“You have to help it. This isn’t you. You don’t give up, Evangeline. Ever! You’re the most resilient person I’ve ever known! To a fault sometimes.”
I sighed. “Maybe I was. I’m not anymore. I can’t do this anymore …”
He paused, moving in to hover over me. His voice turned gentle. “Please don’t give up. For me.” My body tensed as his hand moved to rest on my thigh. I shouldn’t let this happen … I need to push him away … I need to. My willpower went toe to toe with my desire and failed miserably. Caden’s hand slowly slipped up along my thigh, over my hip, to my waist. Up and up it slid until his index finger was running along my bottom lip.
“You’re toying with fire, Caden,” I warned breathlessly. I’m pathetic. I’m weak.
“And I will happily do so if it means being able to do this,” he whispered, leaning forward to touch his lips to mine, stopping my heart altogether. I reveled in the feel for a few moments but eventually couldn’t ignore the eyes tickling the back of my neck.
“I’m not desperate enough for exhibitionism … yet,” I said, jerking my head in Wraith’s direction.
Caden’s light chuckle turned into a groan as his face rested into the curve of my neck. “I can’t wait until he goes away …”
That earned a sniff from me. Wraith was never going away. Not until I died. I bit my tongue, choosing to lay next to Caden in silence instead of reminding him of that.
Someone knocked lightly on the door. “Yeah?” Caden called out.
A timid Lilly poked her head in, a tall glass in her hand. “Warm milk always helped me sleep when I was human,” she murmured with a sheepish smile, reminding me that she was, above all else, still an abused child trapped in a lethal vampire body. I took the glass with a smile of gratitude.
“Mage has Bishop,” she announced, catching my mouth midair before I took my first gulp.
“Seriously? When? How?”
Lilly grinned with pleasure. “She caught him in Labrador, Canada. Not without a battle and, um, a bit of a scene. She’s covered it up, though. They’re on their way here.” The grin disappeared. “I don’t think she’s very happy about us being here. I had to tell her about Veronique, Evangeline. I hope you’re okay with that. And she has demanded that, under no circumstances, are any of us supposed to go into Viggo’s place.”
“Did you tell her about Julian?” A head shake confirmed that she hadn’t. “Well, this’ll be awkward,” I muttered wryly, wondering if the blood-sucking Mary Poppins would keep her cool when she found out.
“Not if we get in and out of there before she arrives.” Lilly disappeared but not without me catching her excited little smile.
Caden rolled onto his side, his head propped up on his elbow, quietly toying with my hair while I guzzled the milk. Once I finished, he set the glass on the nightstand and pulled me down with more force than usual, pressing himself against me, setting my head against his chest. His fingers stroked my hair soothingly.
“Oh, and you’re not going in there, by the way,” he said.
My snort echoed through the empty room. “Oh, and yes, I am, by the way. You need me to get through that secret passageway and break the Merth binding so you can get through.”
“We’ll have you go through and then the wolves will bring you back here,” he fired back.
I felt my face screw up. “No, you won’t! And besides, you don’t know what Veronique looks like.”
“We’ll look for the tortured woman,” he answered calmly, his fingers coiling into mine, still relaxed, sure of his plans.
“She won’t go with you,” I countered.
With a loud chortle, he reminded me, “She’ll go with anyone offering to get her out of there.”
I opened my mouth to argue but then stopped. He was right. And I was getting nowhere with this. “You are not going in there without me. I’m not sitting around like some inept human while you go fix my mess!” I finished my angry decree with a stifled yawn.
“How is this your mess, Evangeline?” Caden asked, shifting me so he could see my face, his own a picture of bewilderment.
“Because if I hadn’t agreed to get up on that platform, Veronique would still be in her tomb, safe and sound. That’s how!”
“Yeah, and you’d be dead,” Caden’s voice turned cold and sharp suddenly. “And then Sofie and I would have gone ballistic. There’s no way Sofie would ever let Veronique out then, just to spite Viggo. She’ll get over the abuse, Evangeline. When they turn her, she’ll—”