Allegiance (Causal Enchantment #3)(81)

“No! You can’t!” I cried out, stepping forward. Wraith’s arm shot out from nowhere to shove me back to the opposite corner. “Is he a threat to Evangeline?” he asked moving forward.

“He’s a threat to all of us.” Caden’s tone was as icy as I’d ever heard it. He didn’t look in my direction as he released Julian from the chokehold and took three wide steps back. “Get rid of him, Wraith.”

Without further prompting, Wraith began closing in on Julian, his deadly hand lifting toward his shoulder. No, no, no! I choked back a sob. This wasn’t happening. I had to stop this… If Wraith attacked, there was no healing, no bouncing back. Julian would be dead. Another person close to me, gone.

“He saved my life. Don’t do it!” I screamed.

Wraith kept moving forward. It was as if I hadn’t spoken. He wouldn’t stop until Julian was dead. I needed to do something drastic, I realized, squeezing my fist tightly over the smooth hilt of my dagger, still in my hand. My dagger … There was one way to make Wraith listen.

I unsheathed the blade and lifted the point to my neck. “If he dies, I die. Right here, right now.” My hand shook so badly, I was afraid I might accidently slit my jugular.

My plan worked. Wraith’s hand dropped to his side. He took several steps back, giving Julian a wide berth. “You would kill yourself to protect this human?”

“He almost died protecting me, so, yes, I would. He’s my friend.” Looking at Julian—his face as white as a sheet, his body on the verge of collapse—I wanted to throw my arms around him.

Unfortunately, I had to contend with an angry vampire first.

Caden was at my side in an instant, tearing the dagger out of my hand, a violent storm darkening his irises to threatening levels. “I didn’t give you that so you could kill yourself with it!” he yelled.

He’d never yelled at me before.

I forced my chin up, my hand absently rubbing my neck. “You left me no choice! I had to protect him.”

“But you don’t know what he is!” Amelie moaned from the doorway, still huddled within her towel, agony pouring from her eyes as they touched Julian’s face.

And here it was. The moment. There was no denying it any longer. “Yes, I do,” I heard myself say, as if someone else were speaking. A liar, admitting her guilt. As soft as the delivery, the impact of my admission was enough to cause Amelie to stumble back, flinching.

“You … knew? You knew and I didn’t?” Her voice sharpened a notch. In that scary way. In that crazy Amelie way.

I nodded as unease stirred in my stomach. Swallowing, I admitted in a whisper, “I accidently saw the marking.”

“What?” Amelie exploded, now screaming. “You accidently saw the tattoo on his left ass cheek?” Her eyes bulged so hard, I thought they might pop out of her head.

“Yes! Accidently.”

“What …?” Next to his sister, Caden’s voice was so low I barely heard him. It scared me ten times more. My body as stiff as a poker, I turned to see the end of the dagger pointed dangerously close to Julian’s thigh, Caden’s eyes crushing me with an accusatory gaze. I knew instantly what he was thinking. Seeing that mark required seeing Julian without clothing. In what situation would I see him like that?

My mouth opened to justify my lies, but only a wheeze escaped. We stood still, our eyes locked, as I felt my curtain drop, unveiling the real me. Not the sweet, naïve girl Amelie carried unconscious into Caden’s life, the human girl he fell in love with. No … now he could see me for what I was. What I had become. A fraud and a cheat.

Caden’s next words, delivered with a biting cold tone, confirmed it. “Just kissed him, right?”

Before I could utter a sound, plead with him to listen to my explanation, he stormed off, launching the dagger across the room so hard that it embedded itself into a mahogany armoire with a loud thud, splitting the wood in half.

“Caden!” I cried, running to the doorway into the hallway to catch him. But he was gone. Gone from the room, maybe gone from my life. I turned back to the room slowly, deflated and dazed over the sudden turn of events. Two minutes ago, Caden had all but professed his eternal love. Now, he was gone, Julian’s dark secret exposed.

And I couldn’t forget about Amelie.

“What is Caden talking about, Evie? You kissed Julian? You told me nothing happened …” The cutting sound of Amelie’s voice set my neck hairs on edge.

Without thought, my hands lifted in front of me in a sign of surrender. “I didn’t kiss him. That was a lie. I—”

But Amelie was already talking over me. “You knew what he was all this time and you didn’t tell me? You let me fall in love with the enemy?” Each word came out crisp and knife-sharp, a hysterical edge creeping into them.

“Please, let me ex—” I began, stepping forward, my hands outstretched.

“Liar!” Amelie hissed, recoiling from my approach, her pretty face twisting into an altogether hideous sneer as she backed into a dresser. Amelie—my best friend—hated me. Amelie, the seven-hundred-year-old vampiress who just had her heart emotionally ripped out of her chest, now glared at me like I had betrayed her to the depths of her soul.

The trouble was, I had.

“How could you? How could you hurt us like that? Lie to us like that?” Each accusation was delivered like a swing of a sword.