Asylum (Causal Enchantment #2)(41)
“Thanks for the heads-up,” I muttered dryly, deciding to observe from a safe distance. Was it really working? I wonder if . . . With one eye on Mage, I plucked a magical helix and let it slowly float toward Lewis, ready to probe. Coal-black eyes flew to me instantly. She could see it! Would she say anything? Would she complain that I was going against the truce? The slightest nod and the shadow of a smile told me she wouldn’t. It would be our little secret.
My magic invaded Lewis, burrowing through walls of tissue and muscle without reservation to reach his vital organs. Like microscopic probes, the strands found his kidneys, his liver, his heart, all shutting down, hardening into ornaments without purpose. I tested his body temperature. It was plummeting. I flashed the smallest smile back to Mage, my only indication to her that things were going as planned. One step closer . . .
For the next hour, a ring of vampires circled Lewis’s corrupting body, watching the violent spasms and shivers with interest. An hour that felt like ten. The shivering finally stopped. The color began to return to his dark skin, bringing with it a more youthful, healthy look, wiping away blemishes and imperfections—subtly, the awkward bump on the bridge of his nose smoothed and his left nostril, wider than the right, evened out. It was mesmerizing, watching the birth of a true predator.
Lewis’s eyelids suddenly flew open. Rich hazel irises rolled as he gazed around the atrium, studying the smallest movements and details. In a split second he was on his feet, taking in the audience who watched him as if he were a prize animal at a zoo.
Mage’s venom had worked. We were no longer an endangered species.
“It worked!” Viggo whispered, echoing my thoughts. He gave Mortimer’s shoulder a friendly slap. Normally Mortimer would shake it off, but today he was too busy sharing his rival’s cheer to even notice.
Mage smiled triumphantly. “Satisfied?”
“Oh, immensely!” Viggo exclaimed. I had never seen him this genuinely giddy, ever.
“Good.” Mage’s hand shot forward. Loud gasps and cries erupted from the onlookers as it drilled into the vampire Lewis’s chest and wrenched his heart out. His body dropped straight to the ground. She tossed the bloody, unbeating thing to the cobblestones beside me. “Sofie. Would you mind? We don’t need another mouth to feed right now,” she explained as I gaped at her, caught completely off guard.
I realized she was right—callous, but right. With a pull of a magical thread and a flick of my wrist, the former New York City drug lord and his detached heart were engulfed in flames. Every vampire, including Caden and his friends, scattered to the far corners of the atrium, leaving behind only a silence bred of fear and shock. For me, this was so much more than one new vampire. This was my one hundred and twenty-year-old blunder, finally corrected. This was the fear of spending the rest of eternity with Viggo and Mortimer breathing down my neck—gone. It wasn’t over until I got that pendant off Evangeline’s neck, but it was one enormous step closer. And when I got that pendant off . . . I could keep her.
For the past eighteen years, I had dreaded the day Evangeline’s mortal human body withered and aged, the day I was forced to lower her into the ground—a mother’s worst nightmare. But now, I could keep my sweet little girl with me forever. Once I figured out how to get that pendant off her, she was free to become one of us. And as long as Caden survived, I knew there was nothing she’d want more.
Mortimer’s booming voice disrupted my reverie. “Do you know what this means?” His tone was heading in a direction I knew very well: fury. He moved to tower over me. “Veronique could be released right here—right now!”
“If it meant Evangeline wouldn’t die then yes, that’s what it would mean,” I answered coolly, meeting his glare. “But that’s not possible and so you will wait.”
He wasn’t backing down. “You can’t keep us within these walls forever.”
“Oh, but I can,” I answered with cold certainty.
“You have to give in soon,” Viggo’s voice joined Mortimer’s like an echo. “You can’t protect everyone all the time.” His calculating eyes flitted toward Caden, who only glared back. “Accidents happen.”
He’s planning something and it involves Caden dying. My stomach tightened. The very idea terrified me. “Give in?” I repeated, feeling my lips stretch into a malicious smile. I would not allow him the satisfaction of rattling me. “Never,” I hissed.
“We’ll see,” Viggo sang, pulling out his cell phone. “Until then, I have some money to move . . . Ileana!” he bellowed, heading toward the library.
The grandfather clock gonged once. One a.m. “Where are you, Caden?” I whispered, wandering aimlessly, the size of this palace more daunting than usual. Since Viggo’s overt threat earlier today, I was especially vigilant in knowing the whereabouts of Evangeline’s friends at all times.
Viggo would have to be insane to do something to Caden or the others, I reminded myself. He needed me to get out of this building. He needed me to free Veronique. If he killed Caden, he was as good as dead. He realized that, didn’t he?
The truth was, I suspected Viggo was in fact insane. And now I couldn’t find Caden. Not in the cellar. Not in Evangeline’s room. Not in the atrium.
I wove in and out of rooms, stumbling upon Ratheus vampires everywhere as they inspected technology, rooted through closets, soaked in Jacuzzis, or otherwise distracted themselves with luxuries long since lost to them. It had taken almost a month of constant feeding, but finally they had ventured out to other parts of the building besides the cellar and the atrium, their thirst somewhat sated. Now most lingered in the inner rooms, keeping as far away from the paralyzing Merth boundary as possible. I was fine with that.