Chapter 493: A forbidden love.
"Do not rush. I know how you feel. I've felt the same way since we were teenagers."
"!!!" She turned her face to Victor in shock, and her eyes screamed, 'Why'!?
Why didn't you do anything? Why didn't you say anything? WHY!?
Even if she didn't say anything, Victor completely understood what she was transmitting; he hadn't known her for a long time for nothing.
"Why-." Before Leona could even question Victor, he spoke:
"It's complicated and at the same time not. The motives have changed over time; you must understand a little."
Before, it was because he was more concerned about his illness and the disapproval of his family members [Edward and Adam]. After came his Vampire transformation, which prohibited Vampires and Wolves from being together because of an unwritten law.
The motives constantly changed depending on the time, place, and circumstances.
Something always happened to keep the two of them apart.
And Victor wasn't blameless either. When he turned into a Vampire, he thoroughly delved into that world, and more people came into his life.
And he needed time to organize everything.
"...." Leona didn't say anything, but her eyes spoke how she felt.
Sometimes being a good body reader like Victor was a bad thing; he understood things even if he didn't want to.
Leona understood that, after all, she'd heard the many reasons throughout her childhood.
But what she didn't know was that the main reason that stopped Victor from doing something was a promise, a promise made between brothers...
But now, all that was in the past, minus the promise...
"I don't remember clearly when you came into my life. Was it at the beginning of our school?"
"Is that when my mom helped Adam with something?"
"Was it in our teens?" Victor was by no means someone with a photographic memory or anything like that; he didn't remember all the events of his life. Just like any being, he only vaguely remembered his childhood.
Even though his brain processed things faster now, much like a high-end supercomputer, in no way had his intelligence been increased.
He was not capable of building things or researching things like a genius scientist like Ruby.
What he had was the wisdom and life experience that came from Adonis; he knew how 'life' worked and how 'relationships' between people worked.
But there was one thing he was sure about this situation.
"For years, you've always been there with similar circumstances. We both had illnesses, and while they weren't similar, we shared in each other's pain. You've always been fun to be around. To be honest, your presence, that of your brother, and Fred have helped me a lot in the past... Especially you... There's no way I can't relate to you, there's no way I can't understand... you."
"... I know... I know all this; I always knew." Leona muttered carefully.
Leona was always frustrated with herself. Since childhood, she had health problems, and she knew that this problem called 'albino' made her relatively weak. It was torture, especially when she knew of her origins.
She didn't understand; why didn't she awaken her lineage earlier? She knew that when the Werewolf Bloodline activated in her body, she would be healed.
And she undoubtedly was on that Full Moon night.
By God, Edward, her brother, even before being fully awakened as a Werewolf, was always much stronger than ordinary humans. His body was full of vitality, proof that he had awakened his lineage a little, which was common among Werewolves.
Why didn't she grow up like that too? Why did she have to be weak?
Even her father didn't understand why she was born that way; after all, it was unthinkable for a Werewolf to be sick. Instead, they had a high vitality that could compete with Noble Vampires easily.
He could only say that Leona was an extremely rare case of late awakening.
'The day I found him... It was like I found a part of myself.'
When she had met Victor, he was weak, with an almost sickly complexion. In addition, he was virtually the same height as her.
In her eyes, he was a strange boy.
But as she grew up with him, getting to know him better, she started to like his character, especially... His loyalty.
He was a strange human.
Victor could be many things. People labeled him with various convenient labels due to his goals and even labeled him with actions that he did, but one thing was correct.
If you gained Victor's friendship, he would be loyal to you.
A unique quality. A dangerous quality. Because if he gave his allegiance to bad people, he could break when betrayed.
Fortunately, thanks to his mother's teaching, he was always a good judge of character.
And because of this judgment of character, he didn't entirely trust anyone; you could say he was skeptical of the world from a young age.
Leona was attracted to this boy, and his personality, which strangely resembled that of a Werewolf.
And those feelings only grew with time.
Because of these reasons, even when Victor gained a wife, she didn't think about giving up; having multiple women wasn't uncommon in the Supernatural World.
Was she upset? Of course, someone stole her first love.
Did she get angry? Of course, what did you expect?
Even though she was brought up with the ideologies of the Supernatural World, she couldn't fully accept the idea of a leech suddenly appearing to take her place.
She had bitten him! He was part of her family!
She even asked Edward, her brother, not to turn Victor because she wanted to!
She wanted him to be her one and only Beta. She wanted him to be part of her family.
... But! That bitch! That leech appeared!
She was beyond pissed off when she found out what happened.
As time passed and she started listening to his deeds, she learned about the 3 wives he'd gained that day.
And from her perspective, it was pretty apparent that he would get more women. Thirsty Vampires wouldn't let this piece of man-meat walk around unattached.
Of course, Victor, being a man of principle, wouldn't mind that... But... Even Victor had a problem.
Victor's tendency to like crazy people made women like Violet approach him.
Crazy, possessive, and powerful women joined him, and they got along well because Victor was a being just like them, except that even though he was just like the girls, he was even worse than them at the same time.
And this trait appealed even more to female Vampires because, in a way, all female Vampires were psychotic women.
The fact that the Vampire felt everything more intensely, coupled with the fact that Vampires were what they were by nature, the probability of someone stalking, falling into jealousy, acting crazy, and being possessive was relatively high.
'And he always knew how to treat a woman thanks to Anna...'
Leona couldn't give up on Victor, even if he became a Vampire.
'Victor is someone who doesn't care about the rules; he walks his own path...' She remembered Victor's words when he confronted her father, something she found unthinkable.
Her father was, after all, an alpha werewolf, and not just anyone; he was a damn ex-General.
But Victor didn't even blink and looked at Adam with the same threat level as the Former General.
Victor may be many things, but he wasn't a coward. He accepted challenges head-on, and that personality... Never changed.
Even when he was a weak human, there was that 'fire' in his eyes when he was bullied. He never cried or asked for mercy; he endured it alone while waiting for the opportunity to get revenge.
A silence fell around them; the two were deep in their thoughts.
Victor and Leona were no longer the same; they were no longer sick and needed everyone's protection.
Leona was an Alpha werewolf; she was strong in her own right; all she lacked now was experience.
And Victor was a damn Vampire Count and a fucking Progenitor.
Victor sighed and smiled gently:
"...Just give it time. Baby steps, Leona. Baby Steps. Let's take things easy."
"But-..."
"Understand who I am now, and I will try to understand who you are now." Victor was relentless.
"We've both changed; the Victor you knew has changed, but he's still there, and so have you. The Leona I knew still exists, but she's changed."
"Don't rush; I won't run away or hold back... Not anymore."
'Not anymore...?' Leona narrowed her eyes slightly: 'Was he holding back? Why?'
The serious expression and blank eyes on Victor's face made Leona's heart beat faster. If she were an ordinary woman, she would run for her life, but Leona knew who Victor was; she knew this was the 'true him'.
'Maybe it wasn't love... Not completely... We didn't interact enough to delve into those feelings.' Leona wasn't stupid enough to fool herself with that; she completely understood that.
Victor liked her; she knew it; she felt it. Did he think he could hide the subtle looks he'd given her when they were younger? He could not.
His own admission was proof enough.
Leona was the first woman Victor came into contact with in the past, and she was the same as him; the two shared the same fate.
Feelings of liking a person weren't born if the other person didn't show it too.
Today, she understood Victor's feelings were not as strong as those she had for him.
Despite that, she felt sweeter than before, and butterflies danced in her stomach, and his determined words were enough to understand how serious he was.
"I don't need to understand you; I'm the person who knows you the most, Vic."
"Hahaha~" Victor laughed gently; it wasn't a mocking laugh or to annoy Leona; it was a fun laugh.
"Leona, someone who's been through all the events I've been through can change a lot in a short time. You, of all people, should understand that, right?" He gave a suggestive smile at the end.
"...." If the serious look Victor previously gave Leona made the girl squirm a little, his current smile made her shudder internally.
'Just how much can he see right through me?' She asked herself, confused, and added:
'How much has he changed?' She was curious now.
"…Okay, I'll… I'll watch you." She had an opportunity, and she wasn't going to waste it.
"Thanks." Victor smiled kindly.
Leona huffed and turned away, slightly embarrassed; she really didn't like to talk about feelings and complicated things like that.
Victor looked at this and smiled even wider:
"Follow me."
"Mmm." Leona nodded and followed Victor… Close, very close.
To be honest, Leona completely underestimated how much Victor had changed... Wrong, how much worse he'd gotten.
Perhaps, in the past, Victor's judgment of how to handle his relationship with her had been correct, but he was no longer a human; he no longer had chains restraining him.
He was a Vampire, a being who had his emotions and feelings amplified over 100x.
He felt everything more intensely.
EVERYTHING!
Even if Leona hadn't taken the initiative, Victor would've done something about it; he didn't like to do something half-assed; it wasn't his style. So either their relationship ended completely, or they were going to be together.
And every time he looked at Violet after some time without seeing her because of work or when he was busy, Leona's image unconsciously appeared overlaying Violet as if it was an unconscious reminder to himself. It was for just a few seconds, and he controlled himself enough not to let any strange expression appear on his face.
Violet and Leona were very similar. In another time, they could've been mistaken as sisters. Even their attitudes, when it didn't involve Victor, were similar.
Leona was not quite Violet's equal because she didn't have a mother like Agnes, who took her 'yandere' to the next level.
But the similarities existed. Proof of this was that when the Vampires looked at Leona next to Victor, they opened their eyes slightly and moved to address her as 'Lady Violet.' Yet when they realized their mistake, they opened their eyes in shock and said nothing, probably discovering the woman's identity in front of them.
Werewolves and Vampires had ways of identifying with each other; it was quite instinctive. They weren't called rival races for nothing.
The intense smell of blood coming from a leech.
And the smell of wet dog coming from a mutt.
Of course, the Werewolves' strong bodies and the Vampires' red eyes were also a way of identifying the opponent's species.
Leona ignored all this. She was immersed in her thoughts, something that would take time to get back to normal. She didn't seem to be worried about being in a Vampire lair of a Noble and strong Clan like the Snow Clan. She had absolute confidence that she was safe next to Victor.
'Hehehe~, I knew, I always knew… But I wonder what's changed?' It was worth mentioning that she was pretty happy and confused at the same time.
'Meh, it doesn't matter; I won't let anyone interfere with our decision; after all, that's our problem.'
'Our… Our problem, only ours….' For a few seconds, her blue eyes darkened completely into emptiness as she glanced at Victor.
.........
