Allegiance

by K. A. Tucker

  “They’re perfect for hiding things.” I held the knife to Caden’s neck in a teasing way. “Put out or else.”

  With a throaty chuckle, he leaned in, letting the blade push into the tender skin of his neck. My hand recoiled, my face marred with horror. That earned a bellow of laughter. “I’m definitely questioning my choice in Christmas gifts now,” he said, peeling my fingers from the handle. He pulled me back down against him forcefully.

  “I love you,” I blurted out and then realized it was the first time I’d ever said those words to him out loud. I had meant to a thousand times and yet …

  Now, though, it was time.

  I heard the sound of my dagger clatter against the floor as he tossed it away. His hands gently cupped the sides of my face as he lowered my lips to his, our mouths finding each other, as if they were a matched set. “So …,” he murmured, suddenly somber, “about that demand.”

  ***

  “Wraith is going to freak out when he realizes you’re not in the bathroom,” Caden stated, his fingers resting on the small of my back. I felt his Adam’s apple bob against my forehead as he swallowed.

  “I don’t care,” I grumbled childishly.

  “You will care when he’s handing you your toilet paper from now on. And it’s going to be hard to explain to Bishop why I needed to sneak you away.”

  Too quickly, back to reality. I swallowed my sadness. “What are you going to tell him?”

  Caden heaved a sigh of frustration. “I don’t know, Evie. This is so messed up. He’s my best friend and I want to put him through a wall every time he looks at you. Things are getting so damn compli—”

  Suddenly, Caden’s body went rigid.

  I knew before he told me. He rolled off the blankets and was pulling his jeans on before I could register his movements. “Get dressed. Quickly,” he ordered, yanking on his shirt.

  The moment was gone. Our brief, intimate time together—incredible and surreal—dissolved as my snare tightened. I would do anything, give anything, swear anything, to freeze time for another hour so I could rest on Caden’s broad chest and listen to his voice lull me into false safety.

  I was up in a heartbeat, resentfully yanking my sweater over my head, not wanting Wraith to find me lying naked in a pile of blankets and animal pelts. Or Bishop … That familiar gnawing of guilt attacked my insides with renewed strength. Seeing me here with Caden would send Bishop spiraling back to that dark world of misery and pain, tarnishing his false memories of our make-believe relationship.

  But then I’d be free from another lie. Suddenly, selfishly, a part of me ached for Bishop to walk through that door. This whole nightmare circus would be over and I could go back to being with Caden again. Until I killed him …

  Caden swept up the suspicious mess of blankets and threw them into a corner behind the wood stove. I barely had the zipper to my jeans pulled up before the door splintered open, bringing with it a gust of wind and snow. And Wraith. Soulless blue orbs rolled over me—calm, unperturbed, void of all emotion—so inhuman. They locked on Caden and I could almost see the order register in his head. Enemy. Attack. Kill. Behind Wraith, four wolves and Max watched curiously. I briefly wondered what they thought of this. Then I realized I didn’t care.

  My demon guardian began closing the gap between him and Caden, arm outstretched, his long fingers stretching forward like deadly tentacles. I dove in between them and slapped his hand away.

  “I waited for you by the bathroom,” he stated with what might have been a glare, if his normal look could be any more sinister.

  “Sorry,” I grumbled, peeking over his shoulder in search of Bishop. When I didn’t see him, my guilty conscience swelled with relief.

  “I waited and then realized that you were not in the bathroom anymore.” He stopped talking, waiting. Waiting for what? What could I say? Apologies meant nothing. And was I sorry? No. Not for a single second would I feel sorry.

  “There are a million other bathrooms you could’ve used. You didn’t have to wait for mine,” I offered with a slap-worthy smirk.

  “I do not require the use of restrooms,” Wraith explained in all seriousness, not getting the sarcasm. I shook my head with annoyance.

  Max finally sauntered past Wraith into the outpost, the floorboards creaking under his paws. Some of us aren’t dead idiots, you know … you can’t just take off like that! Do you know how close Wraith was to killing every single one of us in that place, looking for you? Unlike Wraith’s monotonous tone, Max was perceptibly upset. Guilt tightened around my already fragile heart. I knew Wraith would feel nothing beyond his call of duty. I hadn’t thought of Max and the others. I thought of no one but myself. Selfish, selfish, selfish.

  No—no! I hadn’t just “taken off.” This wasn’t just a whim. This was my life. Caden was my life and all of these lies were suffocating me! I quashed the guilt with a bolt of anger, gritting my teeth defiantly.

  “Where’s Bishop?” Caden asked. “I’m surprised he’s not with you.”

  Gone, Max answered.

  The word screamed with wrongness. “What do you mean gone, Max?” My voice cracked and suddenly all kinds of thoughts whirled, making me clutch my stomach in panic. Had he seen us? Had he figured it out? I felt the blood seep from my face and I had to take a step back to lean on Caden.

  “What’d he say, Eve? Tell me,” Caden whispered, his hand closing over my shoulder, squeezing reassuringly.

  He just took off, Max explained.

  “He just took off? Where? What are you saying?” I pressed. “You let him leave?”

  I mean he’s gone! One minute he was there, and the next he was gone. Like you!

  Before I could push for more information, Caden lifted me into his arms and ran out the doorway, yelling, “See you back at the house!” It felt like only seconds before we were back in the glass room, finding it empty except for Julian and Amelie. A heavy-pawed Max was right behind us. Thankfully Wraith couldn’t match their speed.

  “Where’s Bishop?” Caden asked coolly, all business.

  Anguish blemished Amelie’s perfect features. “He remembered Fiona!” she cried out. I gasped at the sound of her name—Fiona. The forbidden name. “And then he ran screaming out of here. Mage went after him. That was over an hour ago.”

  An hour. Not long after I had gone into the bathroom and disappeared. My blood ran cold. “How?” I whispered.

  “I don’t know!” Amelie was hysterical. Julian’s hands rested on her shoulders, trying to soothe her.

  I turned to Caden. “Who could have told him?”

  His face had to equal mine in shock. “There’s no one left except a couple of wolves, and they don’t know about Fiona. Did you see what he was doing before you left?”

  I frowned, squeezing the bridge of my nose as I tried to remember what had gone on before Caden kidnapped me from the bathroom.

  “Think, Evangeline!” Caden pushed.

  “I don’t know! We were sitting down here,” I said as I walked over to the couch, retracing my steps from earlier. The Victoria’s Secret box holding the provocative pink lace lay on the cushion, exactly where I’d left it. “I opened his present and I got up to go to the washroom …” I mimicked my motions, sitting down in the exact spot. Then I stood and took several exaggerated steps in the same direction I had earlier, my eyes scanning the area. A sparkle on the floor caught my attention. I stopped.

  And gasped.

  “Oh no, no, no, no,” I moaned as I dove to where Sofie’s gift lay, now cracked open. “Damn it!” Sofie’s note finally made sense. Full of those who love you. It wasn’t cryptic. It couldn’t be more obvious. “No, no, no …” I pried the locket open the rest of the way to find four tiny pictures inside, with an inner leaf for two of them. My fingers shook as I flipped through them. One of Sofie, one of my mother, one of Caden, and the last … a picture of Fiona, Amelie, and me, smiling.

  “I didn’t know!” I yelled as I looked up at Caden, the evidence displayed
in the palm of my hand.

  Caden’s hands pushed back into his hair. “This is a disaster. We need Sofie. Now.”

  “Sofie’s gone too,” Amelie answered, her lip trembling.

  Caden’s hands dropped to his sides with a loud slap, his face filled with incredulity. “And where the hell is she gone to now?” he yelled.

  “Mage is pretty sure she went to see the Fates,” Amelie said.

  My jaw dropped. “To see them?” I didn’t think that was possible …

  “And when will she be back?” Caden asked, his voice rigid and unimpressed.

  After a long pause, Amelie’s mouth twisted into a frown. “Mage doesn’t know. Possibly … never.”

  Her words sliced through me. Sofie … gone. Just like that. No warning, no goodbye. Nothing. “How could she risk that?” I cried out. But I already knew the answer. She was risking everything to fix me.

  The room started to spin. Bishop, gone … Mage, gone … Sofie, gone. No. Not Sofie. Not yet! Sofie was my one constant in all of this. Always there, always caring, always trustworthy, even when her actions appeared counterintuitive.

  “So what do we do now?” I asked, hunching into a ball on the ground, my voice hollow.

  “Do you think Mage can catch Bishop?” Julian asked, wary eyes on Caden, as if unsure that he should make his presence known after the earlier bathroom incident.

  “I don’t know … Bishop’s fast,” Amelie answered.

  “Bishop’s fast when he’s not possessed,” Caden added. “Now? Faster. Way faster.”

  Terrible scenarios cycled through my head. What if Bishop killed a bunch of innocent people to get away? What if Mage had to seriously hurt him to stop him? But worst … “What if Bishop makes it to Manhattan?” I heard myself ask.

  “He can’t get into the building,” Caden assured me, pulling me toward him.

  “No, but …” My brain wracked the possibilities. “He could … torch it!” As soon as the words came out of my mouth, I was positive that’s exactly what he’d do.

  “Then the witches will have to come out and he would kill them,” Caden countered without missing a beat. “That wouldn’t be the worst thing.”

  My head was already shaking. “No, it’s too dangerous for Veronique.”

  “But Veronique is safe in a stone statue,” Amelie turned to stare at me, eyes narrowed. “Right?”

  I shifted my weight, my latest deception unmasked. “No … she’s out.”

  What? When did this happen? Why didn’t you tell me? Max hammered me with a barrage of questions that I couldn’t focus on, given the volume of Amelie’s voice.

  “Out?” Amelie repeated. “As in, not safe … not in the statue?”

  My head spinning, I put my hands up to silence them all. First, Max. “I’ve known for a long time, Max. Since the jungle. I could’ve told you, I guess. I just didn’t want you worrying. Or doing something stupid like running off to New York and getting yourself killed.” Turning to Amelie, I said, “That’s right. No one else knew except Caden. Not Sofie, not Viggo, or Mortimer or Mage …” In the moment of silence that followed, I explained what happened when the Tribe spell took effect, how I had an out-of-body experience.

  “Wow, so … that means she’s been their prisoner all this time?” Amelie said slowly. “Do we even know if she’s still alive?”

  “Yes.” I bit my bottom lip while I gathered the courage to divulge my last bit of deceit. The last bit before I was completely free. “I connect with her in my sleep every night.”

  “What?” Caden and Max’s combined explosion made me jump.

  “I was about to tell you!” I said to Caden, my cheeks flushing, “But Wraith found us too soon.”

  He answered me with a stern glare. “Why didn’t you tell me before? I mean, God!” His hands flew above his head. Then he froze, remembering something. His nostrils flared. “That night. The one where you woke up screaming. Complaining about fire.”

  I swallowed. “They’re torturing her and I feel it when I’m there.”

  Caden closed the distance. “Why didn’t you tell me?” The sudden iciness of his voice threw me off balance.

  I turned away, unable to face his anger. “I was afraid you’d tell Sofie and then she’d fly there and start a war. I figured two people suffering was better than millions. They’ve stopped torturing her, anyway. They must’ve realized she’s more useful alive than dead.”

  Pulling my face to his chest in a nurturing hug. “Oh my God, Eve! You could’ve told me! I get why you didn’t tell anyone but come on!”

  I took a deep breath. “I did tell someone. I told Lilly.”

  Caden’s body went rigid. “You told her and not me? Why?”

  “Because she’s in Manhattan now and she’s going to help us get Veronique out!”

  Amelie dropped to the couch in defeat. “How? The place is fully bound by magic. No one’s getting in there.” I watched a thought unfurl on her face. She turned to somewhere behind me. “Except him.”

  I looked over my shoulder to find Wraith standing in the doorway. He must have just gotten there. He didn’t have superhuman speed. He took his time before he sucked the life out of people. But Amelie was right! Wraith was immune to magic. Wraith was unstoppable. The only problem? He wouldn’t go anywhere without me. But he didn’t have to …

  “And me. I can get in there.” I could do something. All this time, I thought I was helpless in getting Veronique out. But, for once, I wasn’t a weak, useless human. With this Tribe magic coursing through me, no witch’s magic could touch me. I was like Wraith in that way. Almost dead.

  “And me,” I heard Julian’s voice behind me. I turned to see Julian’s slow smile building. “Let me help. I can help. Not only will their magic not affect me but I can get in with my tattoo.”

  Tattoo? What tattoo? Max suddenly chirped.

  Oh, crap. “Nothing, Max.”

  Caden exploded before Max had a chance to question further. “Are you two nuts? We’re not sending Evangeline in there! She’s not immortal, remember? She’ll die!”

  “If we don’t get Veronique out of there before they do something drastic, no one is safe. No one at all, Caden,” I reminded him softly. “Think of what Viggo and Mortimer will do if the witches kill her.” He began to shake his head but I was already talking again, my jaw set defiantly and a huge weight lifted off my chest as I committed myself to what I knew was right.

  “I’m not asking you. I’m not asking anyone. I can do this. I didn’t realize it before but now that I know, I have to do this. I need to do this for Veronique and for myself. Because I want to, not because I’m cursed to.”

  Caden turned away from me. I ignored him, instead turning to Amelie. “How are we going to get there?”

  With a dismissive wave of her hand, she simply said, “Easy.”

  Wraith spoke up then, unruffled by anything. “Where will we be going?”

  I felt my pulse quicken. Back to the start of it all. “Back to New York.”

  13. Playing Games—Sofie

  Soothing, rhythmic waves lapped around me as I regained consciousness. I lay on my back, my body rising and falling as if floating over waves, my body enveloped in a tropical warmth. Such peace. I allowed myself a moment to relish the calm, gazing up at a mass of blue sky. A seagull squawked in the distance. Its mate immediately responded, bringing to life memories of a childhood on the beach in southern France, baking under the sun without a care. I sighed …

  The Fates.

  Awareness ripped through me. I was on my feet in an instant, suspicious eyes scanning surroundings for the immediate threat. I saw none. I was alone in an ocean—crystal blue water stretching as far as the eye could see in every direction, barren except for the sheets of ice floating by at unnatural speeds. Sheets of ice in balmy temperatures. My first clue that something was off.

  On sheer instinct, I looked down at my feet to find soft ripples of water and my own disheveled reflection staring back at me.
I was standing on water! I pawed the back of my shirt. Bone-dry. Not one inch of me touched by water, though I had just floated on top of it. Hesitating briefly, I took a step forward. Then another. Tiny circular waves formed around my feet as I walked but the water’s surface held. A tiny awed smile crept over my lips.

  Just below the water’s surface, rapid swirling movement caught my attention. I leaned down to catch a flurry of fins moving past. Sharks. More sharks than I had ever seen in one place, schooling together in a circular whirl as if preparing for a feeding frenzy. Circling below me. I chuckled. The Fates were testing my fear of oversized fish? Did they forget I’m not human?

  A crackling sound drew my attention back up above the surface. Wisps of lead-colored smoke materialized off the sheets of ice, quickly forming into a dense, noxious fog. Up, up it rose, stretching to cloak the peaceful blue sky, turning the atmosphere hostile.

  Where the wisps of smoke had materialized on the ice, sparks of green and blue now flickered. I watched as they swiftly matured into a wild inferno of colorful flames, skittering over the surface of the ice. It reminded me of a choreographed fireworks spectacle and I smiled, half expecting an ensemble of violins to join in the display.

  The dark haze vanished, taking with it the ocean and the ice formations. Instead, a vast, dusty wasteland of withered plants and arid ochre soil stretched without bounds. The sky hung in an unappealing reddish hue. Nothing flew by. Nothing crawled. Nothing lived. Even the cacti—made to withstand the most barren environment—were brown and shriveled.

  I began to walk through the desert, waiting for the next oddity to take shape. But nothing came. And so I walked, feeling the atmosphere leeching moisture out of my body. Soon, my tongue began to work against the roof of my mouth. For a human, this was the beginning of dehydration, requiring vats of water. For a vampire, this meant only one thing. Blood thirst. A dangerous phase to be in should a human suddenly appear …

  The air grew denser and drier, until it was compressing my lungs, making it hard to … breathe? I opened my mouth and felt the draw of the atmosphere pour into those useless masses in my chest that once kept my mortal self alive. I was breathing! For the first time in a hundred and twenty years, I was desperate for air! In … out … in … out … Large, long drags through my nose, into my lungs.