Chapter 35
Chapter Thirty-Five
Levette
I drove up the long, winding driveway to the grand estate which greeted me.
It was an old, honey-colored stone mansion that felt reminiscent of time long since gone, yet a monument to the historical love of France.
The cypress trees had started to gradually lose their leaves, crunching under my tires.
The cool, crisp air caressed my skin as I got out of the car, the gravel grinding beneath my feet. The sun was long gone, leaving the deep shadows of a lingering dusk spread across the sky.
I climbed the stone staircase leading to the entrance. In true dramatic flair, Lena had an iron bat door knocker which made me laugh.
“What the hell are you doing here?” she snapped as she flung open the door, staring up at me with that same, stone-cold bitch expression she was so fond of. “How did you even know where I live?”
“I just missed you so much!” I replied dramatically, pushing my way past her into the foyer. “And the how…Never you mind.”
I heard the door slam shut just seconds before Lena stomped after me, guiding the way into her parlor.
Large windows and shades of sage green decorated the room, making it light and inviting.
If I didn’t know Lena better, I would have guessed she was making it a home.
But that woman traveled too much and hated to stay in one place for too long; I think it reminded her of Ria’s absence… or maybe Warren’s as well.
“You showed up unannounced and uninvited. You should have written to me in advance!”
I rolled my eyes at her and went over to the liquor cabinet beside the sofa, admiring the decanter full of blood. I poured myself a glass before lying across the couch, drink in hand. “How old are you?” I asked, shaking my head. “Get with the times, Maggie. Mobile phones are all the rage.”
Lena huffed and took barefoot steps across the room, choosing to sit cross-legged in the large armchair opposite me. “We are both old creatures. Change is inevitable, but pointless.”
“Ah, you’re in a woe is me kind of mood, huh? I should have better picked my time to visit.” I smiled over the rim of my glass. “Then again, is there any other kind of Maggie mood?”
I took a long drink from my glass, delighting as the blood coated my throat, as she looked at me with nothing but disgusted annoyance. She’s lucky the blood was good, otherwise I’d be hurt she wasn’t more delighted to see me.
Warm blood was always preferred, especially if it came straight from the source, but I had not fed often enough during my travels, so this room-temperature drink somehow hit the spot. “Change is what makes us better. It keeps life interesting as we fight to survive.”
“I am in a wonderful mood!” she snapped, practically snarling at me as she swept her long hair over her shoulder. “I just do not appreciate unannounced guests.”
“Maybe if you picked up the phone or actually replied to my letters, I wouldn’t have had to fly to France just to speak to you.”
Something had been on my mind for a while, a business proposal I was eager to get her thoughts on.
But my ancient vampire frenemy—I had heard that term from one of the youths and thought it perfectly suited Magdalena Vulpe and me—had been incommunicado as of late, which was worrying. Of course, I’d never admit that to her.
Lena sulked, staring at the window and the scenic view below. “I have been busy.”
“With what?” I pressed, noticing that something seemed off.
“Warren is coming home,” Lena said, trying to deviate from the topic at hand. It was unfortunate, but it worked. Talk of Warren would always be more important to me, even if it was selfish to confess.
I watched her in silence for a moment. Though we were not exactly best friends, Lena and I had spent some time together over the years.
It began as work, a way to keep the vampires in New Orleans in line and help her keep her status, but something changed along the way.
Perhaps it was a way to help us deal with the missing people in our lives; Lena was the only person who also loved and missed Warren, and the same was said in return about Ria and me.
We understood each other, saw how we both grieved what should have been and could one day be.
The sadness on her face was devastating to see. I wanted to cheer her up, to make that blasted gorgon smile for once, but I knew we instead had to discuss what was the problem at hand, even if she got mad about it.
“I see. And you are…unhappy about it?”
Lena shook her head, bringing her focus back to me.
“It has been a long time. I feared that the Authority would make him stay away forever. Another way to punish me.” She ran her fangs over her lower lip, toying with a piece of ragged skin.
It surprised me to see her do something so human.
“It makes me worried, Levette. What if they are planning to do something? They could use him against me. He’s almost as much of a weakness to me as Ria. It’s insufferable.”
“Maggie, they will always try to use the people you love against you. This is not new. Being suspicious of them is natural, but you cannot let them make you live your life in fear.”
Her eyes burned as she shook her head. “I’m not scared. I am furious! If they hurt him somehow, I will be forced to go against their orders, to fight them. I do not know if I am prepared for that fight yet.”
That apprehension was understandable, and I did not envy the burden of it. Lena was forced to carry too much on her shoulders, make too many difficult decisions that resulted in her heart hardening further.
“When the time comes, you will be ready. I hope that it will not be for a long time, though.”
She inclined her head and got up, going over to pour herself a glass of chilled blood. She gulped down the glass in the way I had watched humans chug alcohol, before pouring another and returning to her seat.
“And you?”
I blinked, tilting my head. “Me, what?”
“Are you worried about his homecoming?”
I shrugged, trying to play nonchalant, though I knew she could sense the way my undead heart ached to thump in my chest. “Why would I be? He will be returning here to France, correct?”
Lena pursed her lips, shrugging one of her shoulders. “Perhaps. Do you not wish to see him?”
She was pushing me to confess, and I hated her for it.
I had long ago stopped asking her for updates on Warren, to tell me what he was doing and if he was happy.
Her answers were always vague, a brief reply to assuage my curiosity, but I knew the truth beneath: Warren had lived the last hundred years alone and isolated, and it felt like I had too.
“The curse…”
Every day of my immortal life since that stupid masquerade for Mardi Gras, I thought about the consequences of my actions.
That controlling myself and choosing to hunt somewhere other than the bayou would have changed things dramatically.
I could have instead figured out a way to make Warren stay, to spend the rest of my life with him, and both of us heal together.
But that blasted curse had taken so much from us both.
I often wondered if Warren harbored hatred towards me. I would not blame him if he was angry at me for not fixing things, for staying silent just as Lena had told me to. Had my lack of communication wounded him further?
“The spell has weakened. I can still smell it in your blood, but I do not think it would cause the same level of uncontrolled insanity in him. He is older now, no longer a fledgling. I would expect him to be able to handle his anger better.”
It felt as though my world shook with her words. Everything I had desperately wanted was now a possibility.
But Warren could have changed. Neither Lena nor I had been able to spend time with him since he was exiled. His loneliness could have morphed into something darker, and while I would not lay blame at his door for that, it would wound me all the same.
“Do you think he has changed?”
Lena considered my question carefully before replying.
“Yes. But haven’t we all? I see your growth, Levette.
You care more for others now, do your best to help New Orleans and the supernaturals prosper and keep peace—that is not something you would have readily done before.
” She set her glass on the table between us, placing her hands in her lap, fiddling with a loose thread on her pants.
“It could be the same for Warren. He will have to choose his path when he returns. Only he can decide if his home remains with either one of us.”
The silence hung heavy in the air between us and I knew we were both picturing what it would be like to have him back.
The difference was that he would always be part of Lena’s coven and therefore her family.
With me, he had no such duty. I had no idea whether he had moved on or found love with someone else.
And I never could bring myself to ask Lena to find out.
I shook myself out of my thoughts. Dwelling on what ifs would only drive me insane, and I had to focus on why I had traveled all the way to France.
“I want to open up one of your clubs in New Orleans.”
Lena opened her mouth, immediately closing it. She took a moment, and I could see the cogs turning. “Why?”
“Because I was partly responsible for what happened the last time you tested the waters,” I admitted, shrugging. “And because I think it could work. I can make it work.”
She considered me for a moment, considering, as she worried her bottom lip. “You think you can handle it? You will not only answer to me, you know that.”
“I have so many businesses already that run successfully, Maggie. None of them, however, benefit me in a meaningful way. The world knows about us now, and I would like to be involved in minimizing the divide between our kinds.”
Lena got up and made her way towards the window, tracing the outline of buildings in the distance with her fingertip.
It made her look youthful, though I could see the sadness written on her face in the reflection.
Lena had been alive for so long, and I could not imagine the heaviness that had on her soul.
“I will grant you a trial run. You have one year to make it work. If there is any drama associated with the club within those twelve months, we close down immediately. Do you understand?”
I beamed at her, going over and draping my arm over her shoulder. She pretended to shrug me off but, surprising us both, allowed the touch. “Oh mon Dieu! I knew you loved me really, Maggie.”
She hissed, sticking her sharpened nails into the soft skin of my side. “Stop calling me that! And I do not love you, you pompous asshole. I just know a good deal when I see one.”
“Whatever you say, love.”
“Twelve months trial, I mean it. If it looks like it's working after that, you get another year to make a sizable profit. We can discuss shares after the two years are up. Agreed?”
“Entendu.”
Lena nodded, tapping her nail against the glass as a firefly hovered outside the window. “I will send someone I trust to oversee. I have some business to attend to, so you will need a liaison between me and the Authority in my absence.”
I nodded my understanding. “Whatever it takes.”
“Don’t fuck this up for me, Levette,” she warned, turning to look at me. “If you mess this up, they will never allow Valeria to return. Keep that in your head going forward. Do this for her.”