Anathema (Causal Enchantment #1)(77)

I nodded, unable to speak.

He sighed heavily, leaning forward to press his lips against my forehead, his hands squeezing my shoulders. I closed my eyes, reveling under his touch. I could have stayed like that for hours, but he pulled away. “Are you insane?” he yelled at Bishop, his voice thundering in the cave.

“Hey, it worked, didn’t it?” Bishop’s responding yell—his display of anger such a rare sight—matched Caden’s.

Caden bit his lip, thinking. When he spoke again, it was at a normal level. “Can she hear us?” he asked Amelie.

She nodded.

He strolled over to crouch beside Rachel’s head. “It feels so good to be rid of you. To not have to pretend anymore,” he hissed into her face. I saw confusion in her eyes. “Every time you touched me,” he continued, shuddering, “I pictured Evangeline’s face. It was the only way I could handle it. Enjoy knowing that.” He straightened and was standing beside me again in an instant, wrapping his arms tenderly around me.

I couldn’t help feeling a tinge of guilt for my part in the trap. That was until I glanced down at Rachel to see the raw fury in her eyes as she realized she had been deceived for far longer than just today. That searing gaze burned across my entire body. Likely imagining tearing my limbs from me and bashing my brains in with them, I realized. I stepped back into Caden’s embrace and squeezed my eyes shut as I buried my face against his chest, but it was a long while before the afterimage of those devil eyes faded from my mind’s eye. The feel of Caden’s body against mine and his wonderfully natural scent seemed to help.

“What should we do, toss her into the fire?” I heard Amelie ask dispassionately.

“Sounds good to me,” Bishop sneered. He reached down to grab her legs.

“Wait—she’s not going anywhere, and who knows if we’ll need her for something still,” Caden said thoughtfully, still holding me.

“I don’t know, Caden,” Amelie answered warily. “It’s better if we rid ourselves of this problem for good, here and now.”

Caden looked down at me. “What do you think? She’s the biggest threat to you.”

I glanced at Rachel’s motionless body. “We could wait until we’re sure. We can always get rid of her later.” As the callous words left my mouth, a wave of revulsion hit me. I could be like Viggo. A monster.

“Okay. Well, I don’t know about the rest of you, but I definitely can’t spend another second looking at her,” Bishop muttered, grabbing her feet and unceremoniously dragging her down a tunnel like an awkward piece of garbage, out of our sight.

“I can’t believe I just did that,” I mumbled, the rush of adrenaline fading to allow bitter nausea. I almost fell onto a bench.

“No, that shade of green isn’t flattering,” Fiona mumbled, coming over to rub my back. I turned to see Caden staring at me, an unreadable expression on his face.

Bishop strolled back in then, dusting his hands off as if they were covered in dirt. “Try not to attract anymore lunatics, okay?” he directed at Caden before winking at me.

Caden’s eyes didn’t even flicker from my face as he gave Bishop the finger.

“So that is a universal gesture,” I noted, earning a laugh from Bishop. Not even a twitch from Caden.

“All this excitement! I need to go hunt,” Amelie exclaimed. “Something feisty … Oh, I don’t know, a wild cat, maybe?” She grinned. “You guys in?” her question was directed at Bishop and Fiona, her eyebrow raised suggestively.

“See you two later,” Bishop called as they vanished out the cave entrance.

“One obstacle down,” I said lightly. “See? Not so hard.” Except for the bound, sedated, psychotic vampire hidden somewhere in the tunnels, I reminded myself, glancing warily down the tunnel Bishop had dragged Rachel into.

Caden took a seat beside me on the bench. “You could have been killed, Evangeline,” he admonished me.

“Well, it’s not like I had much choice,” I retorted.

He exhaled noisily. “Yes, you did. You could have just shown it to her and let us handle it.”

“I like my solution better.”

“Your solution almost got you killed!”

“Okay, I’m sorry!” I cried, a tear escaping. “But it didn’t and now we don’t have to worry about her. Now we can focus on getting you home with me.”

Caden squeezed his eyes shut. “The sooner we leave here with you, the sooner I become a danger to you; the sooner I likely can’t be in the same room as you,” he said miserably. “You and I are still impossible.”

“No. We are not,” I growled impatiently. “Maybe a tad complex for the moment, but not impossible.”

Finally a flicker of something like amusement crossed Caden’s face. “When did you become so stubborn?” He sighed. “It seems like that right here, right now, but in your world … impossible,” he countered, sadness in his voice.

I gazed upon that intoxicatingly beautiful face that I was so wildly in love with and my jaw set with determination. I wouldn’t give up on us and I certainly wouldn’t let him. An irrepressible urge suddenly gripped me. Sliding closer, I reached over to gently cup his cheek and pull his face toward me. His eyes remained closed. “Well, then I guess we better not waste anymore of this valuable time,” I murmured brazenly, reaching up with my other hand to touch his chest, the ripple of his muscles under my fingertips making me tremble.