Allegiance (29 page)

“How appropriate …,” Bishop muttered dryly, pushing his hand through the back of his hair as he stepped to claim the area to my left.

“Wraith …,” I said, raking my brain for its definition. I remembered hearing that word before. “Isn’t that, like, a ghost?”

I felt Caden’s strong fingers curl around my elbow, pulling me ever so slightly closer to him but not to be too noticeable to anyone watching. To Bishop. The creature named Wraith didn’t miss the contact, though, those creepy eyes shifting from Caden’s hand to his face.

“Evangeline, I advise you not to get close to that one. He is capable of causing fatal injury to you.”

“What the—” Caden exploded, stepping forward, rage twisting his face. I was sure I was going to witness Wraith attack Caden after all. But Sofie soared in to intercept, her arms out to create an obstacle between the two of them.

“Stop, Caden. It’s all right. Please. I’ll explain …”

I watched in horror as Wraith’s hand lifted and clamped onto Sofie’s forearm like a steel manacle. Sofie’s beautiful face withered to a shriveled shell, her cheeks going sallow, the pulsating intensity in her irises dwindling. Dying.

There was no doubt. He was sapping the life right out of her.

“Stop it, Wraith!” I shrieked, diving forward to grab hold of his arm with both of my hands, ready to yank or bite or rake it free. Whatever I had to do. There was no need, though. The steel manacle popped open at my command. With quicker reflexes than I believed I had, I dove to my knees to catch Sofie’s head as she collapsed to the ground. I held my breath as I cradled her—so frail and helpless and hideous in that moment—waiting frantically for her to return to her radiant self.

“Why would you do that to her?” I demanded, looking up through a veil of tears to see guiltless mirrors watching me. “This is Sofie! Don’t you get it?”

“You weren’t supposed to find this room.” My head jerked down as I heard Sofie’s raspy gasp. Her creamy complexion had returned, her skin plumping as I watched. With a hand on her back, I helped her into a sitting position. “I never wanted to bring you here.” Slowly, awkwardly, using my shoulders as support, she rose to her feet and stumbled away from me, pushing past everyone to rush out of the room as if the air in it was suffocating her.

I followed, shoving through the throng at the door. My elbow rammed the terrifying Kait’s rock-hard abdomen, but I didn’t flinch. My hand pushed against Viggo’s chest without a thought. Outside in the hallway, I found my maternal vampiress buckled over and holding her chest, slouching against the wall opposite the door in the hallway. Shattered.

“Is he going to hurt us, Sofie?” I asked tentatively.

Gradually, she stood. Terror seized my heart as I took in the hollow, lost gaze. The look of defeat.

Sofie was giving up.

Sofie couldn’t give up. She was my rock. She was the one who kept assuring me everything would be okay. If she gave up … Blood rushed to my ears as my internal panic exploded.

Finally, Sofie shook her head. “No … yes and no.”

What did that mean? “What is he?” I asked as softly as I could. “Is he like the Tribe? Is that what their touch does?”
Is that what my touch will do?

Her vacuous stare shifted past me. I turned to follow it, finding everyone now out in the hall, the crowd parted to allow Nathan prime view from his position in the room. That, and I’m sure no one was in any rush to get close to him.

“No … he’s far worse,” she whispered, adding with a hiss, “courtesy of the Fates.” Sickness roiled inside me. The Fates. I couldn’t win with them. No one could. “He is immune to all forms of magic. He takes life with a touch if he so chooses. His touch is not lethal unless he wants it to be. He usually does …” Her face twisted into a sardonic smile. “He is the ultimate protection for you. He is exactly what I asked for. Unstoppable, unkillable, untraceable. He’s dead. He is death.”

“You asked for this?” I studied this creature peering out at me with patience—his face, his hands, his stature. Everything about him appeared human. Everything identical to the painting above the mantle. Except for those eyes. And those eyes held his secret. Those hollow orbs of death. He was the grim reaper. Here to take life.

“And did you ask that he look like Nathan?” I said without thinking.

“Of course not!” Another shriek, another crack in her damaged armor.

I wasn’t sure if it was the wine or the situation, but the sconces were suddenly wobbling and swaying. I balanced myself against the wall. The weight of two hands instantly landed on my shoulders, one on the left shoulder, one on the right. Two hands that belonged to two different vampires. Bishop and Caden. I glanced up in time to see a silent look pass between them, Caden’s of mock apology, Bishop’s a mix of confusion and appreciation.

Caden quickly stepped away, allowing Bishop full ownership of me. He claimed it quickly, leaning in to ask with genuine concern, “You okay?” I tried to smile and felt my nostrils flare and my lip curl in a sneer.

Turning back to Sofie, a new question sparked in my mind. “And why did you have him hidden here, then? If he’s only here to protect me?”

Sofie stared back at me like horns had sprouted from my forehead. “Seriously, Evangeline? You need to ask? I couldn’t have him running loose in the streets! With what he can do? He will kill anyone he deems a threat to you. That could be the man who looks too long at you, or the driver of a car who’s speeding past you or someone who’s merely having a bad day. Anyone! I didn’t want to expose you to him until I needed to. Evangeline—he is like an unstoppable plague.”

“And what an added bonus for you that this plague looks exactly like your one true love. My, my, the Fates never tire of punishing you …” Viggo delivered the low blow from his new spot halfway down the hall—as far away as possible from this new enemy while still bearing witness.

If looks could disembowel, I was sure Viggo would be scooping up twenty feet of innards from the floor. I wished Sofie would attack him. Zap him dead with bolts of fire from her fingers. Hell, I was six words from siccing Wraith on him, ordering him to bring Viggo to his knees long enough so I could set fire to him myself. But Sofie only squeezed her eyes shut.

“I couldn’t have him roaming free so I confined him here. I spelled these quarters to disguise the door and the windows. All the exits. This is the only world that Wraith knows.” Another bitter smile. “The Fates allowed me that much control, at least. I could control him to some degree until he saw you, until he completed the connection. Now … I am nothing more than a potential threat to you …” Her voice drifted off, her words hollow.

The connection … those times I’d passed by this spot, before I could see the door. That familiarity, that pull—it was the connection the Fates had forged between the two of us, beckoning me. And because the Tribe’s magic coursing through me strengthened each day, morphed each day, it finally broke the barrier keeping us apart. The illusion masking the door. It was all making sense now …

“I thought there was something missing in this hallway,” Mortimer mused, his brow furrowed in deep thought, his fingers rubbing his chin as he studied the door. Now that I had passed through it, I supposed it was visible to everyone.

“Will he just … attack people? For no reason?” I asked.

Sofie heaved a heavy sigh. “He knows his mission is to protect you. While the connection wasn’t complete, he was relatively harmless. He just … sat in that room. He doesn’t sleep, he doesn’t eat, he doesn’t need entertainment. He is here for one reason and one reason only. To protect you. Always. Until you no longer need protecting.”

“No longer …,” I repeated, frowning.

“Until you die.” The words, delivered with all the sympathy and warmth that Sofie could muster, still turned my blood icy cold.

“So … that means …”

“Wraith will be with you for the rest of your natural life, whether it be seventy years or seventy minutes. He’s bound to you forever.”
Forever
. Such a long time. Or not. But as long I lived, Nathan’s life-sucking ghost would trail me. And that meant I would carry around a constant reminder of Sofie’s lost love, knifing her in the heart daily with his indifference. Being with me would cause her more pain. Soon, she’d be forced to abandon me. How else would she survive this? Shards of pain splintered through my heart. Nothing seemed to be going Sofie’s way.

“He will attack anything he feels is a threat to you, Evangeline. Anything at all. Nothing can harm him. Vampires, werebeasts—he will leech our strength from us with a touch, weaken us until we can’t fight back, or simply kill us. Mortal beings … they will die.” Sofie’s eyes darted behind me. “Stay far away from him, Julian. I can’t fix you if he decides you’re a threat.” Julian nodded soberly, giving me a sympathetic smile as Amelie’s arms enveloped him. Sofie went on. “And he can sense danger. He can dig into a person’s soul, read their evil intentions. Therein lies the danger, Evangeline. He won’t always ask you before he reacts. He may act on his own assessments of a person, of their danger to you.”

I glanced haphazardly at Wraith and then at Caden.
He is capable of causing fatal injury to you
. That’s what Wraith said. That’s what he dug out of Caden.

Caden was already shaking his head, distress evident on his face. “I don’t … I wouldn’t … not anymore!”

“He sees it in all of us,” Mage explained. “We are all capable of hurting her. She is human and it is in our DNA to kill her. Don’t take it personally.”

Awkward silence hung over the entire group until Sofie simply turned and left, half stumbling, dejected, down the hall. When she reached the doors out to the courtyard, I heard her call out, “Don’t worry. Wraith will not harm Evangeline.”

I almost didn’t catch her last words. I wish I hadn’t. “He’ll protect her from all of us.” And then she was pushing through the doors, disappearing into the wintry outside, leaving a horde of supernaturals and Julian and me alone with this new unstoppable creature. My newest curse.

“Well … on that note.” Viggo’s shoes slid against the floor as he stole down the hall. “Now that our fearless leader has given her permission, I’ll be happy to go deal with a certain blood-sucking mutant.” Sofie must have released them from their leash while we were roaming the halls and getting drunk. Viggo wasn’t wasting any time for good reason. If Wraith bothered to poke around in his soul—or whatever existed inside him—he’d find enough evil intent to decide to permanently affix himself to Viggo’s arm. He was Contender Number One in the “Threat to Eve” department, and if Viggo couldn’t kill Wraith, as he had every other threat to him—Lilly’s mom included—he would need to keep as far away as possible.

“Mortimer …?” he called.

Mortimer couldn’t seem to peel his focus off Wraith, though, a distant grief tugging at his face. For once, I knew exactly what he was thinking. What would it be like to have Veronique turned into a wraith? To have her soul sucked out, her beauty marred, to have her look through him, not recognize him, not love him. It would be enough to break any of us, and Sofie had to live it.

When Viggo appeared in front of Mortimer’s face to rudely snap his fingers under his nose, Mortimer slammed Viggo’s hand away with such force that it sent Viggo back a few steps. “I heard you!” With a head bow to the rest of us, Mortimer walked away.

And that’s when it finally dawned on me. “You guys are going back to New York?”
Closer to discovering Veronique’s predicament, if you catch and interrogate someone
? Another wave of lightheadedness swarmed me. Bishop’s hands found their place on my elbows, steadying me.

“Someone has to clean up the mess! You children have fun here … with that!” Viggo called out over his shoulder, strolling away.

“Remember Sofie’s caveat, Viggo. Stay away from the witches!” Mage warned. “As long as they’re in there, they’re not causing us issues.” When Viggo didn’t answer, she looked to Mortimer. “Be the sensible one, please.”

He nodded. “We can’t get in there, even if we want to. The witches have reinstated the Merth boundary and the entries are heavily guarded. My human spies have tried and failed several times already.”

“What’d they tell you?” The words tumbled out of my mouth in a rush before I could stop myself, too eager to know. Of course Mortimer was already snooping. But did he have any idea about Veronique?

He fixed me with a flat look. “Nothing. They’re all dead.” I listened to his heavy footsteps as he marched down the hallway after Viggo.

Slowly, cautiously, I exhaled in relief. They didn’t know yet. When they did find out, they couldn’t ever know that I knew. That I was lying. Never! They could never know how I was betraying them. If they did … an allegiance ten times over wouldn’t keep Viggo from snapping my body in two. I would wound Mortimer, an idea I realized troubled me more than death at Viggo’s hands. They can never find out. I must beg silence from Veronique.

“Lilly, Sofie would like you and your group to accompany them to New York and deal with Jonah,” Mage said, again her authoritative self. “It’s getting out of control. We need the issue eradicated and I don’t know that the two of them are enough.” What was happening in New York? What did “getting out of control” mean?

Lilly paused and regarded Mage coldly. “I don’t take orders from you.” When she looked over to me, she instantly warmed. “Is that what you would like me to do, Evangeline?”