Vengeance Reborn

Chapter 10 ~ Shadows Beneath the Smile

Gabrielle’s POV

I am going to die.

Not from battle.

Not from rogues.

No.

I am going to die because Leona is currently chasing Dominick around the dining hall over a pancake, and I cannot breathe.

“GIVE IT BACK!”

“YOU CAN'T GIVE BACK SOMETHING I'VE ALREADY EATEN!”

“That sounds like a YOU problem!”

I fold over the table, laughing so hard tears stream down my face.

Dominick vaults around a chair.

Leona nearly catches him.

He yelps.

I slap the table.

“Oh, Goddess—stop—”

Neither of them listens.

Of course they don't.

They've been like this forever.

Leona has been my best friend since kindergarten, back when we thought glitter lip gloss was sophisticated and friendship bracelets were legally binding contracts.

Dominick came later through his friendship with Leona.

Then the three of us became permanent.

Chaos, arguments, inside jokes, secrets, family.

I love them both.

But Leona... she is different.

She's my bestie.

My sister in everything except blood.

Which is why I know something is wrong.

She smiles. She laughs. She insults Dominick exactly the way she always has. But every now and then, her eyes change.

Not physically.

Emotionally.

Like she's looking at us from very far away. Trying to remember something none of us lived.

I noticed it yesterday and I'm noticing it now.

I won't push.

Leona talks when she's ready. Always has. Unless I truly believe she's in danger, I won't force my way into whatever she's hiding.

She deserves that from me.

Dominick makes the mistake of looking over his shoulder and Leona tackles him onto the couch. His startled scream sends me into another fit of laughter, but as I wipe tears from my cheeks, that uncomfortable feeling returns.

Not suspicion.

Something worse.

Something that belongs entirely to me.

I love Leona.

I would die for her.

But sometimes I look at her life and wonder what it would feel like if it were mine.

Her parents, position, and power.

The way people look at her when she enters a room. The way the future seems to wait for her.

The thought makes shame crawl beneath my skin.

Leona has never treated me as less than her. She's never made me feel like I'm standing in her shadow.

So why does part of me resent being there?

I don't know. And I don't want to know.

I bury the feeling where I always do and force my attention back to the couch.

Dominick is holding the stolen pancake above Leona's head.

“Say please.”

I snort.

Idiot.

Leona's eyes narrow.

Whatever darkness exists inside me, it doesn't belong in this moment.

These are my best friends. My family.

So I smile and watch Dominick make what will probably be the final mistake of his unnaturally long vampire life.

He takes another bite.

The dining hall goes silent.

“Oh, Dom,” I whisper.

“You're dead.”

---

Dominick's POV

The second that pancake touches my tongue, I know Gabrielle is right.

I'm dead.

Probably painfully. Possibly creatively.

Still worth it.

I chew while Leona stares down at me.

“You.”

I swallow.

“Did.”

Her eye twitches.

“Not.”

I smile.

“Delicious.”

Her expression turns homicidal.

“Gabrielle?”

Gabrielle immediately turns away. “Don't involve me.”

Traitor.

Leona lunges.

I scream, and the dining hall erupts in laughter again.

For everyone else, it's just us being us.

And honestly, for a few seconds, I let myself believe that too.

Then, over Leona's shoulder, my gaze finds Alpha Sebastian.

He's laughing.

Barely.

But his eyes are watching.

Always watching.

Our gazes meet for less than a second.

That's all it takes to drag me back to last night.

After everyone else had gone to bed, Sebastian called me into his office.

No guards, Beta, nor Gamma.

Just him.

He waited until the door closed behind me.

“Dominick.”

Something in his voice immediately killed every joke I had ready.

“Alpha?”

He studied me for a long moment before speaking.

“I need you to do something for me.”

That alone was strange.

Sebastian didn't ask favors casually. Especially not favors involving Leona.

“I need you to stay close to her.”

I frowned.

“I already do.”

“Closer.”

My stomach tightened.

He walked toward the window.

“Watch who approaches her. Listen to what people say around her. Pay attention to anything unusual. Anyone suddenly interested in her schedule, classes, habits, friendships.”

I stared at him.

“What's going on?”

His jaw tightened.

“I can't tell you.”

“That's not reassuring.”

“It isn't meant to be.”

That answer has been bothering me ever since.

Then he looked directly at me.

“If anything feels wrong, you report it to me.”

“Anything?”

“Everything.”

I crossed my arms.

“Does Leona know?”

“No.”

I laughed once, without humor.

“You want me to spy on my best friend.”

“I want you to protect my daughter.”

That shut me up.

Because Sebastian knows me.

He knows what Leona means to me.

She was the first person who ever looked at me without fear. The first person who treated me like I belonged somewhere.

When I had nothing, the Knights gave me a home.

Leona gave me family.

I owe them more than I could ever repay.

So I agreed.

On one condition.

“If she asks me directly whether I'm hiding something from her, I won't lie.”

Sebastian's expression hardened.

Then he nodded. “Fair.”

A sharp shove pulls me back into the present.

Leona finally lets me up.

I straighten my shirt. “You're insane.”

“You ate my pancake.”

“A crime punishable by death, apparently.”

She grins.

For one second, she looks completely normal. Then her attention snaps toward the doorway.

Her smile remains, but her eyes sweep the entrance before checking the windows and the people nearest them.

Scanning, checking, watching, waiting...

Then it's gone.

There.

That.

Gabrielle has noticed something too. I can tell from the way she's been studying Leona when she thinks no one is paying attention.

Neither of us knows what's wrong.

Apparently, Sebastian does.

Or at least he knows enough to be afraid.

I hate keeping this from Leona. I don't like watching her without her permission, and I sure as hell don't like the idea of reporting every detail of her life to her father.

But I know fear.

I've lived with it and this isn't normal parental paranoia.

Sebastian believes something is coming.

So I'll do what he asked.

I'll watch and listen.

And when Leona, Gabrielle, and I leave the mansion later, I'll pay attention to anyone who pays too much attention to her.

Not because I'm betraying my best friend. If someone is coming for Leona, they'll have to get through me first.

She turns back toward me, golden-hazel eyes narrowing. “Why are you staring at me?”

Shit.

I smile.

“Just wondering how someone so short contains so much violence.”

Her mouth falls open.

“I'm going to kill you.”

“There she is.”

She lunges again.

I laugh and dodge behind Gabrielle.

The dining hall fills with noise around us once more, swallowing the moment as though it never happened.

But something about the air feels different.

I can't explain it.

For the briefest second, cold brushes across the back of my neck.

Not enough to alarm anyone nor for me to understand.

Just enough to make me glance over my shoulder.

There's nothing there.

At least...

nothing I can see.

---

Unknown POV

He looked.

The darkness stills.

Interesting.

For the briefest moment, the silver-haired one had almost sensed it.

Not seen.

Not understood.

Sensed.

The darkness withdraws beyond the edge of mortal perception and listens to the distant laughter.

It has learned patience.

It had to.

The world above moves in ignorance—laughing, eating, loving—while invisible threads bind soul to soul.

Some threads glow brighter than before.

The girl is changing them.

Strengthening them.

That is... inconvenient.

But not unexpected.

She returned with memory.

Memory creates choice.

Choice changes patterns.

And patterns can be studied.

The darkness pulses.

Once.

Twice.

Again.

A heartbeat where no heart should exist.

Far away, divine blood answers.

Moon.

Night.

Roar.

Three ancient currents flowing through one living vessel.

Leona.

The darkness tastes the echo of her power through the thread and shudders with something dangerously close to pleasure.

She has awakened one gift.

Others remain dormant.

For now.

Good.

Let them awaken.

Let her learn.

Let her believe knowledge will protect her where ignorance failed.

The darkness remembers the Blue Eclipse.

Her blood on cold ground.

Her power breaking open too late.

The souls she carried.

The divine scream that followed.

And then—

nothing.

Until she returned.

The darkness spreads farther, threading itself through places light has forgotten.

Watching.

Learning.

Pulsing with life that should not exist.

It will not make the same mistakes.

Neither, apparently, will she.

That makes this far more interesting.

An ancient hunger curls around the invisible connection between them.

Patient.

Possessive.

Certain.

And from somewhere beneath the world, a voice whispers into the dark.

“I will have you...”