Anomaly (Causal Enchantment #4)(32)

Julian could only shrug.

“My leg doesn’t hurt anymore.” Dixon sat up, rolling it furiously, lifting it up and letting the cast bounce on the mattress.

Had I just healed Dixon’s broken bone?

No, that was impossible. I couldn’t do that, could I? Maybe I just compelled him to forget the pain but … “Could I have?” I said out loud, to no one, to everyone. Where was Sofie when I needed her?

“Julian?”

He stepped forward, still shaking his head. “Get the cast off and—”

The door swung open and a slight woman in her forties, eyes only half open, stepped through. Dixon’s mom, likely coming to check on him.

In all the excitement, we had somehow missed the heartbeat, the footsteps.

But now there was no missing it.

I guess the surprise was more than Julian could handle, even compelled. I knew it the moment I saw the whites of his eyes flooded with crimson.

“Julian, no!” I yelled, flying toward him. But it was too late.

Behind me, Dixon let out a high-pitched scream as Julian sank his teeth into the woman’s neck, the spectacle of his mother being attacked strong enough to break my spell over him.

Just like that, we’d gone from miraculous to disastrous.

I had to take care of this. First things first, Julian. I closed in on him, grabbing hold of the hair on top of his head, and jerked him upright to lock focus with those hideous eyes. “Julian, you will stop feeding on her right now. You will step away from her.”

He growled but otherwise didn’t move. The woman’s eyes began to loll. He was taking in too much, too fast, and urging him to stop wasn’t going to work. It wasn’t enough motivation. I needed real motivation.

Behind me came a thud. I looked back and saw Dixon struggling to get out of bed. I turned back to Julian. A moment later, an object hit my back and tumbled to the floor, followed by a loud crash as Dixon lost his balance and fell.

I ignored him and the short-lived pain in my back as I tried a new approach. A dirty, desperate tactic, but I had no other choice. “Julian, Amelie is missing. She may be in danger. Stop feeding on this woman and we can go find her.”

The muscles in his jaw stopped moving. He pulled free from the woman’s neck and let go. I dove to catch her before she hit the ground. “What?” His brown eyes were back instantly. “She’s missing? How do you know?”

Approaching footsteps pounded outside. Several of them, people running. “Hold the door!” I demanded as I carried the woman’s limp body to the bed, her blood leaving a trail along the floor. Dixon had managed to get himself back up to a standing position by that point. “Dixon, I want you to lie back down in bed and say nothing,” I commanded.

“Sheila!” a man yelled, followed by screams of “Mom! Dixon!” from the two other boys. The wall rattled with a loud bang as they attempted to break down the door. Julian’s strength held it with ease, though a loud cracking told me they’d soon have a fist through the wood.

“Hurry up!” Julian bellowed, his face a contorted mask. Probably angry at me. I’d deal with that later, though.

The woman—Sheila—still had a heartbeat, but it was depressingly weak. Two ghastly puncture wounds over her jugular seeped blood, forming a pool all over Dixon’s bedspread. If she ever woke up, it would be to unanswerable questions and unimaginable explanations. I knew. I’d been there, once. So long ago now, it felt.

Unless I helped her, as I had helped Dixon.

That same urge began to bubble with the thought but it was distracted by the splintering door and flying wood. I looked up in time to see a man’s face pressed against the hole in the door, his eyes wide with alarm.

“Sheila!” the man cried. A brawny arm shoved through, roping around Julian’s neck.

Julian’s eyes began to morph. He was going to attack Dixon’s father.

“Julian, don’t!” I warned.

Shoving the man’s arm away, he snapped, “I’m not staying.”

And then he was gone, crashing through the second-story window and disappearing into the night.

“Shit.” I had to go after him. Glancing back at a shocked Dixon, I mumbled, “Sorry,” and dove for the window, just as the door flew open.

This time, I landed smoothly on my feet. I didn’t waste a second, taking off after Julian’s tracks in the snow. Either he was that much faster than me or that much more determined—I chased those tracks for miles, through towns, across valleys.

And then they just stopped.

“Shit!” I yelled, now in full panic mode. I lost Julian! Sofie was going to kill me! With frantic eyes, I scanned the shadows for fresh footprints leading somewhere, anywhere.

A hand landed on my bicep and whipped me around. “Are you lying about Amelie?” Julian growled, his tall frame looming over me.

I allowed myself a tiny exhale of relief before jerking my arm away. “I wish I were.”

Rage burned in his eyes. “You knew! You knew all this time and you didn’t tell me?” A finger jabbed the air as he pointed back the way we’d come, toward the mountain. “Even up there, when you were telling me about Galen, when I was saying how much I missed Amelie, you knew!”

“How could I tell you?” I yelled back. “You would’ve taken off for the city. And you probably never would’ve made it, with all these distractions.” I gestured at the houses up ahead, full of people.