“I know who he is,” Alice challenged.
“Do you?”
Alice heard Claude shift, and she looked over at him. His arms were folded across his chest, and his eyes were narrowed in on her. “Yes.” Alice’s voice was sharp as a whip. “And I won’t let him hurt Finn and Lizzy.”
“I get the feeling there’s nothing I can say right now that’s going to convince you I’m not your enemy.” Tenia sighed. “Instead, I will only ask for your willingness to keep the lines of communication between us open via Claude. He is under my control at the moment. I don’t have time to get into all that, but just know you should be very careful around him.”
“Okay.” Alice dragged out the word.
Tenia pressed on. “We’re working on a way to rescue all the dormants Cain has captured, not just you three.” She paused again and then continued. “I’m a little skeptical about sharing that information with you. Are you going to tell Cain you’ve spoken with me?”
Alice didn’t answer. Instead, she said, “You know Claude is Cain’s right-hand man, don’t you?”
Tenia didn’t hesitate. “Yes. As I said, he is working for us now, whether he likes it or not. He shouldn’t be a danger to you, assuming my magic holds.”
Alice bit her lip and continued to stare at the vampire. “You want me to believe you have some kind of mind-control over him?”
“Something like that.” Tenia didn’t elaborate. “I can only assume you’ve recently been asked to believe many things you wouldn’t have previously thought possible. Consider this just another one of those things. Can you at least call us and confirm that Lizzy makes it through the transition?”
Alice considered it and realized that Lizzy must mean something to the fae. If Alice was in this woman’s shoes, she’d want to know about her friend, as well. “I can do that. But I won’t spy on Cain for you.”
“I’m not asking you to. You’ve given me plenty of information already. Could you please put Claude back on the phone?”
Alice pulled the phone from her ear and glared at it. Then she held it back out to Claude. She didn’t like the words Tenia had spoken to her. What information had Alice inadvertently given? Had she betrayed Cain without even realizing it? While the vampire was on the phone, she pushed past him and unlocked the door, hurrying out into the hall. Her feet carried her quickly away as her heart pounded painfully in her chest. What the hell just happened? She had no idea who Tenia really was. She didn’t know if Claude was a turncoat like the man who’d been on the phone with her father. She didn’t know who in the world she could trust.
She rounded another corner and stopped, propping herself up against the wall. Her breathing was rapid, and she pressed her hand to her chest. Tears formed in her eyes as Alice’s emotions began to take control. She loathed when she lost control of her emotions. It made her irrational, and that made for a bad scientist. She relied on facts and logical thinking. But neither of those things were on the table because she didn’t have all the facts. And her damn emotions were all over the place concerning Cain, Lizzy, and Finn.
She sucked in great gulps of air and attempted to get a hold of herself. She couldn’t let Cain see her like this. He’d question her relentlessly until she answered him. And until she knew if Tenia was an enemy or a friend, Alice didn’t want to give up the fact that she’d spoken to a supernatural that wasn’t on team vampire.
She cursed and ran her hands through her hair. “Pull it together, Alice,” she muttered. She had to focus. Lizzy was her priority. She’d wait until they knew for sure that she’d make a successful transition before she even thought about Tenia, Claude, and the spy that was working with her father. Alice stood up straight and lifted her chin. She slapped on her professional face and shoved her emotions into a box. She could do this. She had to do this in order to make sure Finn and Lizzy were safe. At some point, she’d have to deal with her feelings toward Cain, but today was not that day.
Tenia dropped the phone onto the couch beside her and laughed. She, Lilly, and Skender were in the warlock queen’s office. "You’ve got to be kidding me,” she said to no one in particular. Her mate and the queen stared at her with shocked expressions. They’d both heard the conversation, as Tenia had it on speakerphone, though her mate would have heard it, regardless.
“She doesn’t think Cain is evil.” Lilly’s yellow eyes were wide. “How is that possible? Could a fae be controlling her like you are controlling Claude?”
“I doubt it. First, I don’t know of anyone else who has the ability. It’s not impossible, but definitely not likely. And she seemed clearheaded, as if she was thinking for herself. She didn’t sound like she was brainwashed or speaking from a script. She was emotional and adamant. Those are some pretty good signs that a person is in control of their own mind. And I can also usually sense if someone is being coerced. Maybe it’s because of my own ability, but I’ve always been able to tell whether a person is using their own free will.”
Skender sucked in a breath and looked up at the ceiling. “Do you think she’ll call back?”
Tenia shrugged. “I don’t know. She sounded genuine when she spoke about Finn and Lizzy. She wants to protect them. But when it comes to Cain, she has some seriously skewed views. How he’s managed that, I don’t know.”
“Evil doesn’t always look evil. In fact, it often masquerades as something appealing. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be so eager to jump into bed with it.” Lilly shook her head. “No pun intended. I truly hope she has not jumped into bed with Cain. If she has, things might be even more complicated.”
“This is going to disappoint the healers.” Tenia sighed. “And it’s going to make them want to contact her even more.”
“Fane said no,” Skender reminded her.
Tenia raised her eyebrows. “No, he said to wait until Claude got us in touch with her.”
Lilly shook her head. “You cannot tell them. At this point, we still don’t really know for sure if Alice is acting of her own free will or if Cain is blackmailing her. If the healers go into her mind, it might make her feel violated. That could make her trust us even less, if she trusts us at all.”
Skender released a deep sigh. “This is a cluster.”
“It always is,” Lilly said. “But we always find a way to defeat our enemies. We will again.”
Skender nodded but stayed silent.
“I’m going to call Fane.” Lilly picked her phone up off her desk. “We’ll see what he thinks about this new development.”
