Chapter 32 Gideon
Gideon
Sinead: The wolf is now contained. Incidentally, WHY is there a wolf requiring containment? When I signed up for this job, I was promised the toughest thing I’d have to deal with was entitled vampires demanding I wax their coffins, not an enormous bloodthirsty wolf wearing cute cupcake earrings.
AFTER A QUICK TRIP UP to my apartment to collect the sword Allie made for me, I lead Arabella down the maintenance stairs into the sub-basement level beneath Sanctus House.
Her jaw is set in a firm line. She looks ready to swallow my testicles whole, but I know it’s only because she’s afraid for her friend.
At least, I hope that’s why. I’m personally quite a fan of my testicles.
“This way.”
Arabella stalks beside me as I navigate around a bunch of supplies to a locked door. I scan my thumbprint and the door pops open. “She has the dungeon to herself tonight.”
“One question.” Arabella’s jaw clenches tighter. “Why did you even build a dungeon in your fancy upmarket vampire property development?”
“I may be an astute businessman, but I’m also an Upyr.” I hold the door open for her. “If things go wrong out here, we won’t be able to call the police for help. I need somewhere to keep troublesome vamps until we can administer the Mora.”
Fear trickles down my spine. I’m holding the first werewolf seen in thousands of years. What will the Conclave do to Celeste when they learn she attacked the two of us?
Nothing. Because they don’t need to know.
From the look on Arabella’s face, she’s thinking the same thing. I lead her into the small holding area with a grey tiled floor and two thick steel doors with small hatches. Beside each door is a video feed, showing the room on the right empty and the room on the left—
Arabella doesn’t flinch as Celeste hurls her body at the door.
Thanks to the “revealing secrets” charm Lilac placed in the walls of the cells, Celeste’s human features are clearer through the fur on her face.
I’d think her a CGI creation for a B-grade horror film if I hadn’t felt her very real, very sharp claws tear apart my flesh.
I glance down. The cuts are no longer bleeding, but they still haven’t disappeared. It makes sense – vampires and werewolves are ancient enemies because we both have the power to hurt each other. That’s what makes us the monsters and humans the food.
Arabella steps up to the door. She slides open the hatch, revealing a narrow slit of thick, bulletproof glass.
“Hello, Celeste.”
The wolf hurls herself against the cage. She is beautiful, and terrifying.
Arabella steps back, her eyes flicking to me. “What’s the plan now?”
I know what she’s not asking me. Are you going to call the Conclave?
I check the astrology app on my phone. “The full moon finishes in the morning. According to my super speedy and totally factual internet research on werewolves, once the sun rises, your friend should revert back to her human form within a few hours. Apparently, it takes that long for the wolfishness to wear off. Maybe then she can give us some answers.”
“Us?” Arabella smirks. “As if you’ll be awake then. When the sun comes up, you will be tucked in your bed like a good little Upyr.”
The magic of two monsters whispers in my veins.
Over the years, I’ve dared to test the edges of what their blood has gifted me – superior strength, a high pain threshold, and an extreme tolerance to sunlight.
I’m confident this is a battle I can win.
“Excuse me, what kind of weak old vampire do you take me for? I’m in peak physical and mental condition.
I have been training for this very challenge ever since my Kiss.
I can resist the glowing orb of vampiric doom. ”
“Is that so?” Mischief glints in her eye. “I bet I can survive for longer.”
“I doubt it. Me and the sun are the best of friends.” I pretend to flex.
She scoffs. “I once trained for months to withstand the rising sun. It may have been some years ago now, but I can assure you that you have no hope of beating me.”
“Fancy a wager?” I ask. “We will wait together for Celeste to turn back. The first one to fall into the dreamless sleep owes a favour to the other.”
She licks her upper lip. “What kind of favour?”
“Whatever the other person wants. Within the bounds of Upyr decency, of course,” I say quickly. “I’m not going to demand a kiss.”
“I’m not concerned whether you are or not, since I’ll be the one who triumphs.”
“I told you that Arabella Macquart can’t resist a challenge.” I hold out my hand.
Her eyes flash. “Fine. But when I win, I will make you pay.”
I grin. “Is that a promise?”
Her fingers close around mine, cool and soft and determined. Her firm handshake jolts my injured arm in its socket.
“Sweet Gideon, I love it when you state the obvious with such a sense of discovery. It is a promise and a threat.”
Arabella orders my staff to fetch two comfy chairs from Brimstone and place them in front of the cell. She doesn’t seem bothered by her friend snarling and hurling herself at the door. She slips down into a chair, pulls a slim eReader from her purse, and starts reading.
After ten minutes of watching her brow furrow in concentration, I cannot bear the silence. “What are you reading?”
She holds up a finger without looking up. “None of your business.”
“Is it something for the book club? Something full of smut and red flag men? Komal explained to me the appeal of red flag men, which is why I stole your car.”
“I like romance heroes who don’t annoy me while I’m reading.”
“Fine. Maybe I’ll write my own romance about a red flag heroine, based on you.”
She snorts. “We both know my red flag is that I’m too good to be true.”
I laugh.
Another ten silent minutes go by.
“Hey, Arabella?”
“Be quiet. I can’t hear myself losing the will to live.”
I cup my hands over my crotch, ready to defend myself if necessary. “I want to know what you’ve been doing with yourself since that night we spent betwixt your golden sheets…”
She looks up from her eReader with a huff. “You think I’m going to engage you in conversation, as if we’re two old friends? This is my Bloodeve. I don’t talk to anyone on my Bloodeve.”
I shrug. “Fine. I’ll go first. I left your apartment with the necklace.
I took it to Lucien Vega because he was holding my brother captive and slowly draining him dry, and giving Lucien the necklace was supposed to free me and Jacob from under his thumb.
Instead, as thanks for my troubles, Vega gave me the Kiss. ”
Arabella doesn’t move, or even glance up from her book, but I catch the briefest flicker of interest in the corner of her eye.
I knew it.
“I had some inkling of what Lucien was, or what he believed he was. Truthfully, I thought the vampire thing was a role he played to terrify his enemies, a kink he’d taken so far that he believed his own lie. I thought that right up until he sank his fangs into my neck and made me just like him.”
She turns the page.
“Immortality suits me.” I rub my jaw. “I’m lucky he did it when he did. It would have been a travesty to ruin this face with old age.”
“The tragedy is that you think I care.” Arabella still won’t look up from her book.
“Mmmm.” I know I have her. “So where was I? Ah, yes. As soon as I recovered, I was determined to find you. I needed to beg your forgiveness, explain that I’d become a monster, and make sure you were safe from all the other monsters out there. But then you sent a monster of your own after me.”
“I did no such thing.”
“You did. Ugly fellow, long scar across his face, used to hang out in the corner of La Petite Mort. He said you belonged to him, like you were his possession. He knew things about you, about us, that only you could have told him. He said you’d sent him to retrieve the necklace.
He nearly killed me, but he didn’t realise I was newly turned and I managed to overpower him. ”
I pause, teetering on the edge of my secret. And then, because I can never control myself around this woman, I fall. “When I drained him, his blood tasted heavenly. So different to Lucien’s. I think he was ancient, even by our standards.”
My breath hitches. I’ve just revealed something that she could take to the Conclave and have me killed instantly. If she cared for that ancient vampire, she will react to my crime.
“I don’t know who you’re talking about.” She turns another page.
“Men often believe they are paying to own me – that’s part of the illusion.
But I’d remember a suitor with a scar on his face, especially an ancient Upyr.
I’ve only known one ancient in my life, and I have no desire to know another ever again.
I did not send this man to kill you. I was a little preoccupied at the time. ”
I wait for her to elaborate. She does not. So I continue.
“You heard what I said. I drained him dry.”
“I heard, Gideon.”
I let out my breath. “So if you didn’t know him, how did he know intimate things about you? About us? He knew about the mole you have on your inner thigh.”
She sighs. “I danced naked on stage every night. There’s every chance he saw that mole.
As for other details, Auguste said someone was watching us in the park.
Upyr, as you know, can hide in plain sight.
Some have tremendous powers of persuasion over humans.
I’ve no doubt this ancient you met was just another jealous man who wanted to steal from me. ”
I feel so foolish. I never should have believed that monster. I’d been too certain of my guilt; I wanted Arabella to hate me more than I hated myself, and he gave me exactly what I wanted. “I never meant to steal from you. I wanted you to be free.”
“You should have told me about Lucien. I had a right to defend my own affairs. The only reason Lucien used you is because he knew of the long line of scoundrels who attempted to take the collar from me. Not one of them lived.” She taps her nails on her eReader. “I would have taken care of Lucien.”