“They got away,” Mortimer announced, adding in “thankfully.”
“Well, I should say that went well!” Viggo strode over to where the urn used to sit, his face twisted in displeasure. One of her friends must have grabbed it. Not Lilly. She was too busy mutilating me. If my blood still had any impact on Viggo, I couldn’t tell. He didn’t even bat an eye in my direction. He couldn’t care less, I knew that. Lilly could’ve escaped with my head and he’d react the same. I am a fly, an inconvenient pest to him. I was okay with that …
He continued on with his sarcastic tirade. “What’s your next brilliant plan, oh, wise one? Now that she has the one piece of leverage I had over her and she knows what Mage is, why would she ever come back? We have no edge!”
“We don’t want an edge, Viggo,” Sofie spat back. “We need their help. We need them to trust us. That was our peace offering.”
Ivan tugged on my arm again. This time I yanked it away “What happened exactly?”
Sofie sighed. “Mage compelled them to hold still, allowing me to channel her memories through to them. I showed them everything. They saw firsthand what happened on Ratheus. Lilly figured out what Mage is. She knows what an original can do.” Sofie paused. “Her mother was the original vampire.”
My eyes shifted to Viggo as a knot formed in my belly. There was something there … the pieces were sliding into place. Viggo had something to do with the original’s death—that much I knew. That meant he had something to do with Lilly’s mother’s death. He probably killed her. That would explain Lilly’s hatred for him.
The mother-killer stared back at me with a smug smile, likely aware of the puzzle pieces I was putting together in my head. I hate you! I want you to die! I hope Lilly kills you after all of this! If it weren’t for everyone else here, I’d throw the towels on the ground and run toward him. Let my blood kill him! I had to force my hatred down as I dismissed the thought, turning back to Sofie. “So what now? Clearly she’s not happy.” I held my arm up as evidence.
“Now … you go get that stitched up before your blood turns us all mad!” Sofie yelled. She never yells at me. Cowering slightly, I glanced at Caden. He nodded to the door, his jaw clenching as his eyes grazed my arm.
Terrified I’d see those spider veins again, I willingly followed Ivan out.
6. Threats—Sofie
No sooner had Evangeline left with Ivan than Caden appeared by my side, his hands digging into my biceps.
“Fix her!” He hissed through bared teeth.
I flung his hands off my arms. “I’m trying! Don’t you think I’m trying?” I was in no mood for another verbal assault. Evangeline’s had shredded me to rags.
“You’re not trying hard enough!” His roar reverberated off the vaulted ceiling. I noted Mage’s weight shift in my peripheral. I stayed her with a wave of my finger. There was no need for her intervention. Caden’s rage had already collapsed, his shoulders hunched inward, grief laying siege to his fiery spirit. “I almost killed her, Sofie …” Beautiful greenish-blue eyes begged me, shattering my heart.
I tentatively reached up to lay one hand on his broad shoulder, the other cupping his jaw. “I’ll fix this. I have to fix this.” I realized I was trying to convince myself more than anyone else.
“Forget the human!” Viggo cried out, his arms spread wide. “What are you going to do about Lilly? What’s your brilliant new plan?”
“She’ll come to her senses. Give her a day or two,” Mortimer answered for me, offering the briefest smile and head nod. Who would ever have thought that I would come to appreciate his company?
Viggo wouldn’t let up, though. “She’s a child nurturing a century-long grudge. She has no sense.”
“A grudge?” Mage’s eyebrows raised in surprise. “You murdered her mother.”
“She wasn’t her real mother,” he retorted, but the fire in his voice was gone. He wasn’t an idiot. Whether he felt the tiniest bit of remorse, he knew this was all on him. I had only learned the reason of Lilly’s hatred for Viggo upon leaving the Tribe’s island, after I gave him the ultimatum of pledging allegiance to me or dying. Even then, I thought I’d have to tear off his toenails to get the truth out of him.
That’s when he finally admitted to killing Lilly’s mother, who was also the original vampire. Apparently she betrayed him, though my instincts told me there was another, more plausible side to that story. As if that weren’t enough to earn Lilly’s wrath, he stole the body, burned it, and hid the ashes away where Lilly could never find them. For what? Only the Fates knew …