Chapter 22
“Let her have her fun, Gideon. You know she’ll return to you when the moment is right.”
Gideon eyed his oldest friend, Damien Hawthorne, and shook his head. “This charade has gone on long enough. At first, it was amusing, but now there’s word that they’ve brought two new immortals into the fold. No doubt an attempt to shield her even more. What is her inane fascination with this human?”
They were at his castle in the North York countryside in England. It was made of grey stone, shrouded from the public by forest. Sometimes those exploring the national park nearby would wander too far and get lost, but they never made it back to their families. Gideon and his mates took care of them before they could cry out for help — not that anyone would have heard their screams in the first place.
There were streams of water near the castle, flowing evenly to feed the animals that hunted in the area. Shrubbery and flowers surrounded the front pathway, pebbles and gravel creating a trail down his estate.
Damien watched Gideon pace. He only ever saw him so worked up when Leona was involved. He usually couldn’t be bothered with other issues and left them to himself or Theodore to sort out.
He had known Gideon for several centuries, having met him after the vampire tried to kill him. It had been a full moon, which amplified Damien’s abilities, and he had nearly taken Gideon’s head off. After an all-out bloodbath, and in fear for his life, Gideon drew a truce with the werewolf, and they worked together in tandem ever since. Damien was thankful for his friendship, because after he brought Leona into their world, her friends Whitney and Piper soon followed. Though they were not Gideon’s fledglings, their loyalty to Leona kept them near, and Damien soon took to Whitney. Their romance was one of intense passion and lust, which soon developed into love. When Leona escaped the first time and took the girls with her, he was angry and torn. He hadn’t understood how Whitney could have left him, but when thinking about his loyalty to his friend, he started to come to terms with it. He did what he could to keep Gideon in the dark, but… he had been in his life much longer than Whitney had. Though she meant a great deal to him, she was only a woman in the end.
He had a much more complicated relationship with Theodore Selwyn, their other friend. Damien had turned him nearly 500 years ago in a complete accident. He had been intending to kill Theodore, but humans in Theodore’s nearby village heard the commotion and came to investigate. Not wanting to be seen, Damien fled and found his dinner elsewhere. Theodore, however, was infected by his scratches, and left scarred for the rest of his life. He contracted lycanthropy, and on the next full moon, transformed completely. He had been a werewolf ever since.
Their conditions were different from the usual myths that humans spread. They did not only turn on the full moon, but their powers, such as strength, sight, and smell, were much more potent those nights. They could willfully turn at any moment, though it was much easier to hide in plain sight when they controlled their urges.
Theodore and Damien had come back together when Damien sensed a new wolf in his territory. Recognizing him, he took pity on him. Theodore did not take to his new identity well and had been terrorizing villages left and right. Damien urged secrecy, so he took him under his wing and began to train him. Over the next few years of their friendship, something stronger bloomed between them. Briefly — by their standards of time — they shared a clandestine affair, and had been wrapped up in each other for several decades.
But when Whitney came along, everything changed, and Theodore had been thrown to the wayside. Bitterness consumed him for a time as he watched his closest friend and lover do everything they used to do with someone else, but… that faded after a few years. He had grown close to Leona and Piper, and even Whitney eventually. He had been integral in Leona’s escape, not that Gideon or Damien knew that. As far as they were concerned, Theodore had been traveling for a few days when everything went down. They hadn’t cared about him enough to double-check his alibi. That had been the final straw for him, and his loyalty almost completely shifted to the girls.
When Damien wasn’t feeling sorry for himself and wandering into his bedroom, that was.
Currently, Damien was lounging on a loveseat, his feet propped up on the arm. He was picking at a piece of wood with a whittling knife, creating a small fox. “If you’re that bent out of shape about it, mate, just go get her. I’m tired of hearing you bitch and moan all the time about it. Are you scared of their new cronies?”
“No,” Gideon scoffed, folding his arms. He hadn’t fed in over a week and he was on edge. “Why does she keep running from me? Why is she so unhappy? Does she think I want to punish her? She must understand that she cannot behave that way. If she would just give in to how the world works, things would be much easier. She was never this combative when she was a human. She practically hung off every word that came from my mouth. It was one of the reasons I loved her so much,” he muttered. “And now she deigns to sink so low as to lay with a human?” Gideon shook his head and made a gagging noise. “It’s disgusting.”
“I’m not getting in the middle of your feud with her. It almost got me killed last time. And Theo still hasn’t forgiven me. Whitney is being pissy, too,” he muttered. “You could have waited at least a few days before rocking up there to intimidate them. It made it so obvious that it was Whitney’s doing. Now she’s off with me.”
“As if I give a shit as to what other people think or are concerned with. They needed to know to count their days. I need Leona to grow more attached to this insect, then when I squash him, perhaps she will truly be broken and capitulate to me. She needs to stop thinking there is some grandiose life for her outside of these walls. I am the most powerful immortal in the world… what more could she want?”
Damien stayed quiet and continued whittling. He knew better than to counter him when he was in a mood like this. “Don’t ask me for help. You’re on your own with this one, Gid,” he mumbled.
The vampire shook his head, his red eyes dark with anger. “We’ll see.”