Sweet Revenge With My Billionaire Vampire

For a brief moment, Enzo stood motionless, his gaze drifting between Elijah and Adeline, contemplating whether to acquiesce to her request or not.

Then, without a word, he released the backrest. The chair’s front legs slammed back onto the ground, causing Elijah to lurch forward. He yelped, reaching out frantically to grab the table and steady himself before he could fall.

"Watch it," Enzo muttered before turning away and walking towards Adeline. He slumped into the chair beside her, folding his arms across his chest and spreading his legs. His foot tapped against the floor impatiently, his eyes still locked onto Elijah as if daring him to say something stupid again.

Elijah exhaled heavily, clasping his hands together as he leaned forward. "Thank you, kind miss," he said, grateful for her getting Enzo to back off.

Then, shifting his gaze to the packet in his hands, he held it up between his fingers. "As for this... These are just ground herbs. I get them from Las Vegas—from a local herbalist."

"You see, I own a bar in Vegas, too. Last year, I started getting calls from an anonymous number. Every time I visited my bar, the guy would tell me to pick up these packets for him. He always paid me a shitload of money to do it, too." He let out a small chuckle, shaking his head as he recalled how much he was easily making back then.

Enzo and Adeline shared a silent exchange of looks, their gaze lingering momentarily before she asked, "And when you got back to Libu City... what then?"

Elijah shrugged, absentmindedly rolling the packet between his fingers. "Whenever I came back, a lady would pick it up."

"That would be Miranda. We found out about you through her."

Elijah nodded in confirmation, and then with a flick of his wrist, he tossed the packet across the table in her direction. "I was real surprised to see you with this, y’know? ’Cause as far as I know, there’s only one person in this city who should have it, and that’s whoever the hell that anonymous caller was."

Enzo, who had been silent up until now, arched an eyebrow. His expression was unimpressed—like he was looking at a complete idiot. "Do you even know what’s inside those packets?"

Elijah scoffed, looking slightly offended. "Of course I do. I’m not stupid. I got curious once, so I asked the herbalist, and he told me it was used to boost plant growth. So whoever was ordering this stuff must be a gardener or something. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

A quiet exhaled breath left Adeline’s nostrils, her gaze taking on a sad and heavy expression as memories of her grandmother began to flood her mind, including the day she let out her last breath.

Her voice was quieter when she spoke. "This stuff can also kill whoever consumes it."

Elijah laughed, rubbing the back of his neck. "Well... that’s kinda obvious, isn’t it? It wasn’t made for human consumption."

A pang of unease suddenly gripped him as he noticed the shift in Adeline’s features. His eyes flitted around as he wondered if he had unknowingly said something insensitive or hurtful.

"The anonymous caller isn’t a gardener," Adeline said. "He’s one of my uncles."

The little smile on Elijah’s face vanished. He didn’t speak, just stared at her, waiting for her to continue.

Adeline reached for the packet and held it up slightly. "My grandmother was poisoned by my uncles with this."

For the past several months, Elijah had been picking up these herbs for Adeline’s uncle, never once questioning what he needed them for. He had never once considered that they were being used to poison someone.

He had assumed without a second thought that it was just some impatient gardener trying to make his plants grow faster but was too paranoid to pick up the stuff himself.

But now that he was really thinking about it... What kind of gardener calls from an anonymous number? The secrecy, the excessive payments—he should’ve known something was off.

Elijah suddenly felt stupid. Even though he always carried a firearm, he had never taken a life before. The only exception was if he himself was being attacked with lethal intent. He would have never delivered herbs used to end someone else’s life had he been aware of their true purpose.

If he had bothered to ask why the guy needed all those packets, maybe, he could’ve prevented the death by refusing to pick up the herbs for him.

But then again, even if he had asked, it’s not like the guy would’ve come out and said, ’Oh, I’m using it to poison an old lady.’

A tsunami of guilt suddenly overcame him, and he averted his gaze to the floor. "Damn... I’m... sorry to hear that."

She dismissed it with a gentle wave of her hand, trying to ease the tension in the air. "It’s alright. But I do have one more question—if you don’t mind."

Elijah nodded, resting his hands on the table, his fingers interlocked as he met her gaze. "Of course," he said quickly. "Anything. Go on and ask."

"When you went to get this... who paid the herbalist? Was it you—or my uncle?"

Elijah shook his head without hesitation. "Nah, it was probably your uncle. The only money I ever got from him was for the hassle of bringing them back to Libu City."

"Can you give us the address of this herbalist?"

"Certainly." He extended his reach beneath the table, opening the small compartment underneath and rummaging through its contents. After a few seconds, he extracted the pen he was searching for.

He closed the drawer with his knee and proceeded to tear a page from the book lying before him. The only sound in the room was the soft scratch of the pen against the paper as he scribbled down the address onto it.

Once he was finished, he slid the paper across the table towards Adeline. "This is it."

She picked up the paper, her eyes scanning the words written on it. "403 Ashland Route," she read aloud, committing it to memory before handing it over to Enzo, who took it and slipped it into the inner pocket of his suit jacket.