Chapter 102 (2)
"I'll hold onto these for now," Elijah said, "but I want you to keep running the businesses. You know them better than I do, and you've made them successful for years, so there's no reason to change what's working."
Relief seemed to leave Daniel with his breath, and he leaned back with a smile more relaxed than any Elijah had seen on him since their first meeting. "Thank you, Elijah, and I mean that more than you know."
They sat in comfortable silence as the party grew louder around them. Near the bar, Kai was telling a group of Blackwater commanders a story that had them laughing, his blue eyes bright and his hands moving animatedly. Henry had claimed a corner with a plate of food, and his green eyes kept scanning the crowd with the alertness of someone who never truly relaxed. By the stage, Aurora stood with her silver hair catching the light and her blue eyes fixed on something Elijah could not see.
Daniel's gaze eventually settled on his sister, who stood near the far wall with a glass of wine and a smile that made her look younger than her nineteen years. Although she was deep in what seemed to be a genuine conversation with Aurora, her honey-colored eyes kept flicking toward Elijah every few seconds.
Daniel chuckled knowingly and turned back to Elijah. "You're wondering why she's so enthusiastic about this marriage, aren't you? You want to know why she cheered for you instead of me, why she asked you to beat my ass in front of everyone, and why she's been smiling like that since you walked in."
Elijah raised an eyebrow. "The thought had crossed my mind, since she seems to want this marriage more than anyone else involved."
Daniel took another sip of whiskey before setting the glass down. "The truth is that Sylvia has been crazy about you for about eight months. For most of the year, all I've heard from her is Elijah this, Elijah that, and whether I saw what Elijah did today, and honestly, it's been exhausting."
Confusion drew Elijah's brows together. "That doesn't make sense, because I only met her a month ago at the death matches. How could she have been interested in me for eight months when we had never spoken?"
Daniel laughed and shook his head. "She was stalking you, Elijah, although not in a way I'd call creepy. She followed you around the city and watched from a distance, so she saw you at the college hanging out with Kai and playing chess with Derek back when you were just a normal student with a normal life."
Elijah stared at him as the information settled. "She was watching me before I created the Azura Gang and before I ever fought in the underground?"
"She was at the party where you took those drugs and became a different person," Daniel said, his smile widening. "She was in the crowd when you flirted with Lisa and fought your bully Frank, and after that night she couldn't stop thinking about you. She watched you build your gang and your businesses, and she watched you fight in the death matches."
Elijah leaned back, his red eyes wide, and released a breath that was nearly a laugh. "She was at the death matches, then. That's where I first saw her, in the tenth fight, when she yielded before we even fought and asked if she could follow me."
Daniel nodded, his expression softening. "She knew you had been fighting in the lower underground, but she didn't expect you to enter the death matches so soon. When she saw how quickly you were growing stronger, she fell for you all over again, and every time she thought she couldn't be more impressed, you did something else that made her heart race."
A new thought came to Elijah, and he regarded Daniel with fresh eyes. "Is that why you accepted my proposal, even though you had never met me before that night at the hotel?"
Daniel held his gaze steadily. "That is exactly why, because Sylvia has never been interested in any man in her entire life. She has always been cold and distant, focused on her training and on running the gang, and when she fights, her eyes change from honey to gray and she becomes someone most men are afraid to approach."
Elijah nodded, remembering how the warmth had drained from Sylvia's eyes during their brief encounter at the death matches, leaving something colder and sharply focused in its place.
"The moment she laid eyes on you, though, she was all over you," Daniel continued. "Back then you were skinny and not especially attractive, at least not in a way most women would notice, but she didn't care. She saw something in you that she had never seen in anyone else, and she couldn't look away."
Elijah's gaze drifted across the room, and as though she sensed it, Sylvia turned and met his eyes with honey-colored irises full of warmth. An unguarded smile spread across her face, and after a small flutter of her fingers in greeting, she turned back to Aurora.
Something shifted in Elijah's chest that sat somewhere between affection and obligation, and he released a breath he had not realized he was holding. "I'll take care of her," he said quietly but firmly.
Daniel studied him for a long moment before nodding slowly. "I know you will. You're the only person she's ever told me about and the only person she's ever asked me to help her get close to. I've watched how you treat your people, protect your territory, and carry yourself in a fight these past weeks, so I trust you with her."
Music began to pulse through the floor with a low, steady beat, and the party swelled into full swing as members of both gangs danced, laughed, and drank as though they had been friends for years rather than enemies for hours. Elijah took a long sip, letting the alcohol burn down his throat and spread warmth through his chest as his people and Daniel's people became something new together. The road ahead would bring challenges neither of them could predict, but for this one night, at least, there was peace.
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Thanks for reading! Did you expect Sylvia to have been watching Elijah for eight months before they ever met? Drop a comment or send me a message, because I'd love to hear your thoughts and suggestions.
See you in the next chapter!
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