Chapter Eight

Graceona

Edgar left the two of us. I observed the black leather couch and then our large room. Of the few places I had visited in the palace, the sitting room was my favorite. The smell of food hovered from the kitchen into the room as Leonard smiled, looking at me. "So, Edgar, is your grandfather from your human life?"

I looked at the young man with a smile. "I turned him not long after my turning. My parents and I were never that close, and my sister's relationship was nonexistent because of family troubles. He was all I had left; my grandmother passed away when I was young. She suffered from influenza that took over and took many lives. Edgar was also sick and getting old in years. I wanted a little piece of something to come with me in this new walk of life, and there was no way I would have my sisters or parents for the rest of eternity, so I chose Edgar. I was selfish for wanting to combine my human life with this life. Still, back then, I was young, barely a month into my transformation, and he was dying of sickness and a broken heart. He had lost my grandmother, then me. He was going down fast. No one in the family had accepted him. I suppose the only woman to show him kindness was no longer living. He was grieving himself into his grave. I visited him one night. He begged me to tell him, if I were well, that he had heard false news of my passing; that was something I couldn't give him. Therefore, he requested that we go on this journey together. He was the only person I had changed."

"He was the only person you turned. Didn't you ever want to go on a violent rampage?" He asked, looking at me.

"No, I never had the desire to turn humans. Only for ill intent do newborn vampires seek to turn people. I don't think I was a saint following my transformation. It made me furious. I didn't go down without a fight. My first targets were the men who left me dead on the streets." I couldn't help but grin at the memory. "Despite the men being brave as they struck me and carried out vile acts, I assume people act timider when they see a corpse come to life, taking out several colleagues. Despite the chamber door, my need for retribution was still unquenchable. The meal and blood bath were a delight. The only reason Edgar got turned as he was already dying. I didn't want to lose him forever, so I granted his request to be turned so the two of us could spend an eternity together, being the family that thugs thought they had taken from me. My sisters died of natural cases giving birth, and I have many nieces and nephews. I'm familiar with their living location. I avoided associating with them. After I turned Edgar, I left that life behind. Cut ties with the toxic people in my life, and I've never been happier."

He looked at the floor with a sigh, then back at me. "You died in a gruesome way. It makes sense why you are the way you are, so distant, never letting people in. What happened to your parents? You didn't seek revenge on them, did you?"

I looked at the floor, feeling his eyes were still on me. "I've killed people, something I used to be proud of. My parents were the second targets after I disposed of those responsible. Immortality was mine, but I sacrificed my purity. I wasn't always this cruel murderer. I was a cheerful and kind young woman. I would have done anything for my family. However, my father was cruel to us, and my mother turned to alcohol, resulting in her being mean while she was drunk. I had a job as a seamstress. I'm not trying to brag, but people said I was one of the top in our small village, I clothed various women from the rich to the not-as-rich. Working at the boutique, I made enough money to support myself. I had planned to use the money to move out of my parents' care. However, the money I had saved up, my father had gambled away in a poker game in the Saloon. I hated him because of that. Our relationship never recovered, with him cursing me at his death and my mother blaming me for the attack. Their insults drove the nail into their fate."

I heard him shift in his seat with a sigh, seeing him rub his eyes from the corner of my eyes. I had known this man, and this was the first time I had seen him this disappointed in anyone. He didn't have to voice his frustration or disappointment. His actions said plenty as I looked up at him. "I can take you back home. I'll pay for a nicer apartment, so you don't have to support Christian. The money you can keep as a gift, just a payment for giving me the time you have."

He focused his gaze on me. "They took your life away brutally despite my disagreement with your choices. Your family used you as a cash cow. I would bet that they had abused you emotionally as well as physically. I've been with you briefly, and this explains everything. You have trust issues and a detest for humans because of those who have done you badly. I don't blame you to the point of leaving you. Unless you want me to leave."

"No, I was hoping you wouldn't. I don't want to lose you. You were the only human to show me kindness both in our time in Infernias and this time together; however, I'm still as I was, but I had acted in vengeance to save a life I valued."

"You didn't leave here and do away with Christian, did you? I understand you."

"No, he's fine. I've not seen him since the other night during my visit with you. He might have found another person to help him out. I had done this before meeting you earlier in the week. I told you you were free, and the Royals stopped suspecting you. Well, to an extent, your suspension is correct. But your freedom is 100% true. You are free from their penalty that came at a cost, their deaths for your freedom. It was you or them, so I made a choice."

"Are you crazy? Grace, I why?"

"They knew where you were. You weren't hiding from anyone. They had planned to come and collect you for your punishment for a crime I had committed. You had nothing to do with Hermie's death. That was all me. No woman enjoys being spied on while they are changing. However, my privacy had nothing to do with why I had done what I did. He was the one who revealed your whereabouts to the guards. Then he had the guts to blackmail me, daring me to say anything. The two of us had met up to discuss issues involving his stupidity. Well, it turned out that he was more into the blackmailing, saying that should I interfere with your hanging, he made his brags of exposing my secret should I refuse to be the one to execute you. Giving you a burial wasn't an option; he wanted me to hang you by the noose and dispose of you by throwing you over the Infernias graveyard. Whether the hanging finished you or not, Blake wanted to end you cruelly and demeaningly. That night, I vowed to protect you at all costs, no matter the situation. So, Blake blackmailed. I made a choice. You are alive, and he is the one laying bare in the rocky ridge graveyard, being the feast of whatever crow or buzzard will have him."

"Blake wanted to hang me for what?"

"Leonard, we both know you made a fool of him at the festival. He wanted you to suffer for humiliating him. It was him. The rest of the family got involved when word spread that you were at the crime scene. No one cared about children's rivalry. We could have cared less. Some of us found it amusing. The bets my men would make on how long until you decked him was the focal point of our nights."

"Did you take pleasure in the bets?"

"I bet a few times here and there, we all wanted you to knock him out. It rather disappointed us when you didn't slap him silly."

Leonard sighed. "Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you. Violence isn't my thing. You lost money for no reason."

I looked at him, shrugging my shoulders. "You win some, you lose some. I suppose."

"So why were you hostile towards the hostess and Christian? Neither of them had done anything threatening towards me?"

"Hostile is putting it strongly, don't you think? I like to think I was civil. The hostess tried to tie you down with children her boyfriend didn't want. That was coming against your freedom. I won't stand for someone shackling you down, and Christian, I took your eviction notice off the door before I snuck into the window. You would have woken to an eviction notice, thus leaving you homeless, and I know what can happen to those who live on the streets and are alone. I would not let what happened to me happen to you. Which is why I asked you about the date. I had no interest in eating. You no longer lived there, their loss and my gain."

"No surprise." He sighed, laying his head back and pinching the bridge of his nose. "I didn't like that old bucket of bones, anyway. Perhaps I'm better off here."

"You sure about that, Leonard? You're camped amid vampires currently on the alert for a rogue vampire. We still do not know what they are after; rather, they are friends or foes. You feel comfortable here?"

"I'll take my chances, plus you have a whole army. If you are scouting a rogue vampire, as in one, what is there to worry about, one vampire against many others, and one of those vampires is a one-woman wrecking machine, you can take that vampire on with your arms tied and blindfolded."

"You place too much trust in me, you know that?" I looked at him as he shrugged.

"Grace, I trust you because I know I'm safe with you. Even if something were to happen, I wouldn't be alone. And I'm confident in hearing your story. I wouldn't be in pain for long. You'd either end me to get me out of my misery or turn me. I don't fear death since I know you. The fear of dying is the last thing I'm worried about."

"The last thing you're worried about. What could have you uneasy? I've eliminated everyone whom you were worried about. Am I not done?" I looked at him as he looked at me.

"Humans worry a lot. That's probably all we do is worry."

"What has you concerned? Do I also need to be concerned?"

"Not unless you're worried about not being able to get cookies and cream ice cream and spend the night watching television because you slept all day, then no, I'm alone in that worry."

"I don't sleep, Leonard. Unless you just want the ice cream and just want to watch television all night, I have nothing else to do. We could go out, drive around and go to your apartment. You have plenty to do in your new home, television and computer, and everything you need to entertain yourself. You were the one who came into the living room. I was ready to leave here three hours ago."

He looked at me. "We can leave. I thought you were required to stay here."

"I can leave anytime I want. As for that, I can rule this place without a large throne. I just came here because I've done it for 200 years. I can rule from anywhere."

He looked at me. "Then you're ruling from my apartment tomorrow. Let's go."

I smiled as the of us left the palace.