Anathema (Causal Enchantment #1)(65)

I stood quietly, wondering what their new angle was.

Viggo rolled his eyes. “One evening, Veronique was traveling to meet Sofie in the next city when a group of bandits attacked her carriage. They would have raped and killed her, if not for the aid of Mortimer here, who happened to be hunting in the nearby woods. I owed Mortimer for saving my true love and, so confident in her love for me, I never thought my lovely angel would fall prey to this rugged brute’s wiles. Alas, Mortimer and Veronique grew close and, before I knew it, she was professing her love to both of us. We became bitter enemies, ready to tear each other apart, except that it would cause pain to Veronique for one of us to die. So we waited, impatiently, for her to choose—me, of course—so I could transform her and have her forever. But then her witch of a sister had to go and mess things up!” Viggo said lightheartedly.

“Why are you telling me this?” I asked bitterly. “You didn’t want to tell me anything before and now you’re just brimming with true–life stories.”

“To show you that we’re just like you!”

My mouth dropped open in shock. “You murdered my mother and destroyed my life. You probably snack on newborn babies! You’re nothing like me! And you’re trying to win me over with epic love stories, thinking I’m going to help you?” I trembled with rage now.

He quirked a brow. “Are you saying you’re not?”

“Help my mother’s murderer spend eternity with his true love? Hmm, let me see …” Uncharacteristic bravery was yanking words from my mouth before my brain could process them. But I didn’t care. I couldn’t hurt Viggo’s feelings if I tried.

“Well, then … there’s no reason to keep you anymore, is there?” Viggo’s eyes had turned cold, his smile menacing.

All four dogs leapt forward to form a wall around me, but not before Viggo had my pendant within his grasp. “You may tear my heart out, Max, but not before I rip this pendant from Evangeline’s neck,” he said, his eyes locked with mine.

18. Choices

“Viggo,” Mortimer warned, a wary eye on the dogs. He still seemed flabbergasted by Max’s new allegiance to me.

Viggo ignored him, standing fast with my pendant in his hand, hysteria twitching on his face. “You are going to help us because you want to help yourself. You’re going to bring these friends of yours back, right?”

I stood frozen. Caden. Amelie. Fiona. Bishop. Their faces flashed in my mind.

“You’re going to go out and look for this portal for the pendant,” he continued. “Check every rock, every cave, every city.”

“The place is crawling with vampires. I’m dead if they get hold of me,” I replied warily.

“You’re dead if I get hold of you.” Viggo’s lips curled into a hideous smile.

A chorus of deep, menacing growls sounded but no one paid any heed.

“How many vampires are left on this Ratheus, anyway?” Mortimer interjected.

“I don’t know. I don’t think there’s been a census done lately,” I answered sullenly, my eyes glued to Viggo. Murderer.

“My, someone’s finally found her tongue. When did you become so grating?” Viggo asked with an infuriating smirk.

“When I found out you murdered my mother.”

“Didn’t you explain, Sofie?” Viggo’s eyebrows lifted, but his focus remained on me. “That was Sofie’s fault. She deceived me.” The gleam in his eye turned my blood ice cold. “Don’t ever deceive me.”

“You want to be free of us, don’t you?” Mortimer added, a hint of desperation in his voice.

I faltered. “And will I? Be free of you once I bring them back?”

“Absolutely.”

I don’t believe you. But it didn’t matter. Either I refused and Viggo wrenched the necklace off me right here, right now, leaving Caden and the others in Ratheus for eternity, forever beyond my sight, or I risked dying by going along with this. Highly probable risk but just a risk, all the same.

“So you want me to just wander around until the necklace starts talking to me? What if I get caught? So far, the two run–ins I’ve had with the vampires of that world haven’t exactly ended well. Remember? I almost died both times.”

“But that was before. You are so much wiser now, and the necklace has properly adjusted. I’m sure you’ll do just fine,” Viggo assured me, smiling. He stepped away, releasing the pendant. “So it’s settled?”

If I release Veronique and she chooses Mortimer, then this will be worth it. “I’m glad you’re feeling good about this plan, given you’re not the one who’s going to die,” I grumbled. “And if I die then this whole plan is finished and you have no hope of ever turning Veronique.”

Mortimer raised an eyebrow at Sofie.

She sighed. “If the lapse in time continues as it’s been going, with you staying longer and longer away from here … I’m afraid you’ll one day—soon—simply not return. Then it won’t matter. You can’t survive long in a place like that.”

“That’s why I was hungry … and tired,” I thought aloud. It also explained all the supplies for me that Sofie had packed. She had known it would happen. That or she took the ‘be–prepared’ Girl Scout Motto to a whole new level. “So every time I go over now, I’ll be there for longer and longer and eventually I’ll stay there forever?”