Chapter 5
“So, how’d your talk go with tall, dark, and handsome?” Piper asked while eyeing Leona playfully.
They were sitting in Piper’s estate, an old French home that she’d bought about a century ago. She came back every few years to make sure it was kept up. She loved this city and loved coming back to it, but she also loved seeing the rest of the world. It wasn’t like there was much else to do in her existence. She had a running agreement going with one of her human pets to check in, clean the house, and make sure everything was still functioning normally. He was also good in bed, which never was a bad thing when it came to the blonde.
“It… went,” Leona responded, resting her head atop her fingertips. “He hates our kind. He doesn’t even know about our kind. He also resents us for considering turning Victor and Charlotte.”
“Well, that’s not up to him,” Piper shrugged. “Let him pout. It’s their decision. Truly, at the end of the day, it’s ours. If they don’t work out, we can just kill them and be done with it.”
“Nice, Pipe,” Whitney said, her eyes rolling. “We’re not like that anymore.”
“It was a joke,” Piper groaned. “What else did he say?”
“He asked a lot of questions about us. Sunlight, what we ate, the myths,” Leona said. “I answered them all but he still was just as terrified. He reeked of fear. I almost felt bad,” she sighed.
“I just don’t want you to get your heart broken again, Le. You’ve been through this time and time again with these human men. This one will be no different. Even if he is playing hard to get.”
“It’s different this time,” Leona said, her face hard in thought. “There’s something about him.”
“Here we go…” Whitney said, tilting her head back.
“Not like that. I mean, truly different. The first time I laid eyes on him, I felt… like I knew him. I can’t put my finger on it. He seems so familiar and it puts me on edge.”
“Maybe it was just love at first sight,” Piper teased, her tongue between her teeth.
“Shut up,” Leona snapped. “I can’t help but want to be around him. I want to pursue him. But I don’t want to scare him away.”
“I would say let him come to you, but… with how he responded to you rocking up to his house, I don’t know if that’s the best plan. Why don’t you try to invite him to dinner or something?”
“Well, remember Charlotte told us they invited him this weekend. We should go,” Whitney said. “He may not be there, but at least you’ll get to know them better, Leona. I think you’ll really like them if you give them a chance. They get along famously with us. It’s not often we come across good people that could come into our fold.”
“Our fold is fine the way it is,” Leona said.
“Is it? What if Sebastian suddenly had a change of heart and wanted to join us? What then?”
“Shut up,” Leona repeated.
“Sweetheart, listen,” Piper sighed, moving to sit beside her on the sofa. She took her hands and squeezed them. “I know you’re dealing with a lot of trauma from him, but this is supposed to be your escape. You’re safe here, he doesn’t know where you are. Damien is keeping him at bay. But if word gets ‘round that you’re fucking some human boy, he will come after you. Both of you. If you feel this strongly about this man — who you just met, might I add — then perhaps the best course of action would be to keep your distance. We’ll turn his friends, he’ll die eventually, and you won’t even remember him. Humans tend to get annoyingly… attached, and that’s not something you need right now. You’d be signing his death warrant.”
Leona stared at her sadly. “It’s not fair,” she whispered. “I didn’t ask for this. I didn’t ask to be like this.”
“None of us did. But if you weren’t like this, you would never have met Sebastian. You’d have been dust under the ground before he was even a passing thought. We aren’t meant to mate with humans. It’s unnatural and it’s part of our curse. The best hope all of us have is to stay one step ahead of Gideon,” she murmured, then tensed as Leona winced. “Sorry.”
“Damien hasn’t sent any kind of word to me recently, and that’s a good thing,” Whitney chimed in, moving to sit on the other side of Leona. “Silence is good when it comes to those men. It means they’re busy. I’d prefer they stay that way because it keeps their eyes off us. I think Theodore may come visit soon though. He mentioned it a few weeks ago. You know how he is,” she muttered.
“Theo,” Piper mumbled disapprovingly under her breath. “If he does decide to come, he needs to find another bed to lie in, because last time he and Damien were here, my place smelled like wet dog for months,” she grimaced, shaking her head. “Alright, no more talk about those idiots. To say their names is to give them power within this house, which I’ll be having none of.”
“Agreed,” Leona and Whitney said in unison.
They had been inseparable for the last three centuries. Leona was turned before both of them, and met them on her travels in the next couple of years. Leona was, however, the youngest human of the trio, both of them being a few years older than her. She was turned at 20 years old, and would forever look that way.
“Do you think I’m being silly for wanting companionship?” Leona said after an age of silence.
“No,” Piper said. “I just think you need to understand that we might be all we’ve got. And that’s not a bad thing to have, darling. It could always be worse and you know it.”
Leona looked away from her and stared at the wall, contemplating what she’d said. She had experienced worse and didn’t want to ever go through that again — despite knowing that it was likely. Perhaps they were right.
These women had completely been her saving grace. Had it not been for their friendship, Leona would have either offed herself or found a way for someone else to do it for her long ago. They were the only reason she had escaped from Gideon the two times she had. She thanked everything around her for the relationship Whitney had with Damien, and in turn, the relationship Damien had with Gideon. There was a certain persuasion that existed that almost gave Gideon a soft spot when it came to showing mercy on Leona.
Almost.
She knew it was dangerous to feel the things she felt, and the women next to her were right, this wasn’t the first time a human had caught her eye. Before, it had been things like a one-night stand or perhaps a short-term boyfriend. Or girlfriend. Everyone was short-term to her, considering she was too afraid to be with any immortals. The feeling was mutual. Gideon had staked his claim within the community that she was off-limits, so any hope for a happily forever after with someone who could actually try to protect her from her creator was dashed away.
There was something so different about Sebastian, though, as she’d told her friends. It wasn’t love at first sight, given Leona didn’t believe in anything as silly as that. It was more of an inherent recognition, one that would vex her in the days to come. Weeks, even. Looking at him, she felt a pull toward him, and had just wanted to… both run toward him and get as far away from him as possible. He wasn’t an immortal, which had been her first momentary thought. She doubted he was a descendant of anyone she’d met before, but then again, she didn’t know hardly anything about him. Perhaps he came from a long line of supernatural beings and got the short end of the human stick.
Either way, she wanted to find out. She wanted to know everything about him.