Chapter 6
Against his better judgment, Sebastian went to the dinner.
He knew better than to show up to the Labasques under-dressed, no matter how casual the occasion was. Donned in a simple pair of dark jeans, a black sweater, and his black overcoat, he figured this would meet their approval. He doubted much of the attention would be on him anyway. They had better friends now.
Sebastian let himself into the house, a delicious aroma beckoning him in. The servants they had were already hard at work. Unease settled in his stomach as he walked through the foyer. There was a shift in the air that he was, regrettably, beginning to get used to. And judging by the unfamiliar voices he heard a few rooms over, his hunch was right.
“Sebby?” Charlotte called out from across the house. “Come back here!”
Sebastian forced himself to walk, though his shoes felt like they were filled with cement. He found Charlotte, Whitney, Piper, Leona, and Victor all gathered in the sunroom, sitting and chatting as if nothing was wrong in the world. As if this was the most normal thing to ever happen, inviting vampires into a home and begging them to kill you.
“Hello,” Sebastian said stiffly.
“Did you bring wine?” Victor asked, nodding to the bottle in his hand.
“Yes,” he said, looking down. Suddenly, he felt rude for only bringing things that they could enjoy, not the immortals. “I did not bring things suitable for your kind.”
“We already ate,” Leona said. “We’re just here to socialize. I was hoping you’d come,” she admitted.
“Sebastian, why don’t you take Leona for a tour of the backcourt? I think she’ll enjoy it,” Charlotte said with a pointed smile.
No arguing there, obviously. Sebastian huffed a quiet breath and decided to get on with things. They weren’t going anywhere, evidently, so he might as well make the best of a bad situation. “Okay,” he acquiesced. “Is anyone else coming?”
“Just you two,” Piper said with a coy smile.
Sebastian found this odd, and his alarm bells were sounding off in his head. His eyes followed the redhead as she stood up, then was by his side in an instant. A shiver crept up his spine and he tried to stave it off. It was odd, looking at her. He didn’t want to be rude, because, on the surface, she looked like any other woman. It was going against his moral code to write her off. He felt a pull to her, but he also felt a distinct aversion to her. It was the most intense sense of conflict he’d ever faced in his life.
The two walked outside into the brisk, night air. Things were starting to cool down in Louisiana, which made life so much easier. He supposed she never had to deal with being bothered by any sort of temperature.
He did have a lot of questions for her. He’d accepted the fact that if she wanted to kill him, she probably would have done it already. Or was she the type to play with her food? The danger of this situation, of being so close to her, was not lost on him.
“Sorry about all this,” Leona said, breaking the silence. “I know you don’t want to be doing any of this. I just want to get to know you, Sebastian. I’m not trying to hurt you. I’m not trying to turn you. I told you, I feel drawn to you. I would feel remorseful if I didn’t explore that feeling.”
“Whether I want it or not, right?” Sebastian mumbled, staring straight ahead.
Leona pulled on his arm and forced him to stop. “You are more than welcome to walk away right now. You didn’t have to come to this dinner. You didn’t have to let me into your house the other day. You don’t have to say one word to me. But you do. You did. Why?”
Sebastian stared down at her. He didn’t know how to answer that question, because he’d been avoiding it ever since he met her. “If I had told you to leave — which I did — you wouldn’t have listened. You would have come in either way. You could snap my neck before I could take my next breath. Denying you the things you want doesn’t seem to be in my best interests, Leona.”
“I wouldn’t do anything you don’t want. Tell me you don’t want me to be around you anymore and I will listen. I had my choices taken from me. I won’t do the same to you. I apologize if I have already.”
Sebastian hesitated. Every cell in his being was screaming at him to push her away, tell her that he wanted her to leave, and never deal with any of this again. Something was stopping him though. Perhaps he was drawn to her, too.
At his silence, a slow smile spread across Leona’s lips. “We can be friends, then. Is that so bad? I’m not so different from you.”
“I’ve never been friends with such an old woman,” Sebastian said, a ghost of a smirk playing around his lips.
Leona’s jaw dropped and she scoffed. “You are an asshole,” she laughed. “I thought gentlemen weren’t supposed to comment on a lady’s age.”
“You’re a lady?”
Leona grinned and shrugged. “Sometimes. Depends on my mood.” She started walking with him again, her arms by her sides. “Do you want to ask me any more questions, Sebastian? I know you have them.”
Sebastian stayed at her pace. “I do have them. Far too many of them. So many that we would miss dinner and probably several more dinners after that. But for someone who seems so closed off to everyone else, I’m a bit surprised you want to be so open with me.”
“That’s what friends do, right?”
“I guess,” Sebastian said.
“Why don’t you tell me something about you then? And I’ll trade for something about me. We keep going until someone doesn’t want to share anything else. That way we’re both just as comfortable as the other.”
“That seems fair,” he said. “Ladies first.”
“You just insinuated that I was not a lady.”
Sebastian did smile at this. “Touché. Fine. I have known Victor since I was a child, and Charlotte for… about a decade now.”
“Was that so hard?” Leona said with a smile. “My turn. I have been friends with Piper and Whitney for over three hundred years.”
“When you say over…”
Leona laughed. “For me, it’s been…” she trailed off, thinking for a moment. “Three-hundred-thirty years now. About three-hundred-ten of being a vampire.”
Sebastian’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline. “You were born in the sixteen-hundreds?”
She nodded. “Yes. Sixteen-eighty-four. I was turned at twenty years old.”
“How did that happen?”
“Hey,” Leona said with a smirk. “You owe me at least two details about you. You’re getting ahead of yourself.”
“Oh,” Sebastian said. “Why don’t you ask me questions like I have been doing to you?”
“Very well. Are you afraid of me, Sebastian? I’ll know if you lie.”
“Then why bother asking?”
“Because I want to hear it from you.”
Sebastian paused and thought about his answer. She would know if he lied, and he wasn’t a liar to begin with. “Yes,” he answered simply.
“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. I don’t want to frighten you, but I understand. You should be afraid. And I should stop pursuing you, but… I’m selfish.”
“Selfish?” Sebastian repeated in confusion. “What is there to be selfish about?”
“Because I’m going against my moral code to be around you. In more than just a predatory way.”
“So it is predatory,” Leona smirked. “Sort of.”
“What is that supposed to mean? Are you so cryptic because you’re as old as time?”
“Ass,” she scoffed. “And we are so uneven in our truth-sharing. You need to start coughing up some secrets.”
Sebastian stopped walking and he looked down at her. “Fine. I’ll tell you anything you want to know if you answer one question truthfully and straight. No riddles, no euphemisms, just direct.”
“You really like making bargains, don’t you?”
“If you aren’t going to play along, we can go back inside. I didn’t come out here with you to have idle chit-chat.”
“Why did you come out here, then, Sebastian?”
“I want to know right now what you want with me. Why are you being selfish and why do you keep pursuing me? You told me it wasn’t to kill me, so I want to know what you want.”
Leona took a step closer to him and raised her eyebrows. “You really want to know?”
“Yes,” Sebastian sighed in exasperation. Talking to her was like talking to a damn Sphinx.
“I want to fuck you.”
Silence washed over them as those five words hung in the air. Sebastian opened his mouth to speak, then closed it, then opened it again, then closed it a final time. He searched her eyes, looking for any sign of deceit. It would be quite a wicked prank to play on him, coming from a woman who could literally have whatever she wanted the moment she wanted it. He appreciated that she hadn’t forced him into anything.
“Why?” was the only thing Sebastian’s brain could send to his mouth.
Leona let out a breathy laugh and tilted her head. “So many questions. Why does anyone want to fuck anyone? I’m attracted to you. Is that so hard to believe?”
“Yes,” he said honestly. “Women like you — undead or not — don’t want to fuck men like me.”
“And what kind of man are you, Sebastian?”
The man stared down at her, trying to figure both her and her question out. He liked to think he was a good man with a good heart, but that was really for other people to decide. He definitely wasn’t the type of man that fucked vampires. Was he?
He could feel a pull between them. The tension was thick and he wasn’t sure if she was using some sort of glamour to seduce him or coerce him into giving in. She felt magnetic?—
“Hey!” Victor called out from the back door of the manor. “Dinner is ready. Are you two coming in?”
Sebastian jumped slightly at the intrusion and tensed, before looking away from Leona. “Yes, we’re coming now,” he called out. He walked away from her without looking back.
Sebastian didn’t participate much during dinner. He didn’t have anything to say, and there was far too much running through his head. Her rather direct and crude statement outside had nearly knocked him off his feet.
He was a red-blooded male. Attraction to her was not the issue. This was a situation he had never found himself in — immortality aside. He’d had a few hookups in his life, nothing long-term. It was always just to scratch an itch. He had never had a serious girlfriend before. Being around new people who weren’t Charlotte and Victor wasn’t easy for him. He had flitted from various odd jobs throughout the city: bookshop clerk, retail associate, and even a bartending stint once. None of that had worked out. He hated being around people. He hated speaking to them, interacting with them, and even looking at them. People had never done anything for him his entire life, so the less time he spent around them, the better. This wasn’t conducive to life in a city vibrant with tourism and culture, and when his two best friends were some of the biggest socialites in the state. Turning to art had made things much easier. When he photographed the city and sold his prints, or played music, or created paintings, he didn’t have to talk to anyone. He could just be with his thoughts in his house in complete silence.
He had gone to college with Victor on an academic scholarship to New York University. It hadn’t been his first choice — or any choice — but Victor hadn’t wanted to leave him behind, so off he went up north. Victor had gone to school for business and politics, whereas Sebastian remained undecided with his studies. His scholarships demanded he make a decision and graduate within the four-year period, so he settled on art. He could have stayed in New York for the rest of his life, and he was quite surprised Victor didn’t want to. Charlotte had been the pendulum swing for both of them; wherever she went, Victor went, and then Sebastian went. He loved his family with all his heart, and being away from them simply wasn’t an option.
Victor also didn’t want to be far from him because he ‘worried too much,’ as he’d told Sebastian once. Though Sebastian refused to accept money from him once he got older, Victor helped him in other ways: job interviews, and a roof over his head while Sebastian found his footing, food, and emotional support. There wasn’t a doubt in his mind that he’d be dead without Victor.
Leona watched Sebastian closely throughout the meal, trying to gauge his thoughts. She tried not to manipulate minds without permission, given it was really rather rude. She had debated being so direct with him earlier, not wanting to scare him off, but he had asked for the truth. The fact that he hadn’t run away or simply laughed her off was promising and gave her a little bit of hope. Maybe she could convince him to give her a chance.
“Sebastian, you and Leona should exchange phone numbers. Just in case,” Charlotte said with a meddling smile.
“Oh, I don’t have a phone?—”
“You can have mine,” Piper said quickly. “I was going to get a new one anyway,” she said, before giving Sebastian the number. “Call her any time.”
“Okay…” Sebastian muttered, looking down at the new contact in his phone. It seemed like everyone was in on this except him. Had Leona spoken to his friends about her feelings for him? Did they approve? They must, if they were going to this much effort to put them in a room together. Leona didn’t even know him, how could she want all this? How could she want him?
“Sebastian, don’t feel pressured,” Leona reassured. “Please.”
He shook his head. Nobody could make him do anything he didn’t truly want. “I don’t.”