Anomaly (Causal Enchantment #4)(24)

He nodded, indicating that he understood, and the distraught aura around him faded.

Max’s nose jabbed into my shoulder. Try something for me. Go tell Veronique to stop feeding.

I felt my face scrunch up as I looked over at the petite French woman, now sitting back against the wall with her eyes closed, a bag hanging from her mouth.

Just do it.

With the commotion, I forgot that I’d been able to talk to him telepathically before. I was desperate to do it again. Why? I asked inside my head, hoping my conscious effort to converse with him was enough to relay the words. I didn’t seem to be tied to all of his thoughts and I hoped he wasn’t privy to all of mine.

I have a theory.

With a smile—we could finally communicate telepathically!—I closed the distance. Veronique’s hideous red eyes narrowed suspiciously as she assessed me.

“Veronique,” I fought the urge to look away. “You need to stop feeding. You’ve had enough. Your needs are satisfied for now.”

I expected her to cackle wickedly. I expected her to snarl, perhaps spit. But she regarded me for a moment, and then her hand dropped, taking the bag with it. Slowly, her eyes returned to their normal beautiful olive green.

What the … “Max?” I asked slowly, unable to peel my eyes from her face. Though I didn’t know Veronique well, the strange connection we’d lived through for a time, thanks to the pendant and the curse, had bonded us.

He sauntered over to stand beside me. I think you just compelled a vampire.

“But … but …” That was impossible. Vampires could not be compelled by anyone but the original vampire. Mage could compel vampires. But I was not the original vampire. “Evangeline?” Veronique’s delicate French accent was such a contradiction to the ravenous side we’d just seen. “Where is Mortimer?”

“In New York City. He’ll be back soon.”

She nodded. “Why are you staring at me like that?”

“I’m just … I …” I leaned back on my heels, stumped. “How do you feel?”

Her mouth puckered. “Satisfied?”

Max’s loud snort filled the cave and I couldn’t help but giggle.

I could compel vampires. How on earth had this happened?

I was still giggling to myself when Caden stormed in.

“Evangeline!” I didn’t have a beating heart anymore and yet something skipped inside me with the sound of his voice. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

“Nothing’s wrong!” I threw my arms around his neck, inhaling his delicious scent. It was slightly off. Pulling back, I quickly saw why. “Except you’re covered in blood.”

He grimaced. “Yeah, I know. What happened here? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. How bad is it out there?”

Though I’d been too excited to notice it immediately, I could sense his worry. “Not sure yet. I saw that you called. Five times.” He took in the room, his eyes skimming over Cecile and Brian, lingering on Veronique and Julian for a long moment, before settling on the turned-over fridge. “What happened?” he pressed.

“They were going through the supply really fast and we were going to run out so Max and I went out to—”

“You went out?” Jade eyes sparked with anger. “You promised me you’d stay here!”

“Well, I had no other choice!” I snapped, indignation suddenly flaring. “Besides, I’m fine around humans. I didn’t lose control,” I assured him. Not in the way we he had feared, anyway.

“And what if you’d gotten hurt?”

My head fell back with my groan. I was used to Caden worrying about my safety when I was a human. But I wasn’t human anymore and he needed to stop treating me like a piece of glass. “Would you just listen?” I didn’t want this to turn into a fight. “We had to get blood so we went to a hospital about thirty miles west of here. I stole an entire truck of it. It’s about two miles back that way. I drove it off a cliff.” Caden’s brow arched but I rushed on before he could interrupt. “We got back just in time because they were already fighting over the last bags like barbarians. They’d either still be bashing each other’s heads in or we’d be chasing them through the town by now. I’m fine, Max is fine, and there’s more supply that we need to bring in.” I reached into my pocket and pulled out my shattered phone. “This was a casualty.”

Caden exhaled, tossing his black knapsack into the corner. “Maybe you do have things under control.”

“Maybe,” I teased, earning a grin as he reached out and pulled me to him.

Turning to Julian, he said, “Good to see you civil again.” Julian closed the distance, clasping hands with Caden. There was a time when Caden wanted to kill Julian. Once he understood that Julian and I had never been anything more than just friends, he’d become much more amiable.

“Where’s your sister?” Chocolate-brown eyes wandered past Caden to the tunnel. “Did she come with you?”

Caden paused and, though his expression never changed, I felt the tension rippling through his body. “No, she didn’t. She’s still back in New York.” His forehead wrinkled. “You seem to have a handle on things. Quick too. We were expecting you to be more like …,” Caden jutted his head in Brian’s direction, “for the next couple of days.”