by Eve Newton
“Livvie,” Sebastian says, coming into the room. “Are you okay?”
“No.” I brush the tears away with my hand.
“Where did you two go?” he asks, concerned.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Clearly it does. Speak to me, my love. Tell me why you are so upset.”
“Are you with Jess?” I ask instead.
He looks taken aback. “Of course. We are married. But you know it is you I love.”
“What?” I say, weary. “You love me?”
“We are in love. You and I,” he says and kisses me tenderly.
“No, Seb. We aren’t. And don’t do that. He will have an even bigger shit-fit if he comes in here and we are kissing.”
“No, he won’t. He knows about us,” Sebastian says, perplexed. “He knows how we feel about each other. He lets us be together because you know my secret and take care of me.”
Now that is just weird. We were just talking about this in the past.
“What about Jess? Doesn’t she take care of you?”
He looks at me quizzically. “No, Livvie. You know I spell her not to bite me.”
“What? How…how does she accept that?”
“She has no choice, besides, she gets the affection from her sire. She doesn’t need it from me.”
Wow, cold. I don’t know what I would feel if I couldn’t bite my husband. Whoever that might be, seems it could be any number of people at this rate. “Her sire?” I have to ask after last time.
“Devon,” he says, confused. “Livvie, are you sure you are okay?”
Phew, I breathe out. At least that is right. He kisses me again and this time my evil side flares up and I let him. This CK knows about us and lets us be together? Well, my CK is about to get a shock when he comes looking for me, and he will.
“Oh, Liv,” Sebastian breathes. “I want you.” He stands with me in his arms and kisses me passionately.
“Take me,” I whisper with a seductive smile and he doesn’t need asking twice, pausing only momentarily to frown at my outfit, which he has only just noticed. Pushing his hands up my thighs, he lightly touches me, and I shiver. I don’t know if it is a sibling thing or a Faerie thing, but his touch is incredible. The slightest graze of his fingertips sets me on fire.
“Oh, yes,” he murmurs. “So wet for me.”
I feel the tingle go up the back of my neck and grin wickedly as CK storms into the room to find me wrapped around Sebastian with his hands up my dress.
“Get your hands off her,” he snaps. “Aefre. What do you think you are doing?” He drags me away from his first charge, quite roughly, and I see he is pissed.
“Nothing wrong, my love,” I say. “You let us be together, remember?” I “remind” him with a sweet smile and his eyes laser into mine like two black death rays.
“Oh, do I?” he hisses. “’Bastian, please leave us.”
“Well, that just isn’t fair,” he says. “You can’t just leave me all riled up like that.”
“Go!” he roars and with a face like thunder, he takes his leave of us.
CK glares at me, waiting for me to explain, and I just shrug. “Sebastian said you let us be together because I know his secret and take care of him.”
“And you just believe him?”
“Why would he lie? He doesn’t know we are from a different timeline. Although, we are acting very suspiciously, someone is going to put two and two together soon,” I muse out loud. “And by the way, where the hell are the Aefre and Constantine from this timeline?”
“Good question, but I don’t really care. You are now my wife and you will start behaving like it.”
“Oh, is that the way it is now? I don’t think so, my love. You may be blackmailing me into staying here but I won’t bow down to your unfair demands.”
“Blackmailing you?” he says and blanches. “Oh, Aefre, no. Don’t think of it that way. Don’t you see? We are together, finally, after all this time. Isn’t that what you wanted? To be my wife?”
“Yes, Constantine. It is what I have always wanted, but...”
He beams. “Then let’s stay and be together,” he interrupts me.
“But not like this,” I continue, ignoring him. “I don’t want to be thrust into this. I want to have lived it, remembered it. Actually, been at our wedding. Doesn’t any of that make a difference to you?”
He sighs. “I would like that too, but we are here now,” he insists.
“And the other ‘us’ are where? Wondering around the space-time continuum with no clue what is going on?”
The G6, Pearson International Airport, Toronto, 2013 – Future Aefre and Constantine
“Where the fuck did you go?” Devon yells at them as they land in a heap on the floor of the aircraft. She stands and looks around, brushing off her smart black all-in-one-suit. “And what the fuck are you wearing?” he adds.
She looks at him and then at Constantine who looks just as bewildered as she does. She glances at everyone flying on, what she thinks, is her old G6? Curious.
“Hello? Liz? Are you going to answer me?” Devon snaps at her, waving his hand in front of her face.
“Liv,” Cole says, going to her and sweeping her off her feet. “I was so worried.” He plants a kiss on her lips, and she stands stock-still. “Liv?” he asks. She puts her hand up to his chest to push him off her before CK rips his head off. Cole grabs her left hand and looks down, his face going cold. “What is this?” He holds her hand up to show off the blue diamond ring and her Faerie Silver wedding ring. “What is the meaning of this?” he yells at her, looking so hurt she wants to reach out and comfort him.
“Get your hands off my wife,” CK growls at him, taking a menacing step closer. “She is mine now and you will keep your hands to yourself.”
“What?” everyone shouts and starts talking all at once.
They blink at each other and take a step back. CK takes her hand and she whispers to him, “What the fuck?”
“I don’t know. What did you do?”
“Me?” she squeaks. “Why do you automatically blame me?”
“I may have more power than before, but I don’t wield this kind of power, my sweet. Clearly this is some kind of doing on your part.”
“But what? Have we gone back in time? It looks to me like we have gone back in time,” she mutters to herself.
“What year is this?” CK barks out suddenly and everyone shuts up.
“Come again?” Devon says.
“The year? What is it?” he says through gritted teeth.
“2013,” he says, baffled as to why they are asking.
“And, where are we?”
“About to land in Toronto,” he says, before the jet lands swiftly and they are once again thrown to the floor. A cautionary tale to be seated and buckled up and not standing around yelling at each other.
“Fuck,” she says, rubbing her hip where she landed on it. CK helps her to her feet.
“I would say, yes, my love. We have gone back in time. Question is: why? And where is the ‘us’ that are supposed to be here?”
“In the future, where we are supposed to be? Shit. They are going to have no idea what is going on. At least we already lived this,” she says.
“We are both exceptionally clever. I am sure we will catch on quickly,” CK says arrogantly. “But I do not want to stay here and live out the next hundred years again. No fucking way. You have to get us back where we belong.”
Everyone is staring at them like they just came here from the future, which they did.
“Oh, Christ!” CK snaps suddenly as he looks at her. “Past ‘me’ isn’t going to want to come back. He is going to want to stay exactly where he is…with you…his wife.”
“Erm, for those of us who are finding this hard to follow. Can you please explain?” Devon ventures.
“We are from a hundred years in the future,” CK says mildly. “Seems your Aefre has switched us about somehow.”
“Why
is it our Aefre, err Liv, that switched you about?” he says, affronted. “How do you know it wasn’t yours?”
They share a glance, and he clears his throat. “She wouldn’t have brought us back to this time,” is all he says.
“What do you mean?” comes the suspicious reply from Lincoln, “This time?”
“They can’t say,” Sebastian pipes up. “Anything they do or say can dramatically change the future.”
“What are you, some kind of time-travelling expert?” Cole snaps at him.
“Have you never seen Back to the Future?” he responds. “And you call yourself an actor.”
“This is ridiculous,” Lincoln says. “Time travel is not possible. You two have gone off somewhere when you Astralled out of here and hit your heads or something.”
“No, Linc. We are who we say we are. We are from 2113,” she says to him, shaking her head.
“So, you are married now?” Cole says quietly. “How long for?”
“We can’t tell you that,” she says to him, feeling his pain. She pulls her hand out of CK’s and goes to him. He lets her, only because he is smug.
She pulls Cole close to her and hugs him tightly. “We are still in love,” she whispers to him. “We just aren’t married anymore,” she adds. He hugs her back fiercely.
“No, I don’t want to believe this. I don’t want to believe that you left me,” he says sadly.
“I didn’t leave you. You left me,” she says and then claps her hand to her mouth as CK rumbles behind her in warning. “Aefre.”
“No,” Cole says. “I wouldn’t. I won’t,” he says determinedly with a look at CK.
“Aefre, you need to get us out of here, right now,” CK says. “Before any more damage can be done.”
“I’ll try,” she says, stepping back.
“Don’t you know how?” Xane asks, suddenly entering the conversation.
She shakes her head. “No. Where we come from, I never had this Power.”
“You will do now as your past self has learned it,” he says.
She smiles at him and says, “Still giving me direction, I see.”
He tilts his head at her. “Oh?”
She ignores him and closes her eyes. Gripping CK’s hand tightly she tries to find the Power inside her that will take them home. CK is right. There is no fucking way she wants to live through this time again with what is coming. They barely made it out alive the first time around.
“Bring her back,” Cole whispers. “Please bring me my wife back.”
She concentrates and focuses on the aircraft they were on when they disappeared, picturing everybody on board, an exact set of everybody here but with all new roles.
“You did it,” CK says and she opens her eyes. Back where they should be. Who knew time travel was just as easy as Astralling?
Chapter 4
2113 – Aefre/Constantine; Liv/Constantine
“Holy crap!” Devon says as he sees them. “What the fuck is going on here?”
“We were pulled away. We are back now,” CK says.
“By whom?”
“It doesn’t matter. We are back where we belong, when we belong, and with whom we belong,” he says to her pointedly.
Raised voices in the back, bring everyone’s attention to the bedroom. “Who else is here?” she asks in confusion. She stalks over to the bedroom and opens the door with a gasp.
“No. Oh shit. CK?” she looks at him and he looks at her.
“Oh fuck,” he says, as he looks at them arguing heatedly about something. He pulls her inside and quickly closes the door, so the rest don’t see them. Us. Them.
We look back at the future us and then CK glares at me. “Oh, you have really fucked up now, Aefre,” he says.
She looks just as affronted by that remark as I am and I say, “I didn’t do this. She must have brought them back all on her own.”
“You need to leave. Right now!” Future CK bellows at us. “This isn’t your time.”
“No. I don’t think we will,” my CK says.
“Don’t be a fool,” I hiss at him. “We can’t stay here now they are back.”
“Told you,” Future CK murmurs to her and she smiles, taking his hand.
“You need to go back,” she says to us. “Your family needs you.”
“Why, what do you know?” I ask her through narrowed eyes.
“You know I can’t tell you that,” she says. “You have to return to your rightful place. Too much damage has already been done.”
“CK, come my love. We must go back. I have to try and get us back.”
CK sighs and turns to his Future self, “How long do I have to wait?”
“We can’t tell you that,” he says but then adds, pulling her closer to him, “It will be worth the wait, though I assure you.”
“I have no doubt about that,” my CK murmurs.
I place my hand on his chest. “Your rings,” she says to me. CK scowls at her and gives them back to me and I replace them.
Future me turns to her CK. “Baby. We should ask them to start it now,” she murmurs.
His face lights up. “An excellent idea, my love.”
“Start what?” my CK asks suspiciously.
“The Blood Magick ritual,” she says. “We know it is working. CK is gaining more power, more abilities like mine, but it is taking too long. If you two start it now, it will help us.” She places her hand on her CK’s shoulder and he grabs it.
“Please,” he says to us. “We want this so much.”
“What?” I say. “Isn’t that damaging the future?”
She lets go of her CK and comes to stand in front of me and says, “Please, Liv. We want this baby, but we need your help. Please go back to your time and start.”
“I’m not ready,” I whisper, horrified.
“But I am,” she states firmly. “It won’t be you who has it, it will be me.”
I take that in and nod. I guess Future me is ready to be a mommy.
“But you will need to…erm…” she trails off. She suddenly yells out in my head, “YOU NEED TO LIFT THE CURSE.”
I step back, startled. “No need to shout!” I snap back at her in her head. “Why? I need it,” I add.
“The ritual won’t start working until you lift it,” she responds telepathically.
I look at CK and he is glaring back at us as he knows we are discussing something privately.
“Fine. But if I get baby Shifters buns, or worse, in my oven, I will be coming back here to kick your arse,” I grouse at her.
“Thank you,” she says out loud now, sincerely. “You have no idea how happy we will be.”
“No worries,” I say, quickly glancing at my own CK.
“Go now, back to your own family,” she says.
“I hope I do end up with my own family,” I say, and she peers at me curiously. “Never mind,” I add. She steps forward and hugs me. I pat her swiftly on the back.
“Open yourself up more,” she chides me. “You aren’t very friendly.”
I glare at her and she gives me a look back to say, “point proven.” I adjust my features accordingly. “Bye, me,” I say and turn to her CK. “Bye, Future CK. I look forward to finally having you as my sexy husband in the future,” I wink at him and he glows.
“It was the happiest day of my life the day you became my sexy wife. And,” he looks at her, “I am glad to see that my wife can still be made jealous. Even if it is by herself.”
She glares at him and sidles closer taking him in her arms as he does the same, “Don’t flirt with Past me. It’s creepy,” she says.
“I have to agree,” my CK says to me. “Aefre, if you want to flirt, I am right here.”
“You flirt? Hah!” I snort and she chuckles at us.
“Come, my love,” I say and take his hand. He grips me tightly and looks adoringly at me. Her CK looks the same way at her and I smile at them and close my eyes. We disappear and I hope we get back to where we belong.
The G6, Pearson International Airport, Toronto, 2013 – Liv
“Is it you this time? Really you?” Cole asks worriedly as he rushes to me and, grabbing my hand, he checks my rings.
“Depends, answer me two questions, what year is it and are you my husband?”
“2013 and yes.”
“Then I think it is really me,” I say before he swoops down and kisses me.
“Thank fuck,” he says.
“Yes, thank fuck,” Devon says. “Now please can you get rid of the other you. I love you, Lizzie and if we were married, I would be over the moon but Christ, you are wild. I don’t think I can bear you as my wife much longer.”
“Oh no. Not that one.” I sink my head into my hands and ask, “She’s here?”
“You both are. Again. I suggest you go and rescue Lincoln before he does something he will probably regret.” He points to the back of the jet and, letting go of Cole, I stalk over and throw the door open. “Get your slutty hands off him,” I snap at myself.
She sneers at me. “God, don’t be so uptight. I’m only having a little fun. You should try it sometime. You are Queen, you can do whatever you want, with whomever you want. Live a little,” she drawls at me in a New York accent, very similar to Devon’s, as she walks her fingers down Lincoln’s abs. I take her in completely now, she is still dressed (thankfully) in a very red, very sexy outfit, even for me, but it is her whole demeanor and attitude that is surprising. She is hard and cold with too much make-up and long straight hair to her waist and she clearly has Lincoln right where she wants him, which is half-naked on the bed under her.
“I said get off him. Go and play with your own.”
“He is no fun anymore, since the kids. He doesn’t like to play,” she pouts, and Lincoln looks like he wants to die at the mentioning of kids. “I like it here. Your boys are still fun. Even Devon. Where is our sire?” she asks suddenly and climbs off a slightly relieved Lincoln.
“My sire is in the cabin, where is yours?”
She shrugs. “Who cares? I bet yours is better than mine.” She pushes past me to go off in search of him, while I help Lincoln off the bed.