Belladonna - Post Chapter Eight (Patreon)

A/N: A conversation between Belladonna and Gabriel after the events of Chapter eight.  Assuming it is a few days later after the dust has settled.  

Belladonna waited.

She was very good at waiting.  Some might say she was too good, in fact.  There was a distinct possibility it may be a fault because it didn’t allow her to move on from any single slight. Mainly, because she was willing to wait years to see things through.  Not many knew that about her. It was a secret that she alone managed to keep.  Unless, you were the other person in the Night Market that was supposed to know entirely what was going on.

Finding Gabriel standing in the middle of her parlor did truly give her pause. She wasn’t surprised by much these days, but this sight was strange enough to make her believe she was dreaming. If she dreamed, that is.

“Warden Caine.” She tried not to let her discomfort known. Of course, she knew he would eventually come around.  The fact that he hadn’t yet either meant she was giving him more credit than he deserved, or he was giving her more respect than she required.  “Is this a social call?” she asked.

“You know it’s not.”

He stood in the middle of the room. Flashes of a younger man with messed hair and an all black uniform blazed before her. Although, she had never been disappointed in the midnight blue he now donned.

“We have strict policies, Warden. No one that has been in my employment gets to buy my services.” She walked over to the tea table, flicking the rune that would light the hearth and set the delicate plum teapot boiling.  A gift from the Book Baron.  Perhaps the only Baron at this point she had respect for.

“Have you heard back from the Baron of the Mists?” Gabriel asked, ignoring her.  She noticed that he made no move to make himself comfortable. Now that she thought about it, he hadn’t been here since the day he had been fired.

“I have not. Though, you know Kavatti. Fashionably late each and every time.”

He nodded curtly. “She was not looking well at the last Baron meeting.” Kavatti had some sort of human disease before she was a vampire. One that had ravaged her body and left her with eternal death as her only option. It was supposed to pump youth back in her. Said youth was waning rather quickly, however.

“Unsurprising,” Belladonna said. “Though, I will admit, a tad bit disappointing. She had such potential not be a horrendous little creature and yet here we are.”

Awkward silence passed between them. While they had been working together much more often these past few months, it was still odd.  It was this oddity that bothered Belladonna the most. There had been a time when she could sit with him in silence and find peace. Now, the silence only stretched through the room in an odd tendril of tension.

“I would like to discuss her, if we may.”

“After all this time? Why the curiosity?” Arguably, Gabriel had more access to the Baron of the Mists than Belladonna. He oversaw the monthly meetings between the Barons. Belladonna hadn’t seen Kavatti since being released from her services.  Which, had been long before Gabriel was even Warden.

“Because you will be taking our market friend to see her and I do not think that is wise for the two of you to go alone.” Straightening, ever the good soldier, he stood at attention. “I would like to attend this meeting with you.”

Belladonna blinked at him.  His expression was unchanging and his posture stiff, as if awaiting his next orders.  “No,” she said slowly.

While it was expected, his gaze still ticked towards hers. “Ms. Malady, I do believe it is a mistake…”

“I’m sorry. Were we not just having a similar conversation about Elias? Wasn’t I just the one who did not feel it right for you to go to the Dollmaker due to a personal nature? You all but told me to shove it up my ass, Gabriel dear, so you’ll excuse me if I find your request laughable.” Irritation swept through her. She hadn’t fed in some time and knew that little detail would need to change soon. She was always so much quicker to temper without fresh blood coursing through her.

Gabriel’s jaw clenched. He was not a stupid man. He had to have known that would come back and bite him. “I do not believe, going forward, we should let our past hurts with one another become an issue.”

“Your past hurts,” she said pointedly. “Not my own. I have offered you kindness, Gabriel. I have offered you a chance to work with me once more. I have offered you friendship. But you were the one that could not step forward and meet me halfway.”  Oh but how he liked to play the different narrative. How Gabriel liked to look the victim with what had transpired.  It was much easier to believe a viper a villain than a man created solely for good.

“And do you truly expect me to after what you did?” he hissed. She understood his refusal of events in front of others. But here, in the very room it all had happened…

“Are you referring to my job? How I got the position in the first place? Or the fact that I created a backbone in you and kept you alive?”

He shook his head. “I did not come here for this.”

“No. You came to demand that you be in attendance to something that has nothing to do with you.”

“Kavatti has burned bridges with many, Ms. Malady. You may have known her far better but I still believe the situation is one that does require some levelheaded thinking.  And while you are many things, you are not level-headed when it comes to someone who has hurt you.”

“I will be taking my sweet little darling namekeeper, Warden. I assure you, they will keep me level-headed.”

“You and I both know that their presence will not dissuade you from what you are about to do.”

The kettle popped, signalling that the tea was done. Belladonna did not turn however, her eyes locked with Gabriel’s. “And just what is it you think I’m about to do.”

Stepping forward, he stared at her, eyes tipping into the dark silver of the Fallen, the grace in his pocket glowing bright. “Belladonna, it is not worth it.  This is no longer a fight you need to have. You have risen far higher in the market than you thought you ever would. You have proven your point. It is time to be done.”

It struck her, cutting through her in a twisted barbed edge of a knife.  Of everyone, he should have understood. He had been there.  This wasn’t about proof of who was better. This was about setting right a history that had gone so horribly askew.

“And tell me, Gabriel,” she said softly. “Do you really believe this, or do you just not want the mess that you know I am about to bring to your door.”  The Warden, after all, would have to be involved and it seemed like Gabriel’s worst nightmare to help her with anything

When he looked at her, she felt herself falter, however.  A much more familiar gaze was cast upon her now and she didn’t know if she liked that she had opened that pathway once again. “I hope you bring it to my door,” he said after a long moment.  “If you are about to do what I think you are, I hope that you bring it to me first. At least so I can protect the innocent that will fall in this situation.”

With that, he walked past her, taking the teacup that sat on the table and turning it over. A dismissal of an invitation that Belladonna hadn’t even been aware she’d given.

“And me?” she asked before he could go. “Will you protect me despite no longer being friends?”

Gabriel sighed. “I said I would protect the innocent in this situation. Whether or not you believe yourself to be one is up to you.”