Allegiance (Causal Enchantment #3)(55)
As if on yo-yo strings, my organs snapped back to their rightful places. My lungs felt like they would collapse as the air released out of them. “Why did you bring me here, then?”
Lilly circled the coffin in front of her and weaved through the space in between to make her way to the coffin in the center. It reached almost up to her chest, sitting high a pedestal. It was more elaborate than the others and darker in color. She brushed a hand across the top affectionately.
“I can’t read you,” she began, “because of this magic that Sofie speaks about. This poison that runs through your blood. Yet, I could sense your hatred for Viggo that night we met.”
My snort escaped before I could stop it. “I don’t hide that well, do I?”
She gave a little shake of her head, a tiny smile creeping across her lips. “And then, when Sofie showed me those visions, she showed me what Viggo did to you … to your mother.” Burning fingers of agony trailed along my spine with the reminder. “Is it true?”
I nodded silently.
Lilly’s head turned to land on the center coffin once again. “I’m sure you’ve noticed my … dislike …,” her face twisted into something far beyond dislike, “for Viggo?”
Curiosity got the better of me. “I was told you hated his guts and wouldn’t help us because of him.”
“Yes. That is an apt assessment. But …,” she peered up at me sheepishly, her next words coming out in a raspy whisper, as if she were afraid to speak them, “I’m terrified of him. I know what he’s capable of.”
We did have a lot in common. “You’re smart to be. He’s a scary vampire and he’s capable of vile things.”
“Yes, he is,” she agreed. We shared a silent look. Her gaze screamed heartache, rank with turmoil, begging for love and attention. In that moment, there was no millennia-old vampire standing in front of me. There was a young, broken girl. There was a child I wanted to wrap my arms around, to tell her it would be okay. She would survive.
“This is my mother’s coffin,” she explained, her hand sliding along the top. “Up until yesterday, it was empty. Now, I have my mother back.” The urn … the one Viggo begrudgingly parted with. “Do you know who put her there to begin with?”
I nodded. “Viggo.”
“Viggo,” she echoed, his name ricocheting off the wall like a stray bullet, looking for someone to maim. Walking slowly around the coffin, her hand never leaving its surface, she began confiding. “My mother was the original vampire. She was thirty-five hundred years old when he killed her. Not as old as Mage, from what Sofie showed me. They were a couple. Soul mates, Mama used to say.” Lilly stopped to fumble with a brass handle at the end. “Mama wasn’t my real mama, of course. I grew up in England. My real parents were poor. We lived in the back of a barn. My dad used to hit us … and other stuff.” Her eyes drifted to the floor with shame.
“But one day, Mama saw me while at the market. My real dad was selling some stolen grain. I guess Mama wanted a child of her own.” Her fingertip traced a symbol near one of the hinges. “She told me that when she saw the bruises on my arms and legs, she got so angry, she sent Viggo to rescue me. So he came and snatched me out of there.” Lilly’s back was to me now. “He made me. I was his gift to Mama. I guess you could say he was my new father.”
I shuddered involuntarily, the idea of Viggo as a father figure equal parts repulsive and horrifying.
“We were happy for hundreds of years—the three of us and Mama’s advisors,” her arm swept over the other six coffins. “They were all nice to Mama and me. Very loyal. We were like one big family, protecting each other. They were all older than Viggo. He was the youngest of them all, aside from me.” Lilly paused to swallow. She moved to draw her finger along the top of another coffin. Even under the dim light, I could see the floral pattern she was drawing in the thick layer of dust.
“What happened?”
Her mouth curved into a frown. “I don’t think Viggo was ever in love with my mother. Well, maybe he was for a short time. But when he found out that Mama used to be a witch and she could compel vampires, things changed. He was jealous of her power.” Lilly walked back around. “That, or he was afraid she had compelled him in the past. Or perhaps he was simply crazy. Whatever the reason, he kept up the pretense for a while. Mama didn’t notice the change like I did. It must have been my child’s intuition that saw the way he looked at Mama after that.”
A momentary smile flashed across her dainty face as if she remembered something fond, but it promptly fell off with more morbid memories. “One night, he ambushed my mother and the other members, killing every last one of them. He came after me but … I escaped.” Lilly left the coffin’s side to walk over to me. “He stole Mama’s body, thinking I’d come for it, but I hid. For a few hundred years, I made sure I was nowhere he would dare be. I created a new group of advisors, a new family for myself. Kait and Gavin, they’re my family. They’ve been by my side for almost a thousand years. They take care of me. I take care of them. They’re all I have, especially now that we have this venom issue. Not that it would matter.” She held her hands out to her sides, palms up. “Look at me! I’m a child forever. I have no interest in a mate. I don’t even know what that means, other than what I’ve seen and heard. I want venom back so I can create friends and family. The family I have now … I won’t risk Viggo taking that away from me. I want to stay as far away from him as possible.”