearm with my good hand and dug my nails into her flesh. Each word came out slow, precise, and sharp as a razor blade. “You need to fix this. Now!”
Her jaw clenched as she looked at me again, her face an ocean of worry and regret and defeat thinly veiled by her natural strength. She said nothing, though. What could she say? She’d try. That’s what she’d do. And when she did, well … there was a definite pattern here. Ask the Fates for help and they helped, with a side of “new curse” to screw you over in some other way. So she’d solve this—before or after my eyes turned yellow and I killed my friends with a graze of my finger, was up for debate. What next, though?
“What’re we going to do?” I asked softly, my voice, my words, my everything suddenly deflated.
She grasped my good hand in both of hers. “I will fix this,” she promised, her voice shaky. “Please, stay strong.” Her eyes squeezed shut and when they opened, any sign of the vulnerable Sofie was gone. “And you will go get this taken care of. Now. Ivan!” She called through gritted teeth.
Yeti Two appeared immediately. “Please stitch her up. The bathroom at the end of the hall is fully equipped,” she instructed as she tossed the remaining towels over the small pool of my blood on the marble. “And send in the staff to clean this up. Quickly.”
With a curt soldierly nod, Ivan marched over and seized my good arm without a word. I turned back to Sofie.
“Go!” Sofie ushered with a waving hand. “You’re safe with him. They don’t crave blood. Keep pressure on your wound.”
“Okay.” I turned to follow Ivan out the door. The crunch of broken glass under boots stopped me. My head snapped to the gaping window to see Mortimer and Viggo passing through. I waited. And waited, my heart hammering furiously. Come on … please … Please! A third figure came through. Ivan gripped my arm to support me as relief ransacked my body. Caden’s eyes were immediately on me. Beautiful jade eyes. He had come back to me. I hadn’t killed him. I felt a tug on my arm. My legs locked up stubbornly, no longer willing to follow Ivan. I twisted and shook my arm to no avail, desperate to break free and run to Caden’s side.
“They got away,” Mortimer announced, adding in “thankfully.”
“Well, I should say that went well!” Viggo strode over to where the urn used to sit, his face twisted in displeasure. One of her friends must have grabbed it. Not Lilly. She was too busy mutilating me. If my blood still had any impact on Viggo, I couldn’t tell. He didn’t even bat an eye in my direction. He couldn’t care less, I knew that. Lilly could’ve escaped with my head and he’d react the same. I am a fly, an inconvenient pest to him. I was okay with that …
He continued on with his sarcastic tirade. “What’s your next brilliant plan, oh, wise one? Now that she has the one piece of leverage I had over her and she knows what Mage is, why would she ever come back? We have no edge!”
“We don’t want an edge, Viggo,” Sofie spat back. “We need their help. We need them to trust us. That was our peace offering.”
Ivan tugged on my arm again. This time I yanked it away “What happened exactly?”
Sofie sighed. “Mage compelled them to hold still, allowing me to channel her memories through to them. I showed them everything. They saw firsthand what happened on Ratheus. Lilly figured out what Mage is. She knows what an original can do.” Sofie paused. “Her mother was the original vampire.”
My eyes shifted to Viggo as a knot formed in my belly. There was something there … the pieces were sliding into place. Viggo had something to do with the original’s death—that much I knew. That meant he had something to do with Lilly’s mother’s death. He probably killed her. That would explain Lilly’s hatred for him.
The mother-killer stared back at me with a smug smile, likely aware of the puzzle pieces I was putting together in my head. I hate you! I want you to die! I hope Lilly kills you after all of this! If it weren’t for everyone else here, I’d throw the towels on the ground and run toward him. Let my blood kill him! I had to force my hatred down as I dismissed the thought, turning back to Sofie. “So what now? Clearly she’s not happy.” I held my arm up as evidence.
“Now … you go get that stitched up before your blood turns us all mad!” Sofie yelled. She never yells at me. Cowering slightly, I glanced at Caden. He nodded to the door, h
is jaw clenching as his eyes grazed my arm.
Terrified I’d see those spider veins again, I willingly followed Ivan out.
6. Threats—Sofie
No sooner had Evangeline left with Ivan than Caden appeared by my side, his hands digging into my biceps.
“Fix her!” He hissed through bared teeth.
I flung his hands off my arms. “I’m trying! Don’t you think I’m trying?” I was in no mood for another verbal assault. Evangeline’s had shredded me to rags.
“You’re not trying hard enough!” His roar reverberated off the vaulted ceiling. I noted Mage’s weight shift in my peripheral. I stayed her with a wave of my finger. There was no need for her intervention. Caden’s rage had already collapsed, his shoulders hunched inward, grief laying siege to his fiery spirit. “I almost killed her, Sofie …” Beautiful greenish-blue eyes begged me, shattering my heart.
I tentatively reached up to lay one hand on his broad shoulder, the other cupping his jaw. “I’ll fix this. I have to fix this.” I realized I was trying to convince myself more than anyone else.
“Forget the human!” Viggo cried out, his arms spread wide. “What are you going to do about Lilly? What’s your brilliant new plan?”
“She’ll come to her senses. Give her a day or two,” Mortimer answered for me, offering the briefest smile and head nod. Who would ever have thought that I would come to appreciate his company?
Viggo wouldn’t let up, though. “She’s a child nurturing a century-long grudge. She has no sense.”
“A grudge?” Mage’s eyebrows raised in surprise. “You murdered her mother.”
“She wasn’t her real mother,” he retorted, but the fire in his voice was gone. He wasn’t an idiot. Whether he felt the tiniest bit of remorse, he knew this was all on him. I had only learned the reason of Lilly’s hatred for Viggo upon leaving the Tribe’s island, after I gave him the ultimatum of pledging allegiance to me or dying. Even then, I thought I’d have to tear off his toenails to get the truth out of him.