4. Enemies and Allies
“Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine,” Leo recited in a startlingly authentic American accent as we watched the movie credits roll on the flat screen, the reflection glinting off the window glass against the backdrop of night. It was after eleven now, but darkness had fallen many hours ago. “Casablanca is my favorite movie, you know,” he added with the excitement of a child arriving at a fair.
You don’t say? Max muttered from his spot on the floor beside the sectional I shared with Julian. The sarcastic comment earned a snicker from me before I could stifle it. It was the fourth time Leo had made that announcement.
“I can’t believe I’m only seeing it now,” I said as I leaned over to grab another fistful of buttery popcorn from the ceramic bowl. I stole a glance at Julian and caught his eyes on me. I smiled. He smiled back but said nothing. He seemed tired. His olive complexion hadn’t completely returned yet.
We had spent the entire day in the great room, sprawled out on either side of the gray sectional couch as Julian recovered from his near-death trek. The servants quietly swept through several times during the day to bring snacks and hot drinks, which we readily accepted, Julian surprising me with the manners of a well-trained schoolboy. Otherwise, no one said two words to us.
After I had divulged the secrets behind my connection to the vampires, Julian must have felt the need to reciprocate, because he gave me a summary of his life, from his early grade school days in Colombia to his American all-boys private school to being accepted into Harvard medical school just this year. It was a fairly normal—if privileged—life for the son of a Colombian drug lord and slave-monger and it helped strengthen my sense of connection with my human companion in this isolated part of the world. We may have come from very different backgrounds, but we were equally confined by vampires.
As the day progressed and Julian’s chattiness waned, I plugged in one of the seven hard drives sitting beside the forty-two inch plasma screen. No one could say Sofie hadn’t prepared for years of entertainment. We settled on a marathon of goofy sitcoms and movies. Julian and I seemed to have the same tastes in shows. That was a good thing, given we would likely be watching a lot of them together.
It was dinnertime when Leo resurfaced from his room, his skin chalky, supporting himself on the furniture as he shuffled into the great room. In a burst of energy, Julian sprang from the couch to rush over and pull out a chair at the dining table for the old man, then offered to fetch some of Magda’s delicious broth, if the beef goulash was too heavy. His attitude toward Leo had changed drastically since the old warlock had saved his life. Watching the exchange quietly from my nook on the couch, I smiled. Perhaps living here together would work after all.
“Oh, I’m not surprised it took being exiled to the middle of nowhere by a vampire for you to sit down and watch this classic. You young folks and your MTV and video games—or whatever the newest thing is,” Leo muttered as he pointed the gray plastic remote at the television and shut it off. “No appreciation for the arts.”
He struggled to rise from his chair. Julian threw his blanket off and slid for his corner of the couch to rise and reach for Leo’s arm, but Leo waved him off, adding grumpily, “I’m not a geriatric!” Julian flinched as if struck. “But thank you for your concern,” Leo quickly added, his tone more civil.
The old Irishman managed to get to his feet and hobbled over to the fire. “Can’t seem to keep the warmth in this drafty place,” he murmured as he leaned over to grab a log, bracing his other hand on the stones of the fireplace. Testing the weight of the log, he changed his mind and grabbed a smaller log. With some effort, he heaved it into the fire.
A twinge of worry nagged at me, seeing such crippled movements where only days ago he’d been a spry seventy-eight-year-old, practically bounding around. It was as if he had aged twenty years overnight. The exertion required for that spell to transport me here, followed by healing Julian, was proving too much for him. He should be resting. “Leo, why don’t you just use your magic for the fire?” I suggested.
He chuckled. “I enjoy stoking the fire.” He demonstrated by poking the logs with the iron prod to kindle the flames. “And if I used my magic for everything I could, rigor mortis would have set into this old corpse by now.”
Leo a corpse. Dead. The very thought brought a pang of grief to my stomach. He was my ally, my magical guardian, along with Max. More, I felt a strange kinship to him, finding his sympathetic pats and gentle nods so . . . grandfatherly. I had never met my grandfather. I had no idea what it was like to have one. Yet, if I closed my eyes and tried to picture my mother’s father, Leo’s weathered, smiling face was the first to appear. I couldn’t have him dying while protecting me. Maybe Sofie could heal him . . . if I could just get her here, somehow. “Have you heard anything more from Sofie?”
Leo opened his mouth to speak, then clamped it shut as his eyes darted to Julian.
“I’ve told Julian everything,” I blurted, earning a loud grumble of disapproval from Max.
Leo’s grim face indicated his agreement with my disgruntled canine. “Of course you have, silly girl,” he muttered, exasperation in his voice. “You’ve learned nothing! I think you may be allergic to secrecy.”
“Yes, I have learned!” I retorted, defiantly thrusting out my chin. I certainly had learned about the advantages of keeping secrets from vampires and witches. “But look at him!” I threw my hand out to point at Julian, who now squirmed uncomfortably on the couch as we discussed him. “He’s a human. He’s harmless.”
Leo’s mouth curved in a condescending smirk. “You assume humans are harmless?”
“No, but . . . ” I stumbled over my words. In the end, there was only one answer I could give: the one that made sense. “He has a right to know. Just as I did.”
Sympathy smoothed Leo’s frown. With a slight nod, he settled into the tawny leather chair beside the fire. Julian and I waited in silence as he pulled his pipe out from his vest’s inner pocket. He took his time unraveling the small burgundy packet of tobacco and tapping the corner of it on the edge of his pipe, filling its bowl.
My patience finally ran out. “So, about Sofie. Have you heard from her?” I pressed.
Leo paused and finally shook his head, concern filling his gray eyes.
“Well, can’t you send her a message?” I turned to Julian, now sitting on the couch. “They can talk to each other through some sort of communication spell Sofie set up years ago when she was helping—”
“No. I can’t,” Leo cut me off, scowling his annoyance.
I bit my lip, silently admonishing myself. Leo and Sofie’s relationship was a private story that Leo had entrusted me with, I realized. Maybe I am allergic to secrets! Only I didn’t know it was a secret . . . “Helping him with something,” I finished vaguely.
Leo held a match to his pipe, then spoke through a cloud of smoke as he puffed it alight. “A few hours ago, Sofie reached out to me, only she slammed the connection shut before I could get a response to her.”
I frowned. “Why would she do that?”
He lifted an eyebrow. “And you finally ask an interesting question. Why, indeed?”
“Well, ask her!”
Leo shook his head. “There are rules, my dear Evangeline. Rules imposed by Sofie, and I dare not cross that fiery woman. Sofie’s extremely paranoid, especially when it comes to you. I learned long ago never to question her.” He took another puff on his pipe before he continued. “She warned me not to communicate to her if anything seemed suspicious. Abruptly cutting off communication like that is suspicious. Under no circumstances am I to initiate a message chain now. I can only respond once she’s reached out to me.”
“Well, did you guys agree on a schedule, at least?”
“Of course.”
“So can’t you . . . ” I trailed off. What could he do, given the limitations Sofie had imposed? I felt my shoulders slump with disappointment, then tense as panic set in.
Leo sighed heavily. “Look . . . I’m going to tell you everything I know because I think you can handle it and because you’ve been lied to enough for one lifetime.” He paused again as he fumbled with his pipe. “If she hasn’t sent a message by now, something’s very wrong.”
His words lost no meaning with me. Not just wrong; very wrong. That brought me from lying lazily on the couch to perching on its edge, my blanket forgotten on the floor. I barely felt the draft in the air though; my stomach had dropped to my feet. “What does that mean? Is she dead? Are they dead?”
“That would be too easy,” Julian mumbled.
“They’re my friends!” I snapped at him, his callous remark pricking me. I had no valid reason to expect his compassion for them, but he could show me some.
Julian’s brown eyes softened and he bowed his head. “Sorry.”
I turned back to see Leo vehemently shaking his head. “No, I’d know if she were dead. I’d feel the connection break.”
“And what about Caden? Is he dead? And Amelie? What about Bishop and Fiona?” My voice rose in pitch as I fired names at him. “They are! She doesn’t want to tell me!” Up until now, knowledge that they were safely in New York City, on the same planet as me, had brought me a security blanket of comfort. But Leo’s ambiguity was wrenching that blanket from my grasp.
Leo’s forehead creased as he shook his head. “No, no. Don’t get all worked up. I don’t think that’s it.”
“Well, then why?”
“Like I said, I don’t know, Evangeline,” Leo repeated calmly.
I gripped the edge of the couch and stared at Leo, my stomach twisting with near-hysteria. “So send her a message!” I demanded. “How mad can she get?” The wrinkles on Leo’s forehead twisted as he arched an eyebrow at my insistence, and I dropped my gaze to my hands, feeling like a child being scolded. “What’s the big deal, anyway?” I muttered defiantly. “It’s not like they can find me here, right?”
“Who? Viggo? No.” Leo shook his head, then dropped his voice. “But I’m sure towns and cities all over the world are being scoured at this very moment as he hunts for you. There are people turning over every location connected to Sofie. And they will not stop. Not until they’ve found you or they’ve all died off from old age.”
The buttery taste the popcorn had left in my mouth suddenly turned rancid as I absorbed the implications of Leo’s words. Viggo was hunting me like an animal. And the end result would be much the same, if they found me. Suddenly this mountain was not remote enough. The trees were not numerous enough, the snow not deep enough; the cabin was so brightly lit, it was a shining beacon, visible from outer space. I had the urge to take an ax to the cables connecting the generators to the cabin and throw us into medieval times—anything that could help hide us from a two thousand-year-old vampire on his eternal mission to get this pendant off my neck.
My horror must have been written all over my face, because Leo rushed to calm me. “Not to worry, dear girl. They can’t possibly find you here unless they somehow . . . ” Leo’s voice drifted off in a chuckle that faded as a thought struck him. His expression suggested impossibility had become possibility. “Well, not unless they could trace the link to the spell.” He stroked his chin with a wrinkled hand, deep in thought.
A chill ran down my spine. “And who would help them do that?” I asked slowly.
Another puff of his pipe, this one long. I noticed that Julian was hanging off the couch beside me now as well, his attention riveted to Leo. We locked eyes for a moment and he offered a sympathetic smile.
The old man finally spoke. “My kind. A highly skilled sorcerer. Or sorceress.”
I swallowed around a painful lump suddenly filling my throat and asked weakly, “You can do that sort of thing?”
Leo chuckled. “Me? No. I can’t. But . . . I wouldn’t put it past someone to figure it out.” He snorted. “And of course Viggo would find that witch. He’s resourceful, that one.”
I remembered Sofie’s earlier words about witches and vampires. “I thought your kind hated their kind. Where does Viggo keep finding these witches to help him?”
He nodded. “They do hate vampires. Yes. So much that they’ll do anything to rid the world of them.” He leaned forward to inspect the fire. I recognized it as a sign that he was going to launch into a story. “Don’t you ever wonder how vampires were created?”
“I haven’t gotten to that point yet. I’m still stuck at the fact that they exist,” I answered dryly. I heard Julian’s low chuckle beside me.
“Fair enough.” Leo’s head bobbed in understanding as he leaned back into his chair. “We created them. My kind. Vampires are the result of a Causal Enchantment.”
I don’t know why this shocked me, given everything I’d seen lately, but it did. I realized my jaw was hanging open and slowly closed my mouth. Julian leaned forward beside me, his elbows on his knees, hanging on the old warlock’s every word. Words that so few would ever hear.
Leo grinned, clearly enjoying our reaction. “About five thousand years ago, a sorceress was searching for eternal youth and immortality for herself. She started messing around with that dark magic. The Fates. Nasty business, I tell you. Anyone who gets involved with them is absolutely crazy.” Leo scowled. “Anyway, they granted her Causal Enchantment. They gave her eternal youth and immortality.” The ghost of a smug smile touched Leo’s mouth. “All she needed to do was drink blood. She became the first vampire, the most unexpected outcome of a spell. And the witches have been trying to correct that mistake ever since.” He added under his breath, “Creating all kinds of other disasters along the way.”
“The first vampire was a witch?” I whispered in disbelief. “So was she like Sofie? With powers? What happened to her?”
“Oh, my kind isn’t privy to that much detail. She was ostracized as soon as the transformation happened. It’s said she held on to a few of her powers, but I don’t know. We think Viggo knows, but he won’t tell Sofie. It’s his one secret over her.”
Of course he knew. Viggo was now the oldest vampire, but he hadn’t always been the oldest vampire. I didn’t doubt that he had something to do with this first vampire’s death. He was such a conniving monster. I shuddered, imagining him storming through the side door at that moment. If I never saw him again, I’d be happy. Mortimer . . . I didn’t fear him as much, not since he’d dropped his mask for that millisecond in the atrium that day. I knew without a doubt that he’d still kill me to get to the pendant, but I also knew he wouldn’t take sadistic pleasure in it. That brought me some small level of comfort. “So do you think they’d actually trust another one?”
He shrugged, sighing loudly. “Who knows? I should suspect not, given the last ‘arrangement’ Viggo made, but who can say, with that psychopath? When he’s desperate, he gets reckless.” Bitterness tinged his voice.
I thought a moment. “So if he did find a witch to help him and Sofie doesn’t send you messages, then no one finds me and everything’s fine, right?”
Leo’s laughter rang hollow. “Yes. For us, everything’s peachy.”
I frowned. I didn’t understand this old man’s sense of humor sometimes.
Leo sighed. “There are a few other issues that could be . . . distracting her.”
My stomach did another sickly dive to my feet. “Other issues besides witches?”
Leo nodded. “Remember that day in Central Park? When you were attacked?”
“Yeah, I seem to recall something.” I glanced sideways at the dogs as another memory flashed in my mind—this one of the mutt Badger’s decapitated head. I shuddered.
“Those men with Ursula . . . they weren’t just hired thugs,” Leo explained. “They were hired ‘People’s Sentinel’ thugs.”
I felt my forehead crease as I wracked my memory for something to link to the name. No bells. “Have you mentioned them before?”
Leo groaned heavily. “Why must I be the one to explain everything? The People’s Sentinel is a long-standing secret society of humans fighting for humankind against vampires. Against anything nonhuman, actually. Even against witches. They’ve existed for thousands of years now. You heard of women burned for being witches?” Julian and I nodded in unison. “The handiwork of the Sentinel. In the past, their society numbered in the thousands. Then they fell into the background like a sleeper cell, where they’ve remained for several hundred years. Only now they’ve resurfaced and they’re stronger than ever. We’re not sure how many are involved. Mortimer and Viggo had been lying low for years while this mess with Veronique was getting settled—hence the Foreros’ involvement. However, we’ve started seeing them around again.”
“Well, if they hate the witches so much, why would they have been working with Ursula? Are you sure it was them? Maybe you’re mistaken.”
Leo leaned over and gestured to the meaty part of his hand. “Because they brand themselves with tattoos on their hand. The markings look like deformed crosses.”
Leo’s words jarred forth a memory. A deceptively nice old gentleman’s hand. And on it, a curved cross tattoo. “I saw it!” I confirmed.
“They all have them. Stupid, really. It marks them immediately for what they are. Vampires can spot them a mile away.”
“What happened to these people who attacked you in Central Park?” Julian asked.
“Oh, Max and the others got hold of them.” My eyes closed and I shuddered, trying to shake that gruesome bloodbath from my memory. “But these Sentinel people would have killed me otherwise.”
“Oh . . . ” Julian murmured. He looked at Max. “Good.”
Maybe he isn’t a complete nitwit after all, Max grumbled, earning an eye roll from me.
Leo continued. “The only reason Viggo and Mortimer have restrained themselves from hunting down the Sentinel up until now is because of Veronique. The moment she is out and transformed, they will go on a mission to rid the world of every last one. I guarantee you that.”
And I’ll be there with fangs on! Max chirped eagerly in my head. Not one of them will survive.
“Easy, Max. That won’t be for a while.”
“What’d he say?” Julian asked, his brown eyes shifting between me and Max.
“Oh,” I reached over to scratch behind Max’s ear, “anyone with a Sentinel tattoo pretty much has a death warrant with Max, here.”
Julian hesitated, watching the dog. “I don’t blame him.” He looked back to Leo. “So . . . do you think they can win? This Sentinel group?”
“They’re only human. What could they possibly do against an army of vampires?” I answered before Leo could.
When I glanced at the old man for confirmation, his eyebrow arched. “Oh, I don’t know,” he drawled. “How about starting a war that obliterates all of humankind? Sound familiar?”
My eyes went wide and I gasped. Ratheus. A war between humans and vampires. He was right. How could I have forgotten about that? I was so wound up with my own situation that I hadn’t connected the dots.
“They likely wouldn’t,” Leo continued, trying to mollify me. “The easier thing for the Sentinel to do is bomb the Manhattan building. That would eliminate ninety-five percent of the vampires on Earth. They’d just have to pluck off a few more . . . ”
I felt the blood drain from my face as a vivid image sprang into my mind of Viggo and Mortimer’s palace exploding—with Caden and the others trapped inside. If Caden died, if Sofie died, I’d have no one left. The very thought forced tears to my eyes.
“Oh, Evangeline, I’m sorry,” Leo exclaimed, softening at the sight of my distress. “I don’t mean to sound blithe. I highly doubt that’ll happen. As long as the Sentinel is left in the dark about what’s going on inside those walls and about the venom issue, there’s no reason they’d do something so drastic.”
“But what if they find out?”
“Who’s going to tell them? No one,” Leo assured me, adding sarcastically, “You’re here. Otherwise I’d be worried.” I answered with an irritated scowl. Now was not the time for teasing.
“Is that what happened on this Ratheus?” Julian asked me softly. Despite the detail I had gone into earlier that day, I hadn’t gotten into specifics about Ratheus with him. I wasn’t in any mood to explain those details now, with my body numb, my heart aching. So I simply nodded. “Humans against vampires. The humans lost. They can’t win,” I said, my voice hollow.
The room fell quiet as we all absorbed the full weight of the situation. Well, what we thought may be the situation. Julian shifted around on the couch as if unable to get comfortable. He likely wouldn’t be able to—most people become overly sensitive when words like “war” get thrown around.
Finally Julian did speak. “So, how do we stop this from happening?”
“We can’t do anything, up here in the mountains. Absolutely nothing.” Leo paused. “Sofie needs to keep the Sentinel calm and the witches uninvolved, for starters. We can’t let any of them know what’s going on inside those walls. Nothing about the venom issue.”
“Right,” Julian murmured, adding slowly, “because if they can kill all these Ratheus vampires in New York in one blow, no more could be created.”
“Right,” Leo confirmed. “They’d likely attack with full force, trying to eradicate the lot of them before they could create more.”
“In fact, from Earth’s standpoint, it would be best if they did do it. Because then there would be no retaliation. The general population would likely never even find out vampires exist,” Julian surmised.
No wonder he’s in med school. He’s catching on way faster than I ever did, I thought, even as despair flooded into me. They were talking about my friends and Sofie and why killing them would save the world. No . . . that couldn’t happen. There had to be another way.
“And what happens if this Sentinel and the witches don’t find out? If everyone’s all happy and quiet, no one kills anyone?” Julian asked Leo.
“The Sentinel isn’t going away. Not unless they’re all hunted down and killed. The witches certainly aren’t going anywhere. Whether they fight now or fight later, it’s . . . inevitable. But if they fight later . . . once the vampires are released and able to breed more vampires to build an army . . . ” Leo shook his head. “Not good.”
“Ratheus will happen,” I whispered. I dropped my forehead into my palms. This conversation had gone from horrible to catastrophic. My friends were never going to live in quiet peace, even after they conquered their blood lust. After everything they’d been through, after a war and seven hundred years of waiting, the course of their lives could now possibly repeat itself. “Are we doomed, Leo? I mean, is this our fate? Are we destined to end up like Ratheus?” I asked, barely above a whisper.
The lines on Leo’s forehead deepened as he frowned. “I’m not a fan of fate. It breeds concession—a nasty human weakness. Besides, there are clear differences between Ratheus and Earth, the biggest one being Sofie’s magical blunder. Now, if they were parallel planets, on the other hand . . . ” He took a haul on his pipe. “Doom would likely be the operative word.”
“Right.” Earth is not Ratheus, I repeated mentally, the reminder helping calm my racing heart. A tiny shred of hope, but something I desperately needed. If Caden could just hang on until Sofie released them, they could go into hiding, somewhere away from the Sentinel. Even here. And if we could get Veronique out of their tomb, Viggo and Mortimer could leave New York, vanish from the radar. Then this Sentinel would have nothing to hunt. Or wouldn’t they? I recalled Leo’s words. “You said ninety-five percent of vampires. Not a hundred percent.”
Leo winked.
“Ugh! Leo, you said no more secrets. There are more? I thought those three were it! Where are the other vampires and why don’t they help?”
Leo tapped his finished pipe into an ashtray. “Viggo has made enemies. They won’t come within a thousand miles of him.”
“Surprise, surprise,” I muttered.
Leo barked a laugh. “That’s right. You’re not the only one Viggo has screwed over.”
“What’d he do?” Julian asked.
“Like I said before—Viggo was not the first vampire, but he’s now the oldest.”
“That means he killed off an older, more powerful vampire? Why?” Julian asked. “So he could be the oldest?” When Leo answered with a noncommittal shrug, Julian asked, “How?” Leo’s head was shaking before he answered, his eyes widening momentarily, as if strained. Our barrage of questions was starting to annoy him. “I haven’t the slightest clue. It took some extraordinary manipulation and acting on his part, I’m sure. But he is one devious creature.” Leo stood with an exaggerated stretch. “Let’s save the rest of this talk for another night. We’ll have many of them yet. Max, you’ll walk Evangeline upstairs?” Leo didn’t wait for an answer, of course. He shuffled by, lightly patting my head. “Get some rest, Evangeline.” He nodded once to Julian. “Night.”
Julian nodded back, and his eyes followed the old man all the way to the stairs. We sat in silence in the great room, brooding over the possible end of the world.
Suddenly feeling the cold, I tugged my blanket up to wrap it around myself. I burrowed into the corner of the sectional and pulled my feet up so I was curled into a tiny ball, even then wishing I could just disappear. Julian, who had moved to sit beside me while talking to Leo, leaned back until he was half lying, half sitting and threw his own blanket over himself, but he didn’t return to his corner of the couch. Yesterday’s awkwardness had completely vanished between us, leaving us comfortable with one another. I rested my cheek on the cushion behind me and quietly studied Julian’s profile as he stared ahead into the night, deep in thought. All traces of his scowl were gone. He was good-looking; really good-looking. And yet there were no sparks as I gazed at him now. Nor did I feel anything from him toward me, given his earlier proclamation that I wasn’t his “type.” Nothing hung between us and I was happy for that. I wonder what Amelie would think of him? I smiled to myself.
Julian turned to catch me smiling and frowned. “I didn’t expect smiles after that news.”
The reminder wiped any trace of happiness off my face. I shook my head. “I was just thinking about . . . something unimportant.”
“Well, what are we going to do?” Julian asked.
There was that word—we. Not “you,” but “we,” as if he were joining me in this struggle, sharing in my fears and pain so I didn’t need to bear them alone. I had another ally. “I don’t know. You heard Leo. We can’t do much here. We just have to hope the secrets remain hidden, that no one who could use this information against them finds out. And then when we get out of here, we find a new life. You’re welcome to come with us. Sofie made sure I had lots of money.” I wasn’t going to tell him how much. That would just sound like bragging.
“Right.” Julian snorted. “Live with a bunch of vampires? How exactly do you do that . . . ” His voice drifted off as understanding slackened his face. “You’re not going to . . . turn yourself into one of them? I mean, I guess that would make the most sense, but . . . ” His tone betrayed his disapproval.
I shrugged noncommittally, as Leo had earlier, averting my eyes. I knew the answer. So did Julian. He didn’t need me to say it.
He wouldn’t let it go, though. “How can you even think of doing that? Choose to kill humans, to drink blood!”
A tremor ran through my body. “I don’t want to think about any of that,” I muttered.
“Well, you need to! You need to think about what kind of life that is!” He was no longer talking quietly but almost yelling. Max’s head lifted, cobra-like, and he eyed a warning at Julian. “I’m sorry, Max,” Julian said, lowering his voice as he addressed the dog—a strange thing to watch from a different perspective, “but she needs to think about what she’s giving up before she goes and does something stupid!”
“It’s not stupid!” I retorted, but my voice was unconvincing. Maybe Julian was right. Maybe it was stupid. Maybe it was downright insane. All I knew was that the idea of becoming one of them wasn’t half as scary as the idea of losing all of them, an idea that had just come to life, thanks to Leo. I wasn’t sure I could live as a vampire, but I was now one hundred percent positive that I couldn’t live the rest of a human life without my vampire.
A touch on my calf made me look—Julian’s hand on top of my blanket, patting my leg soothingly. “Please don’t cry. I hate it when girls cry. My sister always cries. It’ll be okay.”
I hadn’t noticed the tears streaming down my cheeks until now. I lifted my hand to rub them away, but Julian’s thumb was already there, gently erasing one as it rolled down the bridge of my nose. “I just feel so . . . trapped.”
Julian smirked. “Yes, I know the feeling.”
Of course he did. His life had been irrevocably changed as well. He had lost his parents, he had by all accounts nearly frozen to death, he had listened to the same devastating possibilities as me. And yet here he was, trying to make me feel better. Poor Julian. He’s stuck in here with me—a sniveling, self-pitying crybaby. Suddenly I felt foolish. There was nothing we could do about the outside world while we were here. Sofie would have things under control. She would protect Caden and the others. She would keep the peace. My only job was to stay sane until I did see Caden again.
“At least we’re trapped here together.” Julian gave my leg another pat. “It’ll be alright, you’ll see. Nothing will happen. No witches casting spells. No Sentinel attacks. Right now, boredom will be our worst enemy.”
I nodded firm agreement. “You’re right. We’ll be fine.” I swallowed the painful lump in my throat. God, I hope you’re right, Julian.
I turned in soon after, craving the comfort of my pillow, and privacy, but I was far from sleep. My mind spun in ten different directions, replaying parts of the earlier conversation that I had forgotten until now. “Hey Max, what other nonhuman things are out there?” I asked as I crawled into my double bed. The sheets held the cold, even with a fire blazing in my hearth.
Oh, this and that. The bed creaked with the weight of Max’s body as he leaned up against the frame.
“Stop being evasive, dog,” I grumbled, knowing my reference to his original species would prick his ego.
I’m not. I’m protecting you from unimportant information that will unnecessarily frighten you. You sleep poorly as it is.
“Well, I want to know! I’m ordering you!”
Warm air puffed onto my face as Max snorted loudly. On the grounds of protecting you and myself, I choose not grant your request.
Max had figured out the loophole for denying my order; he was now basically pleading the Fifth. “Since when did dogs start following the Constitution?” I muttered. He answered with that funny grunting sound I recognized as dog laughter. With a huff, I rolled over to put my back to him, pulling the covers up over my ears to shut Max out. I spent the rest of the night trying to fall asleep. And failing.