Allegiance (Causal Enchantment #3)(71)
“You asked for this?” I studied this creature peering out at me with patience—his face, his hands, his stature. Everything about him appeared human. Everything identical to the painting above the mantle. Except for those eyes. And those eyes held his secret. Those hollow orbs of death. He was the grim reaper. Here to take life.
“And did you ask that he look like Nathan?” I said without thinking.
“Of course not!” Another shriek, another crack in her damaged armor.
I wasn’t sure if it was the wine or the situation, but the sconces were suddenly wobbling and swaying. I balanced myself against the wall. The weight of two hands instantly landed on my shoulders, one on the left shoulder, one on the right. Two hands that belonged to two different vampires. Bishop and Caden. I glanced up in time to see a silent look pass between them, Caden’s of mock apology, Bishop’s a mix of confusion and appreciation.
Caden quickly stepped away, allowing Bishop full ownership of me. He claimed it quickly, leaning in to ask with genuine concern, “You okay?” I tried to smile and felt my nostrils flare and my lip curl in a sneer.
Turning back to Sofie, a new question sparked in my mind. “And why did you have him hidden here, then? If he’s only here to protect me?”
Sofie stared back at me like horns had sprouted from my forehead. “Seriously, Evangeline? You need to ask? I couldn’t have him running loose in the streets! With what he can do? He will kill anyone he deems a threat to you. That could be the man who looks too long at you, or the driver of a car who’s speeding past you or someone who’s merely having a bad day. Anyone! I didn’t want to expose you to him until I needed to. Evangeline—he is like an unstoppable plague.”
“And what an added bonus for you that this plague looks exactly like your one true love. My, my, the Fates never tire of punishing you …” Viggo delivered the low blow from his new spot halfway down the hall—as far away as possible from this new enemy while still bearing witness.
If looks could disembowel, I was sure Viggo would be scooping up twenty feet of innards from the floor. I wished Sofie would attack him. Zap him dead with bolts of fire from her fingers. Hell, I was six words from siccing Wraith on him, ordering him to bring Viggo to his knees long enough so I could set fire to him myself. But Sofie only squeezed her eyes shut.
“I couldn’t have him roaming free so I confined him here. I spelled these quarters to disguise the door and the windows. All the exits. This is the only world that Wraith knows.” Another bitter smile. “The Fates allowed me that much control, at least. I could control him to some degree until he saw you, until he completed the connection. Now … I am nothing more than a potential threat to you …” Her voice drifted off, her words hollow.
The connection … those times I’d passed by this spot, before I could see the door. That familiarity, that pull—it was the connection the Fates had forged between the two of us, beckoning me. And because the Tribe’s magic coursing through me strengthened each day, morphed each day, it finally broke the barrier keeping us apart. The illusion masking the door. It was all making sense now …
“I thought there was something missing in this hallway,” Mortimer mused, his brow furrowed in deep thought, his fingers rubbing his chin as he studied the door. Now that I had passed through it, I supposed it was visible to everyone.
“Will he just … attack people? For no reason?” I asked.
Sofie heaved a heavy sigh. “He knows his mission is to protect you. While the connection wasn’t complete, he was relatively harmless. He just … sat in that room. He doesn’t sleep, he doesn’t eat, he doesn’t need entertainment. He is here for one reason and one reason only. To protect you. Always. Until you no longer need protecting.”
“No longer …,” I repeated, frowning.
“Until you die.” The words, delivered with all the sympathy and warmth that Sofie could muster, still turned my blood icy cold.
“So … that means …”
“Wraith will be with you for the rest of your natural life, whether it be seventy years or seventy minutes. He’s bound to you forever.” Forever. Such a long time. Or not. But as long I lived, Nathan’s life-sucking ghost would trail me. And that meant I would carry around a constant reminder of Sofie’s lost love, knifing her in the heart daily with his indifference. Being with me would cause her more pain. Soon, she’d be forced to abandon me. How else would she survive this? Shards of pain splintered through my heart. Nothing seemed to be going Sofie’s way.
“He will attack anything he feels is a threat to you, Evangeline. Anything at all. Nothing can harm him. Vampires, werebeasts—he will leech our strength from us with a touch, weaken us until we can’t fight back, or simply kill us. Mortal beings … they will die.” Sofie’s eyes darted behind me. “Stay far away from him, Julian. I can’t fix you if he decides you’re a threat.” Julian nodded soberly, giving me a sympathetic smile as Amelie’s arms enveloped him. Sofie went on. “And he can sense danger. He can dig into a person’s soul, read their evil intentions. Therein lies the danger, Evangeline. He won’t always ask you before he reacts. He may act on his own assessments of a person, of their danger to you.”
I glanced haphazardly at Wraith and then at Caden. He is capable of causing fatal injury to you. That’s what Wraith said. That’s what he dug out of Caden.