Kait opened her mouth but faltered. No one else said anything. Sofie had their attention. She continued. “The end of humans—and possibly the end of us—is imminent, unless we do something about it. This war with the Sentinel and the sorceresses is guaranteed to spiral out of control. It is already headed in that direction.”
You could hear a pin drop for the silence in the room. Finally, Lilly cleared her voice. “For the last hundred or so years, you three have burrowed in New York, ignoring what was going on right under your noses, and now all of a sudden, we must save the world? Why? Because your palace was attacked?”
“And what has been going on, Lilly?” Mortimer asked, stepping forward to take the seat across from her. Another act of good will. Of collaboration rather than confrontation.
Galen drew a folded newspaper from the inside of his jacket and tossed it to the ground. I couldn’t read it from where I stood, but I didn’t need to.
“Jonah …” Mage muttered, her lip curled in disdain. Jonah was the mutant vampire who broke free of Viggo’s place against Mage’s orders.
Sofie sighed. “Yes, that’s a problem,” she admitted, adding, “but only a recent one.”
“And how long before the same headlines make it to reputable newspapers?” Galen spat back. “You caused this. We know he came from under your roof. How he got there in the first place, one must wonder.” He had a thick Italian accent. I didn’t like it.
“Yes, we did. I did. I will own that blame and I will take care of it,” Mage answered, her arms crossed over her chest. “It doesn’t change our need to work together to solve this impending doom.”
“Now you want to do something about it? Finally? While you’ve been decorating your palace, pretending that our enemies don’t exist, they’ve been getting stronger, more integrated into everything,” Lilly said.
“Integrated where, exactly?” Sofie asked.
Lilly looked down at her lap to study her childlike hands—hands that should’ve been adjusting doll clothes but were more likely used to choke the life out of grown men. “Oh, how about the military, the governments, police force, religious organizations … everywhere.”
Viggo rolled his eyes. “And how do you know this?”
“Because we haven’t been hiding in our hole like gophers,” Kait threw back at him. “We’ve been watching. Studying. Learning. Fighting.”
“And what have you learned?” Mortimer probed, ignoring her insult, though I could tell by his glower that he’d prefer to tear her head off.
A chorus of vicious laughter. “That’s not how these negotiations work,” Lilly purred, parroting Viggo’s earlier jibe. “We have something you want and you say you have something we want.” Her lip curled. “For all we know, this is one of your ploys to eliminate us.”
“Wake up, Lilly! Why would we want to do that now? With this force growing against us? There aren’t enough of us to fight as it is!” Mortimer answered, his voice rising to its typical booming level.
“Oh, I don’t know. I’m sure you’d find a reason. You’ve found reasons for the craziest ideas before.” Again, those furtive eyes going to Viggo.
“Now, now,” Viggo answered. “Be more cooperative, my dear Lilly. Your mother wouldn’t be proud of this attitude of yours.”
“You leave my mother out of this!” The suddenness of her shriek made me jump, her shrill voice piercing my eardrum. She was on her feet instantly, her cool, calm composure gone, her bottom lip quivering, appearing ready to burst into tears. She shook visibly, whether from anger or fear, I did not know. Maybe both.
“We are not lying, and we do need your help,” Mage said soothingly.
Kait snorted. “Why don’t you just create an army, then?”
“Now why didn’t we think of that?” Viggo retorted, his hands lifting to the sky dramatically, sarcasm thick in his tone.
“Four vampires in this world can transform a human and none of us will do it for the purposes of war,” Mage explained calmly, ignoring Viggo. She paused to look at the newspaper on the floor. “Well, five technically, though Jonah will be too busy murdering people to convert them.”
“Four?” Lilly asked, her voice calm again as she sat back down, her eyes dancing over the group. “I see three here.”
“Yes, one of us is … indisposed at the moment,” Mage answered, a sad smile on her face. “And he’s good for nothing more than getting himself killed right now. Creating vampires to fight against humans is exactly how the war in my world began. We’ll do anything we can to avoid a repeat.”
The six of them shared a puzzled what is she talking about? look with each other before turning back to Mage. “Your world?” Lilly murmured, again with an impish grin. It was fascinating, watching her switch from authoritative and cool to inquisitive child.
Mage nodded. “Sofie can give you all the details. Sofie?”
Sofie explained in the shortest way possible—her spell to counter the venom issue, my curse, and bringing the Ratheus vampires back, only to find out it’s a parallel world.
“Bloody witches and their magic,” Kait hissed. “I wish you’d all just die! We wouldn’t be dealing with any of this!”
“Well, if we don’t get a handle on this soon, your wish will come true. No witch will survive when the vampires are desperate for blood,” Sofie answered coldly.
There was another long pause and then Lilly folded her arms across her flat chest. “And how do you propose we help you?”
Sofie heaved a heavy sigh, as if she already suspected what their answer would be and it wouldn’t be favorable. “Give me your allegiance.”
I choked back at gasp. Sofie was asking Viggo’s arch nemesis to bind herself to her for eternity? Suddenly, I wanted to hug Mortimer for divulging information to me, so I could follow along with the conversation, as crazy as it was.
There was a long pause and then all six of them burst out in laughter, wide-eyed looks of amused shock. “First you tell us about this other world and now you ask us bind ourselves to you. This just seems too …” Lilly said between chuckles. She stood and the others followed suit.
“It must be done. I need to know that I can trust you. That’s the only way,” Sofie answered, a touch of pleading in her tone. “All of you pledge your allegiance to me and we will keep our end of this.” She turned to give Viggo a nod.
He vanished. Three seconds later, he appeared in the exact spot holding a bronze container.
“Viggo …” Sofie’s eyebrows arched in that knowing way. With a heave of exasperation, he leaned down and placed it on the ground in front of him, a pained look on his face as if reluctant to part with it.
Whatever it was, I could tell it was important to Lilly by the way she shifted on her feet and took a step forward. Kait put a hand on her forearm to hold her back. I watched as Lilly swallowed several times, the muscles in her neck cording.
“Pledge allegiance, and it’s yours,” Sofie said softly.
Lilly’s pained eyes flickered back and forth between the bronze thing and Sofie, a silent debate battling inside her mind. I wondered which side would win. Finally, her face turned hard. “I don’t believe you. You’re lying about this war,” she stated, as if passing a court ruling. “We’ll be leaving now, with the urn. You promised it to me for coming here and listening.”
My heart jumped. No, Lilly, she’s not lying. If only you could see … “She’s telling the truth. I was there,” I blurted.
Six heads whipped in my direction; six unsympathetic gazes settled on me. I shrunk back into Caden, longing to dissolve into the marble floor.
Sofie didn’t seem fazed by Lilly’s reaction. “I was afraid you’d say that.” She turned to Mage.
“Would you all please pay close attention to Sofie?” Mage instructed in a smooth croon, soft enough to lull a baby to sleep. As one, their heads turned obediently. She was compelling them! “Go on. Show them. Show them my world,” she said.
With a steely glare of determination, Sofie closed the distance to Mage and clasped hands with her. Then they stood, side by side, hand in hand, not moving, not speaking. I knew, though, with certainty, that a lot was happening, and it involved Sofie’s magic.
Six catatonic faces gazed at Sofie. I leaned back against Caden, gripping his forearm tightly, desperate to see what Sofie was showing them. I studied Lilly’s pale blue eyes with fascination as they drifted through seven hundred years of war, death, escape, and the evolving hell that Mage had come to know—the hell that Earth would become.
Suddenly, tiny red lines spidered across those blue irises, destroying their delicate beauty, taking away all impressions of the child before me. They were now the eyes of a hungry vampire. The same hideous transformation was happening in each of them. I turned my face to the side to bury it against Caden’s chest, unwilling to watch what had haunted so many of my nights.
Sofie’s musical voice broke the silence. “So now you have seen firsthand what will happen. Do not doubt that it will happen here as well.” Six heads jerked as if slapped out of their trances, all of them looking between Sofie and Mage, their heads shaking back and forth absently.
And then, like a switch going off inside Lilly, I saw her eyes narrow at Mage, her hands flexed at her thighs. It didn’t take long to learn why. “She’s the original!” she shrieked, throwing an accusatory finger at Mage, unmasking the ancient vampiress for what she could do. But how did Lilly know what the original vampire could do when even Sofie hadn’t known?
The announcement knocked the others out of their bewildered state. Feral hisses exploded in the room, transforming the place into a pit of snakes. Caden’s arms constricted around my body until I struggled to breathe. I was sure this was it. I was sure the war would begin here. My heart stopped, waiting for the initial explosion, wondering who would survive, who else I would lose. A scream sat on the tip of my tongue, a plea of mercy. For the briefest of seconds, an eerie silence hung over the room.
Lilly’s head whipped around and her gaze held mine ... It was only a second but those eyes … they were intentionally on me. And then … they vanished. All six of them. The last thing I saw was the trailing red leather of Kait’s long jacket as she passed through the already shattered window. So quick, so sudden an exit that my mind barely registered the sting as something sliced into my flesh. Not until a wet feeling trickled along my skin and I glanced down to see red fluid flowing freely down my arm, crawling over Caden’s hand, dripping onto the cream marble tile floor did the throb begin.
Someone had attacked me, and I was sure it was someone with a cute short bob and sweet sky blue irises.
“Oh God,” Amelie moaned from her corner in the room, scrambling back against the wall. Caden whipped my body around to face me. He grabbed hold to stare at the gaping gash running half the length of my forearm. Dropping my arm, he held out his hand. It was coated completely in my blood.
So much blood.
I sucked in a gasp as I saw those tiny red lines began to form, to grow, to pulsate. To show his overpowering hunger for me. For my blood. Blood that would kill him with just one taste.
“Caden! Back up right now!” Sofie screamed, her voice sounding distant and muffled as my own blood pounded inside my head, terror locking every muscle in my body. Caden’s jaw tightened. Slowly, he slid backward away from me. One step, another, another, away from me and my toxic blood. Then he bolted out the broken window.
“Caden!” Sofie yelled, panicked. “Mortimer, Viggo, please stop him before he attacks them.”
Mortimer and Viggo obliged for once without a single word. As they passed me, I caught Viggo’s quick scan of my arm. His nostrils flared, the faintest lines of red forming in his eyes. Even Viggo was struggling.
The next few moments felt like an out-of-body experience. I hardly registered cool hands gripped around my waist. Mage, standing beside me and holding me steady in case I toppled over. I heard the sound of ripping fabric as Sofie ripped a strip off the bottom of her black turtleneck. My thoughts were consumed by one thing and one thing only: what would one drop of my blood do to Caden?
“Hold her arm up,” Sofie instructed Mage, and my arm was instantly yanked up into the air. Sofie wrapped the strip around my bicep and tied it off, mumbling absently, “We have to stop the bleeding … get rid of this blood … Kiril!” she shouted. The door burst open and Yeti One appeared. “Towels. Now,” she ordered. He disappeared without a word.
A soft whimper sounded from somewhere in the room. Sofie’s head whipped around. “Max! Get Amelie out of here. Now!” she barked. Max didn’t need to do much. Amelie was already scurrying past with her head down, Julian following closely, his eyebrow drawn with worry as he looked at me.