Anathema (Causal Enchantment, #1) (23 page)

“
It’s okay, I’m here.” I felt an arm
wrap protectively around my shoulder and Caden pulled my rigid body
close to him.

I let out a small gasp of relief. “What do we
do?” I whispered, trying not to move my lips, my focus glued on the
beast giving me a sniff–down.

“
Just stay still.”

“
Or what?”

“
This is Scout.”

“
It has a name?” My eyes
widened.

Caden chuckled. “Yeah. Like it?”

“
Depends on if it’s going to maul
me.”

“
No. He’s my pet.”

“
What do you mean?”

“
Bishop and I have a small army of
animals to guard the mountains and warn us of any visitors. Better
protection.”

The panther named Scout lifted his head to peer
into my eyes, his face only inches away. I shrank back against
Caden.

“
Don’t move. He’s just curious. He
won’t react if you don’t surprise him. He knows you’re
scared.”

I averted my eyes to the left, focusing on a
branch as the giant cat inspected me, unable to bring myself to
look him in the eye for fear of screaming. He finally dropped his
head to sniff my shoes. Caden kept his arm around my shoulder,
holding me tightly to him.

“
How is he yours?” I
whispered

“
I bit him. He belongs to me. I’m
his master.”

I frowned. “So, what does that make him? A
werecat?”

“
We call them werebeasts. They’re a
bit different from human vampires. They crave flesh more than
blood. They’re immortal and they heal quickly, like us. But they
become freakishly big, usually doubling in size.”

“
Like Max,” I said, thinking of my
giant canine friend. That’s what he was. A werebeast.

I felt Caden nod. “They’re a protector, bound
to the person who transformed them.”

“
That means Max has a master.” It
had to be Mortimer. He had introduced him as
his
guard
dog.

“
Yeah, probably. The cool thing is,
I can communicate with Scout from anywhere in the
valley.”

“
How?”

“
Telepathically. We can talk back
and forth to each other in our heads. He reports in to
me.”

“
Reports in to you …” I gasped. “Son
of a—”

At my unexpected outburst, Scout took three
lightning–quick steps back, snarling menacingly.

“
Easy, boy,” Caden cooed, sliding in
to stand between the panther and me. When the cat finally quieted,
he turned to look at me. “What is it?”

“
What if Max is Mortimer’s spy? He’s
always tailing me, sniffing me and stuff.”
He’s just following
orders. He doesn’t really care about me after all.

“
Makes sense,” Caden murmured in
agreement. “I warned you, didn’t I?”

“
But, why?” I twisted my face up in
confusion, my hands going to my forehead. “To protect me from
Sofie? Max doesn’t seem too concerned when she’s around. Viggo,
though … he gets that dog riled up …”
They’re hiding something.
But what?
“I’m such an idiot,” I mumbled.

“
No; you couldn’t have
known.”

“
I should have. You’re right. I am a
naïve fool.”

Caden sighed. “They probably … found your
weakness—whatever it is—and exploited it, sucking you into their
world, making you trust them. That’s what our kind is good
at—manipulation.”

My weakness?
What could Sofie have
… My loneliness
. That was it. That was my weakness. She used
human companionship to lure me in, to make me want to be around
her. And I—a lonely, helpless puppy looking for friendship—lapped
it up. But how had she figured that out so quickly? Was she that
perceptive, or was I that obvious—that pathetic?

I glanced around. Scout had
disappeared.

“
He’s gone. You can relax,” Caden
said, smiling wryly.

Off to guard the forest for me.
Too
bad I couldn’t bring him back with me. Then the dogs would have a
cat to chase.

“
Please don’t disappear like that
again,” I begged Caden.

“
I’m sorry.” His gaze showed
sincerity. “He wasn’t supposed to get that close—but then that
snake made a move on you … I was just getting these.” He held out a
bunch of daisies. “They grow up high, in the meadows.”

My jaw dropped. No one had ever given me
flowers before, let alone scaled a mountain to pick them freestyle.
“These … they’re beautiful.” I stammered, taking the daisies.
How long has it been since I held a daisy?
Forever, it
seemed. I brought them to my nose to inhale the natural
bouquet.

That scent … so familiar.
It reminded
me of something, but what …
My childhood?
Summer?

The park. Red and white striped monkey
bars.

I gasped.

B
efore I knew what was
happening, Caden was easing me to the ground, my legs having given
out on me. “What’s wrong?”

My mouth opened but it took a few tries to form
any words and when I did, they came out in rapid spurts and
stammers. “I couldn’t … I couldn’t have been more than four. The
playground near our old apartment. Red and white–striped monkey
bars. The old kind.”

“
What playground?”

“
The one in Sofie’s
painting!”

Caden crouched down in front of me, cupping my
chin gently with his hands. “Evangeline, slow down. You’re
rambling. Start from the beginning.”

I took a deep breath, suddenly overwhelmed with
nausea. I swallowed a few times before I could speak. “Sofie
painted a picture and hung it in my room at Viggo and Mortimer’s.
It’s a picture of a little girl picking daisies in a playground.” I
paused. “I knew there was something familiar about it …” I locked
eyes with him. “It was me! Sofie’s been watching me since I was
four years old!”

Caden sighed heavily, pivoting to sit on the
ground beside me. “I wonder why?”

I shrugged. My whole body felt numb from the
shock. “It means she’s lying. She told me she didn’t mean for this
to happen to me, but she did. She’s been planning it for fourteen
years!”

He thought for a moment. “Or she’s leaving
important details out.”

“
Not telling me more than I need to
know,” I murmured. It was exactly what she’d told me to do. “I
wonder if Viggo knows. If he does, he hasn’t let on. Maybe he
didn’t want to freak me out.”

“
Maybe,” Caden said softly, though
his tone suggested doubt. “Why would she paint that picture,
though? It’s as if she wanted to you find out.”

“
Some sort of sick joke?”

He shrugged. “Or some other reason. I don’t
know what’s going on, but I guarantee you there’s a lot more to it
than any of them are letting on. It’s what I’ve been trying to tell
you.”

I nodded, committing that to memory. I’d have
to question everything from now on.

Caden leaned in, his shoulder nudging mine
affectionately. “You going to be okay? You look a little
pale.”

Nausea surged through my body again. “I feel …
like I just found out I’ve been standing naked in a room full of
people with magnifying glasses for years.” I shuddered. “I can’t
trust anyone.”

“
No. No one,” he said with cold
certainty.

“
Even the dog is against me,” I
mumbled, picking tiny leaves off a fern branch and tossing them
aside.

“
Assume you’re only ever getting
half the truth—if any.”

I hesitated, terrified of the answer. “Even
from Amelie and Fiona and Bishop … and you?”

“
Yes,” he said quickly. “I mean,” he
looked off in the distance, frowning, “we
want
you to
trust us, but we don’t expect you to do so blindly. We hope we’ll
earn it one day.”

I already trust you,
I whispered to
him in my thoughts.

He turned and locked eyes with me for a moment,
his expression unreadable. He opened his mouth as if to speak, then
quickly clamped it shut. Grabbing my hand, he pull me up. “Come on.
Let’s keep walking, if you’re up to it.”

“
As long as there are no more
lurking animals. I’m feeling pretty fragile right now.” Fragile,
but unbroken, somehow—though by all counts I should have fallen
apart. Any normal person would have by now, wouldn’t
they?

Caden reached down to pick up the daisies I’d
scattered when I realized the extent of Sofie’s treachery. “Sorry,
I shouldn’t have.”

“
No!” I exclaimed, grabbing the
flowers out of his hand and inhaling their scent again, welcoming
the fond memories that flooded back with it. My mother’s laughter
as she chased me through the park … “Thanks for these.” I smiled
timidly. “I love daisies.”

Caden picked up a pebble and casually threw it
into the trees, no doubt hitting some impossible target I couldn’t
see. “I know.” He laughed at my bewilderment.

“
We’d better get to the others
before they empty the stream.” He began walking briskly down the
path, calling over his shoulder, “Hurry up, pokey!”

I trailed quietly, alternating my attention
between the perfect, agile body ahead and the daisies in my hand
before saying, “So Fiona and Amelie obviously told you a few things
about me.”

“
Obviously.”

“
What else did they tell you?” I
asked, wracking my brain to remember the conversation.

He responded by casually tossing out his own
question. “So you’ve never even had one boyfriend?”

Ugh. They told him that?
I felt my
face flush at the thought of them discussing my pathetic social
life.
So he must have figured out there’s something wrong with
me.

“
I never would have guessed it,
based on the other night …” He glanced back, and I saw the corner
of his mouth curving in a smirk.

The other night? What’s he
— My eyes
bulged as I realized he was talking about the night of the attack.
I opened my mouth to respond several times, always faltering, lost
for words. Even the pendant’s powerful magic couldn’t have masked
my blazing cheeks. Mercifully, Caden kept his eyes
ahead.

We wandered deep within the valley forest,
where the trees blocked out most of the sunlight. In the few places
where the thick canopy granted the sun access, shafts of light
beamed down over the area like spotlights, the contrast between the
deep shadows and the sunrays creating a mystical
setting.

An enormous, knotty tree root jutted at least
six feet from the ground, blocking our path. I hooked my foot into
a nook and started climbing, but Caden’s hands grabbed my waist and
yanked me back down. “Where are you going?” He laughed, and in the
next instant, we were sailing over to the other side.

“
I thought you couldn’t fly,” I said
sarcastically, releasing the mouthful of air I had sucked
in.

“
That was a jump.” He chuckled and
continued walking.

We found the others sitting on a pile of rocks
beside a narrow, murky river that wove through the trees.
Fluorescent green algae rested like a camouflage on its surface,
bright against the inky water and the dark forest.

“
So we’re going to … fish?” I asked,
eyeing the metal rod Bishop held. Three more lay beside him,
nestled among some ferns.
This is what vampires do to kill
time?

Caden smirked. “You sound
surprised.”

“
I thought your diet consisted of …
liquid.”

“
They’re for Bishop’s pet. Are you
any good?”

“
I don’t know; I’ve never tried. But
I don’t see myself as much of the ‘angler and hunter’ type,” I
answered.

Caden laughed, picking up a rod. “You could be
a natural cave woman.”

“
Maybe.”
I doubt it
. Seeing
anything with more than two legs scurry past made my skin crawl so
I didn’t expect a flapping, slimy fish impaled on a hook would
bring about a different reaction. I crouched by the riverbank and
laid my flowers beside it with their stems dipped in the murky
water.

“
Whoa! Not too close,” Caden
exclaimed, leaning over to pull me back. “There are things in this
water you don’t want to … disturb.”

A shiver ran down my back as I studied at the
calm river. “Like snakes?”

Bishop answered. “Snakes, crocodiles,
piranhas—I’m surprised you didn’t meet one of them the night you
went in for Amelie.”

“
But you didn’t,” Caden reminded me,
seeing my eyes widen. He threw a look of exasperation Bishop’s
way.

“
Here you go, Eve,” Bishop said,
smirking as he handed me a rod.

My mother used to call me
that.

“
I found these babies in a vault a
few hundred years ago and I’ve been hoarding them ever since. I
knew I’d have a reason to keep them!”