Free Web NovelChapter 156: Crumbled Partnership I
"What do you mean by that?" Damon barked out. The peaceful atmosphere that had enveloped the infirmary was rapidly disintegrating with Elijah’s sudden news. My own mind was in a flurry of shock at Elijah’s words. I could still remember Blaise telling me a while ago, when we shared our first meal together, that Fangborne didn’t have its own crops, farmland, or livestock.
All food was imported from the nearest town, Everhaven in exchange for protection and possibly money.
So if Everhaven didn’t want to send Fangborne food, what were all of us going to eat? Would we be forced to graze like horses? freewebnovёl.ƈom
"Damon, it’s exactly what I said," Elijah said, quickly elaborating further when he caught sight of the rapidly darkening look on Damon’s face. "I mean, their representative had just informed us that they refuse to have dealings with us any longer."
"Do they want to die at the hands of vampires and wendigos?" Damon demanded. "Have they taken leave of their senses?"
Elijah had a pained expression on his face. "Damon, apparently they would rather take their chances with any other supernatural creature than a werewolf. Their townspeople are terrified of us now, after your public transformation and abduction of their hospital’s beloved receptionist."
"Humans," Damon scowled. "They act like they’ve never seen a wolf before. Besides, they should do a better background check on their own people. Their beloved receptionist was a goddamn hunter that tried to kill us!" Damon exclaimed.
"She pulled a knife on Damon and me first," I added. "I saw it with my own two eyes!"
"Wait, what happened when I was out?" Blaise asked, blinking in confusion as his gaze swiveled between the both of us. "There are hunters in Everhaven?"
"You have no idea," Damon said grimly. "There are both hunters and vampires mingling among the humans. Everhaven is no longer a safe town. I bet you anything that they are behind this sudden change of heart. I would even assume that they poisoned the minds of the town council to make them suddenly reject us when our partnership has been fine for decades."
"Seeing a huge wolf rip apart a human would change many minds," Blaise rebutted mildly. "It’s not as though you don’t know how fragile and easily spooked humans are."
Damon huffed stubbornly. "I transformed when it was fairly deserted. I do not believe there would be enough eyewitnesses to spread such a ludicrous story."
"Damon, you know you’re not supposed to shift in public no matter what," Blaise said, his voice tense and worried. "It’s dangerous to let mortals know about us. Most mortals have camera phones now― they don’t need to be there in person to see you shifting into a wolf and back again. They’ll spread it all over the world!"
I winced. I had completely forgotten about that aspect. Hopefully, ordinary humans would think this was due to special effects.
Meanwhile, Damon gritted his teeth. "I don’t want to hear lectures from you. I did what I had to do to ensure our survival." That was all while Blaise was lying unconscious in bed, helpless.
Damon didn’t say it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Blaise caught on to what was unsaid. "Was I supposed to let her stab me and bleed out to death?"
"I’m just saying, I’m sure there were other better ways of handling it but you did not think of them in the heat of the moment," Blaise said, and Damon scowled, reluctantly accepting Blaise’s point.
"Well, blaming me for my actions isn’t going to solve anything," Damon grumbled before turning to Elijah. "Is that idiotic town council head willing to meet me? I’ll show him the error of his ways."
"Not like this you won’t," I couldn’t help but chime in. Damon had an angry glower that could probably stop a boulder rolling downhill in its tracks, his eyes dark with displeasure. "You’ll make them piss themselves in fear and then they’ll go back and say worse things about you."
"I don’t care what humans say about me. A lion doesn’t care about the opinions of the sheep," Damon said imperiously.
"He does need to care when he needs the sheep to survive," I pointed out, and in this metaphor, we couldn’t even hunt down the humans to eat them. "Damon, if we can’t get food from Everhaven, how are we going to survive?"
"Harper’s right," Blaise said, struggling to sit up. I adjusted his pillows to make it more comfortable for him.
"Let me go with you. I know people― Doctor Thomas should also still be on the council. Even if he’s retired, he still has a lot of sway in the community. I’ll ask him to speak up for me, for us," Blaise said, his gaze hopeful. freewebnσvel.cѳm
I guess even spending years apart was not enough to break his faith in Doctor Thomas’s character.
But Blaise would never see Doctor Thomas again, not in this lifetime. There was a solemn pause as both Damon and I registered his words. We exchanged glances; both unwilling to break the devastating news to Blaise when he had just woken up from a long surgery and an even longer illness.
Blaise blinked at the uncharacteristic silence.
"Guys, what aren’t you telling me?"
"Blaise, we―" I began, immediately thinking about how best to frame the news in a way that would hurt Blaise less. It was an impossible task, and I found myself grappling for words to fill the silence. "I mean to say, we―"
"The doctor’s dead," Damon announced with no preamble, and I groaned quietly to myself. Surely, there were gentler ways of breaking such a terrible piece of news to his twin brother. Damon had just ripped off the bandaid like that.
Blaise’s lips quirked into a disbelieving smile, but his pupils wavered. Instinctively, I clutched his hand in a silent show of support. "Damon, are you pulling my leg? Doctor Thomas isn’t that old."
"Blaise, his age didn’t matter, since he didn’t die by natural causes," Damon said simply.
Blaise’s eyes widened in disbelief. "You mean..."
"He was murdered."
