Anathema (Causal Enchantment, #1) (22 page)

I squealed in surprise as the weight of the
hefty mountain bag yanked me backward. I landed on my back, my arms
and legs flailing wildly, at least two feet above the hard cave
floor. “It worked!” I cried out.

Sofie had made sure the harness fit snuggly.
Shifting my weight around, I quickly confirmed that no amount of
wiggling was going to break me free. So I settled on lying there in
the dark, helpless, waiting for rescue like a turtle flipped onto
its shell.

A low chuckle sounded in the darkness, sending
a shiver down my spine.

“
Hello?” I called warily, my voice
cracking.

There was a pause, then a loud strike. The cave
flooded with torchlight. My heart skipped a beat when I saw Caden’s
dimpled smile; another shiver ran down my spine.

Caden approached slowly, shaking his head in
disbelief. “Would you like some help?” he asked innocently,
towering over me, his green eyes twinkling.

He’s different today. More playful and
much, much more relaxed.
“No, I’m comfortable. I think I’ll
stay like this today,” I answered calmly. Inside, I was as giddy as
a thirteen–year–old at a boy band pop concert.

He crouched to inspect the numerous buckles and
clasps. “Ticklish?” he asked, arching his eyebrow.

“
Oh, please don’t,” I moaned,
dreading that level of torturous embarrassment. My current
predicament was bad enough.

He laughed softly, then deep concentration
tensed his face as he fumbled with the straps. It gave me the
opportunity to shamelessly study his face. It didn’t seem real;
more sculpted to perfection—his jawline impeccably defined, his
lips tinted a lush shade of rose. I resisted the urge to reach up
and touch his cheek, to confirm that his skin was skin and not
porcelain.

“
You’re early,” he murmured. “We
didn’t expect you for a few more weeks.”

When he was finished untying me, he jumped
lithely to his feet and offered his hand. I timidly accepted. He
pulled me up and straight into a hug, sliding his hands tenderly
around my waist and clasping them against the small of my back.
Startled by the affection, I didn’t know how to react. So I
awkwardly reached up and placed my hands on his shoulders, fully
aware that my body was as rigid as a plank of wood. He responded by
curling his arms farther around me, tightening his grip to bring me
closer to him. I could feel his firm chest against my own. He was
strong—entirely muscle—and yet there was a warmth and softness that
I hadn’t expected. I think I’d expected something cold and dead,
and he was the furthest thing from it.

I started to relax, assuring myself that he
couldn’t know how I felt about him; otherwise he’d never hug me so
intimately.

“
My favorite human!” Bishop called
suddenly, snapping me out of my daze. A vision of Rachel’s wicked
yellow eyes and cruel smile flashed inside my head then, making me
shove Caden away in fear. Bishop ruffled my hair as he passed
by.

Seconds later, Fiona and Amelie came flying in,
knocking me over with the ferocity of their hugs.

I glanced over at Caden to see a flicker of
disappointment in his eyes. My heart sank.

“
Ooh, what’s this?” Amelie said, and
she and Fiona began ransacking the bag like toddlers under a
Christmas tree, pulling out individual parcels with names scrawled
on them in Sofie’s flowery handwriting. The guys stood behind them,
shaking their heads and laughing.
Where’s Rachel?
My eyes
casually roamed the cave.
Probably lurking in the shadows
.
Or out slaughtering Bambi’s children.

Fiona pulled out some racy black underwear that
she stealthily tucked under her arm, a reserved smile on her
face.

“
What’s that?” Bishop asked. Fiona
smoothly diverted his attention to a pile of men’s clothing and
soon both guys were rifling eagerly through their
packages.

I sat back against the wall, pleased I could
help them in some way, that I had the means. Well, Mortimer and
Viggo did.

“
Are you planning on staying a
while?” Amelie said, pulling out an air mattress.

I frowned. “Is that for me?”

“
It’s not for us.”

Right, they don’t sleep.
“I don’t
know. Sofie packed the—” My words ended in a gasp as Caden pulled
his old ratty shirt over his head, exposing a perfectly rippled
stomach and sculpted chest. He had a new sky blue crewneck over his
head in seconds, but not before I had ample opportunity to stare at
him like a pervert, a weird, unfamiliar sensation stirring deep
within me.

Fingers snapped in front of my face, breaking
my trance. Bishop. I instinctively reached up to my gaping mouth,
sure that a gob of drool was trailing over my bottom lip.
Please don’t tease me,
I prayed.

“
Come on, let’s go, before the
daylight runs out!” Bishop exclaimed.

“
Where?”

He playfully tucked me under one of his
powerful arms like a football. “To kill some time.”

The way they had described Ratheus—desolate,
medieval, decayed—I was expecting a world right out of
Terminator,
minus the cyborgs. So to say I was pleasantly
surprised when we stepped outside would be the understatement of
the century.

Standing on the edge of a plateau–like ledge, I
saw that we were deep within a gorge in the mountains, the sky
beyond a vibrant blue dotted with fluffy white clouds. A broad,
densely wooded valley stretched out below, the lush green leaves of
the trees signifying a warm climate. I could just make out a river
snaking through the forest, dappled sunlight sparkling off its
surface like a thousand tiny rolling diamonds. A crown of
snow–capped peaks towered in the distance, protecting the valley
from the outside world. It was more of a bowl than a
valley.

Enthralled by those daunting peaks, I stepped
forward without paying any notice to where I was until the ground
suddenly disappeared from under my feet. A split second later a
hand grabbed my arm and yanked me back. I glanced down at the tree
tops several hundred feet below and realized I had unwittingly
strolled off a cliff. Whipping around, I suctioned myself to the
closest thing available. It turned out to be Caden’s
torso.

“
Have humans learned to fly in your
world?” He chuckled, then slid an arm gently around my back and
half carried, half dragged me away from the edge. The others didn’t
even attempt to hide their amusement.

“
You’re safe now, Evangeline,” Fiona
said, chuckling.

I reluctantly unmolded myself from Caden,
awkwardness taking over where paralyzing fear had left off.
“Sorry,” I mumbled, peering up at him, hoping he didn’t think I had
done that with the intention of copping a feel or something equally
perverted.

The corners of his mouth curved up into a
smile. He didn’t seem bothered.

“
Let’s go!” Amelie urged gleefully.
At some point between Bishop scooping me up and me stepping off the
cliff, she had changed out of her old clothes and into a pair of
jeans and a casual top. They all had, including Bishop, who was
adjusting his striped gray and green shirt.

“
You guys look … normal,” I said,
grinning.

Amelie hugged herself. “This shirt is
so
soft. Like furry puppies … Thank you!” She instantly
appeared in front of me to plant an affectionate kiss on my cheek
before skipping along a natural path that curled down the side of
the mountain, her silvery blonde curls bouncing.

“
Does it look anything like your
world?” Caden asked.

“
Yes. I mean, I think so,” I
answered, following the rest of them down the path. It was steep
and full of loose rocks and altogether treacherous. “I’ve never
seen mountains this big before, but I’m sure they exist.” I was
having a hard time not stumbling while keeping up with their fast,
careless pace.

“
You’d better stick close to her,
Caden. She’s liable to tumble right off the side of the mountain,”
Fiona warned in that smoky voice of hers, adding, “And we can’t
turn into bats and catch you.”

I grinned, shuddering. “Good. I hate those
things.”

“
You know what the best part about
today is?” Bishop suddenly asked in a low, somber voice. He paused
dramatically before yelling, “Rachel’s gone!” His voice boomed
through the valley like a thunderclap. He took off, tearing down
the path like a suicidal maniac, laughing hysterically. Fiona and
Amelie trailed behind him, disappearing within seconds, leaving me
alone with Caden.

I peered up from the corner of my eye,
expecting to see a scowl of anger or annoyance with Bishop’s
blatant contempt for his girlfriend. Instead, I saw a smile. “So …
where is she?” I asked.
Please say gone she’s
forever!

The smile tightened. “Some sort of tournament
she needed to judge.”

Is that disappointment or relief in his
voice?
I couldn’t tell.

We walked quietly along the rocky path, Caden
content to match my snail’s pace as I cautiously stepped around the
loose stones. Several times the stones slid under the weight of my
foot, sending me skidding. Caden was always there to grab me and
pull me back up.

“
I’m sorry I’m so slow. I’m not
normally this clumsy,” I mumbled nervously.

“
Don’t worry. Just because we can
run down rocky cliffs doesn’t mean we expect you to.”

The farther into the valley we went, the warmer
the air became and the greener our surroundings. Now that I was
looking upon the forest in daylight, I had to chuckle. There was no
way anyone could mistake this place for Central Park, with its
strange trees towering over us, some soaring well over a hundred
feet with trunks at least two arm–lengths thick. It looked more
like a primeval rainforest, untouched by anything but time. The
floor was lush and green, blanketed with giant ferns and protruding
tree roots coated in bright green moss and toadstools. Here and
there, the trees allowed enough dappled sunlight in to nourish the
tiny purple and white wildflowers scattering the forest floor, but
otherwise it was shady and damp under the canopy.

I smiled as a butterfly fluttered past us on
its way to one of those drifts of wildflowers, its vibrant yellow
and orange wings contrasting beautifully with the verdant green
backdrop. A family of crickets sang out happily somewhere in the
depths of the woods. It was purely serene—hardly a world crawling
with bloodthirsty monsters waiting to drink my blood.

I wondered what
did
live here. “What
sort of wildlife is there?”

Silence answered. I turned. And
froze.

Caden was gone. My eyes darted about, nervously
scanning the woods. “Caden!” I called in a harsh whisper, then held
my breath, listening. Nothing. “Caden!” again, this time the
desperation in my voice unmistakable.

A branch cracked. “Oh, thank God—” I began,
turning.

An enormous black panther stood beside a tree a
mere five feet away, the head of a snake locked in its jaws. It
placed a paw on the snake’s body and then, with a sharp twist of
its neck, it ripped the snake’s head off and tossed it aside. The
snake’s body—at least six feet long—dropped to the ground,
twitching.

The panther’s attention now moved to me, its
ocher eyes regarding me with interest. Or hunger.

I let out a squeak, scampering several steps
back before common sense prevailed and I froze. The cat, its
freakishly great height and build matching Max’s, lowered its head
and sniffed the ground, seemingly unconcerned by my presence. I
knew better than to relax, though. There were razor–sharp teeth
under that soft, unperturbed muzzle.

I watched in horror as the panther shifted its
weight from side to side, then quietly edged in. It moved in close
enough that its snout grazed my chest, stopping on my pendant. It
let out a low snarl, its lip curling to display a lethal set of
fangs.

And I thought I’d die by a vampire
bite
. I wondered if there was any point in running.
Would
running make the kill more pleasurable for it?
Untestable—my
muscles were locked with terror.