by Eve Newton
I let that insult sail over my head as I say, “You knew that he would take me by force and that my mother would never allow that to happen again.” It’s not a question, it's a horrible fact. He set me up. He set me up to get raped so I would get my true Power. But why?
“I did. I am sorry for your ordeal, I am, but you are the means to an end, my dear. You should be grateful that I sent Sebastian to find you before Thrace arrived. I am not so sure you would have come out of that encounter quite as easily.”
I am absolutely horrified that someone could do this. To set up such an elaborate plan that would not only hurt me and my family so much, but also to set off a chain of events that leads to a civil war breaking out.
“Why did you pretend to help me?” I ask, close to tears. “If all you wanted to do was hurt me?”
“I didn’t want to hurt you, Aefre. I told you, it was the only way. Your mother is a proud creature and She loathes the Faerie. The Light Fae especially. There is no way She would allow such an act to be taken against you without repercussions. I misjudged Her though, in the beginning. I really thought that if She knew I was trying to kill you, She would step up. Quite insulting that She didn’t deem me threatening enough.” His haughty expression turns sour.
“So the question remains, what do you want from me?” I ask. “Really and truly this time, Remiel, I want to know the truth now. What are you?”
He regards me and gives me the answer. “When the Faerie split apart from the Dragons, eons ago, your mother decided She wanted to create new species to live under Her rule. She wanted an Empire and She set about finding ways to do so. She sent Dracul to Earth to breed a new type of creature and the Demons were born.”
I know that already, or at least a version of that story, so I stay quiet.
“She was pleased with the new additions to Her Kingdom and sent them to the Underworld to live out their lives and to make more Demons. But soon it wasn’t enough for Her, She wanted more beings to rule and so She started experimenting.”
I swallow loudly. She had said he was a failed experiment.
“I am one such experiment. She chose me, due to my special status and created the very first Vampire,” he declares and watches for my reaction.
“Uh, no, Ahmed was the first Vampire,” I say, fully aware of how lame that sounds, right now.
“No, he was the first human to be made. I was the very first,” he corrects me.
‘Stunned’ doesn’t quite cover it. Of all the things he could have said, this wasn’t even on my list.
“You were the first Vampire?” I need him to confirm it again because I don’t believe it.
“Yes, unfortunately I wasn’t quite what your mother had been going for,” he says wryly. “She wanted creatures She could control, and I was uncontrollable. She became conscious of the fact that Demons did not make good Primaries and turned Her attentions towards the humans instead.”
I sit heavily on the edge of my desk. Whoa! This is just insane. All this time, he was the original Vampire. CK will throw a shit fit when he finds out.
“So She killed you, but you were too powerful for even death to stop you,” I say, more to myself. The blood drains from my face as he steps closer to me and I stand up again as I know now what he wants from me.
“I see you have figured it out,” he says as he drops his fangs. His very, very, large fangs. They elongate as I watch, unable to think. He reaches for me, keeping his claws away from my skin as he drags me to him, and he leans down to bite me. I shove him away as his fangs, that are glistening with venom, graze my skin, causing a shock wave of pain to radiate through me. Holy motherfucker. I dread to think what would have happened had he actually pierced me with them. “You bastard,” I snarl at him, holding my hand up to my neck. “If you think I am going to let you drain me so you can live, you have another thing coming to you.”
He snaps his fangs back, which is no surprise as it doesn’t look like it would be very easy to talk around those things. His insulted look almost makes me laugh, out of sheer nervousness, not amusement.
“I do not need to drain you,” he says in a huff. “I just need to take enough to get myself back where I belong. Although,” he pauses, “I can’t say for sure if you will come out of the other side alive. You are Powerful, I can see that by the fact that you are still standing and not in fact lying dead on the floor already, but it is a risk I am going to have to take.”
Dead on the floor already? Shit! Shit! Shit! By just a graze? And I let this creature near my boys and Jess. I must be fucking insane, or worse, just a trusting fool with a death wish. I cannot allow him to do this. I cannot allow him to roam the Earth once more. If Tiamat knew this, why didn’t She tell me? Why did She let me think he was an average enemy? I hold my hand out to end him, and twirl the handy Hellfire orb at him, that I discovered I can create at Ponte.
“Now, don’t be hasty, Aefre,” he says, backing away. “I don’t mean harm. I told you I was not a monster. I was just the product of someone else’s power trip.”
“Harm? You just being out in the world is harm enough,” I say as I step forward, ready to banish us both back to the Spirit Realm. He sees my intent and as I plaster my hand with the orb in it, against his chest, he howls in pain and lashes out with his claws. My hand drops like a stone from him as it has gone completely numb. I can’t feel anything, and he vanishes from sight before I can get hold of him with my other hand. “You slippery dick!” I shriek to the empty room, pissed with myself that I let him get away. There is no way I will get that close to him again, unless I am at his mercy with those primeval fangs of his.
“Who’s slippery dick?” Cole asks me, making me spin around. He steps back from my searing rage, with a hand up. I can tell my eyes have Shifted to Dragon eyes and my talons have also made an appearance. “Okay, calm down, sweetie,” he says, in that placatory tone he reserves for when I have gone off the deep end. I ignore him and storm past him, along with Devon, Jess, Cade, and Lincoln, who are all waiting to head to the airport. I throw the front doors open with magick, knocking one of them clean off its hinges in the process. Grayson is waiting with the car and he hastily opens the door for me, lest I rip that one off too. I glide onto the back seat, still fuming. My temper is exacerbated by the fact that five minutes later, I am still sitting alone in the car. Clearly everyone thought better about joining me. Jerks.
I feel marginally better when Cole tentatively climbs in next to me and takes my hand in his. I am getting some of the feeling back and my talons retract, to his relief, but the eyes stay.
Devon climbs in and hands me his Ray-Bans. “Sorry, Lizzie. They freak me out.” I snatch them off him and shove them up my nose and turn back to stare out of the window. Lincoln and Jess follow and Cade, deciding to steer clear of the back seat, and me, gets in the front with Grayson, and then we are on our way in one of the most awkward silences I have ever come across, and I’ve had a few.
No dares speak for the first half of the journey, but Lincoln, brave soul that he is, eventually clears his throat. “So, I think we can all agree that the ‘dick’ in question is Remiel. Care to enlighten us on the mood you’ve got going on over there?”
“Later,” I growl, still pissed off.
“Okay, then,” he mutters.
I have the grace to offer him an apologetic smile. “Sorry, Linc. I am mad at him and mad at myself for letting him get away from me.”
“Why are you mad at him? I thought you called a truce?” he asks.
“I thought so too. Seems I was wrong about it and him. He betrayed me,” I say, feeling incredibly sorry for myself. “Well, I suppose I shouldn’t say that he betrayed me. He had no loyalty to me in the first place.”
“You know his end game?”
“Yep,” I say and that has everyone looking at me. Even Cade has turned around to get clued in.
“Well?” Devon prompts me when I continue to stare out the window. “You can’t just leave us hanging.”
>
“On the jet,” I say as we pull up outside the airport. I scoot out of the car before Grayson has the chance to open the door and head inside with everyone following me. I take off my sunglasses now as I can tell my eyes have Shifted back to normal, and hand them back to Devon. No one says a word as we make our way through security and moments later, we are being ushered onto the G6. Gotta love private air travel.
I look around my little group and feel a sense of sadness that we have dwindled to only six. I sit on the sofa this time, so that everyone can see me and hear what I have to say properly. I tell of my findings and I am greeted with a stony silence when I mention that Remiel was the cause of me ending up in Faerie Land.
“‘Dick’ is not the word,” Lincoln growls after a moment and sets off a chain reaction that has everyone’s Supernatural vibe going into hyper drive. Cole is crushing my hand and I shake it free from him with an annoyed look. I resume my tale before we get sidetracked by the one hundred and one words to call the traitorous beast.
“No fucking way!” Devon exclaims when I finish up. “He is the very first?”
“Seems so,” I say.
“And he thinks drinking your blood will bring him back to life?” Cade asks me.
“I am fairly certain he is right in that assumption,” I say. “He draws on energy to maintain his bodily form. Mine, especially, gives him a great boost, but now with the blood and my Power it is a distinct possibility.”
“So Tiamat decided She wanted an Empire, so She used the Demons to try to create other Supernatural creatures?” Lincoln asks, trying to get it straight in his head.
“Yeah, Remiel called them Primaries,” I say. Then I jump up yelling “Linc!” so loudly that he throws his glass that he is holding into the air, spilling his bourbon all over himself and Jess.
“What the fuck?” he asks, brushing his t-shirt down and apologizing to Jess.
“Primaries!” I yell at him again in my excitement. “More than one!”
His eyes meet mine as he knows exactly where I am going with this now. “Oh, holy Hell!” he practically yells himself.
“The Demon-Wolf thing!” we both yell in unison.
“That’s exactly what it is. It is the Wolf version of Remiel,” I say, calming myself slightly. My heart is pounding so hard it feels like it is about to burst out of my chest.
“No wonder we can’t find the damn thing,” Lincoln says. “It must also exist in the Spirit Realm. Coming out when it bloody well feels like it to slaughter Alphas.”
“Because he never got to be one. Oh the gods, oh the gods, oh the gods. This is all making sense now.” I sit heavily and drop my face into my hands.
Cole gets up to get me a drink and brings one back for Lincoln too. He smiles his thanks and drains the glass, as do I.
“So, the question that everyone is probably thinking is: How many more are there?” Devon ventures in the sudden silence after all the yelling.
“Indeed,” Cade says. “I also think it needs to be asked why your mother has allowed these beings to survive. Especially when they are hurting people.”
“She gave a half-arsed excuse about Remiel, but it was right after the Power enhancement and I was fried. I will definitely be having words with Her again about it the next time I see Her.” No wonder She was in such a hurry to flit off back to the Dragon Realms after I started asking questions.
We land in Paris shortly thereafter and trudge through the airport. As we hit the bricks outside, I pull Cole close to me. My Dragon sense has gone on alert and it slides down my spine unpleasantly. Jess has arranged for a car to take us to the hotel, so we aim for it.
The rest happens in slow motion.
I hear the shots ring out and I turn to push Cole behind me automatically, as Devon does to Jess. Lincoln drops to his knees and I am a split second after him.
“Cade!” I scream. I can hear my voice, but it sounds muffled, like it is coming from far away. “Cade!” I scream again as I drag my coat off to put to his chest. Lincoln’s hands are covered in blood as he tries to stanch the flow of blood that is pouring out of Cade’s chest.
Time speeds up again and I hear screaming and panic and someone is calling for an ambulance. I hear Lincoln say to Devon to get Cole and Jess out of here. He does it without question, although Cole is protesting, Devon wrestles him into the car and it speeds off. The tears are falling down my face as I take Cade’s hand. I have to save him; there is absolutely no question in my mind about what needs to be done. I don’t give a flying fuck that we are out in public. I attempt a partial Shift and get just one set of claws, which I slice open my wrist with. I lift it to his mouth and his pain-filled, slate gray eyes find mine.
He grips my wrist with what little strength he has left, his fingers closing over the wound, and he says to me, “Don’t you fucking dare.”
Then he passes out.
Epilogue
Buckinghamshire, England, March 2013 – Jess
She sat and waited for her sire. He said he would be up to see her, but that was half an hour ago. She frowned at the clock and started to worry. She couldn’t sit here any longer waiting for him. It was driving her nuts. She raced to the bedroom door, opening it quickly. The house was deadly quiet. The mood was somber after Liv’s news and all the rest of the events that happened after she got back. Jess wished that Liv had stayed there. She glared at the door to her bedroom but passed it quietly. She wanted to know why Constantine left so abruptly and when he would be back. If he was out of the way, her plan might go a bit easier.
She reached the bottom of the stairs and the trail of her sire led her into the billiards room. She stepped into the dark room and it took her a moment to catch sight of him outside on the terrace.
He ran his hands through his hair in that way that told her he was agitated about something. She could see he was speaking to someone, but she couldn’t see who. She stepped closer and then her heart dropped like a stone into the pit of her stomach. Elizabeth. That bitch had come down here and Shifted for him.
She wanted to rip her eyes out of her head, but knew it was impossible. She was completely incapable of hurting her. Hence her plan.
Jess stepped back further into the shadows as she watched her sire take his own in his arms and kiss her with such forceful passion, she wanted to die. He pushed her up against the terrace doors, his hands disappearing up her skirt and Jess fled the room, barely keeping her blood down. She raced up the stairs in a fit of despair, which turned into rage as she passed by Liv’s bedroom again. She had snuck out of the bedroom she shares with her husband to go and fuck Devon. How dare she? Jess was livid and wondered how she could even stand to do something like that after what had happened to her.
Jess was momentarily glad that she had been through an ordeal like she had. She deserved it, the lying, smug, arrogant, manipulative whore! Jess returned to her bedroom to await her sire. She wouldn’t confront him, she wouldn’t confront her boss, she wouldn’t say a word. Jess would keep what she thought she had seen to herself, bottled up to ferment into a hatred so fierce, she would do everything she possibly could to destroy that woman and her hold over Devon once and for all, or she would die trying.
The End
Read on with Betrayal: The Forever Series, Book 9
Betrayal
The Forever Series, Book 9
By Eve Newton
Copyright © Eve Newton, 2014
Copyright © Eve Newton, 2017
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or
dead, business e
stablishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Author’s Note
The first seven books of the Forever Series are seen through the perspective of Liv. However, books eight onwards now have the perspectives of all the other characters.
Please note that the character changes are done by chapter, so be sure to note at the beginning of the chapter whose perspective you are reading.
Prologue
Rome, Italy, May 2013 – Cade
He watches her. She is smiling at her husband with a look of pure adoration that he wishes is focused on him. He hates that feeling. He hates her for what she did. But he can’t stop this feeling of needing to be near her, of wanting to touch her. She catches him looking at her and she flushes, knowing that what she did to him pains him. She knew he didn’t want this, and he will never forgive her, but he can’t stay away from her.
Liv looks away from him and turns her back. He sighs and tears his eyes away from her and goes back to scanning the crowd. He still has a job to do and he won’t fail. Not ever again. He is disgusted with himself for failing two months ago. If he had been doing his job properly, not only would there have been no shots fired, but the shooter wouldn’t have been there in the first place. His head had been so far up his own ass, thinking he was invulnerable, and that’s when it all fell apart. He knew the risks when he took this job. He knew he would start to think like them, act like them, go around thinking that nothing can bring them down, except someone older and stronger. They have no fear, and as a result, Cade grew to have no fear.
Big mistake.
He was still a human, weak and entirely killable. He doesn’t really blame the Hunters for tracking him down and trying to kill him. He deserved it for betraying his birthright and aligning himself with their enemies. He wishes every day that they had succeeded, or at the very least he wishes that Liv hadn’t stuck her nose in where it doesn’t belong. She had no right to mess with him. He was prepared to die, and he told her ‘no.’ He can’t remember how many times he told her to leave him be. He supposes he should be flattered she wanted him to stick around. The strange thing is, before all of this went down, he was fond of her. Thought of her almost as a daughter. Christ knows he is old enough to be her father…well, in the human age sense anyway. That has all been shot to Hell and back and he hates the feelings he has for her now.