by Eve Newton
She sighs and turns from the doors. She will find another way in. She comes face to face with Liv as she spins on her heel. No, not Liv. Other Liv. Her hair is longer and lighter, her eyes are a brighter green and her boobs are much, much bigger. She is smiling at Jess, so she smiles back as she places the vial of marigolds between her breasts for safekeeping.
“Those are mine,” Other Liv says as she reaches forward and plucks the vial out of Jess’s cleavage.
Jess grabs her hand, but she snatches it away quickly. “No, they are mine,” Jess says. If Other Liv wants them, they must have something about them that she wants to keep hold of.
“Uh, no,” Other Liv says firmly. “I didn’t make the suggestion she use them out of the goodness of my cold, dead heart.” She places them in her own cleavage and while Jess has never delved around another woman’s boobs before, the prize will be worth it. She steps forward boldly to take them back, but Other Liv grabs her hand quickly. “Brave, aren’t you?” she asks. “You don’t even know what to do with them.”
Jess just shrugs. No, she doesn’t, but she will find out. “Care to share?” she asks.
Other Liv laughs in delight. “Oh no, little girl. That’s way above your Power-grade. This however, not so much.” She pulls out a clear vial, a bit bigger than the one currently nestled between her breasts and hands it to Jess. Jess takes it curiously and peers into it. There is a clear liquid in it, slightly gloopier than water. “What is it?” she asks.
Other Liv shrugs and says, “A type of poison. Put it in her blood and it will get her out of your way for a bit.”
Jess licks her lips cautiously. How does this woman know she wants Liv gone? “It will kill her?” she asks hopefully.
“No, she, like me, is a true immortal. It will subdue her for a while though,” Other Liv says.
“I don’t want her subdued!” Jess says. “I want her dead.” She realizes that at this point she should probably shut her big mouth. She doesn’t know this woman, and she sure as shit doesn’t trust her.
“Now, now,” she says. “If she were dead, your sire would mourn her for eternity. A little time out will make him yours for a while.”
Jess thinks about that. As much as she doesn’t want to admit it, Other Liv is right. Devon would mourn her forever and she might as well just walk away forgotten. “What’s in it for you?”
“Ah, now, that isn’t your concern. I have my plans and for them to succeed I need her out of the way,” she says.
Jess is crazy curious, but she knows better than to ask. “Why come to me?” she asks instead. “How did you know I wouldn’t go running straight to her?”
“She is your sire’s sire. I know how strong that bond is, and I can see theirs is particularly unbreakable. You are bound to be jealous, especially as it seems your sire has no bond to you,” Other Liv says.
“How do you know that?” Jess asks, slightly worried about where this woman is getting all of her information from.
She shrugs and to Jess’s shock Shifts to Elizabeth right in front of her. “I’m done here. If you will excuse me, I have a date.” She gives Jess a smug look and is about to saunter off when Jess stops her.
“You,” she whispers. “It was you I saw. How long have you been coming here to fuck my sire?” she snarls as the pieces all fall into place.
“Oh, about six months or so,” Other Liv says glibly.
Six months? Jess feels sick. Her stomach churns as she takes that in. He has been lying to everyone for six months about this. She knows now that it wasn’t Liv, she saw that night with him on terrace, but Other Liv. She came here and Shifted to Elizabeth and Devon didn’t resist her. He didn’t tell her to go to Hell, he fucked her instead. And then again and again. Other Liv is watching her with interest. “Oh, you are a jealous little thing, aren’t you?” she says with delight.
Jess shakes her head to clear it. After the initial shock of this news, it has dawned on her that her sire has Substituted his own and everybody knows that Liv has enormous issues with that. She can blow their relationship apart, as Liv will never forgive him for this. Never. A tiny part of her, that she wants to squash, doesn’t blame her. It is vile what Devon has done, but she loves him and has already forgiven him. Liv won’t. She will see this as a massive betrayal and Jess wants to be the one to tell her. But not yet. After their little pissing contest, it will look petty and planned, and not to mention if Devon finds out she was the one who told, he would kill her.
“What are you thinking?” Other Liv asks her. “You have gone awfully quiet.”
Jess scrambles to think of something. No way is she telling of her real thoughts. “Nothing,” she says casually. “I was just surprised why you come here to fuck my sire when you have your own identical one, that is your husband.”
Other Liv sniffs and says, “Your Devon is still so passionate and adventurous and spontaneous. My Devon lost all of those traits a long time ago.”
“And I am sure you had everything to do with that. So, you decide to come after mine and do the same to him? I don’t think so,” Jess says.
“How do you plan on stopping me?” she asks, her blue eyes cold and hard.
“He will come to his senses,” Jess says. “He will dump your ass as soon as he has gotten over the fantasy of you. That’s all you are to him.”
“As he is to me,” Other Liv says. “If you think you can hurt me, you have no idea who you are messing with.”
Jess stares at her for a long time. She is nothing like Liv. She has no real emotions, nothing at all about her that would suggest they were effectively the same person. The only thing they have in common is that they are both manipulative whores. “What is your ‘me’ like over there?” she asks and has the satisfaction of catching her off guard.
“For starters, she isn’t Devon’s charge,” she says, recovering quickly. “She is my sibling.”
Jess already knew that. “Why did Constantine turn me?”
Other Liv regards her and then decides to tell her. “Sebastian asked him to. The two of you were in love, but he didn’t want to become your sire. He wanted you to be his wife without any sire feelings getting in the way. He had been down that road before and it never ended well. He wanted to try something different. When you were badly injured, close to death, a decision had to be made.”
Oh, Christ. That is news! Jess wonders if anyone else over on this side knows that. “I guess it kind of backfired though?” she asks astutely.
She snorts with laughter. “You could say. You become besotted with Constantine, not unsurprisingly. But what is surprising is that he allowed you to. That part I don’t get. He took you from Sebastian, hurting him, you aren’t his type and you are far too young to be with someone like him. I don’t know what he gets out of it.” She looks completely confounded and Jess takes a small bit of offense on her Other’s behalf.
“Well, this has been fun,” she says. “But I have somewhere I’d much rather be.” She smiles evilly and Jess wants to punch her. Other Liv goes into the house like she owns it, through the billiards room and Jess is hot on her heels.
“Next time you come, bring Devon with you,” Jess says slyly. “Maybe he just needs someone he can control to get his spirit back.” Her words have the desired effect and Other Liv stops dead in her tracks.
“Say that again,” she says.
“You heard me,” Jess responds.
“I did. I should burn you at the stake for your insubordination,” she says menacingly.
It gets to Jess, but she’s not backing down. If this woman is so brazen that she won’t hide the fact that she is swanning off with Jess’s sire, she is going to give her something to think about.
“I know he loves his role with you,” Jess says casually. “I know he relishes it when you dominate him, but I know the other side. I know how much mine loves me to submit to him.” She is playing with fire. It is quite apparent that even though they all look alike, there are few other similarities. She has n
o clue as to what tastes Other Devon has. She would be willing to bet though that he wants someone completely submissive after being with this ho for over five hundred years. The look on Other Liv’s face spurs her on. She is getting to her. “I am sure your Devon would love it as well.”
“You keep your slutty hands to yourself,” Other Liv snaps at her and Jess knows she has made a chip in that armor. “You will never get your hands on my husband.” And with that said, she Astrals off. Hopefully back to her World and not upstairs to Devon. She wants to go and check, but right now she has something she has to do. She puts the bottle of poison down on the end table and calls out quietly. “Remiel?”
Jess has been calling for him every single day since she did what he asked her to do. She had only a small job. All she had to do was get everybody out of the house while Cade trapped Liv. It was easy. She gave them all Underworld errands and off they went. There was no one here to help Liv or save her from her fate. She doesn’t think Cade is aware of her part in this plan and she intends to keep it that way. Especially now he has returned and is starting to accept what he is. But Remiel promised her something in return for her aid and she hasn’t got what he promised. Now, more than ever, she needs him to come back and do what he said he would do. “Remiel?” she whispers again, but nothing. Dammit! She grits her teeth and puts a lid on her temper.
“Hey,” Devon says as he walks into the billiards room, much to her relief. Other Liv must have flittered off home after all.
“Hi,” she says and runs into his arms. “I have missed you.”
“Hmm,” he murmurs to her and lets her kiss him.
She sighs. She wishes he would, at the very least, be as attracted to her as he was before he turned her.
“Come now,” he demands her, grabbing her hand. She knows he is using her, but she loves him and wants to please him. She wishes she could go right this second. But she has that one little job to do before she can go with him.
“Give me one minute, I just need to finish something up and then I will be up and ready to please you, sir.” She lowers her eyes, giving him submission to outweigh that she can’t go with him right now.
He growls at her, low and sexy, and she feels her nipples harden. “One minute,” he says. “Or there will be punishment.” He stalks off and she quickly scoops the bottle up and runs to the kitchens. She yanks the fridge open and grabs one of the bottles set aside for Liv. Only she and Cole use these blood bottles, everyone else choosing the fresh route, but she knows Cole won’t touch Liv’s because she has Esther throw a splash of Scotch into hers, and Cole despises the stuff. Jess knows that firsthand and feels somewhat pleased by that. She empties the poison into the bottle after a quick sniff. It doesn’t smell like anything so hopefully it won’t taste like anything either. She quickly recaps the bottle and after wrapping the vial up several times in paper towel, she discards it in the trash. She really should put it outside, but she doesn’t have time now. She will remember to come back and do it later. She runs up the stairs and bursts into Devon’s bedroom, but it is empty. Her heart sinks as she sees a hastily scrawled note on the bed. It reads: “Sorry. Something came up.”
She scrunches the note up in her fist, the tears streaming down her face. There are only two things that would have made him leave her like this and one of them is still in the library downstairs. “Fuck!” she yells and throws the balled-up note at the wall. Completely ineffective, so she grabs a vase and sends that flying as well. It crashes into a million pieces and she finds it ironic because her heart feels the same. She slumps on to the bed and weeps loudly. She kind of forgot in her anger and upset that Cade is now living in that room next to Devon’s. Crap, she probably disturbed him.
This is confirmed when there is a gentle knock on the door and she sniffles, “Come in,” into her tissue.
“Everything okay in here?” Cade asks her.
“No,” she says, but then shrugs. She can’t tell him about Other Liv and Devon being together.
“Want to talk about it?” he asks.
She stares at him for a while. He looks like utter crap. “Why aren’t you healing?” she asks bluntly.
He grimaces at her and hunches his shoulders. “Don’t want to talk about it,” he says petulantly.
“Fair enough. Me either,” she responds, and they sit in silence for a few minutes. He pats her hand in a comforting gesture and she loses it again, crying into her soggy tissue. He puts his arm around her, a bit stiffly, but she appreciates the gesture and clings to him. She looks up into his battered face and, for no reason that she can fathom, she leans up to kiss him on the mouth, working her tongue against his, and to her surprise, he kisses her back.
Chapter 18
Buckinghamshire, England, September 2013 – Lincoln
“Look!” he snaps, getting highly pissed off with this argument. “We are going and that is final.” He takes Liv’s hand and marches her over to the door. She follows meekly and he knows she is worried about her husbands’ reactions, but right now she is his. He was promised this months ago and he is not letting anyone take it away from him. He needs her. He needs to be close to her and talk to her and touch her. His insides have been torn apart by their absence from each other for so long, he needs her to heal him.
“Fine,” Constantine says suddenly. “Go and have your little date, but as it seems you are re-negotiating our terms, I have some points of my own that I want to address with you when you return.”
Cole glares at him and gets on board with that. “Me too,” he says defiantly.
“Okay,” Liv says quietly. “In fact, there is something that I wish to discuss with each of you, privately.”
Lincoln notes that they both look pleased that they are getting private time with her. He was shocked to his core when he found out about this three-way marriage of theirs. It makes absolutely no sense to him and he doesn’t understand how it works. He is dying to ask, but does he really want to hear the ins and outs? Probably not, he decides, and keeps his mouth tightly closed.
Finally, in agreement, they are left to leave in peace and Liv changes her clothes in the foyer. She is back to the outfit she started with in the bathroom that he made her change out of. She looks absolutely gorgeous, especially with her long black hair with a purple shine to it and her violet eyes. Only one small problem.
“I hate to keep saying this to you, but you are going to have to change,” he says.
“Why now?” she complains, looking down at herself.
“The idea of you Shifting was so we could go out as a couple. At the moment, your Dragon and Faerie markings are on display and they are quite unique, my love.”
“Oh,” she says a bit sheepishly. She swaps her top for something with a back and long sleeves, but with a nice low-cut neckline so he can still see her skin.
“Perfect,” he says with a smile and holds his arm out for her to take. He is driving them the short five miles to the restaurant, and he opens the car door for her. She giggles at his act of chivalry and kisses him soundly as he settles himself into the driver’s seat. He feels more at peace now, especially as they are in an enclosed space and she is taking over his senses. It has been a long, hard three months. Well, actually, amend that to six months. Her whole embargo after the rape was torture enough, but her coma was absolute Hell. The Pack was on his case every second about where she was, but if he had told them she was unconscious, she would have been voted out immediately, regardless of her status. As it was the rumors were rife as to her absence and among them was her being injured somehow. He knows that the Pack, as most of the Underworld, don’t realize her true Power and what she is capable of. He, as their Alpha, has control over them, sure, but a unanimous decision to oust her would have been difficult to overturn, and one that he was dreading. She had made him so proud, though, earlier. He knew she would do. He didn’t doubt it for a second once she was back to fighting form, and she had surprised him with her leniency. Although, it really shouldn’t hav
e, she is far too merciful for her own good sometimes.
“Penny for them?” she asks, sliding her hand up his thigh.
He smiles at her and says, “Just thinking how proud I am of you and how much I love you.”
“Oh,” she says and blushes. “Well, I love you too and I am proud to be your mate.”
His turn to blush as her words warm him and start to heal his ragged heart. They arrive at the restaurant shortly after that and he ushers her inside. It is mid-week and fairly quiet, but all eyes turn to them as they enter. They must make a striking couple, and he is pleased of the envious stares. They are led to a quiet table by the window with place settings opposite each other. That won’t do. He quickly rearranges it, so he is sitting to her right. Close enough that he can touch her, but also so he can look into her face. She is eyeing up the breadbasket that was placed in front of them and with a quick look at him, she grabs one and stuffs it into her mouth. It is gone in three bites and he raises his eyebrow at her. She said she wanted food, but he didn’t realize it was quite as bad as that. She reaches for another but slows down to ply this one with butter and she relishes each bite as he watches her.