16. Operation Veronique—Evangeline
My heart hammered against my ribs as I skulked along the fifth-floor shadows toward the Red Room. “I don’t get it. Where is everyone?”
“I agree. Based on the expected inhabitants, this is suspicious.” Wraith didn’t skulk. He stalked forward with a stiff spine, unfazed by the bizarre emptiness of Viggo’s place. Where my head almost rotated three hundred and sixty degrees, looking for hidden sorceresses in crannies, his dead blue mirrors stared straight ahead. No fear.
Since sneaking in through the underground garage, we hadn’t crossed a single soul. Hadn’t heard a step, a voice, a yell. Nothing. It was as if the place had been abandoned. Every fiber of me screamed, Get out of here! I ignored it. Not without Veronique. Not without Julian.
As we rounded the last corner before reaching the Red Room, a low sound drifted down the hall. A confusing mixture of dread and relief swarmed me. They were still here.
“Wait,” Wraith commanded pointing to the marble floor. My feet obeyed instantly. With his shoulders back, his strides naturally confident, he pushed open the double doors and disappeared.
“Who are you?” a muffled male voice boomed, followed by a distinct clicking sound—a gun. Wraith didn’t answer. “Stand back or you’re dead!” the man threatened. I pictured him holding the gun up to Wraith’s head.
“What on earth—” a female voice said, but broke off. I imagined her incomplete sentence was courtesy of Wraith’s hand clamping onto her wrist as she fell to her knees, dying. Three ear-splitting shots rang out and I stumbled back, my heart in my throat, wary of stray bullets. With my back pressed against the opposite wall, my heart pounded in my ears as I scanned the halls, straining to listen for footsteps. Surely with all that noise, someone would come. Surely we’d be caught. Surely—
“It is safe now,” Wraith announced, poking his head out, a calm, disinterested expression on his face. Clambering into the Red Room, I almost fell over the male prone on the floor—chest down and face up. A little farther over, I saw the woman, the witch, who had the clear misfortune of believing her magic could stop Wraith, now nothing more than a shrunken corpse. Looking away, I concentrated on the frail shell of a body lying on the king-sized bed, taking in her swollen mess of bruises and burns, her clothes in bloodstained tatters.
“Veronique?” I called out in a strangled gasp. No answer. No flicker of life. Terror’s icy hand seized my organs as I ran to her. I leaned over to inspect her face. “Veronique?” Glossy slits opened to gaze back at me.
“Eve?” My name came out in a croak.
My knees buckled with relief. “Oh, thank God, Veronique. Yes, it’s me. We’re going to get you out of here. Now.” One tear rolled out the corner of her right eye, trailing down to hit the red pillowcase. What they had done to her …
What they must be doing to Julian. I did a sweep of the room to confirm it was empty. “Do you know where they’ve taken my friend?”
All I got was a small negative grunt in response.
An ache formed in the back of my throat. He could be anywhere! How would I find him? In that moment, I prayed for Sofie and Caden. They always knew what to do. They were always taking care of things. Not this time. This time, I was alone. It was all on me.
God help Julian and Veronique.
Okay. I took a deep breath. First things first. I turned to Wraith. “Can you carry her? And make sure you don’t accidently kill her …”
Without answering, he quickly swooped in and, with gentle motion I didn’t think possible of Death himself, he slipped his arms under her frail body. She wriggled her brow. “Nathan?”
“Hurry,” I demanded, ignoring her confusion. There’d be plenty of time to explain later. He scooped her up and followed me out. We tore down five sets of stairs, struggling to keep quiet, rushing blood in my ears disorienting. I barreled through the red doors into the atrium …
And slammed into Caden. “Evangeline!” Caden hissed, grabbing my biceps with a death grip, murder on his face. “Are you fucking crazy?” He wasn’t alone. Amelie, Max and brothers, the wolves, Lilly, and her posse stood in a wall behind him with equally unimpressed faces.
“I had to …,” I faltered, my face burning.
He wasn’t having any of it. “What the hell do you think you’re doing in here! I tell you you’re not coming in here and so you sneak out?” His eyes turned cold and hard. I had never seen him this angry. It was a struggle not to be terrified. But now was not the time. I swallowed back the tears forming as a storm of indignation brewed within me over his chastising.
“They have Julian, Caden. I saw it. They had him and they wanted you all here so they could kill you.”
“Where?” Amelie’s lips trembled, her head whipping around in every direction.
I shook my head. “I don’t know. No one’s here. Would they have left?”
“Not likely,” Lilly murmured, cool eyes rolling over the atrium.
Caden took Veronique from Wraith’s hands. “Wraith—you idiot. You shouldn’t have brought her here. But you need to get her out. Now. Lilly, Amelie. The rest of you. Go find Julian.” They vanished without a second’s delay.
To Wraith, Max, and his brothers, Caden directed, “Help me get them both out of here and we’ll come back.” We took off, picking our steps around the upturned cobblestone and charred bodies across the atrium, back to the entrance that would lead to the garage.
“Hurry up!” Caden hissed, his brow wrinkled. “This is too easy,” I heard him mutter.
Prickles ran down my vertebrae.
Halfway across the atrium, Caden and Max stopped dead in their tracks, sending Wraith and I swerving to avoid them. “What is it?” My eyes skimmed the thousand barriers someone could hide behind, expecting they had finally spotted someone.
Caden didn’t answer.
We’re spelled! We can’t move! Max yelled. Get out of here, now!
Spelled. That meant only one thing. Witches.
I rushed around to meet Caden’s face, an ice sculpture. Frozen. Veronique still lay cradled in his arms, barely conscious.
“What is wrong?” Wraith asked curiously.
“They’re spelled.” Icy blood coursed through my veins. “Here. Take Veronique and get—”
My words were cut off.
“Clever girl!” The words reverberated through the atrium, followed by a menacing laugh. One I recognized well. “Clever and stupid. Did you think you could waltz in here with that abomination and kidnap our prisoner?”
I pivoted on my heels, madly searching for that wild, white streak of hair. Only destruction and death surrounded me.
“Still haven’t figured it out?” I shook my head dumbly in answer to her taunt.
My breath caught as forms suddenly stepped out of nothingness, as if lifting invisibility cloaks. Dozens of them, their fingers alight and primed for attack. They’d been here all along, watching. Waiting.
Wraith’s long legs scissored forward. “Stop, demon!” Imogen screamed, pinkish-orange fire bolts shooting from her hands to slam into Wraith’s chest. With a mixture of intrigue and horror, I watched as the fired looped around his body, coiling tighter and tighter until it simply disappeared. His body absorbed the fire. When Wraith looked up at Imogen, he did something I believed him incapable of.
He smiled.
Imogen’s face turned ashen for just a second before angry heat flushed her cheeks. With a narrowing determined scowl, she waved a hand to her right, signaling someone. Two hulking thugs emerged from behind a singed bush, dragging a limp, unresponsive male body out from the shadows. The air left my lungs in a rush.
“Julian!” I cried out, lunging forward. Wraith somehow closed the five-foot distance between us, his solid arm shooting up to block me.
“He’s been a wonderful source of information!” Imogen’s eyes burned with delight. “Really. It only took a bit of … coaxing. And to think he just walked in here of his own free will!”
A glimpse at Julian’s raw feet proved exactly how they had coaxed him. I bit back a sob. Julian was always getting hurt trying to help me.
Trying not to look obvious, I searched the gaping window holes of the destroyed atrium. Where were the others? They had to be watching! They’d come, they’d rescue us, they’d—
“Looking for these?” Imogen snapped her fingers. A procession of Sentinels dragged seven Merth-bound bodies with them. Behind them came five wolves in human form, knives held against their throats. “I have to say, finding all this Merth was a pleasant surprise. It has come in quite handy.”
We were trapped.
Touch me, Max demanded. You’ll break her spell like you did with Bishop. Then I’ll gladly tear her throat out.
Genius! He was only about ten steps away. Slowly, I shifted toward him. If I could just…
“Don’t move!” Imogen shrieked, her hand now pointing at me. I froze, under no delusion that I could absorb flames like Wraith. In that second, the Sentinel swooped in, winding Merth around Max and all his brothers.
“Him too,” Imogen commanded with a head thrust toward Caden. “Get her out of his arms, though.” Obeying her orders, a large Asian man yanked Veronique out of Caden’s arms, letting her drop to the broken cobblestone as they immobilized Caden. My heart sank. “There. That’s better. Now we can focus on you.” I struggled not to cower under her gaze. They had thought of everything. Three witches stepped forward, hands stretched out toward me. Looking down at my hand, I would do anything for the Tribe’s deadly power in my touch. Of course, though, the one time I needed it …
Wraith intercepted, seizing two of their arms. I watched them crumble to the ground, their skin and bodies desiccated in seconds, the life gone from their eyes.
“Wraith!” I hissed. “Stand down!” Somehow I didn’t think they’d let him march forward and take each witch down, one by one. But he wasn’t listening to me, instead moving on to another witch nearby.
They proved my instincts right. A willowy blond witch ran for Caden’s arm, seizing it with white knuckles. “Don’t you see this one is important to her?” A broad knife appeared from out of nowhere, the tip pressing up against Caden’s chest. “I’ll skewer his heart right out of his chest and burn it if you take another step.”
A cold shiver radiated through me, swelling until my entire body was numb. She was appealing to Wraith’s sensitive side. Wraith had no sensitive side! He had only one side. One purpose. Death.
Caden was as good as dead.
I croaked, trying to get the useless plea out before Wraith killed again.
But he did something unexpected. He stopped of his own accord. Why would he? Realization hit me. His mission was to protect me from harm. Caden being killed would harm me. Wraith understood how important Caden was to me. His brain did process human emotions after all. I caught myself staring at him in shock.
“That’s right. You don’t want to break your girl’s heart, do you?” Imogen grinned wickedly, proud they had reins over Death himself, if only temporarily. Still, her grin only thinly veiled her terror.
Wraith scared the shit out of everyone.