by Eve Newton
Cole opens his mouth to protest to this unfair accusation, when CK turns to him and says, “Yes, you would have thought.”
“I had bigger things to worry about,” Cole says defensively.
“I would say that this is pretty big,” CK says, indicating me lounging in the bath. They start to bicker, and I submerse myself completely under the water. I silently yelp in pain as the water hits the bite marks, but it’s better than listening to them argue. I relax a tiny bit but feel no better. Finn has done nothing to revitalize me, in fact if anything I feel even more worn out. Not to mention his whole attitude stank. What was with that? He is usually so much more friendly and attentive. Okay, well maybe having two ferocious Vampires staring at him in hatred probably didn’t help, but I think there is more to it than that. Something to do with my mother, definitely, I deduce. I finally surface and blink my eyes open to see two faces staring mildly back at me.
“What?” I ask.
“You should have…” CK starts to accuse, but Cole punches him on the shoulder. “I feel,” he starts again, closing his eyes briefly, “that you should have told me about this immediately. Even the day after we got married there was time.”
“I know, I’m sorry. I didn’t think and then I wasn’t here,” I say petulantly. I know when I am being ganged up on with “an intervention.”
CK comes to crouch next to me and takes my hand. “I am not sure I can accept this,” he says carefully. “What we witnessed here was quite intimate.”
“I know,” I say again. “But the Dragon needs it…hey!” I exclaim suddenly and turn around to peer over my shoulder. It felt like I had been bitten or something. I turn back to CK with a confused look and he points to my shoulder with a soft smile. I peer down and my Dragon has Her head resting on my shoulder with Her nostrils flaring at me. I start in surprise as I have never actually seen Her do that before.
“I think She dislikes your lack of pronoun usage, my sweet,” CK says, now hiding his smile as She bites me again.
“Ow! Okay, I’m sorry,” I tell Her. “You are my Dragon.” She nods Her head once in acceptance and swoops down across my back, settling into Her usual resting position. Christ, She is becoming more and more sentient. One of these days She will become separate from me at this rate.
“Please just wash me and help me downstairs,” I say. “You can berate me some more when I feel better.”
“If,” CK mutters as he hands Cole the washcloth.
“When,” I say and languish under Cole’s kind ministrations.
“Something I should know?” Cole asks.
“Other Liv said blood-soaked marigolds will work,” I say.
“Other Liv?” he asks. “When did you see her?”
“She came to see me before,” I say and hope he doesn’t start up an inquisition. No way am I telling about the letter Other Fraser sent to me. They help me out of the bath and into my clothes, which I know that CK has picked out this time as it is a long, flowing, stretchy, black dress. He pops it over my head, and it falls softly to the floor. He gently tugs the material away from my wrist and then takes my arm in his. We head downstairs with Cole on my other side and into the kitchen. Jess is already in there staring at the flowers as if expecting them to tell her what to do.
“What are we supposed to do?” she asks CK. She plucks one of the heads off the bunch and turns it upside down. “Just stick it over the bites?”
“No, I would wager cutting them up first would be more effective,” CK says with authority, even though he has no idea, much like the rest of us. “Then mix it with my blood and we will secure them with bandages to keep them in place.”
Well, at least he has a plan. I was just going to wander around looking like a bouquet.
“Your blood?” Cole asks. “Why yours?”
“That woman said to use mine. I am her sire after all, it was my blood that healed her of her mortal wound and turned her,” CK says, and I can see the gleam of victory in his eye as he, and quite nicely I’ll admit, reminds every one of his status.
I beam at him and say to Jess, “Where the bloody Hell is Devon?” I am getting sick of asking that, but since I have woken up, he has hardly been here.
She points to the door with a smile of pure self-satisfaction that she sensed him before I did. I take that in with bad grace. I must get myself well again, get myself back on top. I cannot, no, will not, have a weeks-old Vampire be better than me at something. I swallow as I recall she is now actually seven months old. Devon makes his appearance and gives me a quick cuddle. “Sorry, Lizzie, I was looking for Cade.”
Even I can sense his reluctance, and I most definitely see the look of absolute distaste that he shares with Cole.
“Thank you,” I say to him. “Did you find him?”
He shakes his head. “No, sorry.”
Great, he is probably lying dead and decimated somewhere. Stubborn fucking fool.
“Here,” Jess says as she hands the bowl of chopped flowers to CK.
Devon looks on in interest and Cole fills him in.
CK slashes his wrist and Jess turns her back, breathing in deeply. She wants him so badly. Not sexually, I don’t think, well maybe, he is very sexy, but Vampirically. He is like nectar from the gods to lesser Vampires. Mind you my own fangs drop as I smell his blood and Devon goes off to get me some from the fridge. He warms it up with a blast in the microwave and I smile at him.
“It’s not the real thing, but the closest I can get,” he says.
“I want the real thing,” I sulk as I accept the mug anyway.
“Well take that up with your husband,” he says with a look of loathing at CK that I catch for a second before he lets it go. CK has finished his part and hands the bowl back to Jess, oblivious of her attraction to him. I hide my smile behind my mug as I demurely take a sip of blood and watch her briefly bring the bowl up to her nose to take a sniff. Devon snatches the bowl off Jess in a temper about something and thwacks the bloody marigolds onto my wrist and holds his hand out for a bandage to wrap around my wrist. Once completed he, more gently this time, places some on my neck bite and adds a sticky bandage to it. At least he didn’t wrap one around my neck like some kind of mummy.
“There,” he says. “How long do we wait?” They all look at me expectantly as if it is an instantaneous thing and I shrug.
“I didn’t get a chance to ask,” I say.
“Twenty-four hours,” CK says. “We will have a look again tomorrow and see if there is progress or not.”
I nod and finish off my blood. My stomach rumbles loudly and CK has the grace to look apologetic for his Feeder ban.
“Let’s see how this goes and then maybe tomorrow,” he concedes, and I nod eagerly and will these marigolds to work so I can have some proper food.
“Dragon magick,” I say suddenly, and everyone looks at me like I have lost my head.
“Say what?” Devon asks.
“It must be Dragon magick. That is why she knows, and you couldn’t find it.” This logic just came out of thin air, but they all nod sagely as if I am talking sense. Now I am really upset about my mother not showing up to see me. She could have healed me months ago. I sigh and hope that She has a good explanation when She comes to see me in a few days. If She bothers to turn up at all.
I fall asleep soon after and miss Lincoln’s visit, which really pisses me off when I wake up and find out.
“He’ll be back shortly,” Cole says, checking the clock. “You’ve been asleep for hours.”
I blink at him and realize that for the first time in days, I feel better. Great, even.
We are alone and I decide to take full advantage of the situation, and him. I sit up, push him onto his back and climb on top of him. He starts to protest, but I silence him with a kiss which he wastes no time in responding to. He runs his hands up my thighs, bunching the loose nightgown I am wearing up around my hips.
“Oh, Liv,” he says. “I’m sorry, but I can’t stop.”
He flips me onto my back and once I am under him, he is inside me within seconds, with a hard thrust. I cry out as I wasn’t quite ready, and he grunts his apology but speeds up his thrusting. He comes seconds later with an orgasm that goes on and on. He drops his forehead to mine with his eyes closed in bliss.
“Sorry,” he says again. “I’ll…”
“No, it's fine,” I say, as I sense he is going to do something about my unfulfillment. I wouldn’t mind another go, but what I want more at this particular moment is to get these bandages off and see if I have healed. He climbs off me, very sheepish, but I ignore his continued muttered apologies.
“Cole,” I say, suddenly exasperated. “Stop apologizing, I said it's fine. I want to get these bandages off because I feel better. Much better, okay.”
He looks at me as if he had forgotten all about the flowers and I shake my head at him. I get to the kitchen under my own steam as I am far less shaky than I was yesterday. I leap onto the counter as CK joins us and he smiles and kisses me. He freezes and turns his furious gaze to Cole. “Could you not just leave her alone for another couple of days?”
Cole looks down in shame that he got caught with his hand in my cookie jar, but I placate CK by saying, “I feel better, my love. Please can we just get these bandages off?”
“Of course,” he says with another baleful glare at Cole. He pulls them off as Devon and Jess also come to have a look. They all peer at me curiously.
“It worked,” CK says as if he knew it all along. “Excellent.”
I am relieved to say in the least that the bites have started to heal and are just deep pink scars now. “Yay,” I say, clapping my hands. I am still nowhere near a hundred percent, but this is a start. I notice that the flowers have gone black and shriveled up which is most disconcerting, and I want to ask about it, but Jess whisks them away and gets rid of them.
Lincoln joins in the celebration a few minutes later and gives me a big squeeze. I hold on to him tightly, having missed him terribly. Suddenly, he lets a howl of rage and pulls back, grabbing my shoulders painfully. “Cade?” he roars at me. “He did this to you?”
“Wh-what?” I stammer.
“Liv,” he warns me. “Don’t lie, I can see it.” He taps my head and I mentally stake myself. I have no blocks up and he can see everything. “Cade betrayed you to Remiel?” He asks it as a question, but it is more a statement of fact, one that causes everyone to freak out with a lot of hissing and growling.
“It’s not like that,” I start, but Lincoln shakes his head at me. He knows I am lying to protect Cade.
Lincoln stalks off out of the kitchen and I follow him closely, everyone hot on my heels firing questions and accusations at me.
I grab Lincoln’s arm and make him stop. “Linc,” I say desperately. “Don’t do this.”
He has let his own thoughts into mine and he is on a mission. A kill mission and this is what I had been trying to avoid.
“Please,” I beg him. “I have forgiven him for what he did. He felt trapped and he took the only way out he could. Remiel sensed his weakness and preyed on him. He is as much a victim in this as I am.”
“Don’t you dare defend him!” CK answers for Lincoln with a bellow that nearly deafens me. I turn to him to plead Cade’s case to my sire, but I am interrupted by the slamming of the front door. We all look towards it and notice that Devon has disappeared through it.
“No!” I shout as I lunge forward, dragging the door open. Devon is already in the car, squealing down the driveway. “Dev!” I shout, but it is useless. I am in no fit state to run to catch up to him, so I try to Astral into the car next to him. I cry out in agony and instead of ending up in the car, I end up in a crumpled heap on the floor. “Fuck,” I yell as Cole helps me up. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that Devon is now going to find Cade. His attempts before were probably half-hearted at best, but he is also now on a mission and I know he will find Cade and kill him.
“Linc,” I say, turning back to my Alpha. The reasonable one. The one who listens to me. “Go after him, and don’t do anything if you find Cade. Just please promise me you will call me the minute you find him, and I will come and sort this out. Stop Devon, please,” I beg.
He nods grimly, his reluctance evident, but I know he won’t go against my plea. He will do as I ask. I breathe out in relief as he storms off and guns it out of the driveway after Devon.
“Why are you doing this?” Cole asks me. CK has given up yelling at me and is standing fuming in the Entrance Hall. Jess has run away, not that I blame her, so it is just me and my two livid husbands.
“Why are you protecting him, Liv? He handed you off to be killed, or worse, and I ended up losing you for three months.”
“We!” CK interrupts with volume. “We lost you for three months. We thought you were never going to come back, and you stand there and defend him. Protect him even.”
“I am his sire,” I say with as much strength in my voice as I can rally.
“You are a fool,” he spits out and marches off upstairs.
I turn to Cole, knowing I can at least placate him as much as I did with Lincoln. I step forward to touch him, a manipulation of the worst kind, but he holds his hands up.
“Don’t,” he says. “Do not try and get around me by distracting me.”
“Cole,” I say. “Please, you must understand. I would die for you and Devon. I would protect you with my last breath. I owe Cade the same. I did this to him. I ruined him and I will take responsibility for his actions.”
“Owe him?” Cole sneers. “You owe him nothing. He wants to die, Liv. Just let him.” He goes off in the same direction as CK and I am as sure as I stand here that they are going to plot something behind my back. That is, if CK hasn’t already gone off on his own mission to kill Cade. I hear the two of them yelling and leave them to it. I know that Lincoln will come through no matter what other factors get in his way. I make my way to the library and remember the letter that I shoved under the ink blotter. It’s not safe there and I need to move it. I grab it and open the bottom drawer. It has a false bottom and I pop it in there away from anyone who should stumble upon it, and then feel an almighty power rush behind me. I hunch my shoulders as I really do not want to talk to Her right now but turn around with a haughty expression that She returns and arches Her perfect eyebrow at me.
“ValamAtrux,” She says.
“Tiamat,” I say back, and She narrows Her eyes at me. I wait for Her to start, to apologize for Her absence, but all I get it is scrutiny and eventually a slow shake of Her head. “No, it won’t do,” She says in anger.
“I beg your pardon?” I ask Her, thoroughly pissed off.
“You are weak and have no Power.” She says this as if it is the absolute worst thing ever. Okay, well it kind of is. “You are in no fit state to breed.” She sticks out Her bottom lip that, on an ordinary person I would call a pout, but She is Empress. She isn’t allowed to pout, surely. Oh, and breed? That very nearly missed my radar.
“What are you talking about?” I ask in an imperial tone that I borrow from my sire.
She heaves a sigh of magnitude and sits heavily on the sofa. All actions that I have never seen from Her before.
“Your deep sleep was supposed to resuscitate you. You were supposed to be well when you woke up,” She explains.
Oh, that is why She left me? Because She thought it would heal me on its own…so She could have me fit to have a baby? Oh no, no, no! This is all just too much for my brain to take.
“Why didn’t it work?” She asks me.
I shrug and say, “I have no idea! Remiel poisoned me, nearly killed me and I lost out on three months of my life. Did you know what he did to me?”
Well, obviously, She does. I just need to hear it with my own ears.
“Yes,” She says without a hint of regret.
“Do you know where he is?” I ask.
“Yes,” She says and offers up no more information.
“Well?” I
snap at Her. “Where is he?”
She hesitates and then says, “Back where he belongs.”
I pause. I hope She means the Spirit Realm because She hacked him into a thousand pieces this time, but something tells me that isn’t what happened. “The Underworld?” I venture with a croak.
“The Dragon Realms,” She says as if I am dense.
Dense, no. Full of rage, yes. “You have been harboring him this entire time?” I yell at Her. “How could you?”
“He is important,” She says briskly.
“I am important,” I say arrogantly, prodding myself to show my point. “I am Queen of the Underworld; I shouldn’t be laid out like some kind of poisoned Snow White.”
“You were supposed to heal,” She says as if that makes it all better. “Enough of this!” She says abruptly. “There are more important issues to deal with.”
And just like that the subject gets dropped.
“Oh, yes,” I drawl. “You want me to breed. Well, that isn’t going to happen.” I cross my arms defensively and She stands up again.
“Clearly not in this state.” She sweeps Her hand up and down in disgust. “However, that does not change what is about to happen to you, ValamAtrux.”
“And what is that?” I ask, not really wanting to know.
“According to the charts, you are about to go into…” She purses Her lips and looks uncomfortable.
“Into what?” I press.
“Heat,” She says quickly and if I didn’t know better, I’d say Her cheeks flushed just a little. My cheeks, on the other hand, are flaming bright red.
“Heat?” I repeat in disbelief. “Like some kind of bitch?”
“Like some kind of Dragon,” She barks at me, reigning in Her temper.
“Uh,” I stammer as She has completely caught me off guard. That is how this is supposed to happen? I go into Heat and mate and get pregnant? Ah fuck. I slump my shoulders and wish for the millionth time that I didn’t always find these things out at the eleventh hour.
“Not happening,” I say in complete denial.