Anomaly (Causal Enchantment #4)(3)
Author: K.A. Tucker

Oh.

Caden pulled me against him as voices rose again, clamoring to be heard. Lilly’s rancorous council member, Kait, screamed something about being trigger happy; Mortimer bellowed about being naïve fools. Even little Lilly, who normally remained composed, counted issues on her fingers. Only Mage and Sofie stood silent, watching the fury unfold.

“I thought they had a plan in place,” I whispered to Caden.

He offered me a guarded smile. “I guess they’re ironing out a few details.”

And yet we already seem to be at war, Max grumbled from his place beside me.

“Where is everyone else?” My eyes roamed the mine. It reminded me much of the caves of Ratheus. Only these were manmade and not as picturesque. Also, I assumed there was no oasis to swim in.

“Bishop and Fiona are on their way back from a blood bank,” Sofie said quietly, her eyes never leaving the commotion ahead of us, the displeasure over the entire scene visible on her striking face. “The wolves are forming a perimeter. Isaac and the others are scouting in New York.” I knew of Lilly’s other advisors besides Galen and Kait—three vampires who looked like they belonged in the military—but aside from a handful of moments, I hadn’t seen much of them. “Amelie is with Veronique and Julian in the haulage tunnel, feeding. You should take her there, Caden.”

Mage remained calm and unreadable, her slight form so still, she appeared frozen. That is, until her black, almond-shaped eyes shifted to Sofie. I saw fire in them. A silent exchange passed between the two women—the strangest of friends.

And then Mage exploded.

“Enough!” The trill of her voice caused a sharp pain in my eardrum. Silence fell as everyone turned to her, the most lethal being in the room. More lethal than Sofie armed with all of her magic, perhaps.

“Allow me to explain, seeing as you’ve never watched the demise of a human world before.” Mage stepped forward, though her normally smooth cadence was now laced with sharpness. She smoothed her long, poker-straight, jet-black tresses. Such a feminine thing to do and such a contradiction to the discussion at hand. “Jonah started building his little army weeks ago, the second he escaped. I’m sure he was stupid enough to think he could control it. Regardless of whether he continues creating more—and I would hope that he doesn’t, given he knows what the risk is—I would bet my existence that there are at least a hundred of our kind running through the streets already.”

“A hundred against a population of over eight million. Yes, I see the need to obliterate the entire city,” Galen interjected. How Lilly kept him around as her advisor—and, truly, like family—I had yet to figure out. I certainly hadn’t found a single redeeming quality in him, aside from his devotion to Lilly.

“With an endless supply of humans,” Mage continued, ignoring Galen’s doubt, “they will feed and kill with crazed abandon. Though we haven’t seen more than a few fledgling attacks to date, it will certainly come. And it will come quickly. The mere chaos will feed into their frenzy.”

“So we go and kill them. They’re fledglings! Ripe for the plucking!” Kait exclaimed, her arms raised in exasperation.

I felt the air in the room shift as a muscle in Mage’s jaw twitched, her patience wearing thin. Though I had yet to witness it, Caden had explained the speed and ruthlessness in which Mage was known to dispatch those in her way. If we didn’t need Galen and Kait, their hearts would likely have been torn from their chests by now.

“The army, infiltrated with People’s Sentinel, will be called in to take aggressive defensive measures shortly.” Mage’s severe brow arched as she took in the circle. “They will fight with guns that shoot explosive bullets because, thanks to the Sentinel, they are already well educated that they can kill us with fire. That’s when the fledglings will sense the true threat.” A delicate hand raised, two fingers held up. “And that’s when two things will happen: the fledglings will flee. Like vermin, they will scurry to safety. And, then … they will begin to evolve. Much more quickly than anything you’ve ever seen.” Mage’s every step was followed as she began to pace. “They will stop solely feeding and they will begin to breed.”

“Seven hundred years has skewed your reality,” Galen cut in. “Fledglings don’t evolve that rapidly. Go and take a look at those two back there to remind yourself.” He jutted a thumb deeper into the mine, piquing my interest. Was he talking about Julian and Veronique?

Mage moved so fast that, even with my new reflexes, I missed her close the distance. The next thing I saw was Galen on his knees, a gurgled cry escaping his gaping, bloody mouth as Mage tossed what appeared to be his tongue onto the ground.

I involuntarily curled my tongue, stealing a look Lilly’s way to see her watching with wide eyes. The entire ordeal lasted no more than three seconds, and then Galen was back on his feet, wiping the blood off his chin with his sleeve, his tongue having reformed itself in his mouth.

His vicious glares didn’t stop Mage from continuing. “It’s a natural reaction for our kind when faced with a real threat to strengthen in numbers, to preserve the species. It’s instinctual. Even you, who are impotent, must understand.” Only the slightest of smiles divulged Mage’s pleasure with the barb against those in the room incapable of transforming humans.

Galen sniffed with disdain but said nothing. I assumed he’d learned his lesson.

Her comment sparked another question—I had so many questions, it was hard to focus on what was being said here—was I impotent? Or was my venom intact? Did I even have venom? I slid my tongue along my incisors, imagining myself sinking my teeth into someone. I winced. No, that didn’t appeal to me at all.

Mage turned her back to us, her eyes now on the night beyond the entrance to the mine. “For every five humans killed, one new vampire will be born. It will quickly be two to one. The world is already watching New York. There are already countless reports of vicious animal-like attacks. Pictures and videos of Viggo and Bishop slaughtering the Sentinel are already floating around the Internet.” If only the witches hadn’t taken down the illusionary wall, then such obvious proof wouldn’t exist! “Today, people don’t believe what they’re seeing and hearing. They think it’s a hoax. Doctored images. By tomorrow, people will begin to panic, asking themselves if this is a virus turning people into savages, wondering when it will spread to their cities, to their homes. In mere days, worldwide pandemonium will erupt, just as our kind establishes itself for a countrywide sweep. Once that happens, it cannot be contained.

“If we wait, we will not be able to stop this. If we do not take drastic measures, we will not be able to stop this. I have seen it. I have lived it, firsthand. I know. And, as much as I wish I would be wrong in this, I have not been so far.” She paused. “It’s the city or the entire world. There will be no in-between.”

No one uttered a single word.

I leaned in to Caden for comfort. This all sounded both drastic and impossible. But if these last few months had proven anything to me, it was that nothing was impossible.

Turning to Sofie, Mage pushed, “It is your call. Do we act now or wait?”

Sofie’s pale eyes locked on a spot on the wall, her face its natural stony mask as she pondered the grim options. Like soldiers waiting for direction, no one said a word, the entire group waiting on Sofie to give the order.

Did she like being the leader in all this? Back when she was more focused on the urgent need of freeing her sister, she’d demanded everyone’s allegiance—binding promises of loyalty. Only a week ago, everyone here was at odds with everyone else, ready to attack and kill at the slightest provocation. Would those allegiances hold tight, with what was to come?

That allegiance certainly hadn’t kept one vampire from betraying Sofie. The vampire who, in his seething hatred for me after discovering I’d hidden Veronique’s dire situation at the hands of the witches, had killed me. If not for Sofie’s deal with the Fates, I would not have come back.

“What will we do about Viggo?” I said, pulling every eye to me, that same mix of curiosity and wariness in them that I’d seen since waking up.

“Good question,” Mortimer said. “We know that he is out there and he will not go quietly.”

“He thinks Evangeline’s dead. Let’s keep it that way,” Sofie spat.

But Mortimer argued anyway. “You think his need for revenge has stopped at her? You know him as well as I do. He will hunt each and every one of us, one by one.”

“So let him come,” Galen retorted. “I’ll be ready.” From what Lilly had told me, Galen was their tactical expert. While other immortals, Viggo and Mortimer included, had enjoyed lavish homes and private jets, Galen prided himself in infiltrating various high-level military groups to learn what he could about weapons systems and classified capabilities. He had the knowledge and means to get us into almost any human defense system.

A mirthless smile touched Mortimer’s lips. Those two would never get along. “And will you be able to defend both yourself and Celine at the same time? Because hurting her to destroy you will be Viggo’s end goal.” Near-black eyes swept over the group. “All of you would do well to remember that. I, for one, am terrified. There is a maniac somewhere out there with a hit list and all of our names are on it. The love of my life is on the top of it. Viggo will not think twice about killing Veronique for revenge.” He cleared his throat twice, one of Mortimer’s few tells that his emotions were getting the better of him. “I have half a mind to take her and run to the most remote spot in the world to live my life in peace.”

“I am well aware that we have not seen the last of Viggo. I will deal with him when the time comes. Quickly and without mercy,” Sofie snapped. “Let’s focus our efforts on the real issue at hand.”

From the corner of my eye, I caught Lilly’s lips purse. There was a long list of people who wanted to deliver Viggo’s death to him. Sofie, for a hundred and twenty years of misery. Lilly, for the murder of her mother and theft of her ashes.

And me, for my mother’s murder.

But Sofie was right. Stopping the fledglings was probably more critical than exacting revenge on Viggo right now.

Mortimer’s long finger jabbed the air. “Fine, but if there is so much as a hint of him, I am taking Veronique and I am leaving. Understood?”

Sofie blinked once. I supposed that was the only answer she’d give.

I heard a faint clank of metal behind me and my head instinctively whipped around, timed perfectly with Caden’s. I smiled. Finally, we were in the same league.

The two figures standing side by side at the mine entrance widened my smile. Not because their arms were laden with metal coolers from their blood bank run, but because these were two friends who I’d previously lost and who’d since been returned to me.

Though the Fates had saved me at the hour of my human death, Fiona had been left in a charred heap in Viggo and Mortimer’s Fifth Avenue palace after the first sorceress attack. It was only because of Sofie’s deal with the Fates that my friend was now watching me through those mesmerizing violet eyes.

“Everyone’s out. Every last blood bank in New York City has been tapped,” Bishop announced, his muscular arms bulging through his light T-shirt as he held the metal cooler in the air. Fiona held an identical cooler. “We’re better off hitting up the hospitals outside of the city. Their supply is pathetic, but it’s better than nothing.”

Bishop winked at me as they passed, already having forgiven me for my part in the deception back in Paris. Thank God all those perverse delusions had been wiped out of his head the moment the spell had been broken. I had yet to ask him if he’d told Fiona. I worried what she might do when she found out that her very attractive eternal boyfriend had kissed me and had wanted to do a lot more. Would it damage our friendship?

Another problem not worth worrying about right now.

My ears picked up on a strange and very irregular heartbeat behind me. Spinning around, I saw Kiril standing in the entranceway in his human form. “Is that normal? His heart, I mean.”

“Yeah, all of them sound like that. It’s good. That way you won’t accidently bite them,” Caden said with a sly smile, “because they bite back.”

I watched the werewolf march past to stand behind Sofie.

“Someone is one step ahead of us with the blood,” Lilly mused. “The question is, who? The Sentinel? The witches? The fledglings certainly don’t need it.”

A second of worry flickered across Sofie’s face. “Please take that back to the haulage tunnel,” Sofie ordered Bishop and Fiona. “We have it set up with a small generator to keep the refrigeration working, should it last long enough. Evangeline,” she turned to me, “go with them.”