Allegiance (Causal Enchantment #3)(49)
“Oui, mademoiselle. I believe I have just the item for you. One moment, please.” While the salesman crouched behind the counter, Amelie turned to me to add in a low voice. “Julian should have a weapon until I can convert him.”
I forced a smile. “You think it will happen? You’ll be able to convert him, eventually?” Before he turns into a hideous yellow-eyed leper? I didn’t know if that would happen to him. No one knew. While we both had been touched by the magic, I seemed to be the only one who was rapidly changing. Maybe he and Veronique would avoid it somehow.
“I have to be able to, Evangeline,” she whispered, staring at me with raw desperation. “There’s no point being here, otherwise. I can’t do it again without him.” She was right, I realized. It did have to happen. Amelie had a second chance at love and she wasn’t willing to risk losing it. No, it finally dawned on me. If Julian died … Amelie was as good as gone as well.
Again, I would lose two good friends. Fiona, Bishop, Julian, Amelie … gone. How long before I lost Caden fully as well?
“Yes, of course,” I nodded my head, swallowing my fear for my dear friend, forcing a broader smile. I needed to change the topic, and quickly. “What do you think I should get Caden?” I asked as the salesman reappeared, a light brown rectangular box in his hand.
With a pensive bite of her lip and a roaming look around the glass cases, Amelie pointed at one to our left. Inside it was a selection of pocket watches. “Dad had one of these. Caden loved it. He’s always had a bit of an obsession with the time. It was damaged when …” She looked at the salesman who was now watching us intently, waiting to show Amelie his selection. She chose the rest of her words carefully. “In the accident. I’ll bet he’d love a new one from you.” Turning back to the patient salesman, she sang, “What do you have for me, sir?”
He slid forward the box and propped open the lid to reveal an ivory-handled knife. “This is what we call a tactical folding knife, mademoiselle,” he explained.
Amelie pulled it out and flipped it open, revealing the four-inch blade. Enough to seriously injure someone. “Perfect!” she exclaimed, slashing and jabbing the air with it to test it out. The man jumped back, his eyes widening with panic. I hid my smile as I peered down at the glass case. Little did that man know, he had more to worry about from Amelie than a knife.
“I’ll take it!”
While he wrapped the box, I studied the display in front of me. There were a dozen or so round timepieces and they were nice enough, but I wanted something special for Caden. Something to remember me by when I was gone. I wanted to give him the best watch in the world. Surely, there was something more elaborate not on display, from where ever he got Amelie’s knife.
“Do you have any other watches?”
“Oui … but…,” he stalled, his eyes sizing me up.
“Can I please see them?”
He smiled politely but the curl of his upper lip was unmistakable—the superior smirk. “These are more in your range, non?”
I felt it the second it happened—like a brittle twig, something snapped inside me. Burning fire crawled up my neck, searing my ears, my face, my scalp. As I glared at him, at this pompous man in his three-piece suit, judging me, the urge to scream crippled my senses. I clenched my teeth together to keep from causing a scene. That scrawny neck … I pictured my hands reaching forward and wrapping around it to throttle the arrogance out of him. I was certain doing so would bring me much joy.
Sure, in my white down jacket and furry boots, I didn’t exactly look like the person who had a hundred million dollars sitting in an account somewhere courtesy of Sofie. Of course, I hadn’t seen a penny of the money, which I didn’t care about. I hadn’t bothered to ask about it, hadn’t bothered to think about it.
Now, though, it mattered. I had that obscene amount of money to spend, I wanted to get Caden the best damn watch ever, and the end of the world was coming. Who the hell was this … man … this watch man or knife man or cigar man—some sniveling, little man—to tell me I couldn’t even look at a watch when in a few weeks or months or years, he’d be vampire carcass along with everyone else in this room! Assuming the matter closed, the man pulled the display of watches out.
“No,” I hissed.
He quirked an eyebrow in surprise. “Non?”
“Non!” I spat back, mocking his French accent. This imperious little man was denying me a perfect gift for Caden. I hated him. I hated everything about him. Without thinking, I wrenched the knife out of Amelie’s hand. Stretching over the countertop, I seized his plaid vest and yanked him forward with force, holding the knife’s tip dangerously close to his jugular. “Non, as in you are wrong. I’d like to see your best watch. Please.” Blood hammered in my eardrums as I watched terror capture his tongue. He said nothing. He didn’t even blink. “What are you waiting for?” Hatred dripped from my voice, to a level I didn’t know I was capable of.
A hand squeezed my shoulder. My head whipped around to find Amelie standing there, giving me a wink as her other hand clamped over the knife handle and my fingers. Lowering it, she leaned over the glass, her face inches from his. “Please show us your best piece, sir, and forget that my friend ever held a knife to your neck. She’s having a bad day.”