“No.” He begins stepping out of the tub and I attempt subtly adjusting the atmosphere with my ability, making things somewhat warmer for him, ideally. But his eyes immediately dart up to mine and his lips pull back over his teeth. “I fucking said, no.”
Frustration rolls through my chest at his clear dismissal of his own health. This isn’t good for him, especially now while he’s already weak and sick.
Is he being an ass? Elijah’s words radiate through my blood as he speaks. He can feel my own irritation, and he knows how these sessions usually go.
Always. I respond to him and then I feel our bond flood with understanding. This isn’t anything new, but it continues to hurt us watching him waste away like this.
“I spoke to her,” Leon’s voice is quiet, but there’s an underlying tone of surprise there as well. My eyes snap up to meet his as he pulls open the bathroom door and steps into the hallway. I immediately follow him, waiting for him to continue sharing.
“What? You spoke to her? How is she? Where is she?” The questions spill from my mouth quicker than I can control them. I can’t help it, we’ve been searching for months without anything from her. This is the first bit of contact we’ve made. My heart is racing in my chest, and before I know it, I can feel Elijah stalking up behind me. He can feel the change in my energy, in the way my blood is pulsing through my veins.
Leon doesn’t answer, instead he stays silent and continues his intentional pace through the hallway to his bedroom.
“Leon.” Elijah’s voice thunders behind me, the heat from his nearness enveloping my colder frame. I try to stay focused on Leon, but being this close to my Fated pulls my attention. A shiver races up my spine as Elijah’s hand falls to rest on my hip, his thumb slips under the edge of my shirt and grazes my skin. Heat, and explosion of sparks in the singular place he touches me. I lean back against him, seeking even more of his touch while my mind races to hear Leon’s response.
Leon halts his steps, just as the knob to his door vanishes in front of him. It’s Elijah, altering the space to force Leon’s attention. He turns his head slightly, but doesn’t meet our eyes as he speaks.
“I spoke to her, yes. But I don’t have any answers for you. I still don’t know where the hell she is. She doesn’t want to be found, Elijah.” Leon’s voice is strained in his throat, and I can feel the tension pulling tightly between all of us. Leon wants to find her for entirely different reasons than the rest of us do. Stella and I are constantly trying to stay one step ahead of him. If we can get to her first, we can keep her safe from her Fated.
Never thought those words would pass through my mind, though. The fact that we have to keep a Fated safe from their other half. Even through all of the newly realized and connected pairings that have been slowly coming forward, we’ve never dealt with a situation quite like Amelia and Leon’s.
“Then go farther, search deeper, force her to fucking show up.” Elijah’s voice is clipped and the anger building in his chest spirals through my own. I slip my hand behind my back and through his fingers, pulling him against me and trying to reassure him through our bond.
“We’re running out of time, Leon,” I say gently, wishing that whatever they’ve been through wasn’t such a massive wall erected between them. I want more than anything for them to find each other in their bond, in the ways Elijah and I have found each other. But I don’t think it’s possible for them…there’s far too much blood and hatred imbedded in their histories.
“What do you expect to do when we find her?” Leon’s head whips around and his shoulders stiffen as he speaks. He takes a step towards me, his frame growing impossibly larger as his eyes fall darker. “Do you think you can fix her, mo dheamon?” His tone takes a sarcastic turn as he uses Elijah’s name for me.
“Say it again and I’ll rip your fucking throat out.” Elijah’s huge body is suddenly in front of mine, his chest pressed up against Leon’s as he forces him back and against the door. But Leon isn’t about to back down, and in the same instant his eyes have ghosted over in a new color we’ve only experienced a handful of times.
It isn’t white, and it doesn’t happen when he’s feeding from sexual tension. No, this is when his eyes have turned completely black. Sleek orbs of complete evil and anger. He feeds from the darkness, rather than sex, and it’s not a characteristic any of us are familiar with. It started happening only after him and Amelia had bonded.
“Elijah—” I start, but Leon’s altered voice quickly cuts me off.
“She’s nothing but an easy sleeve to fuck and kill. Do you think she loves you? Is that it? Any of you?” Leon laughs, the gritty texture his voice takes on is both sick and disturbing. “We already know she threw you away years ago.” He aims his dig at Elijah, and even though I know it no longer hurts him, it’s a piece of his past which took years to heal from.
He tilts his head to the side as his black eyes find my own. Fear snakes its way through my chest but I force it back, reminding myself that this is only a side effect of whatever is happening inside of Leon and Amelia’s bond. “She tried to kill you. She would have killed Stella if given the chance. She doesn’t love, you guys. She has never loved. Will never love. All she will ever be capable of is burning and hurting.”
“You don’t know that,” Stella’s heated voice chirps out beside me as she steps into our little encounter and slips her hand through mine. We stand united, while Elijah holds Leon in place and tries to remain calm.
“I don’t know that? Are you fucking kidding me?” Leon groans, his head falls back against the door with a heavy thud and his shoulders fall in what looks like surrender. “I’m the only fucking one who does know that. I’m the one who knows her best.” He suddenly shoves Elijah back, trying to end this conversation but just as Elijah steps forward again, I reach forward and wrap my fingers around his arm to hold him back.
“I know you don’t believe us. I know you’ve lost all hope for Amelia and I know that she’s done unspeakable and irredeemable things. We all understand that.” I pull Elijah back as Stella aligns herself with the two of us.
“But you don’t get to claim her death as your own!” Nathanial’s voice explodes from behind all of us as he steps in to join as well. “We will find her, with or without you.”
Leon’s chest begins rising and falling with heavy breaths. His fists clench at his sides and I can’t help but notice the red wash of anger as it works up his tattooed neck and over his jaw. He’s grinding his teeth, and the veins building against his skin only add to the darkness billowing around him. “She belongs to me,” he says as his voice drops lower. A snarl rips from his lips as he speaks and the tension continues pulling around us.
“She belongs to herself,” Stella says slowly, enunciating each individual word so that he comprehends what she’s saying. “Don’t lose yourself to this darkness. None of us want to lose you, Leon.”
“Let him go,” I finally say, squeezing Elijah’s hand gently to catch his attention. He’s tense and ready for whatever might be coming, but I know this will only end in dangerous measures. It’s a constant struggle, trying to keep the peace in this house. Leon loses his mind a little more each day, his body unravels another inch the longer he and Amelia are apart.