by K. A. Tucker
She looked at me like a snake studying a mouse it was seriously considering for dinner. Did Caden mention to her that I threw myself at him? No, I’d already be dead.
I heard myself exhale, all fear of Rachel vanishing as Caden walked in. My heart practically leapt out of my chest and a big, dumb grin that I couldn’t control stretched my face. I was filled with a volatile mixture of anxiety and excitement. All I needed was that returning smile, a glint in his intense jade eyes that would tell me all was okay. That we were okay.
His eyes skimmed over my face—no smile, no wink, no sign that he even recognized me—before he strolled over to Rachel. He wrapped his arms adoringly around her, nuzzling into her thick mane of black hair, whatever aversion to public affection he had before clearly gone.
My smile slid off my face.
“What did you bring us?” Rachel asked, her cool lemon eyes passing over me, giving me chills.
“I … Stuff,” I mumbled.
“You’re back!” Amelie exclaimed, suddenly appearing to skip over and give me a big hug.
I nodded, unable to form words.
“Did you bring blood?” Rachel’s eyebrow arched severely.
“Are you nuts? No! She’s not bringing us human blood,” Fiona snapped, her normally placid face showing rare annoyance. She untied the strings and knots and began pulling items out of the bag.
“Boots!” Amelie cried in delight, hoisting a pair of brown leather riding boots. Fiona had a matching pair. There was a third set for Rachel. I wanted to burn those.
“Mine!” Bishop shouted, startling me, as an acoustic guitar appeared. I had barely noticed him stroll in, even when he stopped to ruffle my hair. Seeing his genuine pleasure, I felt a tiny ball of warmth swell in the pit of my twisting stomach. Sofie had listened to every word I’d ever said about them.
“Check it out!” Bishop tossed the instrument to Caden, who caught it with one hand. Letting go of Rachel, he strummed the first few notes of some song.
“You play too?” I asked, giving him a chance to acknowledge me.
“Of course I do.” His voice was detached and cool, his expression remote, his eyes not leaving the guitar strings as he spoke. He may as well have smashed me over the head with the instrument.
“Stupid girl,” Rachel mocked, laughing at my wounded expression.
“Show us how to turn this on.” Fiona shoved a portable DVD player in my face, forcing my attention to her. It gave me a chance to hide the pain on my face. She grabbed my hand and squeezed it. Sympathy. Caden must have told them.
“Oh, this … for movies,” I stammered. “There’s a bunch of battery packs as well, to keep it running.”
“Are any of them good?” Amelie interjected, holding up a collection of DVDs.
They were trying to distract me, to keep my mind preoccupied. A very considerate, if useless, act. “Um, yeah. I mean, no. I mean—” I couldn’t think straight. “I don’t know.”
“Has she always been so stupid, or is this new?” Rachel said to Caden, loud enough for me to hear.
“I know. The witch could have looked a little harder,” Caden responded, reaching out to grab her hand and pull her into an affectionate embrace.
It was a razor–sharp verbal stab. I dropped my gaze to my hands, salty tears welling in my eyes. I couldn’t take much more of this.
Fiona’s hand grasped mine again and squeezed as Rachel giggled wickedly, likely pitying me. I dared one more glance at Caden, one more gaze at that beautiful face before I accepted the instant and horrible demise of my fantasy and moved my focus to the dark reality of my situation: my death if I didn’t find the secret of this spell.
My eyes crawled up along Rachel’s back, over Caden’s arms, still wrapped lovingly around her, to his perfect face. To see his eyes glued to me, a strange look in them. What is that look … pity? No, pleading. But for what, exactly?
Rachel’s hand massaged Caden’s chest and abdomen seductively, her fingers curling into claws that raked over him hard enough to leave impressions in his shirt. I shut my eyes, a mixture of revulsion and anger flaring, though I knew I had no right. He wasn’t mine. He was Rachel’s, as ghastly a proposition as that was. She could do whatever she wanted with him—to him. But telling myself that did nothing to ease the pain of the knife being twisted in my heart.
I opened my eyes. Rachel’s face was now burrowed in Caden’s neck, her attention otherwise occupied. I glanced up at Caden’s face again to see that same pleading look, only more intense. I’m sorry, he mouthed slowly.
My eyes went wide in surprise. Sorry for what? For morphing from sweet and affectionate to exhibitionist asshole?
Amelie loudly cleared her throat. I turned to look at her. She stared hard at me, as if sending me a message telepathically. I’m not your pet, Amelie! I don’t know what you’re trying to tell me!
Something very strange was happening here and I hated it. I wanted the last trip back, with its laughter, its ease. Its time with Caden. No Rachel. If only there was some way to make her go away again …
“Sofie says I can bring you back with me,” I suddenly blurted without thinking.
Everyone’s eyes bugged out, Caden’s in horror.
A plan was forming in my head. My own web of deceit. The very idea of lying to Amelie, Fiona, and Bishop made me ill but I had no other choice. I needed Rachel gone. I’d explain afterward. “Sofie thinks the answer is somewhere out there and someone needs to go looking for it,” I continued, my voice trembling.
“What the hell does that mean?” Rachel’s face screwed up.
“Well …” Think fast, Evangeline, or she’s going to see right through your sloppy efforts! “You know how the statue just appeared, out of nowhere? Sofie’s spell put it there. To create a point of origin. But something else also appeared. A portal for my necklace. It will tell me how to bring you back with me.” Not you though, Rachel.
“She’s lying to you,” Caden said, throwing a panicked glare in my direction.
I ignored him. “It could be a scroll, a book, another statue. Whatever it is, you’ll know. It won’t look seven hundred years old.”
“Where do we start?” Amelie leapt onto her feet, her typically animated personality in overdrive.
Rachel was more wary. “It could take years to find it, if at all!”
“No. It wants to be found.” By you, Rachel. Go fetch. “Sofie thinks it’s either in the mountains or in a city. Somewhere still inhabited, where someone who was familiar with the city could find it.” Like you.
“The only city left is New Shore,” Fiona began.
“Hey, isn’t that where you went, Rachel?” I asked innocently. “You know it really well, don’t you?”
“Yes, but there’s nothing like what you’re talking about there.” She bit her lower lip. “I’ll have to do some searching …”
I have her.
“Maybe I’ll go look around during my trip there next week.”
No, it has to be today. This instant! I silently screamed, my thumbs squeezed so tightly within my fists that I thought I might break them. “That’s a problem …” I said, pausing to formulate my next lie. “Sofie said that we’re running out of time. I only have a few more trips before the spell wears off.”
“Oh my God! We better start looking!” Amelie exclaimed. “Come on! Let’s go! I’ll take the north mountain, you take the south, Fiona,” she rambled.
“We can go to New Shore,” Rachel said, her arm around Caden.
No, not ‘we’! Just you! I reached over to grab Fiona’s hand, squeezing hard, wishing I could take a time–out and explain everything.
“What about using Scout and the others to search?” Fiona said. She hadn’t picked up on my panic. I wanted to cry.
“Of course! Great idea, babe!” Bishop cried, kissing Fiona.
No, no, no! This plan wasn’t going how I wanted it.
“Of course Caden is connected to half of our guard around here, so he needs to be here
to communicate,” Fiona said slowly.
My panic escaped through my mouth in a long sigh. I glanced over at Fiona, who winked at me. She understood. I fought the urge to hug her, silently begging her forgiveness for lying.
“But, I just got back!” Rachel scoffed, a horrified expression on her face. “We’ve barely seen each other!”
“Fiona’s right,” Caden said, taking Rachel’s hands in his and staring into her eyes. If he was indeed feigning great disappointment at the idea of being apart, his acting skills were impressive. Rachel began shaking her head in response. “We need all the help we can get in these mountains and the valleys.” He cupped her chin. “Plus, as long as Evangeline is here, we should have as many of us as possible around for protection. You know New Shore best, out of anyone. And you’ll have no problems searching it, being part of the Council. No one will question you.”
Rachel’s bottom lip curved down in a childish pout.
“Think of this new world … human blood,” he whispered.
I could see the uncontainable lust flash in her eyes with the mention of human blood. Her dangling carrot. That Caden had previously renounced the act of killing humans didn’t phase her. “Fine. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” With one obscenely long, mauling kiss for Caden—one that I didn’t watch, instead locking eyes with Fiona—Rachel vanished.
I exhaled slowly, covering my overjoyed smile within folded hands in the small chance that it may be inappropriate. The ball of anxiety over Caden still sat prominently in my stomach but at least now I’d have a chance to find out what the hell was going on.
“Let’s do this!” Bishop announced.
“Wait.” Fiona’s eyes narrowed, communicating silently with him, nodding toward the cave entrance. With a slight frown of concern, he nodded and walked over to stand by the entrance, staring out into nothingness—listening or smelling, I assumed.
We sat silently, waiting for Bishop’s sanction. My eyes flitted over to Caden to catch him staring at me, expressionless. His eyes dropped.
“And she’s gone! Crossed over the first mountain,” Bishop announced in a booming voice.
I had to figure out how to do that with Max, I promised myself.
“Okay Evangeline, what’s going on?” Fiona asked.
At the same time Caden yelled, “I told you not to say anything!”
“Don’t get mad, everyone,” I said, my hands out in a sign of peace. I had just lied to a group of vampires about the one thing they desperately wanted. The gravity of that began to sink in.
Amelie, Bishop, and Fiona’s eyes darted between Caden and me. “You knew about this?” Amelie’s raspy voice was full of shock.
I took a deep breath. “I lied,” I began. She turned, her angelic face crestfallen, the brightness in her eyes fading. “Not about taking you back!” I quickly added. “Before, when I told you that I couldn’t take you back, I lied.”
“So you can?” Amelie’s emerald eyes began glowing eagerly again.
“Sort of …” My eyes darted to Caden, looking for help. He turned away, jaw clenched and eyes closed.
“Well, which is it?” Amelie cried in frustration.
“That’s the tricky part. I don’t know exactly how to do it.”
“So all that stuff about the portal was a lie?” Bishop said slowly and evenly.
“No! That was true! Sofie said there’s no use in looking for it, though. We’ll never find it that way, she said. But … there’s more.” I paused, dreading this part. “I don’t know how many of you I can bring back. That’s why I didn’t tell you.”
“But … there’s hope?” Amelie began pacing. “Maybe you can bring us all back?”
“Yes! Maybe. I mean, Sofie thinks I can.” A lie. A little white lie but a lie all the same. One I prayed would never be proven wrong.
“Bring us all back so we can kill you when we get there?” Caden leaned against the cave wall, his expression blank, his voice flat.
“We won’t kill her, Caden!” Amelie glared at her brother.
“My sister, the eternal optimist,” Caden sneered. “And if she’s wrong, you’re the one who pays.” He pushed himself off the wall and turned, his back to me now like a slap to my face.
My eyes roamed the group, studying expressions full of optimism, shock, angst, and horror as they silently played the situation through in their heads. There was a long pause, then chaos erupted. Amelie and Fiona began giggling and hopping around like sugar–high children, hugging each other. Bishop grabbed me and repeatedly tossed me into the air until I was sure I would puke.
I looked over to where Caden stood calmly, seemingly apathetic to the prospect of leaving Ratheus. Or leaving with me, that paranoid part of me whispered.
“So what’s the plan?” Amelie asked when she and Fiona took a break from bounding around.
I shrugged. “Sofie said to wait and, when the time was right, we would find the portal. It needs to be soon, though.”
“Why?” Caden quickly asked.
I explained the curse’s warped sense of time.
“Are you saying that if we don’t figure this problem out soon, you’ll die?” Caden asked, his voice still unnaturally calm, that unreadable expression on his face.
I nodded. He averted his gaze to the floor again.
“Is there any chance that the portal is out there in the woods?” Bishop asked.
I shrugged again. “Sofie doesn’t think so, but I guess it wouldn’t hurt to search, right?”
“We’ll have some of our pets check things out,” Bishop agreed. “It wouldn’t take them long. It will stretch our perimeter guard, but we should be okay.”
“Okay, so what do we do in the meantime?” Amelie asked.
I turned to Caden. “Can you take me to the place where the Merth grows again?” I asked softly. “Sofie needs it.”
“Sure. Anything for Sofie.” The sarcasm was impossible to miss. He disappeared down the tunnel, carefully avoiding my eyes.
Sending Rachel away hadn’t changed anything, I thought bitterly.
“We can’t go in there. It’s too painful for us weak little girls,” Amelie explained with an apologetic smile. She and Fiona stood on the ledge by the waterfall.
“And you’ll have to pick it yourself. Merth only has to touch us to make us flop like rag dolls,” Bishop added, squeezing my shoulder.
“That’s okay.” I smiled, glancing over to see Caden approaching us. He had vanished for a brief time while we were gathering the mountain bags and I was changing into my wet suit.
He stopped in front of me. “Let’s get this over with. I hate being near this wretched stuff.” He picked me up as he had the other day. I buried my face in his chest again, only this time the awkwardness was unbearable.
We were through the waterfall and standing beside the sea of Merth in seconds. I looked up at Caden and Bishop’s faces. As much as they tried to disguise it, they couldn’t hide the pain in their eyes. They each trailed behind me with a canvas bag, careful not to make contact with the swaying cords as I hastily yanked the delicate strands of Merth and stuffed them in the bags.
“These are too pretty to pull out,” I murmured.
“Pretty enough to sedate an army of vampires,” Bishop responded wryly.
There’re only three vampires I want to sedate, I thought as I worked. Funny; Sofie didn’t make that list. Maybe I was crazy after all.
Both bags—the one I’d brought tonight and the one from before—were filled in no time. There was still a sea of silver growing. Enough to fill a hundred of these bags if I needed to …
A shout from Bishop made me turn in time to see Caden crumpling into a patch of Merth. I gasped, recalling his description as I realized one of the strands had grazed his leg: A thousand razors cutting into his flesh. I ran to him and grabbed hold of his arm, pulling with every ounce of strength I had. Somehow I got him out.
Dropping to my knees, I cradled his head in my lap. “Are you okay?” I asked, plead
ing.
His eyelids flickered open. He gazed up at me.
“Caden?”
Silence followed—seconds that felt like hours—then I felt a hand on the back of my head. Caden pulled me down to kiss me.
And then he abruptly broke off, murmuring, “Sorry.” He was on his feet and moving away from me in a flash. “I got caught up in the moment. I didn’t mean to do it.”
“No, of course,” I said, scrambling to my feet. I glanced around for Bishop. He had vanished. I looked back to Caden, and my heart went cold. His jaw was taut, his full lips pressed tightly together, and torture was alive in his eyes. “It’s okay. I know! You just want to be friends. Go ahead! Say it!” I fought tears but they escaped anyway. I furiously rubbed them away.
Unexpected amusement flashed in his brilliant green eyes. “You want me to lie to you?”
19. The Cover, Uncovered
I frowned, confused by his answer. Why would he be …
Caden suddenly appeared in front of me, wrapping his arms around my body, pulling me toward him, his chin resting on my head. “It’s been hell, waiting for you all week,” he murmured, easing his grip enough that he could lean down and press his forehead against mine. “I hated leaving things that way. I wanted to explain …”
I couldn’t breathe, even when I consciously reminded myself that I needed to. The Caden from before was back, the Caden I didn’t ever want to be apart from again. But what did he mean? “Can you explain now?” I heard myself ask, grudgingly pulling far enough away to look up at him. “I mean, why were you … like that earlier?”
Caden laughed. Cupping my face with his hands, he sighed. “Because of you,” he said.
I stared hard at him, my brow furrowing. “I don’t get it.”
He kept staring intensely at me. “That’s why I’m with Rachel … because of you.” Caden chuckled. “You’re looking at me like I have two heads again,” he murmured, pulling me close to him, his sculpted chest against my cheek.