Anathema (Causal Enchantment #1)(58)

He pulled me back toward him until I was close enough that his inner thighs touched my hips and his chin hovered over my shoulder. I was sure I felt warm breath tickling against the nape of my neck. But he doesn’t need to breathe, does he?

“Are you still cold? You’re trembling,” Caden murmured.

“Nope, I’m good,” I muttered, heat crawling up my cheeks. The opposite, actually. I squeezed my eyes shut and focused on my breathing.

I heard a lid pop and opened my eyes to see Caden rifling through a medical kit. It was enough to distract me from Caden’s inadvertent torture for the moment. I raised a querying eyebrow.

“I found this earlier in my bag, along with a note. Courtesy of your maternal vampire, I gather?” He grinned.

“Seriously?” I frowned. “What’d the note say?”

“That I should keep an eye on your stitches because you’d be preoccupied. She didn’t say with what.”

You. I’m preoccupied with you, dummy.

Caden gently unwound the bandages. It had been three days since the attack. I think. It was getting hard to keep track of time. The cut was healing nicely, the old woman’s stitch work impeccable. Caden held my hand tenderly in his, inspecting the wound from several angles. Then, ever so lightly, he drew a circle around it with his index finger. “Does that hurt at all?” He turned his face slightly so his mouth was next to my cheek.

“No,” I squeaked. How can he not know what he’s doing to me!

Sighing, he began wrapping my hand up in new bandages.

“Cannon ball!” Bishop yelled in warning. I looked up in time to see him plummeting from atop one of the highest boulders. He splashed into the lake, sending an enormous wave radiating outward. Luckily we were out of range.

I gasped. “The rocks!”

Caden’s body began to shake. He was laughing at me. When I remembered why, I started giggling as well. Of course Bishop would be fine—the jagged rocks might not be. “I keep forgetting. You all seem so … normal,” I said, turning slightly to steal a glimpse at Caden’s face, which could never in a million years be described as normal.

Amelie leapt off the same boulder, landing on Bishop’s back and tackling him underwater.

“They’re close, those two. Amelie reminds him of his own little sister. She didn’t survive the war,” Caden explained, tossing the old bandages into the fire.

A movement to my left caught my attention. Fiona slyly darted from a hidden alcove to tackle Bishop the second he emerged from the water. Amelie popped up then and tag–teamed against him.

“And Amelie and Fiona … I think those two share a brain,” Caden added.

I laughed. “Have they always been so close?”

“Instantly. Just like how they’ve attached themselves to you.”

That same guilty pain twisted my stomach again with the knowledge that I would choose Caden over them, if I had to. But I so desperately didn’t want to. Why couldn’t I bring all four back? Why did I have to choose? Because anything else would be too easy, Evangeline. And nothing comes easy for you.

I leaned against Caden’s chest, my eyelids drooping, suddenly exhausted. Not pendant–cooling, universe–changing exhausted, just plain tired from the day’s excitement. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d actually slept. But I didn’t want to sleep. I didn’t want to leave them. Ever.

Unfortunately, my yawn didn’t escape their notice.

“Come.” Fiona beckoned to Bishop as she hopped lithely from the water. “Let’s see if we can blow up that air mattress.”

Bishop jumped out of the water and, slapping Fiona’s butt playfully, tore down the tunnel. Fiona chased after him, howling with laughter.

When I turned back, Amelie was out of the water as well. “I’m going to help Fiona, otherwise Bishop’s liable to distract her,” she said cheerily, leaning down to give me a quick hug before turning to skip down the tunnel and out of sight.

I smiled, wondering what they’d be like if they were surrounded by humans, their primal hunger tested daily. Would Bishop be a loveable, obnoxious goof? Would Fiona be so laid–back? Would Amelie still leap around like a silly girl, throwing her arms around me in affection? And Caden, would he still vanish into the woods to pick me flowers?

Would they feed off humans?

I wondered if we would be friends. That was what they were—friends. My first friends in years, and they were a bunch of vampires. The first guy I couldn’t be near without going weak in the knees, and he was a vampire. And I didn’t care. Right down to my core, I knew there was no part of me that was bothered by that. I wanted to be with them forever.

But could they be lying about everything? Pretending?

“Go to sleep,” Caden whispered, sliding back so I was lying down, my head resting against his lap.

“I’m not tired,” I said through another yawn, fighting heavy eyelids.

He smiled down at me, his green eyes twinkling. If only it meant something more than general friendliness.

A delirious giggle escaped me.

“What?” he asked, his brow knitted.

“Nothing,” I murmured.

I felt his fingertip trace my upper, then my lower lip. This can’t be innocent. He can’t be this oblivious to my feelings. Would he act so flirtatious, knowing? I started playing the day through in my head—the flowers, the doting, the gentle nudges and touches. Maybe he did have feelings for me?