by Eve Newton
“Aefre,” CK gives me his long-suffering sigh. “She isn’t a Vampire.”
That stops me dead in my tracks. If she isn’t a Vampire, how can she still be alive two thousand seven hundred and however many years later? “What is she then? Half Demon?”
Wrong thing to say. CK’s temper flares and I swear he reaches for the stake again before Corinne stops him as she pops into our little party uninvited.
“Druid,” she corrects me quickly. “High Priestess of our Coven,” she adds as we all stare at her.
“Uh,” I stammer. I wasn’t expecting that. Actually, to be fair, I wasn’t expecting any of this. “I thought you were the head of your Coven?” I ask Corinne instead, trying to sound like I haven’t been completely battered by this information.
She flushes prettily at the apparent compliment and says, “No, Your Majesty. I am head of my local Coven. Rosalina is head of us all. By the way, it’s nice to see you back.”
“Thanks,” I say. “It’s nice to be back. Interesting. How come you never mentioned it?” I ask CK seriously as I am beyond hurt that I am only learning of this information a thousand and two years later.
He shrugs uncomfortably. “It never came up,” he says.
“Liar,” I snap at him. “How many times did I ask about your family?” Apparently, I wasn’t asking the right questions. A vague “Did you have brothers and sisters?” is easy to avoid, whereas “Is your sister still alive and the Druid High Priestess?” is less easy.
“I believe we are getting off topic,” he says. “Our concern should be lying with how to keep you safe…” He glances at Corinne, clearly unsure how much to trust her. She is Team Tiamat after all, and we were discussing me avoiding Remiel at my next Heat.
She clears her throat and lowers her eyes. “We heard, Your Majesty…”
“It’s fine,” I bark at her, cutting her off and she raises her eyes in surprise. “Is there something in particular I can help you with?” I add coldly.
She senses the change in atmosphere and adjusts accordingly. She formally inclines her head and states, “No, my Queen. I came here to pay my respects.”
Okay, now I feel like a complete douche.
“I’m sorry,” I say quietly. “Thank you.”
“Of course,” she says stiffly. “I will leave you to your reunion.” Then she Teleports off in a huff. Can’t say I blame her. I was quite rude.
“…from Remiel,” CK finishes his thought and Xane leaps up and snaps at him, “Quiet!”
CK glares at him as I gape. Xane never interacts with the others in my group. He speaks to me and me alone, even if someone asks him a direct question, he doesn’t acknowledge. Things have certainly changed around here.
“I beg your pardon?” CK says.
“Don’t say his name,” Xane says, more calmly now. “It’s a thing.” He looks back to me for confirmation and I nod.
“He’s right. It’s a Demon thing,” I say.
“I thought it was a Spirit thing?” Lincoln says and I ask him to elaborate.
“When you were in the Dark Fae Kingdom, when we called him, he showed up. Thought perhaps he was lurking.”
“Oh, he does lurk,” Xane and I say in unison and we laugh together.
“However,” I continue, “he does seem to know when his name is said.” Much like another Demon I know, I think with a glance at said Demon.
He regards me back closely and then corrects me, “Dragon twice removed.”
I narrow my eyes at him, as how did he know what I was thinking? “Quite particular about that, aren’t you?” I ask archly and he grins.
“I enjoy a sense of accuracy,” he says easily.
“Back to the matter at hand,” CK says with exasperation. “Christ, Aefre, focus.”
“Okaaay,” I say, holding my hands up. Geez, who made him the concentration king?
“Fae Kingdoms,” Sebastian blurts out. “He, now that he is whole, shouldn’t be able to follow you there.”
“No chance,” Cole says. “She is not going anywhere with you.”
“Who said I would be there?” Sebastian asks.
“You live there,” Cole reminds him.
“No, I live here,” Sebastian says, standing up and towering over us sitting on the bed. “I work there.”
I look at Cole with a didn’t-you-once-say-that-to-me gaze and he folds like a cheap suit. He is too weak to argue and that concerns me.
“Regardless,” CK says, “Aefre will not be permitted anywhere near anyone or anything of the male species.”
“That leaves only one place,” Sebastian says then, spreading his hands out in glee.
CK turns his fierce gaze to his charge. “So that is what all of this was about? You spill my secrets to give her what she wants? Can you say ‘Brutus’?”
Wow, harsh. Especially coming from him, who was actually there at the time.
Sebastian flinches and shakes his head. “She is your wife. You should be giving her what she wants.”
I shuffle uncomfortably as this has now turned into a brawl over me again, although I don’t quite follow.
“Very well,” CK says and turns to me. “Aefre. Sebastian seems to think that the only person who can protect you is my sister. I will send a missive and we will travel upon her request.”
I blink at him. “We don’t have to do anything of the sort,” I say. He is really upset over this, but I have no idea why. If I had a sister who was still alive, and not a Vampire, I would be thrilled. Not to mention, I would share it with him. Did we learn nothing over the whole Drake fiasco?
His gaze softens as I give him the out, he so desperately wants, but he reluctantly shakes his head. “He’s right,” he says softly. “I cannot allow the same thing to happen to you as before. Where she lives, he won’t be able to get to you.”
“Where is that?” I ask, dying to know, but trying to stay cool.
“Some place mystical and legendary,” Sebastian says with a smile.
I rack my brain as this has turned into a guessing game. “Camelot?” I ask with a smirk that gets wiped off my face by their exchanged look.
“Close,” Sebastian says, taking his role of Game Master quite seriously.
Close. That sort of leaves only one place I can think of, but it’s impossible. Isn’t it? “Tintagel?” I ask with a high-pitched squeak.
“Got it in two,” Sebastian says proudly, then adds to CK, “Man, she is smart.”
“Isn’t she just,” CK says, a dozen emotions pouring out of his eyes and into mine, making me forgive him for his lies. Or omissions, whatever.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Devon snorts from his corner.
“I don’t get it,” Cole says. “Where is that?”
“Cornwall,” Devon answers him. “The supposed birthplace of King Arthur.”
“Not supposed,” Sebastian says.
“What?” Cole says. “That’s just a load of crap.”
“You are saying that my sister’s whereabouts is a load of crap?” CK says calmly. Tones can be deceiving, though. He is flaming mad.
I step in to diffuse this situation. “Cole, baby, after everything you’ve seen and done, isn’t it possible?”
“I suppose,” he concedes. “Yesterday I would have said the same if you told me I was a half Demon.”
Oddly he looks to Xane for confirmation he got the terminology right and to my utmost surprise Xane shakes his head. “Half Dragon twice removed,” he says.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” I mutter as Cole goes pale. “Moving on. You say she lives in a small village in Cornwall? Seems an odd place.”
“Not quite,” Sebastian says and smirks at me and now I don’t feel quite so smart.
“Rosalina lives in a different plane that you can only reach via a portal that is situated…”
“At Tintagel Castle ruins?” I say, interrupting CK, desperate to get my smarts back.
“Yes,” he says with an indulgent smile.
�
�I’m in!” I say enthusiastically, clapping my hands. Christ, to meet a part of CK’s family is like being handed everything I ever wanted. Oh, I see now why CK is so pissed off with Sebastian. He did just give me what I always wanted. Jerk.
“Back to the present,” Lincoln says. “All that is in the future. You aren’t due your, you know, for a few weeks. I need you now,” he states firmly.
“So do I,” Xane says and Cade slurs something similar before he zones back out again.
“Okay,” I say. “Let me get showered and changed and feed Cade, and then Linc, we’ll go to L.A. I hope it isn’t as bad as last time?”
“No, everyone is well aware of your absence and the reason why. They aren’t happy, but you’re back now. Oh, and not L.A., next door.” He juts his thumb out.
“You moved them to the Underworld?” I ask. “Why?”
“We needed to close ranks, Aefre. It was quite serious. Your long absence, while accepted under the circumstances, made everyone a bit tetchy,” CK says.
“How tetchy?” I ask with dread.
“Nothing I couldn’t handle,” Xane says, holding out his hand for me. “I think as your husband, I take precedence over the Wolf.”
Ah shit. That’s something that hadn’t really been dealt with. Yes, we had a fight over it in the kitchen, but then Cade came in with the news about Devon and then I was taken away. As a whole, we didn’t discuss my role and responsibility to Xane.
I expect the tension to go up more than several notches as I scramble to come up with a suitable response, but there is only a slight peak and then it dissolves. Curious. “Give me the rest of today with CK and Cole, Xane, I will come to you tomorrow morning and Lincoln, tomorrow afternoon,” I say and wait for the inevitable backlash.
“Done,” Xane and Lincoln say in unison and I wonder how that was so easy. I had meant it only as a starting point for a big negotiation. It is past time I find out about the last six and a half months.
“And me?” Sebastian asks. “When do I get to see you?”
“You don’t,” CK growls at him. “You keep your Light Fae mitts away from her.”
“No can do,” Sebastian says jovially. “My Light Fae mitts have to unite with her Dark Fae ones ASAP so that I can come home.”
That was a conversation I was hoping to have at a later date. I am almost certain I have chosen the Faeries over the Dragons after this whole debacle, but I need to tell my husband’s first, followed by my father who is probably the only one who can protect me from my mother’s undeniable wrath. Who said being a Queen was easy? I sigh and give Lincoln a kiss as he leans down to cuddle me. He is distant and that worries me. Did Chrissy manage to get her claws in him while I was gone and all but boot me out of the door?
“No,” he says out loud to me and turns away and leaves. Now I am worried.
Xane, on the other hand, is overly affectionate, which is also odd. He is usually aloof in the presence of the others, but I guess he is taking our marriage more seriously than I am.
“I have much to prepare,” he says. “We have until morning to prepare the biggest homecoming since, well, nobody. You are it.”
I chuckle at his enthusiasm and welcome his lightheartedness after Lincoln’s stern presence and even sterner exit. “I look forward to it. But no Xanthe. I am still furious with her.”
“Makes two of us,” he says. “If I had known.” He shakes his head. “I never would have let her do what she did.”
“I’m still not sure what it was she did, but if you find out let me know,” I say to him.
“Of course,” he says and kisses my hand before he Astraports out. That leaves Cade to deal with. I turn to him, still half snoozing on my lap. Every time I moved away, he followed me. “I should feed Cade,” I say, indicating him. Expecting a bit of privacy, more for Cade’s sake than mine, I huff at them as they stand there watching me. I touch his shoulder, Astralling him into the next room. I assume this isn’t occupied by anyone else, as they all seemed to be living in my room. He wakes up on the bed, startled out of slumber by the mode of transport.
“Christ,” he says. “A bit of warning next time.”
“Sorry, they wouldn’t leave so we left instead,” I explain.
“Why?” he asks suspiciously as I pull on the neckline of my top to give him access to my throat. Wrist just isn’t going to cut it today.
He hesitates, but I can see his fangs drop ever so slowly. He is staring at my jugular and in the next instant he has dragged me onto his lap and is gripping my upper arms as he sinks his teeth into me. He is weak and sluggish in his pull, but as my blood starts to course though him it picks him up and he bites harder. Both hurt. For some reason, I am feeling overly sensitive about this today. Must be all the trauma from Remiel’s claws. I go woozy as he finally pulls back, and he flops back to the bed. I just want to flop on top of him, but that would likely end up with him throwing me to the floor, so I flop next to him as I regain my strength.
“Thanks,” he says gruffly.
“Feel better?” I ask.
“A bit. Enough to take a shower,” he says, sitting up.
I also sit up and he gets the wrong idea as he growls, “Alone,” at me.
I hold my hands up. “I know. Relax.” Even though his body is straining to get to me, his will is strong, and he refuses to give in. Most of me is glad. There would be too much explaining to do, and it would change our relationship to something weird. My sire self, though, is a little insulted. He is probably the only man that I can think of, right now at least, who doesn’t want me. I don’t think he even finds me attractive. All his feelings are lusty Vampire ones. I sigh, wondering why I care so much and climb off the bed. “I’ll be back later to feed you again. In the meantime, try a little human blood, it will work wonders.”
“No,” he says determinedly. “If I didn’t drink while you were gone, why would I when you’ve returned?”
“Fair enough,” I murmur as I watch him stagger slowly to the bathroom and slam the door closed. I smile as I hear the lock click into place and decide not to torment him further and leave. I have some serious quality time to make up for with my husbands. I push open the door and hope that Devon has slunk off. I’m not ready to deal with him yet. It’s still too raw and painful and now this whole Laurentis connection thing is too much. I muse that we never did resolve CK’s paternity and I shiver when I think of Fraser as well. Was he also a part of this?
Cole and CK are waiting for me impatiently. Sebastian has left and so have Devon and Jess. It’s awkward and they are both looking at me like they want to eat me. Well, there’s only one way to deal with that. I strip off and in a matter of seconds, I am flat on my back on the bed with Cole feeding from my neck and CK feeding from my femoral artery. They are draining me to the point of dry, but as I don’t die, my regeneration survival eventually kicks in and I can feel my blood topping itself up, just to be slurped away again. It is the most disconcerting feeling, but soon they are both satisfied. After much fuss and bother, as I refuse to comment about the still visible claw scars across my stomach, CK offers me his own neck and I dive on him as quickly as he dove on me. He holds me tight against him and he is purring like a panther as I suckle from him. I run my hands down him and he is soon as naked as I am, and we scramble to get closer to each other. Cole is at my back almost instantly and I can feel his cool lips place kisses all the way down my spine. I push CK back to the bed, needing him, both of them, now, and I mumble, “Together.”
They both pause for a microsecond and then groan out loud as they get my meaning. We have never done this. In fact, I have only ever done this in Empress Aefre’s body (not that I can ever tell anyone that, of course). CK pulls me down, squashing my breasts against him as Cole grabs my backside and lifts me a little bit higher. CK doesn’t wait for further instruction. He is inside me with a swift stroke and Cole doesn’t hesitate for a moment either. I thought he would. I didn’t think he would be up for something quite so intimate. I ha
ve no doubt that CK has done this on more than one occasion, but I smash that thought as I don’t want to think about with whom he has done it. I stop thinking then and just feel. I feel everything. Every stroke from each of them. Every touch, every kiss. They are in perfect sync with one another and it is driving me over the edge. I cry out as the first wave hits me. I know it is going to be a tsunami of decadence and I want to feel every second of it.
Chapter 7
The Underworld, March 2014 – Jess
Jess brushes her hair roughly, thoroughly pissed off to have that bitch back already. She had hoped Liv wouldn’t return at all but knew that was a long shot. Her claws are so far into all of her men, it’s no surprise she came back. She yanks the brush through her hair one last time and throws it onto the dresser. She can already see the change in Devon, and Liv has only been back five minutes. He has gone back to being brooding and moody and this whole half-Demon thing hasn’t helped either now that it appears, he is Cole’s half-brother. God, what a mess. That woman sure knows how to fuck things up.
“Baby,” she says as she sidles up behind Devon and puts her arms around him. “Come to bed.”
“No,” he says. “I’m not in the mood.”
She steps back. That is a slap in the face. He has always been in the mood since his sire has been gone. “Have I done something to upset you?” she asks. She knows it isn’t her, but if he thinks she is upset, he will come around. She hopes.
He turns to her and she doesn’t like the look of desperation in his eyes. “No, it isn’t you,” he says. “She thinks she’s only been gone for five days.”
Jess tries not to make a noise of anger. If he devoted even half of his time to her as he does to his ungrateful sire, she would be the happiest woman in the world. “But to you it’s six and a half months,” she says. “Dev, she will get over it.”
“She won’t. The way she looked at me…it’s still so real for her,” he says mournfully.
Jess wants to say, “well, screw her then,” but it won’t get her anywhere but on the receiving end of a punishment probably.