Asylum(47)

Neither Viggo, Mortimer, nor I moved, our focus riveted on Lewis. Luckily, whatever had kept the Ratheus vampires pinned in the corner no longer held them; Jonah instantly appeared beside her with a white cloth.

“Thank you, Jonah.” She dabbed at her face. “It’s been so long since I’ve changed a human . . . I forgot what it felt like.” With a black high-heeled boot—one of Evangeline’s that, though two sizes too big, I had grudgingly given her—she nudged Lewis in the ribs. A feeble moan escaped him but he remained motionless. Intrigued, I moved closer to inspect our test subject.

“Ah, that’s right. Our Sofie is a virgin!”

I shot an annoyed glare at Viggo, who returned it with a smug grin. He was right, but he didn’t need to announce it. I had never witnessed a transition and, having not experienced the typical method myself, I didn’t know what to expect. Mortimer had described the stages to me once, about seventy years ago. If it worked as planned, Mage’s venom was snaking through every vein in Lewis’s body, spreading like wildfire to infect every inch of him . . .

Suddenly his body spasmed. Like a skittish cat, I jumped back several feet, earning a chorus of chuckles from the audience. I giggled nervously, embarrassed at being surprised so easily but also filled with exhilaration. Few things surprised me. I crouched and crept in slowly again. His eyes were still closed.

“It’s beginning,” Viggo whispered, pointing to a bead of sweat running down Lewis’s forehead. Ten more beads followed in quick succession. Then, with another violent spasm, the half-digested contents of his stomach shot out of his mouth, barely missing me.

“Thanks for the heads-up,” I muttered dryly, deciding to observe from a safe distance. Was it really working? I wonder if . . . With one eye on Mage, I plucked a magical helix and let it slowly float toward Lewis, ready to probe. Coal-black eyes flew to me instantly. She could see it! Would she say anything? Would she complain that I was going against the truce? The slightest nod and the shadow of a smile told me she wouldn’t. It would be our little secret.

My magic invaded Lewis, burrowing through walls of tissue and muscle without reservation to reach his vital organs. Like microscopic probes, the strands found his kidneys, his liver, his heart, all shutting down, hardening into ornaments without purpose. I tested his body temperature. It was plummeting. I flashed the smallest smile back to Mage, my only indication to her that things were going as planned. One step closer . . .

For the next hour, a ring of vampires circled Lewis’s corrupting body, watching the violent spasms and shivers with interest. An hour that felt like ten. The shivering finally stopped. The color began to return to his dark skin, bringing with it a more youthful, healthy look, wiping away blemishes and imperfections—subtly, the awkward bump on the bridge of his nose smoothed and his left nostril, wider than the right, evened out. It was mesmerizing, watching the birth of a true predator.

Lewis’s eyelids suddenly flew open. Rich hazel irises rolled as he gazed around the atrium, studying the smallest movements and details. In a split second he was on his feet, taking in the audience who watched him as if he were a prize animal at a zoo.

Mage’s venom had worked. We were no longer an endangered species.

“It worked!” Viggo whispered, echoing my thoughts. He gave Mortimer’s shoulder a friendly slap. Normally Mortimer would shake it off, but today he was too busy sharing his rival’s cheer to even notice.

Mage smiled triumphantly. “Satisfied?”

“Oh, immensely!” Viggo exclaimed. I had never seen him this genuinely giddy, ever.

“Good.” Mage’s hand shot forward. Loud gasps and cries erupted from the onlookers as it drilled into the vampire Lewis’s chest and wrenched his heart out. His body dropped straight to the ground. She tossed the bloody, unbeating thing to the cobblestones beside me. “Sofie. Would you mind? We don’t need another mouth to feed right now,” she explained as I gaped at her, caught completely off guard.

I realized she was right—callous, but right. With a pull of a magical thread and a flick of my wrist, the former New York City drug lord and his detached heart were engulfed in flames. Every vampire, including Caden and his friends, scattered to the far corners of the atrium, leaving behind only a silence bred of fear and shock. For me, this was so much more than one new vampire. This was my one hundred and twenty-year-old blunder, finally corrected. This was the fear of spending the rest of eternity with Viggo and Mortimer breathing down my neck—gone. It wasn’t over until I got that pendant off Evangeline’s neck, but it was one enormous step closer. And when I got that pendant off . . . I could keep her.