“This wasn’t a good idea,” I whispered, I turned to Levi and pulled him back, “They found me here before Levi, what if they…”
“How long has it been since you’ve been to him?”
I closed my eyes and held his hand tightly. I had been to the cemetery countless numbers of times, but I hadn’t been to him since the eve on which he was buried.
We walked hand in hand through the snow and the rain until we reached the far end of cemetery. Trees had taken the gates as their captives, wild flowers clung to the old neglected stones and the earth had flung itself around the place. His name was covered by overhanging greenery. I knelt down before his grave and pulled all of the weeds from it.
Levi took the overhanging weeds off of me and walked back towards the cemetery gates. I crossed my legs and sitting on my coat I ran my index finger across his name.
“I miss you,” I whispered. “Oh how I miss you,” I laughed with a sigh and dabbed my nose with a handkerchief that Levi had given to me before I sat down.
There was so much that I wanted to say, but as I sat there I knew that no words would be enough. It would be pointless to tell him all that had happened because I knew with all of my heart that he had been with me the entire time. Roberta told me to believe and I knew then what she meant. Sedric had never left my side. No amount of fire could have taken him from me. Life and death were so closely linked, all it took was the belief that he was there and I felt such peace.
I stood and put my hand onto Levi’s arm. “I thought that you’d be angry,” I said, trailing off as we began to walk.
He sighed and took my hand into his, “I am angry at Victor and Oliver and I hate to say it, Sedric. They all had the sense to tell you that they loved you before some other man came and swept you off of your feet. I am still the bad guy for everyone else, and that will never change. But you, you see me like no one else does. I feel good whenever it’s just us.”
I closed my eyes and tried to smile. “After this is done I’m going to let him go.”
Levi stopped and dropped my hand. “If you love him…”
“I don’t think I know how to love any more. It’s better that I just turn it off and let him go, let you both go.” I turned away from him and continued to walk out of the cemetery and off back towards the main streets.
Levi never ran after anyone. He was the person who people ran to, if a finger was to be lifted it wouldn’t have been his, but there he was, shocking and fascinating me all over again.
“Rose!” he called, as he ran down the street.
He called my name over and over until I stopped and turned as he came to a stop in front of me. His chest was rising and falling with desperation against mine.
He took a deep breath and he rested his hands onto either side of my face, like that was where they were always meant to be, “don’t let it go. Don’t let feeling go. I was like you once, a long time ago. I swore that I wouldn’t let myself feel love,” he laughed bitterly. “But then along came my precious Roseanna.”
He sighed before taking a deep breath and looking at me straight on with all of the weight of the world in his eyes, “I love you and you terrify me Rose. I am not going to give up on you and I won’t let you give up on yourself, not whilst I am still breathing this Godforsaken air.”
Chapter 17
That evening, after spending a torturous walk home in silence with Levi we sat around George’s table absent of our host, and the torture continued.
Everything that Levi had said was true. To give up on love would be to give up on life, I had tried, but never could I shake off the ghost of Sedric’s love. There was no switch, no matter how often I said it, thought it, dreamt of it, there never would be.
Levi sat at the end of the table looking over us all. Gabriel sat opposite me, Clarence beside him and a pink and mortal Jesse beside me. I hoped beyond all hope that the others couldn’t feel what I could sat so close to Jesse. Our blood bond was almost impossible to stand, and sat in that room it was the only thing keeping me fixed to the ground.
All eyes were on me. My eyes however were fixed on my desert spoon and the slight fingerprint that was on the very tip. As I leant over with my napkin to polish it off every one shifted in their seats.
I looked up and locked eyes with Levi. I smiled and said quietly, “the lobster was lovely, don’t you think?”
“It was good,” Levi replied, smiling in return.
“It’s a shame George isn’t here to eat it,” I laughed nervously and tapped my spoon before refolding my napkin.
Clarence shuffled and tried to catch my eyes. I looked up at Jesse for only a second returning my eyes back to my hands as he returned my glance.
“I think,” I said as I stood, “That I’ll see what’s taking them so long with the cheesecake.”
“Red velvet cake,” Levi corrected as I walked past him.
I stopped and my furrowed my brow, “Red velvet cake?”
It was an odd moment. The matter of the cake itself was completely inconsequential and futile. All of them bar Levi had known of my dislike for the cake yet three of them had seen the menu before we sat down to eat and didn’t question it.
Levi stood and placed a cool hand onto my arm, “I’m sure that we can change it, after all the man is a millionaire. Come.”
I looked around the room and met each pair of tired eyes before I followed Levi into the kitchen. None of them had grown to the idea of Levi.
As we walked back into the room they fell silent and I sat down wishing that I could have run away. Clarence was the one who spoke up, she directed her words to Levi, but was looking down at me. “We were just saying that it isn’t like you to be so willing to help others.”
I looked over to Levi for his reply. His eyes were distant for a second before he smiled across to me. He captured the attention of everyone in the room as he said, “If you want something done right you have to do it yourself. Right Rose?”
Everyone then turned to look at me. I felt as if I were in some wretched comedy, heads turning in synchronisation wearing blank expressions.
“Right,” I said with nervous laughter continuing to flutter from my lips. I had no idea how they were managing to make me feel so very small. I felt like a child in a room of ancient Lords.
Gabriel stood as there was knock on the door and I looked over to Levi who shrugged. I didn’t need to turn because as soon as he stepped into the house I could feel him as I could feel the others.
“We’re on dessert now,” I said with annoyance building up inside of me as George sat down nonchalantly at the head of his table.
George shifted his eyes around the table and met my eyes, “car trouble.” The atmosphere was killing me. George nervously laughed and then looked around at each of the other dinner guests. “Hands up, who hasn’t slept with Vickie?”
I couldn’t take my eyes off of him. What on earth had made him say such a thing? My mouth was stuck in a thin line and my eyes were like thunder. True silence filled the room.
I looked around and shook my head as no one moved to speak or utter a word in my defence. I stood and left the room without a word. There was only so much that I could take. In my two hundred years I had never wanted to kill someone so much simply for opening their mouth. All of them had been irritating me since we sat down. I knew that I only felt so angry because of Sedric, I longed for him and I hated knowing that no matter how strong or powerful I ever was I would never get him back. I could love Levi, I was already there in my heart of hearts, but I didn’t want to, not in those painful hours following the walk to the cemetery.
“You need a break,” Levi said as he walked into his room behind me.
“I can’t, not now.” I took a breath and closed my eyes. “I try to make them happy, but when one has a smile the others are crying.”
Levi laughed and pushed my hair from my face, “Gabriel will never be happy Rose.”
“I have to try,” I said with a sigh.
; He placed his hand onto my waist but quickly moved it to my elbow, “I know,” he said with a sigh. “Underneath all of this, you’re still that selfless charming girl that I watched over so long ago. You take their pain as your own, and I admire that about you.” He paused for a second and laughed as he said quietly, remembering our time in Paris, “You said that one day you would win, well, you’ve won Rose.”
“When you say things like that I think that I do,” I said in a whisper.
“Do what?” he asked. He was breathless as I wrapped my arms around him and held him close for a second or two.
“Love you,” I whispered, my lips silenced by his as he captured me.
He laughed as he kissed me over and over. I ran my hands through his hair and as I held him, after everything that I had felt that day, I knew that he was all that I needed.
I lay awake the next morning for an hour or so before Levi poked his head around the door and held out a cup of coffee.
I took it from him gratefully and held it to my chest.
“I’m sorry about yesterday; I was all over the place.”
He sat down next to me and pulled the ends of my hair, “I don’t blame you. It was a strange day.”
I laughed and he joined me. I put my hands onto his cheeks and kissed him quickly. “I don’t know why you’re still here, but I’m glad that you are.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“Don’t say that,” I said quietly, pain threatening to ruin my moment of happiness.
He closed his eyes and kissed both of my hands, holding them to his face. “We have a lot to do. George has a surprise for you, and I have serious surveillance work to do.”
“The imposter?”
He nodded, “But, before you ask, no, you can’t come. You have a battle to prepare for.”
He jumped off of my bed and ran out of the house before I could part my lips.
“Be careful,” I muttered under my breath as I got up out of bed and changed quickly to go down for breakfast.
George was waiting for me, an impatient smile spread across his lips as I wandered lazily into his dining room.
He stole my hand as I pulled out a chair to sit down.
“No food for you! I have something to show you!”
As he pulled me from the dining room the chair that I had been holding onto toppled over and slid across the room almost hitting George’s butler Jones.
“Wow,” I said as he opened the door.
He stood in the centre of the highest spec gym I had ever seen and opened his arms wide. “Do you love it, or do you love it?”
I laughed and ran my hands over the equipment as I joined him in the boxing ring which sat at the back of the room. I jumped over the ropes and looked around the room in awe. “I think I might love it.”
He threw me clothes to change into and once I was changed he drew an impish smile onto his face and began to circle me. He hadn’t lost his figure. His perfectly fitting black t-shirt and shorts presented a magnitude of muscle and olive flesh. I lay my hands onto my own blue shorts that revealed my slender pale legs and launched forward. He took a hold of my white vest and then pushed me away.
“Quicker,” he said, bobbing forward and back.
I ran around to his back and jumped up onto him, wrapping my legs around his waist. I rested my hand onto his chest above his heart. He laughed and flipped me over his head catching me before I fell.
“Harder,” he shouted as he ran at me.
I dived out of the way and jumped up facing him. I ran and leapt into the air kicking his shoulder and landing on my feet. I wobbled but managed to stay up. I laughed and turned back to face him.
“Neater,” he said with a wink, before coming at me with punches.
Each time I avoided one fist the other would come faster and harder. I ran backwards and then ran at him full force with my arm out, as I so often did whilst hunting. I took him by his waist and kicked his knees as I span and dived down onto him. He lay on the floor panting with a hopeless smile on his face. I landed with one knee on his chest and my other foot firmly on the ground. My hand was above his heart, there would be no escaping this time.
“Perfect,” he said with a stunning smile, getting his breath back.
I jumped up and offered him my hand. I pulled him up and we climbed out of the ring.
As he ran his hands through his short brown hair, he said, “Francis’s imposter won’t know what’s hit her.”
“Oh I hope she does,” I said with darkness in my tone that George didn’t miss.
He took my arm and looked into my eyes all fun gone from his. He said seriously, “I know how much revenge can mean to a person, but if you go in hunting for revenge you’ll do more harm than good.”
“I don’t want revenge,” I said, lying to myself and to him. “I have nothing to avenge,” I muttered, this time far less convinced by myself.
“Sure, let’s hit the showers and get some breakfast.”
On our way to the dining room we found that Gabriel was waiting at the door. He greeted George who continued upstairs. Once he was out of ear shot I took Gabriel’s arm and pulled him into the drawing room.
“Yesterday, at dinner, was it just Levi that had upset you?”
“I can’t say that I’m pleased at your relationship with him, but I trust you,” he leant over me to shut the door, he then said with real heaviness, “Victoria, I ask that you answer me truthfully, do you love him?”
I shook my head with a confused smile, “Why would you ask me that?”
“Good, that’s good to know,” he opened the door and before he ushered me out, said quietly, “I was terrified that we had lost you.” I hadn’t given him an answer, but he had heard what he wanted to hear, what he needed to hear.
Chapter 18
That night I took a walk with George.
The moon was gleaming and it whispered to us words filled with cruel hope. I looked across to George who was admiring it and I laughed.
He looked back at me and smiled with question in his eyes, “what?”
“I can’t believe that you and I were you and I back then,” I said, my words slipping sweetly from my alert lips.
He nodded and wrapped his arm around my shoulders, “The sweetest times are the shortest ones, and how we laughed.”
“Shh,” I breathed.
We stopped and both turned together.
Stood behind us was a small girl. Her hair was here and there, and her eyes were black, shadows contorted her tiny body and she hissed across to us.
“We’ve got a live one,” George said, looking across to me for a second.
I met his eyes and with a sly smile nodded sharply.
I stepped towards her and her eyes snapped across to me. In the fraction of the second that she was distracted George ran through the night and leapt through the air onto her small frame. She span on her heel and kicked back, slashing his face with her nails as she jumped up to him, avoiding his own furious hands.
I watched on, ready to offer my hand if she created too much trouble.
George stood back from her fierce savage attacks and waited for her to pause in her assault. He ran towards her and as she turned to rein her battery onto me he took her up into his arms and slammed her down onto the floor he held her wrists down and knelt on her small legs.
“Who are you with my darling?”
She snarled and thrashed hopelessly beneath his iron grip.
“She isn’t going to talk George,” I said carelessly, putting my hand onto my hips.
“You won’t win Jewels,” she spat, her eyes blazed up into mine and she laughed as I raised my brows at my name, “He’ll get you, and then he’ll get them, he’ll get them all!” she screamed, her tiny high pitched voice rang in my ears.
Before she could say any more George punched his hand through her chest and held her heart in his hands ending her dead life. He dropped her black heart on the ground beside her and took out his lighter, catchin
g the flame on her jacket.
“So there’s a he?”
“That’s more than we knew this morning,” I said.
“I don’t know about you, but I need a drink.”
We headed back and drank to our success. We settled down in front of the fire which Jones had lit for us and both slipped into a peaceful slumber.
During the early morning hours I was woken by a quiet rustling, as if someone was trying to walk around unseen and unheard.
I opened my eyes without moving and noticed Jones pacing back and forth in front of me and George. I sat up and he jumped. We both were still for a second watching each other. I stretch up and he stood back, twisting his clasped hands uncomfortably.
“Are you ok, Jones?” I asked quietly, so as not to wake George.
His eloquence and clarity of voice surprised me as he said, “Mr George has given me certain instruction Miss Victoria. Since I began work here he has said that I am to ensure he always makes it to his own bed.”
“Oh, well I’m sure he won’t awfully mind.”
“Also a letter arrived this morning addressed to a Miss Clarence. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop but I do believe you know a Miss Clarence.” He took out said letter from his pocket and handed it down to me, “the young man seemed rather in a state to ensure that Miss Clarence receive the letter.”
I recognised the writing right away. Francis. I looked back up and Jones was gone. With no one around who was awake, I decided to open the letter.
‘Dear Clarence,
I very much enjoyed your last visit it was a real pleasure to finally meet you. I wondered if you had further considered joining us, you would be a great asset to our side. Visit soon, I have much to tell you.
My love and wishes,
Bernadette.’
I re-read the letter until the words ‘I’ and ‘you’ made little sense at all. I folded it back into its envelope and left it on the coffee table. Resting my head onto George’s lap I fell asleep once more.
An Immortal in London: Corruption Page 15