Chapter 10
Surprising himself, Sebastian was looking forward to seeing Leona. He was also in a good mood because his photoshoots had ensured he would make rent and eat this week. As much as he hated not having a reliable income, the busy months were good and he could be his own boss. Making his own schedule was worth its weight in gold. And as much as the slow months were slow, things always evened out in the end. He had been thinking about their phone conversation a lot, wondering if he should just let this go. He had never received such attention before, and from someone so interesting. Despite her frightening him, he was beginning to trust her. It didn’t make sense to him that she would play with him this long if she wanted to kill him. That she would befriend his best friends just to blow everything up. Surely if she killed him, Charlotte and Victor wouldn’t want to join their group.
She had also opened up to him when she didn’t have to. If that wasn’t to build trust, what was it?
The river shimmered in the moonlit sky, the lights from nearby ships passing by reflecting off its surface. He often liked to just walk along the bank, letting the breeze wash over him. The hum of the French Quarter was filling his veins, as it always did. It was always split into two halves at night: one side bustling with people partying or drowning their sorrows in alcohol, and the other with people like him who enjoyed the peace with the serenity of the water.
The air around him shifted and he no longer felt alone. Slowly, he turned around, ignoring the jolt within him as he came face to face with those increasingly familiar, piercing green eyes. “Hi.”
“Hi,” Leona said with a smile. She was wearing a red cocktail dress that shimmered in the dim light, some short, white kitten heels, and her hair was tied up in a bunch of pretty braids atop her head.
She took his breath away.
“You there?” she laughed, moving in front of him a bit.
“Sorry,” Sebastian said. “I feel underdressed.” He glanced down at his outfit: dark jeans, some Doc Marten boots, and a thin, black, long-sleeve t-shirt. His camera bag was strapped on his back. He looked like he was about to go on some gothic hike.
“Nonsense,” she said, waving her hand dismissively. “You just got off work. I wouldn’t expect you to run around taking pictures in a full suit. I like dressing like this,” she said. “I know you said it wasn’t a date. Me dressing nice doesn’t make it so. I promise.”
He had been grappling with the idea of this technically being a date. It bothered him that he wanted it to be. It bothered him that he was starting to expect her presence, miss it even.
“Shall we walk?” he asked, offering his arm.
Leona smiled bashfully and took it. She fell into step beside him and peered out toward the body of water to their left. “It has been a long time since I’ve merely gone on a stroll.”
“You have been to this city before, haven’t you?” Sebastian asked, looking over at her.
“Oh, yes,” Leona nodded. “More times than I can count.
Piper has had a home here for a while now. We always come back eventually. She, Whitney, and I are all from England. Varying parts. When we left the country, we came here. It was the only city really established at the time. We came before the United States was officially a country. It was fun,” she admitted. “It had just been established by the French. It was still called La Nouvelle-Orléans. It’s come so far.”
“Does it look a lot different?”
“Absolutely. You know of the Great New Orleans Fire of seventeen-eighty-eight?” At his nod, she continued. “There are stories on different reasons for it starting, but… truthfully, they found out vampires had infiltrated the city. We were staying in a home, minding our business, and the fires broke out, trying to kill us. Or at least push us out of the city. It was awful,” she sighed. “We left for a while. Then we came back a few years later, that’s when the Great New Orleans Fire of seventeen-ninety-four happened. We stayed away for even longer after that. Almost a century. We flitted from place to place. But when we thought it was safe, we came back and put roots down. Piper bought the house we’re in now and we stayed a long time. Until Gideon found me. He dragged me back. I escaped after a few decades. He hasn’t bothered me in…” she paused. “About fifteen years.”
“That’s great,” Sebastian exclaimed. “Do you think he’s finally left you alone for good?”
Leona laughed sadly and shook her head, her gaze downward cast at their feet walking in sync. “No. He’s left me alone for longer. I’m sure he knows exactly where I am, what I’m doing. He thinks it’s all a game. I’m free because he allows it. And when he wants me back in his bed, he thinks he can just snap his fingers and snatch me up again. It’s maddening.”
Sebastian frowned. “Why doesn’t anyone stop him?”
“Because everyone is afraid of him. Anyone who has tried to stand up to him hasn’t survived. He’s been around so long that nobody even knows where he came from. Or his exact age.”
“If you had to guess…”
“A few thousand. More than three, I’d say. The earliest I’ve heard him speak about is the Great Pyramids. He wasn’t there when they were built, but… he said he visited not long after. But he has never given me an exact date. He has never told me how he was turned. He never told me how his creator died — if they died — and what happened after he became immortal. Looking back, I have no idea how he convinced me to fall in love with him. I was so stupid.”
“You were young. You couldn’t have known he was a vampire trying to corrupt you.”
“I suppose you’re right,” she said. It didn’t stop her from kicking herself sometimes.
“What happened when he dragged you back?”
“He would just make me miserable. He’d control me, lock me away sometimes for years as punishment. He’d make me drink rats and other rodents. He gets off on torture. He loves power. But… it’s different with me than others. He has killed vampires he’s created. He keeps me around for some reason. He becomes obsessive. Territorial, even though I am not his to protect. I have tried to escape him, be with other people — both human and immortal — and move on, but he won’t allow it. Any time he finds out I’m with someone, he kills them. Eventually.”
Sebastian’s eyes were wide. He blushed darkly and continued looking ahead. Leona seemed to realize what she’d said and he could feel her apology bubbling from her throat. Before she could speak, he looked over at her, “You’re really selling this whole relationship thing well, you know?”
Leona laughed awkwardly and brought a hand up to rub her forehead. “Sorry. I told you I was being selfish by pursuing you.”
“Why do you keep doing this to yourself? If he’s killed everyone that isn’t him, and purposefully makes you miserable, why do you put yourself through it?”
“Because I want to find love, Sebastian. I have never felt true love before. I want that. I want as normal a life as I can lead. Is that such a crime?” she asked quietly. She hated feeling like she was being too much just by asking for the bare minimum. “I didn’t ask for this life. But this is the life I have, and I want to make the most of it. Nobody should be trapped in a cage. And the rest of eternity is a long time to do so.”
Sebastian resisted the urge to reach out to her. He put his hands in his pockets instead. “Have you ever considered killing yourself? Can vampires be killed?”
Leona swallowed thickly and looked over at him, her eyes distant and sad. “Yes, they can. And yes, I have. He wouldn’t allow it. He has always found a way to stop it. Piper and Whitney each have stopped it before, too. It’s not as easy as it is for humans, and we don’t have many options. Oftentimes, another vampire has to do it. When immortals find out I am Gideon’s creation, most of them want nothing to do with my plan. Piper and Whitney obviously stopped it because they’re my friends, but… they don’t truly understand the fear I live with every day. He doesn’t have the same hold over them.”
Sebastian looked at her, sadness pricking his eyes. He understood her feelings. He didn’t have an evil overlord pursuing him, but he had been low many times in his life. He had tried to end things, and his friends had saved him. He owed them his life several times over. It made him all the more bitter that they went through the trouble to save him, and were now throwing their lives away like they were nothing more than yesterday’s paper.
“He isn’t going to hurt you again.”
Leona stopped and looked over at Sebastian. “What?”
The man stopped and searched her eyes. Shaking his head, he repeated, “He isn’t going to hurt you again. I won’t let him.”
“Sebastian… this story ends the same every time.”
“You didn’t have me the other times.”
She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. She reached out, gently placing her hand on his cheek. It was hard to ignore how he flinched, ever so slightly. She didn’t know if it was due to her cold temperature or if he was just afraid of her touch. It pleased her to see him relax marginally. “You’re right. I didn’t have you. I wish I had.”
Sebastian felt his heart rate quicken. Could she hear it? Feel it? He felt connected to her in a way he had never experienced before. “I’m not going to let him touch you,” he whispered. “Ever.”
Tears burned Leona’s eyes and she merely nodded. Her gaze cut downward and she dropped her hand back down to her side. “Thank you,” she murmured.
Looking at her reminded Sebastian of his own mother. Of himself. He knew the feeling of being imprisoned in your own home. His own father had been a beast of a man. He drank himself into a stupor every other day and turned his anger and hatred for himself on his wife and only son. Ever since he was young, he watched his once vibrant mother turn into a shell of a woman, relying on self-medication to get through her abysmal life. He would not let Leona be broken the same way.
“Sorry I made you cry,” Sebastian said sheepishly.
Leona dabbed at her cheeks and let out a breathy laugh. “No, Sebastian, don’t be silly. You have nothing to apologize for. I just… wish I could be as selfless as you. We’d both probably be better off for it.”
Sebastian shook his head. “You’ve spent the last three hundred years being forced into a box. It’s time you use that supernatural strength to kick your way out.”
A smile crept across her lips and she tilted her head. “What do you know about my supernatural strength, hmm?”
“You shoving me against a wall that night we met gave me a pretty good idea,” he said with a smirk. “I was in equal parts aroused and terrified. A new combo for me.”
Leona practically cackled at that. “Is that the way to your heart, Beliveau? Choking you up against a wall until you almost piss yourself with fear?”
“I did not almost piss myself,” Sebastian hissed.
“Sure,” she said, her eyebrows raised. “Whatever you say, darling.”
His cheeks flushed, but he blamed it on the cold weather. “Your hands were freezing. Are you always so cold? You’re wearing next to nothing.”
“Yes, I’m always so cold. I’m a walking corpse, Sebastian. What do you expect?”
“The way your body works is simply astonishing,” he said, looking her over. “I’d love to just see what’s in there,” he added, gesturing to her entire body. “Do you think it all looks the same? Your organs and stuff? Maybe it’s all black or something…”
“Now who sounds like the murderer?”
“Mmm… still you.”
Her smile broadened. “I’ve told you all about me but I hardly know anything about you.”
“I can’t spill all my secrets before the first date. I have to save something for the imagination.”
“Come on,” the redhead groaned. “Alright, tell me how you got so close to those blondes. Have you known them a very long time?”
Sebastian nodded and turned his attention forward to the water as they continued walking. “Yeah. I’ve known Victor since I was eleven. I didn’t have a normal or privileged upbringing. Or even middle class. Lower class might be a stretch, even,” he muttered. “I stole a lot to get by, got mixed in with the wrong crowds. I went to one of the nicer neighborhoods one day, it was almost dark, and I was checking car doors to see if they were unlocked. Rich people don’t tend to care about shit like that. I don’t know why. Maybe because they can just replace whatever is stolen… or maybe they think their security measures are enough. Either way, I ended up, unknowingly, at Victor’s house. He came out and caught me. Thank God it wasn’t his dad or something.”
“Was he angry?”
“No, actually…” Sebastian said, then he shook his head and laughed under his breath. “No, he’s never really been angry with me. He just asked what I was doing.”
“That’s it?”
“Pretty much. He asked what I was doing, I told him I needed cash for food, and him not knowing any better, asked me why I didn’t just eat the food I had at home,” he laughed, glancing over at her. “Really showed both of us how the other half lives. Obviously, I told him we didn’t have the luxury of a lot of food at home, and I never liked being at home anyway. Not when Dad was there at least. He told me I wouldn’t find anything valuable in his parents’ cars, but that I could come in for dinner. He told his mom I was a friend of a friend and that was that,” he shrugged. “He is two years older than me. We’ve been inseparable ever since.”
“That’s nice,” Leona said with a smile, reaching over to gently squeeze his arm. “Found family can often be better than blood family. I don’t know what I would do without my girls.”
“Yeah, I’m grateful for Victor and Charlotte both.”
“Is Charlotte from here?”
“No, she’s from New York. We all met in college up there. Instant connection.”
“I can tell you’re close. Did you and Charlotte ever…? Or Victor?”
“No, and no,” Sebastian said. “You aren’t the first person to think that. We’re just all best friends. I’ve never had eyes for Charlie. I doubt she’s ever thought of me that way either. Same for Victor. I could never betray either of them like that. No sex in the world is worth losing our bond for.”
“Not many people share your loyalty,” Leona complimented. “I’m glad you have them.”
Sebastian resisted commenting on the irony, given she and her coven were about to take them away. He swallowed his resentment and gave into the pull he always felt around her. It almost felt even stronger now. “Those are all the secrets you get for the night, Abrin. I’ll save the juicy stuff for our date.”
Leona hummed in amusement and folded her arms. “So about this first date you keep mentioning…” she paused, arching her eyebrow. “I’m a very experienced woman. You can consider me wooed.”
Sebastian scoffed. “You are most certainly not wooed. You’re from the seventeenth century. You were probably courted and pined after by every man in the country.”
“Well, maybe not every man…”
He rolled his eyes. “Whatever. My point is, while I’m flattered that you’re so eager to throw me across a room into your coffin,” he started, resisting a smirk at her glare, “that’s not what’s going to happen.”
“What is going to happen then?”
Sebastian sighed and ran a hand through his hair. She never let him off the hook for anything. He moved his eyes to hers again and took a breath, his hands gently taking hers. “What’s going to happen is I’m going to ask you out on a real date. And you are hopefully going to say yes. And then your crazy ex-boyfriend is going to try and murder me.”
Leona was not overly amused at his last little quip, but the first part was so heartwarming that she overlooked it. “You aren’t going to get down on one knee?”
“Would you like seeing me kneel before you, Leona?”
Leona would have blushed if she could. Shyly, she glanced away from him, before making eye contact again. “I would love nothing more than to go on a date with you, Sebastian Beliveau.”
The man smiled and nodded his head. “Then prepared to be wooed, Leona Abrin.”