So…really, all Foxx had to do was wait for Edmund to show up. The man loved him. They were in love. All this, all the planning, it was all so they’d be together for the rest of eternity.
Foxx spun, almost losing his balance at the sound of movement. He smiled brightly at the sight of Edmund slipping between the large boulders that hid this small section of the beach from view. The man’s golden hair was bright, even in darkness. But Foxx’s smile soon slipped away…on realizing…Edmund was unchanged.
“You…”
“You went through with it…” Edmund ground out.
“What…why? Why Edmund?!” Foxx cried. “You…why… Didn’t you go? Did you forget the location? The time?!”
“I…I don’t understand why you went through with it. How you could. Did you not think of your soul? Yet, you wanted this for me? Made the decision for me?! The decision for both of us to suffer eternal damnation. Were we not lost enough, Foxx?”
“Damnation?!” Foxx began to tremble, but not in pain. All he felt in that moment was anger. “Our souls? Lost? What decisions did I make, Edmund? Tell me what decision I made without you? Was the gold paid, riches I forced from you? Did you not only days ago willingly hand over every ounce? Who was it Edmund, who came to me, and told me of this wondrous creature that existed?!”
“It was but a moment of weakness on my part! One you exploited!”
“ME?!” Foxx hissed, fangs flashing. “You know your problem, Edmund? You are spoiled. Every mistake you have made in your life, you have blamed on someone else. I should have known to never trust a man born with a silver spoon attached to his lapels. To never love—”
“WHAT WE HAVE DONE IS NOT LOVE!” Edmund bellowed. “IT WAS BLASPHEMY!”
Foxx took a step back. Even with the anger searing through his veins, the words hurt more than the man’s apparent betrayal. Eyes tearing up, he let out a soft chuckle. “Feel as you must. You are free to live your life in lies. While I will live mine in truth.” He turned, no longer wishing to face him. “Begone with you then. I have no intention of forcing you to stay near such a temptation as myself.”
“I will not be going anywhere, Foxx. I will not deny that I had some fault in leading you to this soulless existence. For that, I will pay, no doubt in this life and the next. But for that, I will also do what I must to save you.”
Foxx spun. “What?!”
His eyes widened, taking a step back as priests surged from between the boulders.
“What have you done?!” Foxx rasped.
“I have done what I must to save what is left of your soul.”
“YOU HAVE DONE NOTHING EXCEPT SELL ME OUT! You betrayed me to the very group who would not hesitate to burn you at the stakes for those urges you now deem monstrous.”
“No, Foxx. The only monstrous thing here is you.”
“Well,that was my second night as a vampire. Highly eventful. The first night, I mostly slept, hiding in a cave from the sun…” Foxx shook his head, pushing the vision of Edmund away.
Looking back now, Foxx knew he hadn’t really been in love. More infatuated. Edmund had seemed to care, seemed to love him, and after being rejected by his family, he’d clung to the little bits of affection the man had begrudgingly handed out. It probably explained why his initial reaction to the first part of the betrayal had been anger instead of hurt.
“So, the man who handed you over to the priest was your lover?”
Foxx sighed. “He was, and yet, looking back now, I was more of a toy to him. My family was very poor, his rich. I was there to pass the time. I thought myself in love, but I wasn’t. The fact was, even if he had wanted to go through with the change and stay with me, the man was a coward. Always had been.”
Harlow scoffed. “Did you kill him?”
“Edmund? No…I don’t know what happened to him. I spent ten years in the convent, and by the time I was freed and returned home, he was gone. I don’t know exactly what happened to him. Rumors said his family shipped him off. To be honest, I didn’t bother to look for him. And by the time I wanted to find him, to enact a bit of revenge, he was nowhere to be found.”
“Pity.”
“Well, he is long dead now, so in the end, I still won.”
“So…the convent?”
“The…convent…”
On each side of him,two men held him up. Foxx screamed, struggling to break from their hold, but…he was too weak. The change had not fully taken effect. He was helpless to stop them from binding his wrists in shackles.
A tall priest came forward and roughly gripped his chin, forcing him to meet his eyes. “You have chosen sin, my child. For that, you will suffer as we bring you to redemption.”
