by Eve Newton
“I chose you,” he says.
“And I am choosing to let you go. For your own good and the good of the Pack,” she replies.
“No!” he shouts, losing his temper. He is getting nowhere with her with her sire standing right next to her. “I need to talk to you on your own. Please, Liv. You owe me that.”
She starts to falter, but Constantine catches her eyes and her face hardens again. “It’s over, Lincoln. Please go now,” she says.
“Liv, please,” he begs her now, but she shakes her head.
“I can’t do this,” she suddenly cries and Astrals out of the library.
He tries to reach her with their Telepathic connection, but she has shut him out completely. He doesn’t know where she went.
“Please go and find her,” he says to Constantine who is now glaring at him in open hatred.
“No,” he says. “She has made herself perfectly clear.”
“Look, I know you hate me,” Lincoln snaps at him. “I know you blame me for all those months you lost with her, but I am asking you to please find her and let me talk to her alone.” It’s fruitless, but he must try.
“No,” Constantine says again and Lincoln advances on him before he thinks better about it.
“You don’t know where she is, do you?” he asks slyly, having cottoned on.
Constantine narrows his eyes but doesn’t say anything.
“So where does that mean she has gone? To her father’s?” he asks.
“Unlikely,” Constantine says after a few moments. “More likely further into Hell. She has had a traumatic few days, not the least of which has just happened in the last hour or so.”
Lincoln nods. He will leave her be then and come back to her tomorrow. He turns to leave when Constantine stops him with a hand on his arm.
“Don’t come back. She doesn’t want to see you. It’s over between you two,” he says.
“I will be back to reclaim her, you can count on that,” Lincoln says and pulls his arm out of Constantine’s grip.
“No, you won’t. I won’t allow it,” a voice from the library door says and they both turn to look at the speaker.
Sebastian.
“You can’t stop me,” Lincoln sneers. “You are nothing to her but a way to please her father.”
“Oh yes, I can,” Sebastian says, ignoring the barb. “She is my wife and she will soon bear my child, if she isn’t pregnant already,” Sebastian says.
“With my child,” Constantine growls at him and they glower at each other while Lincoln just stands there at a loss.
Liv was right. So much has happened in the last day or so since she left him. It seems she has married Sebastian and is possibly pregnant with his or her sire’s child. His heart sinks as he knows he is fighting a losing battle, but he has keep fighting because to be without her…well he might as well be dead.
Sebastian looks back at him and crosses his arms. “She was destined to be mine eons ago. Before she was even born.” He looks to Constantine and adds, “Before she was turned. You are nothing in the bigger picture. Without you, she would still have been mine.”
“You are wrong!” Constantine yells. “Without me, she wouldn’t have lived long enough to be anybody’s. Three Worlds, Sebastian, and the same thing happened again and again. I met her and I turned her. I am the original one and this time we will get this right.”
Sebastian just shrugs as if that means nothing to him. “She was destined as my Faerie mate, so it would have happened without you. In fact, there is probably another World out there where we have been together all this time. None of you will win her. She is mine.”
“Wrong,” Constantine says in a tone that is deathly quiet. “She will choose me in the end.”
Lincoln remains quiet as he watches this standoff between the two of them. Devon joins them after a few silent moments and takes in the scenario in front of him with a raised eyebrow followed by a sigh.
“I wish you would all stop fighting over her,” he grumbles. “Can’t you see what it’s doing to her?”
“You would fight too if you thought you had a chance,” Lincoln says. He didn’t mean it to hurt his friend, but it’s the truth. Devon gives him such a death stare; it makes him think that maybe Devon does have a chance with her, and he knows it.
“None of you have a chance,” Sebastian says again. “Aeval and I are married, and we will be joining her father in the Fae Kingdoms as soon as our child is born.”
Aeval? Lincoln grasps onto the only thing left he can fight with. “You call her Aeval. When she Shifts, she becomes someone else. She will resent you for that eventually and she will want to Shift back.”
“It’s true,” Devon says woefully. “I know that better than most.”
“It doesn’t matter to me who she is,” Sebastian says. “I see past the Shifts. I don’t see Aefre or Aeval or Elizabeth. I just see her. My essence sees hers as she sees mine and we are in love, bound. I would sacrifice everything for her as she would for me.”
Devon sets his mouth into a tight line and looks at Constantine. “Are you just going to stand there and let him say these things?”
Good question. Lincoln also turns to look at Constantine expectantly, at the same time wondering how Devon has the balls to cause so much trouble with so few words.
Constantine takes in a deep breath and smiles. A self-confident, satisfied, smug smile that only he can achieve. “He can say whatever he likes,” he says. “Aefre and I have already spoken, and I know she will choose me.”
So, where does that leave me? Lincoln knows he doesn’t stand a chance now. She has already given up on him and these two seem confident in their words. Both want her and neither one is going to give up. It leaves him only once choice. He has to give up. If it was meant to be, she will come back to him, but in the meantime, there is only one thing he can do. He looks to Devon as the only person he can trust in the room and says quietly. “Please tell Liv I need to speak to her as soon as she gets back. Tell her I get it, but I need to see her.”
Devon nods stoically and Lincoln slopes off back outside, devastated, but he knows he must move on now. He can’t leave his Pack in limbo anymore. He is an Alpha and he has to start acting like one. He has lost his one true love, but that doesn’t mean life doesn’t go on.
He squares his shoulders and shoves the door to his house open. He doesn’t have far to go until he sees Chrissy waiting for him in the sitting room. She is pacing and looking anxious. She stops when she sees him and she must see the resolve on his face, as she smiles and comes closer to him. She opens her mouth to say something, but he doesn’t want to talk. He just wants to do this and then it’s over. He grabs her and spins her around, pulling her hair over her shoulder. He does a partial Shift, letting loose his sharp teeth and claws. He lowers his mouth to her neck and bites down swiftly. She gasps and brings his wrist up to her mouth. She sinks her own teeth into the soft skin and with the exchange of blood they are Paired. He can feel it. He wasn’t sure what would happen as Liv is still very much alive, but maybe she is right. She isn’t really one of them. She is no longer in his head. The space that used to house their Telepathic connection is gone. He releases his new Alpha mate and she turns around to face him. She keeps her mouth shut as she takes her top off and throws it onto the floor. He rakes his eyes down her body, needing a release for all these feelings coursing through him. He goes hard as she strips off her pants and he reaches for her, but she steps back. She Shifts to her Wolf form and he lets out a howl. She knows exactly what he needs. He strips off his own clothes and with another howl that reverberates through the house, he Shifts to his true form to take his new Alpha mate as nature intended.
Chapter 18
The Underworld, March 2014 – Cade
Cade showers again. It is the sixth time he has done this since he disgraced himself and he can’t seem to get himself clean. His soul, no, that’s not what he has anymore, his essence–that’s what they call it, is smudged. He di
d the one thing he vowed he would never do and that is touch her in that way. He wishes that he hadn’t, and he knows he will never do it again. He has no idea how he will face her again after what he did. He used her. Used her. All to make himself feel better.
And he does.
He feels a hundred times better than he did before he took her, but there is no way he will do it again. He somehow has to find a way to keep getting stronger without going near her again. He doesn’t even think he can feed from her again. His stomach goes queasy as he thinks about it. He closes his eyes as the only solution comes to mind. He has to start feeding on human blood. It is the only other option. He doesn’t want to, but he wants to feed from her even less. With that decision made, he gets dressed and peeks out into the corridor. He doesn’t want to run into anyone on his way down to the kitchen. They will probably see the guilt and revulsion on his face and he just doesn’t want to have to explain to anyone why he is suddenly embarking on a human blood hunt after he has refused it, even when he was at death’s door. He won’t bite anyone. He doesn’t want a Feeder, but he knows there are blood bottles stored in the kitchen refrigerator and he will go and get one of those and then drink it in the privacy of his bedroom, where he can throw it up if he has to until he gets used to it. He makes it to the kitchen without incident. The house is deathly quiet. He thought there would be more activity after the almighty rumblings that happened earlier. He stayed out of it as it surely had nothing to do with him, and he doesn’t even want to know what drama that woman has caused this time. She is the world’s biggest troublemaker and not for the first time he wishes he had stayed away. Life would be so much easier on the other side. Sure, he would probably have been taken out by the über Vamp Hunter-hunters that belong to Constantine, and are run efficiently and effectively by Nico, but he sometimes thinks he would prefer that over this life he has ended up with. He was quite happy to be Liv’s go-to guy. He had a good thing going. He loved his work but being turned has just blown it all to crap. Not the least because he has been flat on his back for most of the time due to his sire’s absence. He’d always thought that was a load of shit. A myth taught to newbie Vamps so that they stayed close where their sire could keep a watchful eye on them. But oh, no, it’s no myth. Too bad he had to find out firsthand.
He reaches into the refrigerator and grabs one of the bottles. He knows Liv doses her own up with Scotch and he hopes that the taste of a good 30-year will dull the revulsion. He turns to sneak back upstairs with his booty when Jess comes flying into the kitchen, her face stained with tears and a terrified look on her face.
“Cade,” she shouts as she sees him. “You have to help me.” She grabs his arms and he stumbles slightly under the force of her grip.
“What is it?” he asks, although he really isn’t in the mood for female Vampire dramatics. The guys, while hotheaded, just get on with shit. These birds are something else altogether.
“You have to help me,” she says again, more desperately this time.
“How?” he asks with a frown.
“Devon is going to get rid of me,” she shrieks. “I can’t be without him; I need to be near him. Don’t let him throw me out.”
“What?” he asks, totally confused. “He’s not going to throw you out.”
“He is,” she insists. “I made him so mad.”
“Then tell him you are sorry and kiss and make up,” Cade says, disentangling himself from her grasp.
“It won’t work this time. I betrayed him,” she says, quieter now.
Cade goes pale. Oh, God, please let this have nothing to do with him. “Did you tell him about us?” he asks.
Jess looks up at him, momentarily confused herself. “What? This has nothing to do that,” she says to his relief. The last thing he needs is Devon gunning for him for sleeping with his charge. It was a huge mistake and one he doesn’t want coming back to bite him on the ass.
“Then what?” he asks, losing his patience. He wants to go upstairs and drink this blood and see if he can keep it down.
“He knows I was also involved in Liv’s kidnap and coma. Remiel told him and now he wants nothing to do with me. You know what will happen to me if I am forbidden to be near him,” she says.
Cade’s eyebrows skyrocket. He knew she was up to something. He just couldn’t figure out what her game was before he was forced to be bedridden. He had no idea she was also working with Remiel to get to Liv.
“You understand, don’t you?” she begs. “You know why I need to be near him.”
He huffs out his breath and shakes his head. “Jess, I have no sway over what he does. I can’t help you,” he says. He feels bad, but he is the last person Devon will listen to.
“Talk to Liv, please,” she says. “Get her to speak to Devon. If she tells him to forgive me, he will.”
“Jess, I can’t,” Cade says. “If Liv knows you were involved with this, she won’t help you no matter what.”
“She helped you!” she screams at him, grabbing his arms again. “You were way more involved than I was.”
“I’m her charge,” he says simply, and for the first time it really and truly hits him about the complexity of this race he is now a part of. He tried to kill her, and she forgave him because he is hers. He doesn’t know if that makes her stupid or merciful. Although, he finally does see how Devon can be so callous towards Jess. He has no bond with her like Liv does to him, and she has to her sire. It clearly has a massive impact on forgiveness, what with all the secrets and betrayal that have been going on lately.
“Then claim me,” Jess says to him, and he can see the crazy in her eyes. She has gone off the deep end.
“What?” he asks, trying to gauge the catastrophic implications of that suggestion.
“Claim me,” she says more calmly. “Make me yours. If we are together then Devon can’t get rid of me. I can still live here near him.”
“Uh, no,” Cade says, backing away from her, holding his hands up. “That’s not going to happen.”
She drops to her knees in front of him and he swallows loudly, feeling really uncomfortable. He wants to get out of here now. He edges around her, and he sees her shoulders droop as she sobs into her hands and he runs away. He feels like the worst person alive for abandoning her, but he has bigger fish to fry. Like the one he has just run into on his escape from the kitchen.
Devon.
“Watch it,” his sibling growls at him.
“Sorry,” Cade pants. He has to tell him what just happened. If he doesn’t and Devon finds out later, he will hate him even more than he does already. “Err…”
Devon crosses his arms and glares at him. “What?” he snaps.
Cade grows a pair and stands up straighter to fix this man that he is so weirdly connected to with a steady stare. “Look, I don’t know what has gone on with you and Jess, but you should know…”
“It’s none of your business,” Devon interrupts him.
“Yeah, I get that. I don’t want any part of this, but you should know…”
“Stay out of it,” Devon interrupts him again and now it is getting on Cade’s nerves.
“Shut the fuck up and let me speak,” he snaps.
Devon raises his eyebrow at him and holds his hands out. “Go ahead. Say what you must then,” he says with false generosity.
Cade crosses his arms now, the blood bottle still firmly attached to his hand. Devon’s eyes take it, and then him, in with interest and then a smirk of the worst kind passes over his face. Cade opens his mouth to speak before Devon can get his wicked forming thought out. “Your charge is in the kitchen. She just propositioned me into claiming her because she fears you are going to abandon her. I’d go and sort that out if I were you before she turns her attentions to someone not quite as easygoing as I am.” He hadn’t meant to sound so judgmental, but he knows that Devon knows something about why he is clutching a bottle of human blood in his hands.
“I beg your pardon?” Devon asks. “She did what?�
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“You heard me,” Cade says.
“That little bitch,” he mutters. “I trust you told her where to go?” Devon asks him with so much menace that if he had agreed to the proposal, he would now have no head.
“Of course,” he says, slightly insulted that Devon thinks he is that stupid.
“Of course,” Devon sneers, mocking him. “How dare I think that you would stoop that low.”
Ah, Hell. The glowering look tells Cade that Devon knows. He knows a whole lot more than Cade had hoped he did. “Just so you know…” he starts, but again Devon is quick to interrupt him.
“I don’t give a crap about Jess. She can do whatever the fuck she wants, but you keep your hands off my sire,” he says.
Cade sighs. This is the whole crux of the problem. Devon hates him because Liv felt like she had no choice but to turn him. “My sire as well,” he says without thinking.
Devon snarls at him and he holds his hands up. “Look, man. I never wanted any part of this. I was happy being human, even a dead one, until Liv butted her nose in where it doesn’t belong.” He thinks he hears Devon mutter “as usual,” but he carries on. “I know you hate me for what I did to her, but she has forgiven me. Are you ever going to?”
“Why should I?” Devon asks. “You came in here and took everything away from me. Even my charge you had to stick your dick into. And don’t even get me started on the Other Liv thing. I don’t owe you anything.”
“I get that you feel that way, but I am not taking anything away from you. I don’t love her; I don’t want her. I never have and I never will. I did what I had to do to get myself strong so that I don’t have to depend on her. This,” he says and brandishes his blood bottle in Devon’s face, “is the next step. One I had hoped to take without the whole house finding out about it. As soon as I am able, I will be out of here. I can assure you of that, but I am done suffering for her mistake. As for Jess, she loves you, man. We were both feeling crappy and it just happened. And the “Other Liv thing” was your doing, not mine. Liv knew you were hiding something, and she asked me to find out what it was.”