Free Web NovelChapter 93: Coincidence or Cause II
Could the girl I grew up with — the girl that I loved more than my own half-sister — be capable of such behavior? Before I could even wrap my head around such a thought, Damon continued to speak.
"Your little friend here is either so good at espionage that I would have to add her to Kaine’s team, or more likely... she had extra help from our bloodsucking friends."
Lydia sniffed pathetically, her cheeks wet with tears. She had been letting out little pained cries the whole time, but Damon and Blaise ignored her noises. Now that she was finally addressed, Lydia took the chance to address everyone, but her eyes were fixed on me.
"How could I? I’m a captured slave. When would I have had the chance to even meet a vampire?" Lydia cried out. "You can track my movements with my collar!"
"Don’t flatter yourself," he scoffed. "You aren’t so important that we’d put a tracker in your collar," Damon shot back, his eyes briefly darting to my adorned neck. I guess I was the lucky woman with the tracker on her person.
Lydia was, of course, one of his many women who all blended together in his mind. I gritted my teeth. Even if Lydia’s loyalties were less than sound, it was still terrible for Damon to treat her like she was nothing.
"Nothing is stopping you from transforming into a werewolf and running to safety. You were the one who chose to take my mark in exchange for a place to stay."
"You can transform?" I blurted out in surprise, my mind was focused on that. Lydia had said that this collar prevented her from shifting! She couldn’t have lied about it― the collar had electrified her when I tried to pull it off, which matched her words.
"You killed off my entire pack!" Lydia burst out in outrage. "What else was I supposed to do? Harper, don’t listen to him― he’s trying to make himself look righteous after all the atrocities he committed!"
"So you’re basically admitting to the crime, then?" Damon pointed out. He turned to his brother. "Get someone to bring the silver. On second thought, killing her here might just draw the wendigos right to this area and we don’t want that. We can kill her somewhere else then chuck her body in the woods as animal feed."
"No!" Lydia screeched, horror written across her features. She furiously shook her head, turning to look at me with large, pleading eyes. "Harper, please!" freёwebnovel.com
I bit my lip, responding only with silence. I didn’t know what to think― Lydia lied. I had believed her. And of course I would. I had known her nearly all my life. She had been the ray of light in my life when there was only darkness.
"Goddess help me. I can’t believe she saddled me with a moron," Damon lamented, rolling his eyes up to the high heavens as he took my silence as holding my stance of protecting Lydia against any and everything. "Blaise, how can you endure this idiocy?"
"I’ve not even said anything yet," I hissed out, huffing in annoyance at Damon’s implication.
"Your silence speaks more than words," Damon quipped. "If you choose to blindly believe every word this friend of yours says, then you are indeed a fool."
"Harper isn’t yours to control, you monster!" Lydia screeched, clutching onto my clothes tightly. She glared hotly at the Valentine brothers, then targeted her dewy doe eyes at me. "Harper, let’s run―"
"Did you do it?"
"What?" Lydia reeled back in shock, pausing as she completely lost track of her train of thought.
"I said, did you do it?" I repeated. "Did you sabotage Blaise’s operation?" My gaze darkened. "Did he get hurt because of you?"
"I owe Beta Blaise my gratitude for offering me shelter when I was injured," Lydia said. "How would I have the time to plan all of this when I’m barely even keeping myself alive?"
"How did you even get these injuries, then?" I retorted.
Damon had successfully planted the seed of doubt in my heart. Perhaps it was because of the bond between us, something told me that he wasn’t lying. He truly believed Lydia to be the cause of Blaise’s failed operation. And by the looks of it, Blaise thought the same as well.
"The road here might be long but it’s by no means dangerous," I continued. "You were perfectly fine when you left House Sirius." freewebnovel.cσ๓
"Are you seriously questioning me right now?" Lydia asked, flabbergasted. "You, of all people, Harper?"
"Just answer the damn question, Lydia!" I yelled. I no longer knew what to believe. It felt as though I was just grasping at straws, trying to find whatever evidence I could to prove Lydia’s innocence. Yet, her own responses were what was dragging her further down into her grave.
"Fine, I was tired," Lydia answered. "My vision blurred and I tripped then fell. Is that good enough for you?"
"You were barely even malnourished when you arrived," Blaise quickly said, debunking her claims. "If you were tired, you could’ve rested for the night. Why rush?"
"And weren’t you supposed to be hiding out in House Regulus?" Damon added, not allowing Lydia a chance to fight back. He cast me a glance, smirking. His smile, however, was filled with malice and mockery. "That was what Harper was trying to rush to House Regulus for― you. So why weren’t you there to meet her and instead here?"
"No matter what I say, you are just going to say that I am lying," Lydia hissed.
"Because you are," Damon flat-out replied. "I can hear your heartbeat right now as you’re speaking. You’re evidently hiding the truth."
"Then listen closely to my heartbeat again, Alpha," Lydia lowly said.
She clambered onto her feet, dusting her hands clean as she shot me a nasty look as well. Taking a step back away from us all, she scoffed, smirking darkly.
"You better run and hide," she said. "They’re coming. And they’ll burn Fangborne to the ground just like what you did to Stormclaw."
