by Eve Newton
“But I will. I told you last year that next time you ask me to do that I won’t be able to hold back. Is that what you really want? For me to do to you what he did?” Again, I know he is saying these things to deter me, but I am not going to let that stop me.
“Yes,” I say to his absolute horror.
“No!” he yells at me as he pushes us back over, “You are just saying that to be defiant. Don’t be a stubborn fool, Aefre.” He pins my hands to the ground painfully tight and I struggle out of reflex. “I love you,” he says softly. “Please just come back to me. Whoever this is, it isn’t you.”
And again, he takes me but this time hard and fast, as the mood requires. I forget all about my unreasonable demands as I just want him. Everywhere. I roll us back over and he is wary this time, but he moans as I swivel around so my back is facing him. He runs his hands down over my Dragon and She flutters across my back under his touch. He pays Her special attention and I giggle inwardly as I know it’s because he now knows that Cole does this. Men are so competitive, it’s so silly. I feel myself coming back, the power rush has died, and I cast a quick glance over my shoulder at the terrace and the mysterious figure has vanished. I make a mental note to ask if it was either Cade or Nico, but something tells me it wasn’t. I lean forward so that my hands are in the wet grass and my wet hair falls into my face. It is raining. Bad mojo always happens when it rains. Or is it the other way around? Either way, I am more convinced than ever my dream manipulator is manifesting itself into a menacing presence. I lift my hips and he knows exactly what to do. He knows where I want him to go and he doesn’t hesitate. They never do. He pushes against me with a rough shove that makes me cry out. “Oh, Aefre,” he growls low, “I love it when you let me do this.”
Yeah, yeah. It does little for me, but my lovers think they are in heaven, so I allow it, every now and again. He is so caught up in his own pleasure that he has forgotten all about me, so I bring my own fingers to myself and try to play catch up to him, but to no avail. He comes quickly and I am left wanting, but not for long as he pulls out of me with muttered apologies and he enters me lower down and brings me to a satisfactory ending. Once again, I am grateful for Vampire constitution that he is ready so quickly to please me after pleasing himself.
He shoves me down roughly and turns me over to face him. “One more,” he says. “I am taking every last part of you for myself.”
“Allow me,” I say as I push on his chest to get him to lie under me. We are soaking wet from the rain that is now bouncing off the floor. I kiss him, running my hands into his wet hair, and smile against his lips. “So, fucking sexy,” I murmur and track little nips and kisses all the way down his chest, his stomach, and lower, until I take him in my mouth. He sighs in pleasure as I work my way up and down. He runs his hands into my tangled hair, gripping me roughly as he loses control and comes in quick bursts into my mouth. I swallow quickly and crawl over him, kissing him so he can taste himself in my mouth. “You owe me one,” I say with a pout and I find myself under him again. We have moved so far away from our original spot that we are now practically rolling down the other side of the hill. He bites my bottom lip viciously. “Don’t look at me like that, Aefre,” he says before he plunges his tongue into my mouth. I am on fire as he repeats to me what I did to him. Little nips and kisses all over me. He pauses to pay special attention to my breasts. He cups the small mound of flesh, pushing it up high, causing my nipple to stand up close to his mouth. He drops his fangs and bites me gently and slowly and enters me at the same time as I start to throb.
“So easy,” he says, pulling back. “Always so easy.”
“You like to work for it?”
“No. I like you ready for me, all the time. Whenever I want you, wherever I want you, however I want you, I want you wet and ready.”
“That’s just being lazy,” I tease him.
“Eager,” he corrects me. “Eager to be inside you, to feel you so slippery. I want to slide into you with ease. I want to know that I turn you on with just the thought of what is to come.”
Oh, holy crap. I feel myself getting wetter as does he and he smiles down at me, pleased. “Good girl,” he whispers. “I wish I could go back to our first time in the barn. Do it all over again.”
“I’m sure I could take us back there,” I say.
“No, I don’t want to see it, I want to feel it. To feel you, so innocent, so cautious. I want my first time with you again.”
“I don’t,” I say. “It was so embarrassing. I was so naïve, it was ridiculous.”
“No, it was beautiful. You made me feel something again.”
He locks his arms around me tightly as we both give into the pleasure and we lie breathless and completely satisfied in each other’s arms.
“Will you still love me when I am fat?” I ask him.
“I beg your pardon?” he asks. “When will you be fat?”
“When I am pregnant. I will be fat and ugly,” I say and pull my face, remembering the feeling from my dreams.
“Oh, Aefre,” he laughs at me. “You won’t be fat, and you could never be ugly. You will be with child, our child. You will be perfect. More than perfect.”
“Say more things like that,” I tell him as he stops.
“You will be the most beautiful creature in all the Realms. And the sexiest. I will worship you and adore you. I will tell you every day how much I love you and how much I desire you.”
“I will hold you to that. In my dreams, I feel slow and fat and very unsexy.”
“Your dreams are lies,” he says, sitting up suddenly. “Everything about them is a lie. Pay them no mind.”
I can see he is upset about my dreams. Can’t say that I blame him, I am dreading going back to sleep in case there is another one. But we can’t ignore them. Not anymore.
“Come. You are soaking, let’s get you inside and dry.” He stands and pulls me up.
“So are you,” I point out. “And you have no clothes.”
He looks at the pile of shredded clothes several feet from where we are standing and chuckles, “Well it’s a good thing that I can do this…” He wraps his arms around me and Teleports us back into his bedroom. “So, that we don’t run the risk of bumping into anyone on the way back.”
“Isn’t it just? I want a bath. Will you run me one?”
“Anything for you,” he says but then hesitates.
“Don’t worry, I am not about to go all murderous on you again. You were right and thank you for saying no.”
He nods and disappears into the bathroom. I check my phone, which I left on the bedside cabinet hours ago. A dozen missed calls and about as many messages. I check the messages, a couple from each of my boys but nothing that can’t wait so I ignore them and turn to the bathroom.
“They just can’t live without you, can they?” he says from the doorway.
“Can you?” I ask vainly.
“Think quite highly of yourself, don’t you? But no, I cannot.”
“I trust that today has appeased your need to erase our time together in the elevator?”
“Oh, most definitely,” he says as he helps me into the huge bathtub before he climbs in himself. “I have been thinking about something quite a bit this last day or so,” he says conversationally.
“Oh, what is that then?” I ask as I lean back against him comfortably.
“When we get married, what will our surname be?”
I turn to face him. “You have thought about that?”
“Of course. It won’t be D’Arcangelo, so what will it be?”
“Aquila,” I say straight away.
He starts. “What?”
“It seems obvious to me. That is your name. That is what I want my name to be.”
“You want my name? My original name?”
“Yes.”
He blinks at me. “Oh, fuck, Aefre. I honestly don’t think I could love you any more right now if I tried.”
I am touched by his sincerity.
He clearly loves the idea of us taking his first name, as do I. I snuggle into his chest suddenly very, very tired.
“Don’t go to sleep,” I hear him say before I doze off.
Chapter 9
“Aefre! Aefre!” I hear my name being shouted but it is the Old English version, not the Latin version that Constantine uses. “Wake up!”
I blink and I am staring straight into the cold black eyes of Lance. “There, that’s better,” he says as he strokes my face. “I was too ambitious to start you off with something so different. You are too strong and too clever. How about we try this instead…”
“Emily! Emily!” I hear my name being shouted and I wake up. “Sweetheart, the baby is crying,” Fraser says and bursts into the room as I sit up in shock.
“Baby? Fraser?” I say at a loss.
“Yes, my love. Are you still tired? I should try to do more to help you, but I am a bit useless.” He leans over the crib and plucks up a tiny squirming bundle draped in a white blanket. “There, there,” he croons and comes closer. “She’s hungry.”
“What?” I say as he hands me the tiny child. “What am I supposed to do?”
Fraser chuckles at me. “You really are tired, aren’t you, my love? She had you up all night. I will be better for you. I will be a better husband, a better father.” He reaches over and undoes the lacing on my gown. “Feed her now, Emmie. She will quieten down.”
I look down in horror as he pulls out my breast and pushes the baby towards me. The baby latches onto me like it’s never been fed, and I feel, complete. “Oh,” I say in wonder but then think how is this possible. But I feel different, I feel slow and calm. I feel human. Am I human? I know I am Emily, I can see that by my long curling hair and the size of my breasts, so how is this possible? Any of it?
“Perfect,” Fraser says to me with a big smile. “You are just perfect. But it has been a few days now. She needs a name.”
A name? “Aefre,” I say at once.
“Ah-vuh?” he repeats with a frown.
“Yes, where I come from it means ’forever.’”
“Where you come from? Emily, you come from England.” He chucks me under the chin. “Where they speak English.”
“No, the Old language, of my ancestors,” I insist.
“Well, it is pretty, and I like the meaning. Forever. Forever ours.”
“Ours,” I say. “I love you, Fraser.”
“I love you, Emmie. You have made me the happiest man on earth. Have I given you everything you ever wanted?”
“Yes,” I reply.
“Aefre! Aefre! Wake up.” This time, I know it is Constantine that is calling to me.
“What?” I say groggily.
“You were dreaming again. You were dreaming of…”
“Fraser,” I say as I turn away from him, noticing that I am in his bed.
“Was it the same?” he chokes out. “Except with him?”
“Yes. Better. No, I mean, worse.” As I turn back to him and see his pained expression. “I know it isn’t real,” I say sadly. “It hurts.” I brush back the tears not wanting to cry over it in front of him.
“I know, my love. Whatever this is, it’s trying to hurt you. We will get to the bottom of it. I promise you.”
I nod and get up out of his bed. “I just want a few minutes to myself,” I say as I pull on a robe. He nods stiffly as I grab my phone and leave his bedroom for mine. I call Cole.
“Hey,” he says.
“Hey, baby,” I say back and sit on my old bed.
“What are you doing?” he asks cautiously.
“Sitting on my old bed, ready to go to sleep,” I tell him with a small smile.
“Oh?” he says in surprise. “Hang on.”
He switches our call to FaceTime, and I smile at him as he sees me, indeed, sitting on my old bed in my robe.
“Do I want to know?” he asks quietly.
I shrug. “Weird dreams,” I say shortly. He doesn’t need to know the details of my Fraser dream. “It’s getting serious. I think I have seen Lance, twice now.”
“What do you mean, ‘seen’ him?”
“Not him, obviously. He is dead. But a manifestation of him and whatever it is, is causing me to have unnatural reactions.”
“What do you mean?” he asks again.
“I wanted to feed before, enough to kill. That isn’t something that I want but I needed it. We were being watched and I just felt all of these insane urges.”
“Watched how?” he asks.
“We were outside, walking, and I saw a figure watching us from the terrace.” I leave out the sex bits, he doesn’t need to hear that.
“And you wanted to kill someone?”
“Yes. As soon as he disappeared the feeling did as well. Cole I…I am worried,” I admit.
“Oh, baby. You are the strongest person I know. You will figure out what it is and kick its ass.”
“I hope you are right.”
“I love you, Liv. But you look exhausted. Get some sleep. I will talk to you again in the morning. Well, your morning.”
I glance at the clock and see it is 1 AM here, which means it is 7 PM there. “Okay, baby. I love you too. I miss you.”
“I miss you too.” I drop my phone onto the table at the bedside. This room still has no electricity, so I conjure up some candles and light them. I start as I remember how this whole candle thing got started but try to just push it aside as I crawl under the ancient bed covers, free from dust, I am glad to say. He really does look after this place. I smooth down the dark green velvet coverlet and, staring into the flames, I drop back off to sleep. Alone in my old room with my sire down the hall, as I did for so many nights, so many years ago.
“I love you, Emily. Don’t ever leave me,” Fraser says to me.
I turn to him and kiss him. We are in bed, all three of us.
“I’ll put her back in her crib,” he says.
“No, I like her here, next to me,” I whisper in case I wake her.
“I know, my love, but I want you. I need you. It has been too long.”
“It has only been a few weeks.” I giggle. “Are you that frustrated, my love?”
“It feels like months,” he complains but brightens as I stand to take our daughter to her crib.
“Just hold me,” I say as I climb back in bed with him. “I’m cold.”
“Christ, woman, your feet are freezing,” he says with a laugh as I snuggle up close to him. He puts his huge arms around me, enveloping me in his embrace and I relax. Yes, this is where I want to be. Exactly where I want to be. For the rest of our lives.
“Don’t leave me, Emmie,” he says again. “Don’t ever leave me.”
“Oh, Fraser, I love you. I wo…”
“Aefre! Godammit, wake up! Cade, get some water to throw on her.”
I awake to my sire straddling me, shaking me, not so gently, I might add. “Get off me,” I snap at him. “What the fuck?”
“Oh, thank the gods,” he says as he crushes me to him. “You wouldn’t wake up. I have been trying for ages to wake you up.”
“Get off me.” I push him away, thoroughly annoyed that he woke me from such a wonderful dream. More than a dream, it was real. I felt it. And now I feel the loss of it.
He looks hurt but moves away from me. “Aefre. What is going on?”
“I want to go back to sleep. I want Fraser,” I mutter, turning away from him.
Cade stares at me open-mouthed. “Who is Fraser? I thought she was dreaming about this Lance character?”
“Fraser is my husband,” I say to him. “Now go away.”
“Husband?” he asks, more confused than ever.
“Aefre,” Constantine says to me, overly concerned.
“My name is Emily. Emily Campbell.” I turn to them both and Shift. “Now go away and leave me. I want to be with my husband.”
He takes a step towards me, but I turn away from him again and put my head on the pillow, willing myself to go to sleep agai
n so I can be with him.
“You can’t let her go to sleep,” Cade says. “I know what it wants. It wants her in the dream. It wants her to stay in the dream.”
“But why? How?”
“By creating the perfect life for her. For whatever reason, it was Lance but now it is this Fraser. I assume he is… you know….”
“Yes. They were married over two hundred years ago.”
“Don’t talk about him,” I say. “I don’t want you to talk about him that way.”
“Liv. Tell me about the last dream you had,” Cade asks me, but I ignore him. He comes around to the other side of the bed. “Emily. Will you please tell me about the last dream you had?”
I beam up at him and say, “It was wonderful. Fraser and I were together in bed with our daughter.” I hear Constantine choke on that, but I continue, “She was sleeping, and I put her in her crib and went back to him. I wanted him to hold me.”
“Did he say anything?” he presses.
“He asked me never to leave him. I was about to say that I wouldn’t when you interrupted me,” I say, annoyed.
Cade exchanges a glance with Constantine, and I frown at them. “What is the problem?”
“You can’t go back there, Liv, err, Emily,” Cade says. “This power wants you to agree to stay in the dream, so that you do. You can’t say that you will stay. You can’t go back into the dream or you will never come out of it.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” I say and yawn. “It is perfect, and I want to stay. To live the life, we should have had.”
“Aefre. It isn’t real,” Constantine implores me, coming to sit on the bed next to me. “You have to realize that it isn’t real.”
“But it will be if I stay,” I insist. “Don’t you see? I can be with my true love forever. Like we were supposed to be.”
He winces at my words. “I am your true love,” he says firmly. “You belong here with me. Snap out of this,” he says harshly. I just blink sleepily at him.
“If she wants to go, Father, let her go,” says a smarmy voice coming from the corner and we all turn to look. Lance. “You will never end up with her, you should know that by now.”