Anomaly (Causal Enchantment) (23 page)

Mage’s
hard gaze shifted over my shoulder. “As I suspected, this will not be as easy as we had hoped.” Her chin jutted out behind me, just as my ears caught their soft footfalls in the snow.

Turning with wariness, I found a wall of grim masks:
Evangeline and Caden, hand in hand, Bishop holding on to Fiona. Julian, arms folded over his chest, stood on the opposite side of Evangeline, focused. Yes, there was only one rational explanation for his demeanor. Evangeline must’ve compelled him. How, though, I still could not comprehend. Calm determination swirled in the air around all of them. Another oddity.

All except for Max, who lingered behind, like a stray dog having lost its owner.

Even with a fleeting sweep of my eyes, I caught the mistrust in Evangeline’s gaze and it made me flinch. Disappointment, hurt, shock. It was all there, and I couldn’t deal with it right now.

I would hav
e to transport them all at once and I would have to do it quickly. And then, when this was all done, I would beg for her forgiveness.

Reaching in to myself, I began pulling the threads together, weavin
g and winding them as they remained hidden within my body, my lips moving as quickly and intelligibly as possible as I cast the spell. Evangeline might see the bubble but, short of attacking me, she wouldn’t be able to stop it until it was too late.

“
Are we ready to go?” Caden asked. In his pretty green eyes, the bitterness for me churned. I had once fought for his trust and respect and won it. I would never be in his good graces again.

“Yes, shortly,” Mage answer
ed, just as I released the spell into the air, the pale pink bubble quickly swelling.

As expected,
Evangeline’s eyes darted to it, narrowing. “What are you doing?”

I pushed against the recesses of my magic, compelling the bubble to grow faster, to envelop them so I could get them out of here before anyone had the good sense to
fly at me.

In two seconds, it was around Fiona and Bishop; in four seconds, it had grabbed hold of Julian
; in six seconds, it had—

“No
!” Evangeline commanded in a voice that sounded nothing like her. An authoritative, powerful voice.

My
magic burst like a soap bubble, and the spell fizzled as if it had never been formed.

My mouth dropped open.

Evangeline had just broken that spell with one simple word.

How
?

By the shocked look
plastered across her face, she was just as surprised as I was.

Q
uickly replacing the look with a nervous mask, Evangeline crossed her arms over her chest. “You’re not sending us away this time. Not unless we agree to it. And we don’t.” Sharing a look with Caden and Julian, she explained, “We’re going in to find Amelie.”

Exactly as I
’d suspected. And now I needed to come up with a new plan to keep them out of the way. I tried reasoning. “It’s not safe for you near there right now. You’re distracted, and distraction is dangerous.”

“
We’re not distracted. We know exactly what needs to be done,” Julian snapped. “And besides, we’re not safe anywhere.”

“You’re right, you’re not. Which is why I wanted to
send you away!” I snapped back, unable to contain my anger. As much as I’d come to like Julian, his hotheadedness made me want to snap his neck on occasion.

A bitter smile
curved Caden’s mouth. “
Now
you’re worried about our safety? Maybe you should just keep focusing on saving the world.”

I
ground my teeth against the urge to admit that I’d made a mistake, that I shouldn’t have gone against them. Mage was right. It wouldn’t change anything and right now, it probably wouldn’t help. “Lilly, Mage, and I will go on ahead to scout the situation and the new base. It’s best that you stay here and—”

“
Where is the new base?” Evangeline cut me off, her eyes drifting to Lilly.

The child vampiress’s
petite body sailed through the air to land at Evangeline’s feet. “We have our pick. Most places on the outskirts have been abandoned. Except for the few idiots who don’t know when to leave.”

“When do we go in?”

Furtive blue eyes looked to me before answering. Lilly’s allegiance was to Evangeline, not me. The only reason Lilly had listened to me before was because Evangeline ordered her to. Would that order be rescinded? How long could I continue trusting Lilly?

“
It will be another day or two before it’s safe to enter the denotation site, but if we can get in there before the humans, we can make sure the fledglings in the subway tunnels didn’t survive.”

“You must
stay here in the meantime,” I quickly threw in, a desperate attempt.

“And
when the fledglings are all gone? Then what?” Evangeline asked Lilly, ignoring me.

Lilly
didn’t look at me before answering. “Then we hunt down the last of the witches. The People’s Sentinel will fall into the recesses without the witches’ power. And then we will hunt down Viggo.”

“Or we can rid ourselves of him at the same time. He’s already hunting for me, right?” Caden asked.

“Yes, he will be. Which is why you should stay away,” I hissed. “You’ve already seen what he’s capable of!”

“That’s because you didn’t warn us,” Caden spat back.
“But now we know. So we’ll see this through and then I’m taking Evangeline away from you. For good.”

Unable to control my reaction, my wide eyes
rushed to Evangeline, her jaw set tight and those odd golden eyes locked on me. To weigh my reaction, perhaps? Ready to battle my argument? “You can’t!” I blurted.

Why hadn’t I expected this?

“The curse is over. There’s no need for you to protect me anymore.” Distress flickered across her features but she stood firm, shoulders back.

As if that
were the only reason I was there, always within the shadows, manipulating those around her.

Loving her, like a mother would her daughter.

Eighteen years watching over Evangeline, keeping her hidden, and now she was telling me that I would be relegated to her past.

An intense panic rose inside me. I remembered feeling this as a human. It always coincided with my lungs closing up and me struggling to breathe. I may not need my lungs anymore but I felt my emotional heart breaking. I was losing her. The only thing that
had motivated me, the one thing that truly kept me going these last eighteen years, had not been Veronique.

It was Evangeline.

“I can’t just let you go,” I said hoarsely.

“It’s not up to you anymore, Sofie,” Caden responded.

“It’s not up to you, either,” I snapped.

“You’re right. It’s not. It’s up to me,” Evangeline
said.

Bishop and Fiona shifted
on their feet. They had likely anticipated my reaction.

I grasp
ed at straws. “Even without Viggo and the witches, the humans will not simply forget this. The Sentinel will reform. There will be more wars that we need to—”

“If vaporizing an entire city didn’t
change this world’s fate, then nothing will. We won’t risk losing any more of us trying,” Evangeline offered softly, reaching out to grab on to Caden again.

Despite myself,
a sad smile curled over my lips. Evangeline had changed. Yes, she was no longer human, but beyond that transformation, she had matured. She was no longer the naïve eighteen-year-old, accepting a waitressing job from a complete stranger out of desperation, having nothing left to lose.

She now
had something to lose.

It wasn’t me, though.

I watched her beautiful, youthful face—changed and yet not changed, still her but no longer her.

“
We just need … peace. We need to be away from this,” she said, voice drifting. The real words need not be spoken; I knew what they were. Away from me. I had pushed her away. Now that no one needed me to solve a problem or cast a spell, I was nothing but a hazard.

And it
clicked.
This
is what Viggo wanted.
This
was the true catalyst behind his plan. It wasn’t enough to take Veronique or hurt Evangeline. He wanted me abandoned. Unloved. Alone.

Like him.

And I had lost them all—their trust, their support.

Their love.

And after what I
’d done to them, I probably deserved it.

Chapter Eighteen – Evangeline

“Devastation brings out the best humans, does it not?” Mage murmured, her voice thick with sarcasm, as we stood in a Wal-Mart parking lot and watched a few dozen darkly dressed people—men and women both—climb in and out of the gaping windows, arms loaded.

“Do they need these supplies?” Fiona asked.

A moment later, as a man struggled with a flat-screen television, we had our answer.

“The police will be here relatively soon,” Lilly said.
“Relative” was the operative word. I imagined they had their hands full. This wasn’t the first department store we’d seen looted and we hadn’t reached the real devastation yet. Here, people could still walk outside without fear of their skin and lungs burning.

“Come on, then. Let’s go
,” Sofie said.

We slipped through the opening like eight shadows
. Max stayed outside. After all, what did the werebeast need? Some of us, on the other hand, could use a change of clothes and a shower.

The place had already been pillaged,
a free-for-all to grab what one could. Based on the sparse canned goods and battery shelves, at least some were concerned more about survival than high-ticket items.

“
Five minutes,” Sofie said, “and let’s stick together, please.” Since our confrontation, she’d leveled no more orders, though I knew she had to bite her tongue countless times. With that, she took off. I doubted she’d ever shopped at a Wal-Mart before in her life.

Grabbing knapsacks, we flew through the basic grooming and clothing aisles, each grabbing a change of simple black clothing and toiletries. It seemed rather trivial, given everything else that had happened, but I couldn’t blame Caden for wanting a shower and something clean to wear.

I knew
I’d
prefer him in clothes that weren’t covered in ash and blood.

It wasn’t until the shoe section
where Bishop showed us his split heel that it hit me. “This is our new life, isn’t it?” It wouldn’t be long before the broader society would deteriorate to match this small section of the country. Until we were stealing everything that we wore. Only it wouldn’t technically be stealing because there would be no one left to pay. Infrastructure would crumble, currency would hold no value. Civilization as we knew it would cease to exist. The only answer I received in response was a sympathetic smile.

*

“We’ll have to wait until nightfall tomorrow to go in to the city,” Lilly explained, leading us up the creaking old steps of the farmhouse porch. It didn’t matter that she kicked open the door. Most of the old windows were already shattered from the blast.

“The owners?” Sofie asked as her sharp eyes surveyed the darkness within.
Even with nightfall, I sensed the thick, dirty air, the dust and radiation particles floating through the atmosphere, creating a toxic blanket for any mortal. My skin tingled with a slight burn.

“
Gone,” Lilly confirmed. I wondered if “gone” meant abandoned or dead as she led us farther in. My nose picked up the faint odor of cattle.

The back of the eerily quiet home opened up into a sprawling kitchen
. Open loaves of bread and a carton of milk still sat on the counter. It was obviously an unplanned exit, one way or another.

Using her tiptoes to reach over the stove, Lilly flicked a switch and a light came on. “
We’re on one of a few grids still working,” she explained. “But we should probably keep the lights to a minimum. Just in case anyone’s watching.”

“Anyone” wasn’t
anyone
. She meant Viggo. It didn’t seem likely that Viggo would trail us so quickly, Veronique in tow, but this was Viggo we were talking about. What sounded irrational was exactly what he would do.

“Good pick, Lilly
. It’s nice and remote,” Bishop murmured. “Smart call on the cattle farm.”

“They’re contaminated,” Mage was quick to point out, running
a hand along the kitchen counter. She inspected the sooty film on her fingertips.

“
So? Radiation can’t kill us.”

I
often had to remind myself that Bishop had been created after the war had already started and was whisked away by Fiona soon after. Of all of the Ratheus vampires, he was the only one not familiar with the downfall. And of all of the Ratheus vampires, Mage was the only one acutely aware of how it unfolded from day one.