(A/N): Hey Guys! So, here's the next chapter, and it's a long one!
Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise.
Leo
I woke up sometime later, just staring at the ceiling, blinking wearily.
I couldn't hear anyone around the house, but that didn't mean anything, I never could.
Rolling over, I buried my face in my pillow, trying to push back the terror I was feeling. If this sickness did have something to do with my mother, it was most definitely sinister, and unlikely that I would ever recover.
We're going to make a deal.
A deal?
What had she meant?
What could she, a pureblood supremacist, need from me, a half-vampire?
My mother had never needed anything from anyone and if she wanted it, she just took it. Maybe though, the deal was figurative. The deal being, the deal with the devil. She cures me of this 'disease', so called, by killing me, and in return from me, she gets the pleasure of seeing me, a monster, beg for mercy at her feet.
Deciding it was for the best, I crawled out of my bed, heading downstairs without bothering to dress in proper clothes.
I'd probably just end up back there within the hour, so why bother?
"Dad?" I rarely called my father anything, and the word almost sounded foreign falling from my lips, but I loved to say it. He was my father, not that sadistic bastard I had thought played the role for the first seven years of my life. If only I had found out that I had a different mother as well.
"Leo?" Shari was the one who answered, but my father was by my side in a second, somewhat startling me.
I examined them both, the tightness in their faces, and I knew.
"Have we found anything out?" Shari's eyes darted to my father, whose gaze locked onto mine.
"Leo... we've found a few things, to say the least." I forced myself not to swallow nervously, putting on what I hoped was a brave smile.
"Good news?" I asked, even though I knew it wasn't.
"Sort of?" Shari suggested, and my father sighed.
"Leo. My dearest son," Uh oh, I thought. He only says, 'my dearest son' when he's worried he might lose me. "We found some toxins in your blood." I was perplexed.
"How did you get my blood?" Shari smirked at me weakly, shaking a vial of my own blood in my face.
"We extracted it while you were sleeping." I shuddered lightly, and Lisbet laughed.
"We found traces of a plant called Verbena in your blood, and something else we can't identify." I stared at the ground for a second, eyebrows furrowed.
"Verbena...?" I murmured, thinking back to my potions lessons. "Wait, vervain?" Vervain was a plant grown mostly in the Americas and Europe, known to be extremely harmful to vampires, and lethal in large doses.
"You've heard of it then? It's extremely harmful... but usually fast acting. That other toxin must be what caused the delay in symptoms." I nodded, and I only just caught it.
My father, wincing.
"Dad?" His lips pressed into a thin line.
"Go to bed." I crossed my arms over my chest.
"I-" He cut me off, wearing a look I don't think I had ever seen on his face.
"Go. To. Bed. Leo." I froze for a second, staring at him before nodding sharply, and using my vampire speed to scale the stairs, no matter how much I knew it would tire me out.
The first place I went was my window.
Not many things could make my father react like he had, but it certainly wasn't something already in the house.
Luckily, one of my bedroom windows faced the front yard, and so, I got to watch as my father, Shari and Lisbet arranged themselves outside, and about five minutes later, I sensed what my father had, minutes earlier.
My mother.
Mixed with her fiery blood, I could smell her from a mile away. She smelt like bleach and the winter, not in a good way either.
My back straightened as I realised that my fears were realised, and that my mother was here- this was real. I was sick, and it was her fault. Lisbet, my father, and Shari, who was currently the closest thing I had to a mother, were out there, waiting for her. Waiting to protect me from something they could no longer hope to protect me from.
As I watched, she stepped into view, backed by trees, looking as out of place in her neat, fifties style white dress and heels as ever, a simple black choker studded with diamonds at her throat, her pale blonde hair in a tight bun.
On her hands were pure white gloves that only covered up to the wrist, and a cruel smirk spread across her lips as she paused for a second at the beginning of our lawn, before striding purposefully and without fear towards my father.
"Nicholai." I jolted slightly. It was the first time I could remember hearing her say his name... and I would guess, the first time she had, as well.
"Cipicia Joannis. It's been a while." She dropped the smirk, and all pretense.
"Where is my son, Nicholai?" My father clenched his jaw, arms crossed tight over his chest.
"As I recall, Cipicia, you didn't want him." I winced, but my mother flashed him a smile.
"A mistake on my part. I never realised how much I would miss the lovable little bundle of joy." Yeah, no one was falling for that.
"What's the real reason?" Shari asked, her tone full of snark, and my mother glowered at her.
"Stay out of it, half breed!" She spat, and Shari growled back, a low, guttural sound that would send chills down the spine of any sane human being. My blood boiled, and I clenched my fists so tight that my fingers turned white.
"What's the real reason you want Leo, Cipicia?" My father ground out, and my mother smiled frostily.
"When your son disappears for years on end, people start to ask questions. Bad questions. I need Leo to do a favour for me, and you're going to let me take him." My father scoffed, taking a step forward so they were eye to eye, although it was more like eye to chin. My mother was tall, but not that tall, even in heels.
"And what makes you say that?" My mother smirked, pulling something from the small purse that hung on a string of pearls from her shoulder.
"Because I'm the only one who can cure him." She said, shaking the vial in his face. He lunged for it, coming up victorious of course, but she just laughed in his face. "You really think I was daft enough to have brought the real antidote with me? You half-breeds are even stupider than I gave you credit for." My father glared at her, the corner of his lips forced down in distaste.
"And he'll be safe if he goes with you?" Shari's head whipped around.
"Nicholai! You aren't actually considering this are you?" My father's head dropped, but his eyes remained on her, full of pain.
"He's my son Shari. I'd do anything for him." My mother's sinister smirk reappeared.
"That's the attitude I like to see: A mad desperation. Now, Nicholai, my son." My father hesitated, and I took my chance, speeding down the stairs and out the front door, wishing, for the first time, that I had taken the time to dress properly when I had woken up. "Leonides." My mother greeted in a dead tone, my father pressing a hand to my shoulder to keep me in place.
"Mother. Considering your... offer, I have decided to accept." Shari's head snapped around again, and she gaped at me.
"Leo!" I didn't even spare her a glance, no matter how much I wanted to.
"An intelligent decision befitting of a son of mine, Leonides. Let us go, before this filth rubs off on me." I didn't let myself wince, instead choosing to flash a convincing smiling.
"Let's."
(A/N): So, what did you think?
Also, for the one year anniversary of this story, which is tomorrow, I plan to make a video tribute to this story.
Please review and/or check out my other stories!
This chapter has had minor edits made to it on 30/12/22