Anomaly (Causal Enchantment) by K.A. Tucker Page B

but nothing came out.
    How could that question have caught me off guard? Of course she’d want to know. Julian had asked right away; Veronique as well. Aside from the irrepressible craving, a loved one would be the first thing on the mind of a vampire. Always. I shouldn’t be surprised. Caden was the first thing on my mind when I came around. “He had to go deal with issues in New York City, but he insisted that you stay here, where it’s safe,” Caden lied, warning me with a severe glare, though he didn’t need to. I wasn’t in a rush to crush her soul.
    I plastered a smile on my face, though it couldn’t possibly look sincere. T ry as I might, I couldn’t keep my eyes from grazing Julian’s. I hoped he couldn’t read the anxious look in them. What would Julian do if he found out about Amelie? What if they couldn’t find her?
    Nodding slowly, Cecile continued her assessment of the tunnel. She finally smiled, her face brightening until it appeared almost angelic. “It worked,” she stated. “It really worked!”
    A sick feeling stirred in my belly, knowing that her smile would soon vanish forever. She’d likely throw herself into a fire.
    A hand slid along the small of my back. “It certainly did,” Caden said with an awestruck gaze. Leaning in, his lips tickled my earlobe as he whispered, “Amazing. You going to do the other one too?”
    “He seems adequately entertained for now. Less trouble.” Brian hadn’t moved from his corner, though he didn’t seem to be in such a frenzy anymore, the pile of empty plastic next to him growing at a slower rate.
    Caden’s soft chuckle warmed my heart but it faded too fast. “I need to go.” My fingers latched on to his biceps, the muscles beneath tensing in response. “And you need to stay.” He kissed me briefly and then pulled away. “You’re not just a babysitter, Evangeline. Believe me. Stay with them. Keep them safe.” He pointed to the knapsack lying on the ground. “And stay the hell way from that.”
    “Why? What is—”
    “Merth.”
    I glared at the bag with a new level of disgust. It had proven useful to me time and time again as a human, but I was now on the other side of the fence with the silvery plant and I would feel its wrath like a thousand razor blades cutting into my skin.
    “Exactly. We won’t need it for the time being anyway.”
    I pulled Caden into me, desperate for another second of contact, dread gnawing at me. “How long will you be gone?”
    His sculpted jaw tightened. “We’ll be back by sunrise.”
    Still hours away. “Call me with updates,” I demanded. “Every hour.” With one last kiss, Caden vanished.
    I stared after him for a long moment, my mood crashing as I gripped the phone he’d left me. It was my only lifeline to him now. “I’m going to lose my mind waiting for them.”
    Approaching f ootsteps and an arm wrapping around my shoulders reminded me that I wasn’t alone. “The mountains of Siberia didn’t seem so bad next to this, did they?” I turned to catch Julian’s feeble attempt at a smile.
    *
    “Amelie brought me here earlier today.” Julian’s rich brown eyes looked out over the blanket of stars, their brilliant twinkle like diamonds in the sky.
    “Of course she did,” I snorted, my feet balanced precariously atop the rocky precipice, thinking how very much “Amelie” this treacherous mountain peak was. Lose my balance and I could be sailing off a two hundred foot cliff in seconds.
    His arm rested lazily over my shoulder. “ Relax and trust your abilities. We’re not going to fall. Vampires don’t fall .”
    I inhaled the fresh, cold air, enjoying the much needed space after spending an hour enlightening Celine about the impending doom of our world and witnessing the excited sparkle in her bright blue eyes extinguish.
    Th is excursion hadn’t come without a heated telepathic battle with Max and the need to compel Veronique and Celine from tailing us. At first I hadn’t even wanted