Chapter 11: Chapter 11

The car ride with Leon was too quiet and the tension was way too thick that it really affected me. I hated silence and awkwardness especially with someone who wasn’t like that with me. I tried to play music to feel better but it only made it worse so I switched off the radio, drowning myself in the pitiful silence Leon and I shared.

It seemed he was also uncomfortable because he kept shaking his legs like a kid high on sugar and his hands tightened around the steering wheel. He cursed under his breath and stopped the car, parking it by the roadside, and locking the doors before turning to face me with determination in those eyes of his.

“Is this where you rape me and kill me because I know something I shouldn’t?” I asked with a mind to lighten the mood but my words only came out serious.

His nose scrunched up. “What do you think I am?”

“Apparently, I don’t even know,” I said with a forced smile, “So, Mr. Minos, enlighten me on who you really are.”

“I can’t believe she got to you before I did,” he said with a sigh as he shook his head. “I’m sorry you had to hear it from her of all people.”

“Is she really engaged to you?”

Why that bothered me the most, I had no idea. All I knew was that I didn’t like the idea of my best friend being married to someone like her. No matter how beautiful she was, her heart was cold and a cold heart wasn’t what Leon needed.

“She likes to think she is but she’s not. I want you to avoid Avyanna by all costs. She is a little crazy and by little, I mean a lot, and by crazy, I mean psychotic.”

Her name was Avyanna. Classy. It sounded like one of those names beautiful princess had and she fit the description. If only she wasn’t such a bitch.

I snorted. “Well, I don’t plan on meeting her anytime soon especially not after today.” He heaved a sigh of relief. “But that doesn’t mean you are off the hook. You have to explain to me what’s going on.”

“It’s a long story,” he muttered.

“I don’t have anything better doing. If you didn’t notice, my date was ruined, you’re insomniac, and I don’t feel like sleeping especially not with the heavy dose of information dumped on me by Avyanna. Start talking.”

“I’m going to explain everything but you have to promise not to freak out,” he said cautiously.

I took a deep breath hoping that I wouldn’t shout as I said, “I believe I am doing a pretty great job of not freaking out if you haven’t noticed. I just found out you could be a blood sucking vampire waiting until I’m succulent enough to eat and I haven’t lost my shit. I’m well under control so can you go on with telling me the story instead of telling me not to freak out.”

“I’m not a vampire,” he said through gritted teeth. They must have bad blood then. “I’m a weregriffin.”

“A what?”

“Weregriffin. You know griffins, right?”

“Half lion half eagles, right?” he nodded. “Okay what happened to the griffins?” “Well, we’re like werewolves but we don’t turn to wolves. We turn to griffins.” “Oh.”

“Yeah, and my family is kind of important in the wereworld mostly for the fact that we’re royal and we aren’t normal weregriffins. We’re Nemean weregriffins.”

I placed my fingers on the bridge of my nose and sighed. “Look, if you’re going to tell me all these, can you just use clear words that I can understand because it doesn’t make sense to me?”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. It’s just that I’ve never had to explain to anyone what we are.”

“You wouldn’t have to do it if you didn’t think it was sensible to have a human best friend.”

He cursed again but didn’t say anything in regards to what I’d said. “You see, there’s a myth of a Nemean lion that was indestructible eventually defeated by Heracles. The thing is the lion isn’t a myth and that lion is the part of the half lion for my family.”

“I still don’t get it.”

“We are a hybrid of a Nemean lion and an eagle. Do you understand now?” I nodded. “Yes, so we stood out in nature from other griffins and our family was made royal. Avyanna is one of the lowest griffins. She’s a werealke but being a witch has its perks so she’s not as weak as many would think. She has always dreamt of being in the royal family and since my brother is betrothed, it’s down to either me or my younger brother.

“She has already weaved her way into the hearts of my parents but I’m the only one who can see through her act. She only wants the power that comes with being who we are and the only way to enter our family is by marriage. Her plan is to kill all of us and take over.”

From meeting the girl, that sounded a lot like what she would do. I didn’t know her and I wasn’t even surprised by who she was and what she was capable of.

“What does she want with me?”

“My parents want me to get married to her but that would involve leaving and I refused to leave because of you. She’s not happy about that.”

“Then go.”

“I don’t want to get married to her. That would only help her plans.” I looked up and sighed. “I don’t want to be involved in this mess.”

“I know and I’m sorry. I just didn’t think she’d actually know where you are and try to hurt you. I had everything planned. I thought this whole thing through,” he cried.

I smiled and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Sometimes you have to rethink the things you thought you thought through.”

“That doesn’t even make sense,” he said and I laughed. “But I think I get what you’re saying. I just wish she didn’t exist.”

“Well she does and now, you have to deal with it.” “True,” he muttered. “So, you’re not mad at me?”

“Oh, I’m mad. I’m furious. Most importantly, I’m hurt that you didn’t tell me all this time. You know I’d never judge you.”

He raked his hands through his hair. “I was scared that if I told you who-what I was, you’d leave me. I’m not human.”

“I know that.”

“You could get hurt.” “I’m fully aware.”

“You should be scared.” “I am.”

“Why aren’t you running then?”

I rolled my eyes. “What kind of person do you think I am? You think I’d just run because I

found out that there’s a world that exists, I was never aware of? If anything, I actually want to know more about this.” I gasped. “How many creatures actually exist? Demons? Vampires? Oh my God, you could be my ally to find out all of this. We could be Sherlock Holmes and James Watson.”

Leon eyes me warily. “You’re handling this too well.”

“I’ve known you for twenty years, Leon. Twenty good years and I trust you. If you wanted to kill me or hurt me, you’d have done it in all those years. I don’t think you’re different because you’re a griffin or whatever. You’re still you and that’s all that matters. I just wish you’d have told me earlier.”

He sighed. “I wish I did too.”

“It’s fine,” I muttered as I leaned back in the chair finally feeling better. “So, what are we going to do now?”

“There’s no way I’m going back to Westhaven especially not after all this. I can’t let Avyanna hurt you.”

“The company?”

“I left Teagan in charge,” he said and chuckled when he saw my horrified look. “Don’t worry Justina has her eyes on her but you can’t deny she’s best at what she does.”

“True,” I said even though I was still worried that my hard work was in the hands of that crazy girl. “Where will you be staying?”

“I rented an apartment. Something you could have done,” he said, narrowing his eyes at me.

I laughed. “I swear I was going to do that but when I found out Emrys was living with her; I didn’t see the point.”

“I even forgot about him. I hope he hasn’t tried to force himself on you.” I smacked him. “What? I’m only looking after you. You can’t trust all these Hollywood boys especially the ones who are also models.”

I rolled my eyes. “Emrys isn’t like that.” He scoffed. “That’s what they all say.”

I laughed. “Okay, dad, I’ll try to find a new place. Does that meet your requirements?” “It does.” I laughed again. “I like that with you, we hardly have major fights.”

“It’s coming.”

“What?”

“The major fight. It’s coming.”

He shook his head, chuckling. “Why would you even say that?”

“Because everyone has that one fight that tests their friendship,” I said with a shrug. “And what do you think this was?”

I rolled my eyes. “It wasn’t a fight.”

He shook his head as he started driving the car. “I’m not going to argue with you.” “You shouldn’t. Oh, and do you know your way to Emrys’s house?”

“If he hasn’t moved, then I think I do.”

I nodded and we fell into another silence but this was more comfortable than the last. That was the thing with our friendship, like he said, that I liked. We never had any major fight that rocked our friendship. He always understood me and I understood him. Whenever we disagreed on something, we came to an agreement.

It was like we had no reason to even fight other the occasional misunderstandings and lies. I was happy but I knew that we would have that fight someday. Thinking of how long our friendship had been, I realized that if we had that fight, it would be something neither of us would be able to recover from.

“I’m curious. Do you transform during full moons?” “Where did you get that idea from?” he asked chuckling.

“You said you guys were like werewolves and I’m pretty sure werewolves, if the myths are correct, transform during full moons.”

“Okay, maybe using werewolves to compare us was far-fetched. We’re actually similar if you think about it. The only difference is that we get our powers from the sun not the moon. We don’t need the sun to transform though. We ae just stronger during day time.”

“What about the vampire thing? Werewolves have bad blood with vampires and I noticed you didn’t like being referred to as one of them.”

“No, we are actually good friends with vampires and I’m talking about the entire wereworld with vampires. We just don’t like being mixed up with others. Animal instincts and whatnot.”

“Oh, that makes sense then.”

I wondered if I asked Leon, he’d show me what his griffin looked like. I decided to ask him on my birthday because he loved getting me whatever I wanted as gifts.

I was drawn out of my thoughts when I heard his phone ringing. I expected him to pick up but after he glanced at the Caller ID, he ignored it. I assumed it was Teagan so I didn’t bother to ask why he didn’t pick up. That was, of course, until the person called about seven times and I realized it could have been urgent.

“Won’t you pick up the call?”

His grip on the steering wheel tightened as he said through gritted teeth, “It’s not important.”

I raised a brow. “It seems pretty important since whoever it is hellbent on blowing up your phone.”

“Not important,” he said with a frown. “Just answer it. Please.”

He grumbled but still did as I said and put the call on speaker. I was relieved that I wouldn’t have to hear his disgusting ringtone again.

“Father?” Leon said and I suddenly realized why he didn’t want to pick up the call.

As far as I knew, Leon had a terrible relationship with his father. His father hated his guts and Leon hated that his father was trying so hard to live his life for him. I think his father’s attitude was what pushed him to live far away from his family and why he hated talking about them.

“Where has your phone been? I have been calling you for the past two hours on both phones.” His father’s voice was curt and deep, and it sent shivers down my spine in an intimidating way.

Leon rolled his eyes. “My phone was on silent.”

His father muttered something in their language and cleared his throat. “Where are you now?”

“Not home.” I had to stop myself from snickering at his reply.

“Where exactly because you promised to come home for the dinner and somehow, you’re missing from the face of earth.”

Cue another roll of his eyes. “I didn’t promise to come. I told you I’ll be getting Evelina ready for the dinner and nothing more than that.”

“You haven’t had dinner with us for years and you have to. It’s my birthday.”

“I have plans.”

“What plans are more important than coming to see your father on his birthday.”

“Plans that include protecting my best friend from the hands of the psychotic Avyanna.” “Oh,” his father said, his voice suddenly softer, “you’re with the girl?”

“Who else will I be with?”

I could tell that Leon was really angry with his father and it was a bad idea to be talking with someone like that while driving us. There was no way I could have survived being in an accident.

His father sighed. “You need a life.”

Leon scoffed. “That’s rich coming from you.” Rolling his eyes, he added, “Why did you really call me?”

“Are you in Westhaven?” “No.”

“Where are you?” “Atham City.”

His father was silent for a while until he said, “I will be coming to your house on my birthday, bringing the dinner to you. I expect you to have everything prepared and I will not tolerate any attitude from that.” He paused. “Am I understood?”

Leon grumbled as he said, “Yes, sir.” “Good. And Leonidas?”

“Yes?”

“Bring the girl with you. I think it’s high time I meet the girl that has my son running away from his duties.”

I noticed Leon was about to argue but his father had already hung up on him and Leon began to use a lot of colorful words that would have put a sailor to shame. I awkwardly patted his shoulder to make him feel better but he didn’t even acknowledge it.

“I’m so sorry you have to get dragged into my family’s madness,” Leon finally said with a sigh.

“It’s fine. If they are anything like your sister, I’m sure they’ll be lovely.”

He snorted. “Lovely, indeed. Individually, I guess they are okay but together as a family, it’s hell.”

“It can’t be that bad.”

“My father has this habit of thinking he knows what’s best for all of us and we hate. Well, except Evelina because she’s always believed he couldn’t hurt a fly.

“Tobias doesn’t want to be the king but he has to, you know being the first son and all. He’s begged father countless times but it doesn’t work out because father says he sees potential in him. That causes him to act like a jerk whenever he’s around father but he has stopped now. He mostly keeps quiet during dinners and lets us make fools out of ourselves.

“Evelina has issues where she likes to please everyone, especially father, so she acts all uptight around them. That and the fact that father never approved of her coming to live here since it would affect her reasoning and all. She always scolds Tobias to get on father’s good side.

“Stefanos has severe issues with both Evelina and Tobias because father favors both of them more than him. He wants to be king but being the last child, father barely paid him any attention. Needless to say, he doesn’t get along well with them.

“Our family is a mess when we’re together because we have a lot of bad blood between us and dinners are only ways for us to compete for father’s love.”

That was the most Leon had ever told me about his family. Occasionally, we spoke about them but I didn’t really know things about them in detail. He had always been so secretive about them, and apart from the whole weregriffin thing, I could see why.

“Wow. That must be hard to deal with.”

He nodded. “That’s why I always avoid going for any of our family get togethers. I can’t survive them. Especially the ones that involve the extended family. If my father’s coming with them, you’d have more to worry about than just my siblings.”

I gulped. “Your family sounds evil.”

“They are all good people deep inside. It’s just…we have toxic relationships,” he said and when he glanced at me and saw the terrified look on my face, he added, “You don’t have to come if you don’t want to. I’m sure I can think of something to avoid father’s wrath.”

I shook my head. “It’s fine. I’m sure I can handle it. I’ve had my share of terrifying families too, you know.”

He knew that. He had been for every single Christmas and Thanksgiving dinner we had. He was there for everything. He knew how my cousins used to make fun of my diseases and would make me feel really bad.

“I just don’t want you involved,” he said with a sigh.

“Don’t try to shut me out, Leon. I’ve known you since the day you thought it was a great idea to pour your ice-cream on me when we were four. I’m more a part of your life than anyone else. Don’t push me away.”

“But…”

“Nothing. I’m a big girl. I can handle myself.” He frowned and I smiled to ease his mood. “Where do you even plan on taking your parents as soon as they come? I’m not sure your apartment would be able to fit everyone.”

“The apartment I rented is a villa, actually. I was just trying to be modest. You can take it once I’m done with my stay here.”

I rolled my eyes. “Not everyone is as rich as you.”

He scoffed. “Are you trying to sound modest or stupid? We both know you can afford it if you want to. You’re just looking for excuses to stay back in Brielle’s house.”

“Yeah, whatever,” I said as I rolled my eyes. “When am I going to be back home? It’s been an awfully long ride.”

“We’ve been parked right here for a while now,” he said with a raised brow and I looked out the window to see that he was right.

I smiled sheepishly. “I didn’t notice.”

“You never do,” he said laughing as he shook his head. “Please don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. Avyanna is very dangerous.”

“I’ll try to stay away from anything that seems shady,” I promised. “Okay. Goodnight,” he said as he planted a kiss on my left cheek. I smiled. “Goodnight.”

When I came down from the car, I knew I had bigger problems to deal with mostly involving shouting at Emrys for leaving me in a restaurant without a ride back. God knows what would have happened if Leon didn’t come to save the day as always.

I walked into the surprisingly open house only to be tackled by two pairs of arms. Finally, out of the grip, I was able to see that it was Hiro and Brielle, and they were bombarding me with questions.

“I was worried about you. I was about to call the cops to report that you’re missing,” Brielle said with a relieved smile.

“Where is Emrys?” I asked cutting to the chase.

Brielle took a step backwards and Hiro replied with a slightly raised brow. “He was your date so he should have been your ride home.”

“No, he abandoned me in the restaurant and I had to find my way back,” I said wisely refusing to let them know anything about Leon being there.

“That’s unlike Emrys. I’m sorry. I’ll talk to him?” Brielle offered and I shook my head. “Why not?”

“It doesn’t matter,” I muttered as I forced a smile and headed up to my room.

Talk about the night I’d anticipated all my life turning into something else. Maybe my fairy godmother was sick? Yeah, that had to be it. My luck would pick up in the morning.