Anathema (Causal Enchantment #1)(80)

Within seconds, I was unbound. I wiggled away from the straps and sat up, only to have Mortimer swoop in to loom over me. I automatically shrunk back. My chance was gone.

I glanced over in time to see Sofie reaching into an opened mountain bag. “No!” I lunged forward to grab her hand.

She pulled out a cord of Merth.

Mortimer gasped in horror. “Why would you bring that stuff back here?”

I barely heard him, still in shock over Sofie’s immunity. “It doesn’t work on you?”

“Stings,” she said, cringing. “But no. Because I’m a sorceress.” She dangled the cord from her fingers, examining it closely. “Here, Mortimer. Let’s see if it’s as strong as our stuff.”

Our stuff?

“If you come near me with that, I’ll tear your heart out,” he growled, taking two large strides backward.

I heard a loud, exasperated sigh inside my head. Here, try it on me, Max said, ambling toward Sofie.

“Max is offering guinea pig services,” I said, adding, “There’s Merth here?”

“Not until now,” Viggo called out, entering the room. “We spend over two hundred years ridding the world of it, and look … you show up with two giant bagfuls!”

“Take it off him immediately afterward, though. Please,” I said as Sofie moved toward Max. I didn’t want Max going through any more pain than necessary.

“Of course, of course,” Sofie murmured. “Thank goodness you’re not a coward, Max,” she added, her eyes flicking to Mortimer, her tone thick with implication. Viggo howled with laughter at Sofie’s snip as Mortimer glared venomously at the red–haired vampire–witch.

She placed the cord on Max’s back. His giant black body wavered slightly, then slumped to the floor. He mumbled incoherently in my head. As promised, Sofie immediately pulled the cord off Max.

Yes, it’s the same, Max confirmed.

I relayed the message.

“Why would you bring this back, Evangeline?” Viggo asked me suspiciously, stepping forward to examine the bags.

“To bind you.” The catty response flew out without warning.

Viggo grinned. “Cute.”

“Did you know about this?” Mortimer asked Sofie, one eyebrow raised.

“How would I know? I was here!” she spat. “But I can use it. Smart thinking, Evangeline.”

Viggo swept his hand across the open bag, allowing the tip of his finger to graze a strand. He swayed as if suddenly lightheaded. “This wretched stuff …”

“Leonardo, lock these bags in the vault,” Mortimer instructed.

“I’m going to take a few strands for some testing,” Sofie announced, reaching for the bag.

“So you can trap me when I’m distracted? Not a chance, witch,” Mortimer snapped.

“You fool!” she snapped back, unleashing a torrent of anger. “Have you given any thought, even for a second, to what will happen when one of these vampires—who haven’t been exposed to human blood for seven hundred years—shows up under this roof? They could kill Evangeline, they could wipe out your staff, they could break free of this building and start a New York City massacre. I appreciate that you’ve waited a hundred and twenty years to see Veronique, but show some common sense, you idiot.”

Mortimer rolled his eyes. “Oh, stop being so dramatic. All of those possibilities are highly unlikely.”

“It’s not worth risking! You don’t know what can happen, who these vampires are. These kinds of spells are known to have unforeseen outcomes, some of them disastrous. I shouldn’t have to explain that to you …” her voice drifted.

My back hit something hard. I turned, saw the headboard, and realized I had been slowly inching backward, trying to get away from the approaching brawl. I was now cowering, knees drawn up, within a mound of pillows.

“Children, children,” Viggo said softly. “Let’s play nicely, now.”

“He started it,” Sofie muttered indignantly.

“How do you propose you’ll use this Merth to solve the possibilities you’ve described, Sofie?” Viggo calmly asked, taking on his usual role of mediator between those two. “Is there yet another trick up your sleeve we’re unaware of?”

“I need to link the power of it to this building, to form a barrier. To keep them within these walls,” she answered in a more conciliatory voice. “It should be a fairly easy spell.”

“Them? How many do you think are coming over, anyway?”

Three pairs of brilliantly colored vampire eyes turned to me. “Four,” I said from my hiding place, adding under my breath, “I hope.”

“Didn’t there used to be five?” Mortimer asked, his eyes narrowing.

“Yes, but she’s no longer an issue,” I answered flatly, hoping to avoid any more questions about the event in which I’d been an accomplice. It likely wouldn’t shine a positive light on Caden and the others, in Viggo and Mortimer’s eyes, anyway.

Luckily, he turned his attention back to Sofie. “And how do you suppose we get out for food? Of course, you can get out; it doesn’t hold you back … Are you trying to weaken us?”

“Don’t think I don’t know about that blood bank in the cellar. That could tide you over for years, if necessary,” she shot back at him.