by Eve Newton
“Yes, I understand. I said it won’t be a problem,” she says with an annoyed look at me. Well, fair enough then. I feel for the poor soul she is so willing to abandon. That of course throws up its own issues, but again, not my problem, I guess.
“Very well, I will come to you tomorrow morning. Be ready. Where are you staying?” I ask.
“I am in London with Cole,” she says. “Claridges.”
I nod again at her and she returns it and throws me a warning before she vanishes. “If you don’t stick to your word, I will come back here and blow your World to Hell and back. Do you understand me?”
I gulp as I am sure she would have no qualms about destroying me. I don’t blame her after what I have just learned. I sigh and exit the library to look for Esther, wondering what I am going to say to everyone about me going off for the day on my own.
Chapter 5
Buckinghamshire, England, June 2013 – Cole
He just stares at Devon over the billiards table. He has no idea what to say to him.
“Devon,” he starts, but Devon just shakes his head at him.
“This is a betrayal,” Devon hisses. “You knew that I wanted this with her. With you. You had absolutely no right to make that arrangement with him.”
Cole frowns at him and says, “I know. I know, Devon. I didn’t set out to betray you. I knew as soon as she said she was going for him, that I had to make a choice to keep us together. He’d already gone to her, weeks ago, with a proposal that would have cut both of us out eventually. I knew she wanted to accept it, I could see it on her face when she told me, even though she tried to hide it. I did what I had to, to ensure that it didn’t happen on his terms. I did what was best for us and for our relationship with her.”
“No,” Devon says. “Don’t you get it? The only one who gets anything out of this is him. He will take her from you now, he will push you out and then me. Don’t fool yourself, Cole, into thinking that you made the right decision here.”
“You need to tell her how you feel, what you want from her. She will want it. He won’t be able to stop it if it is what she wants. Together, we can then cut him out. I was buying us time until you got your shit sorted. Don’t read anything more into it than that.”
Devon glowers at him. He has never seen his friend so furious. “What did he suggest to her?”
“Does it matter?”
“Yes,” he spits out. “I want to know if what you did is worse.”
“Ouch,” Cole mutters, but then sighs, “He told her that he wanted her to move to Italy with him, and to bring me. But he wanted her in his bed every night. Alone.”
Devon stares at him for the longest time. “Oh,” he says and turns away from him. “No mention of me?”
“No,” Cole says.
“Not even from her?” Devon’s voice cracks.
“She didn’t go into the details. And I didn’t ask. Look, Dev. Speak to her, soon. We need to come up with a plan because I am not sitting around here watching the two of them be all loved up now that they are married. It makes me fucking sick.”
“Should have thought about that before then, shouldn’t you,” Devon snarls at him, still not ready to forgive.
“Don’t, Dev. Don’t be pissed with me. I had no idea what you were doing. She wanted you and you wouldn’t even touch her. You weren’t talking so I had to act, fast.”
“She was raped!” he roars and then slams his lips shut. “How could I ask her to just get over it and be with me?”
“She was ready,” Cole insists.
“With you, maybe. I know it took her longer with Lincoln. I wasn’t putting pressure on her when she needed time to heal.”
“Okay, I get it. I should have asked you what was going on. But you pulled away from her and me. You didn’t want to talk. I just assumed it was something to do with Jess and what Sebastian had done to you.”
“It was in part, but there is other shit going on. I can’t…” He stops talking and shakes his head. “What am I supposed to do now? Going to her with this was supposed to be my grand gesture. Sweep her off her feet. Now it is just going to look like petty jealousy. You screwed me.”
“I’m sorry, Dev. I really didn’t mean it that way. I’ve explained it as best that I can.”
He sighs, his shoulders slumping. “Yeah, I guess you did what you had to, but it still doesn’t help me.”
“Just talk to her, tell her everything about how you’re feeling. I guarantee you; she will want what you are offering her. She loves you so much. She hates it when you aren’t here. If she had you in her bed all the time, she would be happy. Really happy. There is always something missing from her smile and it is you.”
Devon grins at him then. “Well, Jesus. Gush, much?”
“Truth,” Cole states, with a shrug. “So, are we cool?”
“Yeah, we’re cool. I just wish you had told me so that I wasn’t blindsided by this. It fucking hurt.”
“I know, I tried to call you after, but it wouldn’t connect. And before, well, I had no idea what was going to happen. If he would go for it, or just take her from me as he has been dying to do since the day we met.”
“I have to admit, now that I’m not so mad at you anymore, that it was a pretty savvy move. Only problem is, now that he has her right where he wants her, it will be harder to remove him.”
“Hence why we need a plan. One that will force him to show his true colors and she won’t be able to forgive him.”
“She will find it harder to forgive him now that they’re married if he betrays her,” Devon says with a nod.
“Precisely,” Cole agrees, glad that they are on the same page.
“Okay, but I need a bit of time. There’s something I need to take care of before I ask her to commit to me.” His face is pale, and he looks nauseous.
“Anything you want to talk about?” Cole asks.
Devon shakes his head.
“Look, man. We need to be united in this. No secrets.”
“Leave me to deal with this one thing, and I will tell you when I’m ready. I’m going to need her alone. For a long time. I do not need that prick swooping in and threatening her or trying to talk her out of it. She listens to him. Really listens.”
“Yeah, I’ve noticed. Asshole.”
Devon snorts. “Don’t ever blindside me again,” he warns. “I may not be an Initial Vampire, but I can still kick your ass from here to next week.”
“Got it,” Cole agrees, hastily. Devon is very serious about that. He has never felt threatened by him before until that moment, and he would be wise to remember that Devon is far older and stronger than him.
“So, I take it the other one is still in a mood about his turning?” Devon asks, changing the topic.
“You could say that,” Cole says. “He came back yesterday,” he adds in irritation. “He seems determined to destroy himself. I say to just let him.”
“Agreed,” Devon says. “If he can’t be grateful that Lizzie saved him, then he should just be left to his own devices.”
They share a knowing look, united in their mutual dislike of another sibling to share their sire with. “Perhaps we could convince him to put him out of his misery. That would make Liv hate him,” Cole snickers.
Devon snorts with mirth. “Yeah, but I’m sure we can come up with something better than that.”
“Well, I suppose I should go and find her,” Cole says. “It has been a trying morning already.”
“Isn’t it always?” Devon retorts.
Cole snorts and says, “Yeah, this more than most. I met Tiamat earlier,” he says and pauses for dramatic effect, “and Drake as well. Together, at the same time!”
“What?” Devon splutters. “They were both here? How did that end up?”
“In a fight,” Cole says. “But they were sure to kiss and make up after it.”
“Oh gods,” Devon says. “Seriously? I bet Lizzie was less than impressed with that.”
“You could say
that. Fortunately, it was overshadowed by the fact that the Faerie seem to be quite adamant that she and Sebastian marry and produce that baby.”
“It won’t happen,” Devon reassures him with a slap to the shoulder. “Apart from her own distaste, there is no way in Hell that Constantine will allow that to happen. I mean, Christ, can you really see him agreeing to let her sleep with Sebastian, never mind getting pregnant with his child?”
“No,” Cole says and with a laugh, he tells Devon of the fight the two of them had outside, which has them both howling with laughter, their bond to each other restored.
Liv finds them like that a few moments later. She takes in their laughter with a raised eyebrow. “I see everything in here is good,” she says.
Cole crosses to his wife and kisses her. He can smell Devon all over her and it fires up a lust in him which shocks him. He shifts uncomfortably, wondering what the hell that means.
“Yes, everything is good,” Cole says, and she smiles at him.
“Great, because there is something, I need to tell you both. Please sit.” She indicates to the sofa.
Cole’s stomach twists into a knot as this sounds serious. He really hopes it doesn’t have anything to do with Cade. Devon looks equally as worried, but she smiles at them with reassurance. “It’s nothing bad, just a bit weird.”
They wait for her to start, but she stays silent and starts to pace. Eventually, she says, “I wasn’t going to mention it, but I just can’t sit on this and not tell you. It would seem like a betrayal in a way, I guess. But we keep this between the three of us, okay?”
They both nod at her, exchanging a look that lets them both know they are equally as smug to keep Constantine out of the loop on something.
“Remember during the switch, I found out that Other Aefre had no charges? That you weren’t there with her?” she says.
“How could we forget,” Devon mutters and she smiles sadly at him. Cole knows how hard that was for Devon, to know there was a land where she was, and he wasn’t.
“I don’t really know how to say this, so I guess I’ll just say it,” she says, chewing her lip. “Other Aefre has just come to me in the library and asked a favor of me. She wants me to go back to her past and bring her Devon, to her present.”
Cole’s mouth drops open as he stares first at Liv, then at Devon. “What?” he asks as Devon remains silent. “You can’t possibly have agreed to that!”
“I did, I am going tomorrow to get him,” she says.
“Liv! The consequences, have you not thought this through?” Cole yells at her. He is not angry, just in shock that she agreed to do this.
“You have to go,” Devon says suddenly. “You have to.”
“Devon!” Cole exclaims.
“Cole,” Devon says calmly. “It’s all right for you. Your Other self is still alive, and I am guessing turned by now?” He looks to Liv for confirmation of this and she nods. “If Other Aefre wants me, I say she goes to get me.”
Cole looks back at Liv, who is looking relieved. She was clearly worried about what they would have to say about it. He looks back at Devon and sighs. “Fine,” he says. “Who am I to argue?”
The realization of what Devon just said hits him then. “She found me? And turned me? Err, Other, Other me.”
“Yes,” Liv says with a smile. “I don’t really know the ins and outs, but yes she went to find you.”
“I don’t know if that creeps me out, or what,” he mutters, and she laughs.
“I know exactly how you feel, but I was there without you both, so I want to do this for her. Any consequences are up to her to deal with.” Cole feels there is more to this story that she isn’t saying, but he has no idea what, so he leaves it.
Devon is staring at Liv and asks, “How come she asked you to go?”
“She said she hadn’t mastered the art of past time travel,” Liv says with a shrug. “But, even if she had, if she hadn’t come to me to tell me, Other, Other you wouldn’t have gone with her.”
“How so?” he asks.
“I am certain that she doesn’t know that I Shifted and looked like Elizabeth. If she had gone for you looking like this,” she indicates her Liv self, “you would have dismissed her.”
Devon snorts in agreement and it annoys Cole. His wife is beautiful, perfect even, he doesn’t like it when Devon is less than complimentary about her natural looks. It begs the question as to what will happen once Devon joins them in their marriage. Will he want her as Elizabeth the whole time? Will she give it to him? Will it be a chore for her to Shift all the time in between her two personas? So much so that she gets pissed off and resentful. He catches Devon’s eye and knows immediately that he was thinking the same thing. He makes a note to discuss it later, when they are alone again.
Devon asks, “How will you do it? Go to the brothel as Elizabeth the way it happened with us?”
Cole does have something to say about that and he stands up to make his point loud and clear, “No!” he shouts. “You are not going there to reenact yours and Devon’s meeting. It’s gross!”
“Agreed,” Liv says soothingly. “You don’t have to worry. I am not going back there to play it out as my past self did.”
He feels marginally better about that. He doesn’t think he could bear it if she slept with an Other World version of any of them. Or an Other, Other World. That is just too much for him. He thinks it might possibly be his breaking point, so he is determined that she keeps her word.
“Then what?” he asks. “What exactly is your plan to lure him into the future?”
She sighs and sits heavily on the sofa seat he vacated. He sees Devon turn towards her and he regrets standing up as he wants to be as close to her as his sibling is.
“I don’t know. That’s why I said I would go tomorrow, so I have time to come up with a plan.” She turns to Devon and asks, “What do you think I should do? He must think like you, sort of. What would you accept?”
“Well, I accepted you as a Vampire straight away,” he says and Liv beams at him. “Not so sure I would have accepted time travel though.” He frowns. “Can I think about it and let you know?”
“Of course,” she says, taking his hand. He brings it to his lips to kiss, lingering over it with his eyes closed. Cole wonders if Devon is going to take the plunge now, but then she smiles up at him and holds her hand out for him to take. She stands and he leans down to kiss her.
“I’ve got it,” Devon says suddenly, and Liv pulls away to turn back to him.
“What?” she asks eagerly. She seems far too interested in this little adventure and that has him worried as to the reasons.
“Don’t tell, just do,” Devon says, and she frowns.
“What do you mean? Just abduct him?” she asks.
“Yes, in a manner of speaking. Go to find him and tell him who you are, who she is, and then just take him to the present,” he says.
“I don’t know about that,” Liv says. “It seems kind of a sudden introduction.”
“Look, if it was me, I would prefer it that way. If you start telling him you are from the future, not even his own future, you will completely freak him out and he probably will refuse to go. If you just do it, he will have to accept it.”
Well, it’s Devon logic. It sort of makes sense, but there are big holes in his theory.
“Well, I suppose it’s as good a plan as any,” she says and pats his hand in thanks. He smiles at her. “Make my excuses for me, I’m going to go now.”
“Wait,” Cole says. “You said you would go tomorrow.”
“I know, but the sooner I get it over with the better. I will try not to be too long,” she says and pulls him down for a lingering kiss. “Remember, this is our secret. I don’t want anyone else knowing about this.” She is adamant and it makes Cole even more suspicious, but as usual he keeps his opinions to himself rather than face her getting upset with him. He hates it when she gets upset or angry with him. It feels like his heart is breaking, so he woul
d rather just keep quiet and keep her happy. She has a vicious temper that flicks like a switch at the moment. He frowns as he remembers that the poolroom is still going through the process of repair after she lost her temper with Cade, when she tracked him back there after his turning. Who knew she could splinter glass with her eyes and throw fire from her hands?
“I love you,” he murmurs to her. She smiles and says it back. “Please don’t do anything stupid,” he adds, and she laughs.
“When have you ever known me to do something stupid?” she asks and the three of them laugh at her sassy wink and then she is gone in a twirl of black fog, to the Other, Other World and all the Other, Other versions of themselves. He has a bad feeling about this. A very, very bad feeling. He continues to stare at the space that she occupied for a few seconds, as does Devon.
“What?” he finally asks. “Why don’t you want her doing this?”
Cole blinks at him. How can he tell Devon that he doesn’t trust her? He keeps having this recurring nightmare of her time in that Other, Other World. He keeps dreaming of her having sex with the Constantine from there. She swore to him that she didn’t see anyone after they put her away to rest, but it sounds, to him, far too convenient. Surely, they would want to know that she was all right and check on her?
“Cole?” Devon prompts him. “Do you want her to yourself in that World?”
“Devon, that is just the stupidest thing I have ever heard. It’s not me, it isn’t Liv and it certainly isn’t you either,” Cole snaps at him.
“Sure,” he says. “But it must have crossed your mind.”
“Whatever,” Cole grouses. “We aren’t fighting about this. It’s moot.” Besides, he has far more important things to worry about than Devon’s paranoia.
Like his own.
He has to find out once and for all if something happened while she was over there. But, how? That he doesn’t know.
“Agreed,” Devon says and checks his watch. He stands abruptly. “I have to go,” he says, but then pauses. “The chess pieces are being moved into the endgame here. Be careful until I get back.”