Page 38 of Even Vampires Bleed (Even Ever After #2)

Cassiopé

W hat were the chances that everyone would listen to my ideas and put them in practice right away?

Let’s say high for my self-esteem.

Now what were the chances that they got heard and that somehow someone in the middle of everything thought, “We should send someone with Léandre so he doesn’t get too lonely?”

Probably high, too.

But… what were the chances that they decided I would be the one going?

None!

Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating, but the chances for that couldn’t be that high.

I don’t know what the hell is wrong with Elhyor and Angélique for deciding that. I would have expected it from Pierre, because obviously he can’t wait to get rid of me and to make sure that his spot—my dad’s spot—is secured.

But I’m still wondering why they decided I would be the one joining Léandre on his trip to no technology land. It’s not like I spent any time with him since he lost his memories.

I did everything to stay away from him.

Every-freaking-single-thing.

Yes, I worked with him for the past week, but I also kept my distance, forced Elis to do most of the talking, and tried to stay as far away as I could.

Because it’s only been weeks, and it still feels so freaking hard to see him and not see him .

And now, they decided they wanted us to share a house?

Just the two of us?

What did I do in my past life to deserve such a torture? I must have been a damn archangel terrorizing humanity.

“I’m not going!” I tell Elhyor when Léandre leaves to pack his bags and check on his father.

“You like the man; why don’t you want to go?” Elhyor asks as if he can’t understand the situation.

“I liked who he used to be. I don’t know the new him. Why would I want to be stuck with him with nothing but time?” I bite back.

Am I getting pissed? Totally, but I know it’s not about nothing.

I have a life here. I have plans. I still need to get my revenge over those asshole archangels.

And my father is here. I doubt he could be transported with the description Elhyor gave earlier, and I won’t be here when he wakes up.

I won’t even know, and it will take hours for someone to come and tell me in the middle of nowhere—the asshole’s world really—that he woke up.

I’m not okay with this, and I don’t understand how they can be.

“You’re the only one who knows him and…” Elhyor starts, but I cut him in the middle of a sentence he obviously didn’t want to finish.

“And who isn’t needed in Notre Dame?” I ask.

I kinda understood the vibe here.

A war is brewing. If it’s not one that will be fought on a battlefield, it’ll at least be one fought in court, and I’m not a warrior.

I could be a good spy or a good cat burglar, but I’ll never be a good warrior. Even if Elhyor didn’t say it out loud, I know that’s what he meant.

Elhyor sighs.

“You made that mess…” Angélique says from behind the desk to her husband.

She listened to everything, but she’s letting Elhyor deal with me on the subject.

“It was your idea, Little Devil,” Elhyor counters.

“What?” I ask out loud without meaning.

“Yes,” Elhyor says, “she thinks you need some time away; somewhere you won’t end up in a cell again.”

That actually makes sense.

Not that I like it, but it’s logical in a way.

If I’m not staying with Libération anymore, then I’m less at risk. If there is one thing I know about Angélique, it’s that her first instinct is always going to be to protect the people she cares about.

That, or kill whoever wants to harm those same people.

I know that if I’m going, she and Elhyor will find a way to make the archangels fall.

“I’m more useful than you think,” I tell the two of them.

I’m conscious I sound a bit like a sulking kid, but I don’t want to go.

I really, really don’t want to go.

“I never said you weren’t useful, Cassie,” Elhyor says.

“But you still want me gone,” I finished for him.

God, I sound like a petulant kid.

I look at both of them and what I can see in their eyes isn’t good. I don’t like it. Because I can see the resolve there, and I know they won’t change their mind.

“I want you to remember something,” I tell them. “I hate you for forcing me to go with him.”

I don’t wait for them to say anything else. I know what they’re going to say, or I can easily guess.

“You’ll thank me one day,” I hear Angélique say, anyway.

And I really doubt that.

I really doubt that.