Anathema (Causal Enchantment, #1) (37 page)

He wrapped his arms around me and kissed the
top of my head. “We’ll figure this out. I promise.”

“
Are we allowed to come back now?”
Bishop called as he appeared out of nowhere, his hair and clothing
drenched. Fiona and Amelie were behind him, watching me with
worried expressions.

I nodded and offered a small, reassuring smile
but otherwise said nothing. The five of us stood in silence,
looking out over the storm.

Caden, whose hands rested near my pendant, felt
the waver of heat before I did. Within seconds I was on the ground,
Bishop fastening one mountain bag to my back while Caden strapped
the other to my legs. “Done!” they announced in unison as if racing
to beat one another.

Caden, kneeling beside me, gripped my face and
gave me a peck on the lips. “I love you,” he whispered.

I regained consciousness in my king–sized bed,
surrounded by canvas. I was lying on my side, facing the balcony
doors, and I couldn’t move. “Max?” I whispered.

A giant wet nose suddenly smeared affection
across my forehead.

“
Can you please go get Sofie? Try to
do it without the others noticing,” I requested quietly. I had
every intention of winding Merth around my body the second Sofie
unbound me.

Right–oh,
he murmured inside my head
and I heard him trot away, his sharp claws clicking against the
tile in the hallway.

Sofie’s melodious voice sang out minutes later.
Unfortunately it was followed by one that I had hoped to
avoid.

“
I
t’s been
two weeks!” Mortimer growled.

“
It’s not her fault, Mortimer,”
Sofie snapped in response.

Mortimer didn’t seem to hear her. “What have
you found out? And why are you trussed up like a
packhorse?”

“
Do you think you could untie me
before the interrogation begins?” I asked, not even attempting to
hide my irritation. Could I still get to the Merth in time to
protect myself?

Within seconds, I was unbound. I wiggled away
from the straps and sat up, only to have Mortimer swoop in to loom
over me. I automatically shrunk back. My chance was
gone.

I glanced over in time to see Sofie reaching
into an opened mountain bag. “No!” I lunged forward to grab her
hand.

She pulled out a cord of Merth.

Mortimer gasped in horror. “Why would you bring
that stuff back here?”

I barely heard him, still in shock over Sofie’s
immunity. “It doesn’t work on you?”

“
Stings,” she said, cringing. “But
no. Because I’m a sorceress.” She dangled the cord from her
fingers, examining it closely. “Here, Mortimer. Let’s see if it’s
as strong as our stuff.”

Our stuff?

“
If you come near me with that, I’ll
tear your heart out,” he growled, taking two large strides
backward.

I heard a loud, exasperated sigh inside my
head.
Here, try it on me,
Max said, ambling toward
Sofie.

“
Max is offering guinea pig
services,” I said, adding, “There’s Merth here?”

“
Not until now,” Viggo called out,
entering the room. “We spend over two hundred years ridding the
world of it, and look … you show up with two giant
bagfuls!”

“
Take it off him immediately
afterward, though. Please,” I said as Sofie moved toward Max. I
didn’t want Max going through any more pain than
necessary.

“
Of course, of course,” Sofie
murmured. “Thank goodness
you’re
not a coward, Max,” she
added, her eyes flicking to Mortimer, her tone thick with
implication. Viggo howled with laughter at Sofie’s snip as Mortimer
glared venomously at the red–haired vampire–witch.

She placed the cord on Max’s back. His giant
black body wavered slightly, then slumped to the floor. He mumbled
incoherently in my head. As promised, Sofie immediately pulled the
cord off Max.

Yes, it’s the same,
Max
confirmed.

I relayed the message.

“
Why would you bring this back,
Evangeline?” Viggo asked me suspiciously, stepping forward to
examine the bags.

“
To bind you.” The catty response
flew out without warning.

Viggo grinned. “Cute.”

“
Did you know about this?” Mortimer
asked Sofie, one eyebrow raised.

“
How would I know? I was here!” she
spat. “But I can use it. Smart thinking, Evangeline.”

Viggo swept his hand across the open bag,
allowing the tip of his finger to graze a strand. He swayed as if
suddenly lightheaded. “This wretched stuff …”

“
Leonardo, lock these bags in the
vault,” Mortimer instructed.

“
I’m going to take a few strands for
some testing,” Sofie announced, reaching for the bag.

“
So you can trap me when I’m
distracted? Not a chance, witch,” Mortimer snapped.

“
You fool!” she snapped back,
unleashing a torrent of anger. “Have you given any thought, even
for a second, to what will happen when one of these vampires—who
haven’t been exposed to human blood for
seven hundred
years
—shows up under this roof? They could kill Evangeline,
they could wipe out your staff, they could break free of this
building and start a New York City massacre. I appreciate that
you’ve waited a hundred and twenty years to see Veronique, but show
some common sense, you idiot.”

Mortimer rolled his eyes. “Oh, stop being so
dramatic. All of those possibilities are highly
unlikely.”

“
It’s not worth risking! You don’t
know what can happen, who these vampires are. These kinds of spells
are known to have unforeseen outcomes, some of them disastrous. I
shouldn’t have to explain that to you …” her voice
drifted.

My back hit something hard. I turned, saw the
headboard, and realized I had been slowly inching backward, trying
to get away from the approaching brawl. I was now cowering, knees
drawn up, within a mound of pillows.

“
Children, children,” Viggo said
softly. “Let’s play nicely, now.”

“
He started it,” Sofie muttered
indignantly.

“
How do you propose you’ll use this
Merth to solve the possibilities you’ve described, Sofie?” Viggo
calmly asked, taking on his usual role of mediator between those
two. “Is there yet another trick up your sleeve we’re unaware
of?”

“
I need to link the power of it to
this building, to form a barrier. To keep them within these walls,”
she answered in a more conciliatory voice. “It should be a fairly
easy spell.”

“
Them? How many do you think are
coming over, anyway?”

Three pairs of brilliantly colored vampire eyes
turned to me. “Four,” I said from my hiding place, adding under my
breath, “I hope.”

“
Didn’t there used to be five?”
Mortimer asked, his eyes narrowing.

“
Yes, but she’s no longer an issue,”
I answered flatly, hoping to avoid any more questions about the
event in which I’d been an accomplice. It likely wouldn’t shine a
positive light on Caden and the others, in Viggo and Mortimer’s
eyes, anyway.

Luckily, he turned his attention back to Sofie.
“And how do you suppose we get out for food? Of course,
you
can get out; it doesn’t hold
you
back … Are
you trying to weaken us?”

“
Don’t think I don’t know about that
blood bank in the cellar. That could tide you over for
years
, if necessary,” she shot back at him.

“
And how will any of this protect
the humans? They’ll still be within these walls when the vampires
get here,” Mortimer asked smugly, thinking he had found a weakness
in Sofie’s plan.

“
I’m working on a way to mask their
blood, a talisman of sorts that they can wear. I should have it
ready shortly,” she answered with twice the smugness.

I breathed a sigh of relief. So she had thought
of it. I would be protected. Caden wouldn’t have to worry about
hurting me. I couldn’t wait to tell him.

“
You had better not be tampering
with Veronique’s necklace …” he growled apprehensively.

“
Why on earth would I do something
so dangerous?”

I felt like I was watching a ping pong match,
my head bobbing back and forth as the two of them squared off
against each other, Mortimer lobbying challenges and Sofie
successfully launching back counterarguments.

Viggo spoke as if passing a ruling. “Okay then,
it’s settled. It looks like Sofie has it all figured out and I’m
sure she has no intention of harming either of us, Mortimer. After
all, Veronique would not be happy about that.”

“
Yes. However, I’m wondering where
the witch’s allegiances now lie,” Mortimer grumbled with
disdain.

Viggo ignored him. “Leonardo, if you would be
so kind as to take both of these bags—minus whatever Sofie needs—to
the vault.”

Sofie grabbed an armful of Merth, wincing from
the shock it produced, and threw a daring smirk at Mortimer,
taunting him to come near her. Mortimer snarled in response but
didn’t make a move.

Leo grabbed hold of the straps and began
dragging the bags out of the room. I wanted to chase after him,
help him in some way. But I had a feeling I wouldn’t be allowed out
without further interrogation. I was right.

“
Now that that’s settled, have you
been to the city to look for this portal?” Viggo calmly asked
me.

“
Not exactly.”

“
So where did you search during that
time?” Mortimer pressed, taking a few steps toward me.

Max released a low, threatening rumble and all
four dogs shifted to form a protective circle around the
bed.

“
Oh, shut up!” Mortimer snapped but
he heeded their warning, sidling back.

“
Patience, Mortimer,” Viggo
chastised, patting his shoulder gently. He turned back to look at
me, those piercing blue eyes dissecting me.

What could I say?
No, I didn’t go out.
Sofie told me not to. But you don’t know that, do you? Yes, she’s
deceiving you … Instead, I bound a vampire with that stuff you
hate, Mortimer, and then I rolled around in the sack for
hours.

Viggo cleared his throat, a sign that I was
learning meant he was deeply irritated. If he could read my mood, I
wondered what he was getting right now?

There wasn’t much I could tell them. Bishop did
send the animals out in a half–ass attempt to search the vast
jungle and Rachel did recruit some Council members … An idea struck
me. I took a deep breath. “There are ten vampires searching the
capital city and a small army of adept scouts searching the
mountainside. By the time I get back, they will have reported back
on whether anything of interest has been found. I figured that was
a much safer, faster way to the truth,” I said, taking full credit
for the wild goose chase Rachel had sent those Council vampires on.
“I think we’re getting close,” I added for
embellishment.

The room was eerily quiet, so much so that I
began to think I’d been too confident in my cleverness.

“
That’s great news, Evangeline!”
Sofie exclaimed, genuinely happy. “And it keeps you out of harm’s
way.”

“
Yes … that is rather intelligent,”
Mortimer mumbled, adding, “thank you.”

I stared wide–eyed at him. Those words were the
last ones I expected to come from him, the grump. And they sounded
genuine.

Mortimer looked at me thoughtfully. “We will
owe you, won’t we? Though I’m not sure how we could ever repay
you.”

By leaving me and my friends alone? By
never asking me to do anything again? By letting us live our lives
in peace while you sit quietly in your palace? Or …”
Money,” I
blurted, another idea popping into my head. Caden was right; I was
brimming with ideas.

An extremely rare expression of surprise
flashed across the vampire’s face. He hadn’t expected an answer to
his rhetorical question, but he was obviously intrigued. “Do
tell?”