Allegiance (Causal Enchantment #3)(37)
“Four?” Lilly asked, her voice calm again as she sat back down, her eyes dancing over the group. “I see three here.”
“Yes, one of us is … indisposed at the moment,” Mage answered, a sad smile on her face. “And he’s good for nothing more than getting himself killed right now. Creating vampires to fight against humans is exactly how the war in my world began. We’ll do anything we can to avoid a repeat.”
The six of them shared a puzzled what is she talking about? look with each other before turning back to Mage. “Your world?” Lilly murmured, again with an impish grin. It was fascinating, watching her switch from authoritative and cool to inquisitive child.
Mage nodded. “Sofie can give you all the details. Sofie?”
Sofie explained in the shortest way possible—her spell to counter the venom issue, my curse, and bringing the Ratheus vampires back, only to find out it’s a parallel world.
“Bloody witches and their magic,” Kait hissed. “I wish you’d all just die! We wouldn’t be dealing with any of this!”
“Well, if we don’t get a handle on this soon, your wish will come true. No witch will survive when the vampires are desperate for blood,” Sofie answered coldly.
There was another long pause and then Lilly folded her arms across her flat chest. “And how do you propose we help you?”
Sofie heaved a heavy sigh, as if she already suspected what their answer would be and it wouldn’t be favorable. “Give me your allegiance.”
I choked back at gasp. Sofie was asking Viggo’s arch nemesis to bind herself to her for eternity? Suddenly, I wanted to hug Mortimer for divulging information to me, so I could follow along with the conversation, as crazy as it was.
There was a long pause and then all six of them burst out in laughter, wide-eyed looks of amused shock. “First you tell us about this other world and now you ask us bind ourselves to you. This just seems too …” Lilly said between chuckles. She stood and the others followed suit.
“It must be done. I need to know that I can trust you. That’s the only way,” Sofie answered, a touch of pleading in her tone. “All of you pledge your allegiance to me and we will keep our end of this.” She turned to give Viggo a nod.
He vanished. Three seconds later, he appeared in the exact spot holding a bronze container.
“Viggo …” Sofie’s eyebrows arched in that knowing way. With a heave of exasperation, he leaned down and placed it on the ground in front of him, a pained look on his face as if reluctant to part with it.
Whatever it was, I could tell it was important to Lilly by the way she shifted on her feet and took a step forward. Kait put a hand on her forearm to hold her back. I watched as Lilly swallowed several times, the muscles in her neck cording.
“Pledge allegiance, and it’s yours,” Sofie said softly.
Lilly’s pained eyes flickered back and forth between the bronze thing and Sofie, a silent debate battling inside her mind. I wondered which side would win. Finally, her face turned hard. “I don’t believe you. You’re lying about this war,” she stated, as if passing a court ruling. “We’ll be leaving now, with the urn. You promised it to me for coming here and listening.”
My heart jumped. No, Lilly, she’s not lying. If only you could see … “She’s telling the truth. I was there,” I blurted.
Six heads whipped in my direction; six unsympathetic gazes settled on me. I shrunk back into Caden, longing to dissolve into the marble floor.
Sofie didn’t seem fazed by Lilly’s reaction. “I was afraid you’d say that.” She turned to Mage.
“Would you all please pay close attention to Sofie?” Mage instructed in a smooth croon, soft enough to lull a baby to sleep. As one, their heads turned obediently. She was compelling them! “Go on. Show them. Show them my world,” she said.
With a steely glare of determination, Sofie closed the distance to Mage and clasped hands with her. Then they stood, side by side, hand in hand, not moving, not speaking. I knew, though, with certainty, that a lot was happening, and it involved Sofie’s magic.
Six catatonic faces gazed at Sofie. I leaned back against Caden, gripping his forearm tightly, desperate to see what Sofie was showing them. I studied Lilly’s pale blue eyes with fascination as they drifted through seven hundred years of war, death, escape, and the evolving hell that Mage had come to know—the hell that Earth would become.
Suddenly, tiny red lines spidered across those blue irises, destroying their delicate beauty, taking away all impressions of the child before me. They were now the eyes of a hungry vampire. The same hideous transformation was happening in each of them. I turned my face to the side to bury it against Caden’s chest, unwilling to watch what had haunted so many of my nights.
Sofie’s musical voice broke the silence. “So now you have seen firsthand what will happen. Do not doubt that it will happen here as well.” Six heads jerked as if slapped out of their trances, all of them looking between Sofie and Mage, their heads shaking back and forth absently.
And then, like a switch going off inside Lilly, I saw her eyes narrow at Mage, her hands flexed at her thighs. It didn’t take long to learn why. “She’s the original!” she shrieked, throwing an accusatory finger at Mage, unmasking the ancient vampiress for what she could do. But how did Lilly know what the original vampire could do when even Sofie hadn’t known?