We did have a lot in common. “You’re smart to be. He’s a scary vampire and he’s capable of vile things.”
“Yes, he is,” she agreed. We shared a silent look. Her gaze screamed heartache, rank with turmoil, begging for love and attention. In that moment, there was no millennia-old vampire standing in front of me. There was a young, broken girl. There was a child I wanted to wrap my arms around, to tell her it would be okay. She would survive.
“This is my mother’s coffin,” she explained, her hand sliding along the top. “Up until yesterday, it was empty. Now, I have my mother back.” The urn … the one Viggo begrudgingly parted with. “Do you know who put her there to begin with?”
I nodded. “Viggo.”
“Viggo,” she echoed, his name ricocheting off the wall like a stray bullet, looking for someone to maim. Walking slowly around the coffin, her hand never leaving its surface, she began confiding. “My mother was the original vampire. She was thirty-five hundred years old when he killed her. Not as old as Mage, from what Sofie showed me. They were a couple. Soul mates, Mama used to say.” Lilly stopped to fumble with a brass handle at the end. “Mama wasn’t my real mama, of course. I grew up in England. My real parents were poor. We lived in the back of a barn. My dad used to hit us … and other stuff.” Her eyes drifted to the floor with shame.
“But one day, Mama saw me while at the market. My real dad was selling some stolen grain. I guess Mama wanted a child of her own.” Her fingertip traced a symbol near one of the hinges. “She told me that when she saw the bruises on my arms and legs, she got so angry, she sent Viggo to rescue me. So he came and snatched me out of there.” Lilly’s back was to me now. “He made me. I was his gift to Mama. I guess you could say he was my new father.”
I shuddered involuntarily, the idea of Viggo as a father figure equal parts repulsive and horrifying.
“We were happy for hundreds of years—the three of us and Mama’s advisors,” her arm swept over the other six coffins. “They were all nice to Mama and me. Very loyal. We were like one big family, protecting each other. They were all older than Viggo. He was the youngest of them all, aside from me.” Lilly paused to swallow. She moved to draw her finger along the top of another coffin. Even under the dim light, I could see the floral pattern she was drawing in the thick layer of dust.
“What happened?”
Her mouth curved into a frown. “I don’t think Viggo was ever in love with my mother. Well, maybe he was for a short time. But when he found out that Mama used to be a witch and she could compel vampires, things changed. He was jealous of her power.” Lilly walked back around. “That, or he was afraid she had compelled him in the past. Or perhaps he was simply crazy. Whatever the reason, he kept up the pretense for a while. Mama didn’t notice the change like I did. It must have been my child’s intuition that saw the way he looked at Mama after that.”
A momentary smile flashed across her dainty face as if she remembered something fond, but it promptly fell off with more morbid memories. “One night, he ambushed my mother and the other members, killing every last one of them. He came after me but … I escaped.” Lilly left the coffin’s side to walk over to me. “He stole Mama’s body, thinking I’d come for it, but I hid. For a few hundred years, I made sure I was nowhere he would dare be. I created a new group of advisors, a new family for myself. Kait and Gavin, they’re my family. They’ve been by my side for almost a thousand years. They take care of me. I take care of them. They’re all I have, especially now that we have this venom issue. Not that it would matter.” She held her hands out to her sides, palms up. “Look at me! I’m a child forever. I have no interest in a mate. I don’t even know what that means, other than what I’ve seen and heard. I want venom back so I can create friends and family. The family I have now … I won’t risk Viggo taking that away from me. I want to stay as far away from him as possible.”
I nodded sadly. “So that means you won’t help us?”
“I didn’t say that.”
I stifled a groan as I looked down at her. Vampires and their cryptic answers. “Sofie wants you to pledge allegiance. Will you do it?”
She gave the slightest shake of her head, crushing the spark of hope within.
“But Lilly … she won’t trust you otherwise.”
“I know.” A shy, childlike grin slid onto Lilly’s face. “But she would if I pledged my allegiance to you.”
Dead silence filled the underground cavern. “I’m sorry … I heard you wrong.” I blinked repeatedly, wincing from the pain radiating from my swollen jaw. It had to be affecting my hearing.
“I said that I will pledge my allegiance to you and then Sofie will trust me.”
Now I stared blankly at her, looking for a sign that this was a joke. But only innocence stared back, waiting. “You can’t do that!”
“Of course I can! I can do whatever I want!”
“But … but …,” I sputtered.
“But what?”
“But … why?” Why would this ancient vampire want to bind herself to me? A vampire would need to be crazy to commit themselves to a human, Mortimer had said. Was a crazy vampire asking to bind herself to me?
“Because I won’t bind myself to Sofie and yet she needs to trust me. I’m not stupid, Evangeline. I know this is serious. If Sofie’s asking me for help, then I know it’s got to be serious … Besides,” Lilly shifted a rock with her feet, “I like you. You’re … nice and … honest. I can tell.” Definitely crazy and clueless. Lilly walked back over to her mother’s coffin. “And you’re not that much older than me in human years. I always wanted a sister. Mama and I found the perfect one just before Viggo killed her.” She turned back. “The girl—her name was Rebecca—she was tall and blond like you.”
In a flash, Lilly stood inches from me. “I can trust you, right?” Those blue irises begged for the right answer. So like a young child, unsure of herself but willing to trade pride and risk of hurt for a glimpse of what she wanted.
“Of course you can trust me. I’m the one who shouldn’t trust you, remember?” I yanked up my sleeves to reveal my injured arm.
Her eyes shot to my stitches. “She hasn’t healed it.” As with most things, this wasn’t a question.
“No … She told you she couldn’t.”
Lilly’s top lip curved into a sarcastic smile. “And you know as well as I that Sofie would make a champion poker player … I had to be sure.”
“Couldn’t you have done something a little less dramatic and painful?”
“It had to be something dramatic enough that Sofie would heal if she could … Sorry. Sometimes I forget what it’s like not to heal instantly.”
“That makes one of us,” I said, cupping my hand against my sore face.
Lilly stood silently then. She was pledging her allegiance to me. I still couldn’t grasp the meaning of this whole “allegiance” concept except to understand that it was huge—monumental—to have her support and protection. I would have an ancient vampire—no, more, I would have a posse of ancient vampires—protecting me, listening to me. Because I didn’t have enough protection … I have a stronger guard than any queen with her army.
I fought to hide the cautious excitement unfolding inside me. This would be unprecedented according to Mortimer. Man! Would his jaw hit the ground when he learned about this! But what would I need to do? What did this require of me? Did I need to give her orders? I didn’t know how to scheme and plot like these shifty vampires.
“Would you do whatever I asked?”
Lilly shrugged and I caught a glint of wariness in her eyes. “Yes, I suppose so … But it doesn’t mean I’m your slave.”
I was already shaking my head. “No, no … of course no.” But I could ask her to do things that I couldn’t do, like gather information secretly … that, I could ask her to do. “Okay,” I nodded after a moment.
Lilly’s giggle carried down the hall. “You’re granting me permission to give you my allegiance? You think that’s how it works?”
“I don’t know how any of this works. And I’m tired of all the bullshit.”
“Fair enough.” Lilly stood straight and faced me. She was a full head shorter, her brow reaching my neck. Again, another shy smile and tilt of her head. “I’m not exactly sure how to do this, either. It’s not something most of us are willing to do. You’re my first.” I watched as her smile disappeared and her expression turned solemn. Bending down on one knee, like she was proposing to me, she reached up to take my hand in hers. Her skin was silky soft. I felt uncomfortable, checking the shadows around us, wondering if anyone could be watching. But Lilly wasn’t nervous or awkward. Her head angled back until I could see her face, candlelight casting a dim shadow across it.
“I, Lilly Hamlin, pledge my allegiance to you. Trust me with your life. Trust my descendants with your life. I will protect and serve you as you wish. I am yours until death.”
A pause and then she was on her feet, her face beaming proudly. “There!”
I frowned. “Really? Nothing feels different to me.” Nothing at all.
“It worked!” Lilly’s eyes were wide with genuine seriousness. “I can feel it.” She grinned. “So … now what?” Did I believe her? Was I supposed to feel anything?
“You don’t believe me, do you?” Lilly’s grin plummeted.
“It’s not that I don’t believe you …” No, I don’t believe you. I sighed. Was what she did enough? “Sofie always says I’m too trusting and that I need to be a bit more guarded,” I explained.
“Sofie’s probably right,” Lilly conceded. “But either way, you have my allegiance. Tell me what you need me to do to prove it to you.”
Here we go. I wasn’t any good at telling people what to do. I sure as hell didn’t have any idea what to tell her to do about this war. Sofie was the one who knew what she should do, not me! And that gave me an idea.
“You need to listen to Sofie.” Lilly’s face twisted with displeasure. She opened her mouth, ready to protest, but I quickly interrupted her. “You wanted to know how to prove it to me. Well, that’s how. Listen, Lilly. I don’t know the first thing about wars and battle. My manipulation skills suck. Sofie, though, she knows these things. I trust her completely. You need to trust her too. You need to do as she asks. Listen to her, Lilly.”
Lilly’s lips pressed together. “I had a feeling you’d say that.” She pulled out her cell phone as she began walking back down the tunnel toward the exit. “Come on. We’d better get you home. Sofie’s liable to torch everyone otherwise.”
I trailed behind, deciding that when I knew I could trust her, Lilly would be my means to rescuing Veronique.
***
When the gates creaked opened for Lilly’s car, we found Ivan and a horde of his wolves standing guard just inside. It took another few minutes for the car to struggle up the winding, snow-covered driveway. When we reached the loop in front, a crowd of stern expressions had already gathered—vampire, human, and werebeast.
Amelie landed at my feet the second the door opened, throwing her arms around my neck. “I’m so sorry, Evangeline!” she cried out. “Oh, thank God! I couldn’t get to you! I couldn’t move! I’m so sorry!” she gushed. “By the time I broke free, you were already gone.”
I offered a small smile, wincing from the growing throb in my jaw. “It’s okay, Amelie. I’m fine.”
Her eyes darted to my jaw, eyebrows raised. “Uh, have you seen your face? You look terrible!”
“Okay, maybe not fine, but I’ll live.” I had no idea what I looked like. I’m not sure I wanted to know. I definitely didn’t want Caden to see me like that. Speaking of which … I took in the faces around me. Everyone was here. Everyone except Viggo and Caden. For a moment, a stab of pain poked at me, wondering where he was, wondering why he wasn’t concerned enough to be waiting for me, but I pushed it aside, remembering he was likely with Bishop.
As Lilly stepped out from the driver’s side, Amelie instantly lunged at her, her claws dangerously extended. “You bitch!” Luckily Mage was there to intercept the attack, securing Amelie in a partial headlock before she reached the tiny kidnapper. Lilly didn’t flinch. In fact, I’m pretty sure I saw her smile.
“We leave you two alone for a few hours …,” Sofie began in in a cold, hard voice as she walked forward, her light touch caressing my jaw, making a tsking sound. “Why must you decide to act like a rebellious teenager now, Evangeline? You were such an obedient child, always following the rules. Now that you’re in the most danger, you’re continuously doing stupid things!”