Allegiance (Causal Enchantment #3)(54)
9. Strange Allegiances—Evangeline
The city highways traded off for rolling snow-covered hills and quiet country houses. Lilly never slowed once, clearly heading to a specific location, one she didn’t divulge to me. When we turned into a driveway with an arched entranceway and a low stone wall a half hour later, I had chewed off every last one of my nails—even with a throbbing jaw. By the bronzed crosses on stone pillars comprising the entrance gates, I could see we were entering a cemetery. Suddenly, I was sitting stiffer, my eyes wider, my senses keener, thoughts of my pained jaw falling to the background.
“Why are we here?” I hazarded to ask.
A tiny, almost shy smile. “We have something in common, human. Let me show you.”
Something in common. In a cemetery. I inhaled and exhaled slowly. Repeat: In. Out. In. Out. I focused on the pretty trees, the blue sky. Anything to keep my imagination from sending me into a frenzy. As long as she had something to show me, she wouldn’t be killing me.
The sports car rebelled as Lilly forced it through the fresh snow, sliding this way and that and spinning its wheels as it struggled to climb a small slope. By the acres of rolling hills and mature trees, I could tell this was both an ancient and large cemetery. Full of thousands of bodies … possibly one more after today.
Lilly continued edging the car along in silence, winding along the narrow path, moving deeper and deeper into the land where the trees became larger and older, and crypts began cropping up like hay bales in a farmer’s field. Then, she stopped and got out. I watched as she circled the car and I briefly toyed with the idea of jumping into the driver’s side of the car and speeding off. No … there was no point. She stopped in front of my door and waved her hand forward, as if inviting me in from the cold.
Warily, I pushed open the door and climbed out. The air seemed chillier here than it had in the city. Perhaps it was the open fields and lack of buildings or anything else for miles. Nothing but the dead. I checked the area for witnesses, someone to call to. I almost expected to see Max tearing down the path, ready to save the day.
But there was no one. Not a soul, supernatural or otherwise. I was here at Lilly’s mercy. There was no point in trying to escape, I realized, remembering the gash she had given me the day before, in a room full of prepared vampires.
“This way,” she prompted, trudging toward a weathered stone crypt set back amongst a grove of oversized spruce trees.
Taking a deep breath and layering on a brave face, I followed Lilly up four steps to a steel door secured with heavy chains and a stately padlock. Lilly fished out an antique-looking key from a chain around her neck and inserted it. With a click, the chain unraveled and clanked to the ground. She pushed open the door and beckoned me in with a wave of her dainty hand.
It was dank and dark inside, exactly as expected. Four small windows around the top of the crypt allowed enough daylight in to display the odd-looking steely gray coffin sitting on a concrete block in the center of the little room.
“Cast iron,” Lilly explained, as if that meant something. “It’s heavy.” Taking hold of two sides of the lid, she braced her feet against the gritty floor and pushed. With a loud scraping sound, the lid slid. I held my breath, half of me wondering what was in there, the other half terrified of what might come out. With a casual movement, Lilly threw her legs over the edge and hopped into the coffin. She disappeared. “Coming?” her voice called out from somewhere below.
I turned back one last time—at the entrance to the crypt, at the car, its keys hanging in the ignition, ready to speed away. Curiosity took over for fear. Gingerly, I stepped closer and peered down to see an opening, leading into darkness far below. Grabbing hold of the sides of the coffin, I hoisted myself up, not nearly as easily as Lilly had. Swinging my legs in, I carefully took one step, and then another.
“I can’t see,” I said.
“Right … humans.” A moment later, a flashlight beam illuminated the narrow, dark staircase for me. Holding onto the sides tightly, I began the descent.
Lilly was waiting for me at the bottom. The stairs led to a tunnel, musty with moisture and cold, reeking of earth and age. I said nothing as we walked along the low-ceilinged path, my arms wrapped around my body, feeling the walls closing in on me. The small space didn’t seem to bother Lilly, though. In fact, she seemed at home here. For all I knew, this was her home.
About a hundred yards in, we reached a gated door. It protested with a loud creak as Lilly pulled it open. Beyond it, the ground sloped downward at an awkward angle. I had to take my time, taking sideway steps and using the dirt walls for support. We rounded a corner. The light from Lilly’s flashlight caught something up ahead. Without a word, she disappeared and I heard the flick of a lighter. In moments, several lanterns were lit, illuminating a chamber of maybe twenty-by-thirty feet and average height. It was empty except for six coffins in a circle around one in the center. Seven coffins, buried in a secret crypt beneath the crypt.
I swallowed hard as I watched Lilly walk past the coffins, her child’s hand running along their surfaces. Whoever was in these coffins was important to Lilly.
“I lied earlier,” Lilly said calmly. “About killing you.”
My heart and stomach raced to see who could make it to the cold, hard ground first. She’s going to kill me and bury me here in one of these coffins and no one will ever find my body.
The terror must have been splayed across my face because she spoke again quickly. “I have no intention of killing you, Evangeline. I never did.” She smiled. “Well, maybe not never but … not since I realized Viggo has no interest in you.”