by Eve Newton
Tossing my phone back to me, he says, “You know I’m only teasing. If I had half your brains, we’d be even better off.”
Cole smirks at the ‘we’d’ of that remark but remains silent. Flicking his gaze back to Cole, Devon says, “Get your accountant to send me your files when we get home. I’ll hash out a portfolio for you.”
“Great, thanks.”
Then dinner arrives.
CHAPTER TWENTY
“Who’s the Scotch for?” Cole asks as we stroll through JFK duty free.
“CK,” I say absently, still thinking about the elephant and its unsavory ramifications.
“You know, I think I’m going to need to know a bit more about how to successfully navigate this meeting,” he says meaningfully.
I snap back to the present. “Yes, of course. Anything you want to know, just ask.”
“Well, you said if he senses fear, he’ll pounce? How do I show him I’m not afraid?” he asks quietly.
“Hold his gaze. Don’t flinch and don’t look away unless there’s a reason to. Stand up straight and don’t be defensive,” I instruct.
“Defensive?” he asks.
“Don’t cross your arms. Stay relaxed, but alert,” I clarify. “He can be…no, he is intimidating, don’t let it faze you and don’t let him bait you. And he will try,” I warn.
“How so?” he asks, genuinely riveted to my advice.
“Sires are very territorial, as I’ve mentioned,” I explain. “He won’t perceive you as a threat, but he will see you as taking my attention away from him. He will be possessive of me. Touch me, to make a point. Even kiss me.” I look him dead in the eye. He might as well know what he’s in for. Although, in all fairness, in light of recent events, I fear this meeting is going to tank in the biggest way. I can’t tell Cole why, but I can prepare him the best way I know how.
“Kiss you? As in kiss you?” he asks, a bit annoyed.
“Yes. Don’t let it bother you. It’s just him staking his claim. He’s smug, arrogant, self-assured, shrewd, cold, calculating, and can be a colossal arse.” I huff as I think about my sire’s less-appealing traits. “Don’t back down and don’t lose your temper. He sees both as weaknesses.”
“Gee, he sounds great,” Cole says dryly, but I can see he’s worried.
I smile. “He is, to me. I love him dearly and he loves me. Don’t let my familiarity with him influence you. He tolerates my defiance and behavior because he enjoys the challenge and it amuses him that someone has the nerve to stand up to him. Oh, and don’t, whatever you do, call him ‘CK.’ He likes the moniker, but only from me. Remember all that and you’ll be great.” I smile to soften the seriousness of my words.
He’s pale, so I take his hand. “Don’t worry about it, my love. You will be perfect. And if all else fails, at least it can’t go as badly as when he met Devon,” I joke weakly, knowing that it can. It really, really can. He smiles then, reassured.
“What about Devon?” Devon inquires, joining us at the checkout.
“Liv was instructing me on how best to deal with Constantine at our first meeting,” Cole informs him.
“Ah, well, don’t threaten to hunt him down and kill him and you’ll be golden,” Devon comments and we all chuckle.
O nce back on the G6, the mood is still light, and I am enjoying every second. This stretch of the flight is eight and a half hours, but none of us are ready for sleeping yet. Devon is in great humor after our earlier encounter and is playing music from his iPad. Drinks are flowing and the joking and teasing is in full force. I’m glad to see my darling boy happy again. He has been so sad for a while now, and it has me worried. I push that thought away as he whisks me off my feet with a laugh, twirling me around to the music.
With about five hours to go until we land, Cole decides it's time to crash, not having our Vampire constitution for booze and little sleep. He falls asleep face first on the bed and I sigh. Well, that’s that then. Again.
Shaking my head, I close the door quietly and make my way back to the bottle of champagne and kill it. Devon just stares at me.
“He passed out,” I state unhappily.
He chokes back a laugh. “That’s humans for you,” he smirks.
“Haha, funny. Shut the fuck up and go back to doing whatever it was you were doing,” I wave a hand in his general direction.
“Do you really think he will hold his own with daddy dearest?” Devon asks with more than a trace of sarcasm. I shudder at his choice of words; it brings back far too many painful memories for me.
“Well, he can’t do any worse than you, at least,” I retort.
He grimaces at the memory. “Yeah, that was pretty bad. However, I stand by my conviction. He was threatening you and I was protecting you,” he states.
“Yes, you were, my hero,” I smarm at him while I bat my eyelashes and he grins.
“God, it was so long ago and yet it seems like yesterday,” he says.
“Tell me about it. I remember every second,” I agree.
“You never did tell me what happened after I left,” he asks, suddenly curious.
I pause. “We talked, you know, sorted stuff out…”
“Did you fuck?” he asks coldly, and I glare at him.
“Not that it concerns you, but no, we didn’t fuck.” A lie by omission perhaps, but now isn’t the time to tell him my sire, usually not one to appreciate a blue-eyed brunette, had been with Élisabeth that night, making passionate love for hours on end after so many years apart. I know that he didn’t want me to Shift because of Devon, knowing I was his sire and that it would hurt him and piss him off.
Needing to distract him from this line of questioning, I sit down next to him and lean my head on his shoulder. He grunts and pulls me closer. We sit in silence until exhaustion pulls me under.
I awake a couple of hours later with my head in his lap. He is asleep as well with his fingers in my hair. I untangle myself and stretch. I check the time, it’s an hour to landing. As I stir, Jenna appears with coffee. Smiling gratefully, I accept the cup and stand. Taking another for Cole, I head to the bedroom.
Still flat out, I shake him gently and he wakes with a start. “What?”
I smile at him. “Coffee?” I present him with the cup.
“Yes, please,” he gulps it down. “Fuck. Vampire metabolism obviously not affected by alcohol?”
I smile and shake my head.
He snickers in response. “Lucky you,” he says and downs the rest of the coffee. “Food?”
“Follow me,” I say, and he does, slowly.
A fter a hearty breakfast, Cole is feeling better. I leave him and Devon to banter while I shower and change.
I carefully selected my arriving outfit: a crisp Chanel strapless dress in black. It’s tight fitting, with a drop to the knee and a matching knee length jacket, and just because I’m still me, my spiked black Louboutins. Smart and casual, yet elegant, with a touch of pizzazz. Pleased with the result, I tuck a last strand of hair into my high, deliberately messy bun and head to the Main Cabin. They both turn and look at me appreciatively and I glow under their admiring stares. “Both of you, get moving,” I clap my hands. “Not landing with you two looking like that.” I gesture in their general unkempt direction.
Cole leaps up first to shower and change. I picked out a navy Armani suit for him with a crisp white shirt to wear with no tie. Devon will no doubt be in his usual black pinstripe, albeit tieless today. Monte Carlo arrival is smart casual, emphasis on the money.
“Help me with my necklace?” I ask Devon.
He jumps up and follows me back to the bedroom. Taking the jewels from the case, I hand him an emerald and diamond necklace. He takes it from me and clasps it around my neck.
Fingering the four-carat emerald dangling near my cleavage, he murmurs, “Matches your beautiful eyes.” I raise an eyebrow at this very rare compliment to my natural form. I bend to retrieve the earrings from the case – two perfect three-carat drop emeralds – and poke
them into place. Literally. Permanently pierced ears on Vampires are a no-go as we heal, but if the earrings are already in place it stops the healing process until they are removed. Flinching slightly at the pinch, I finish the task and then spin and ask, “Well?”
“Beautiful,” is the reply as Cole reappears after his shower. He whistles and moves to kiss me.
“You look amazing,” he whispers.
Devon backs off and heads to the shower as I pull out the diamond and emerald tennis bracelet to complete the look.
“Holy crap,” Cole says as I fasten it to my right wrist.
I glance up. “What?” I ask, surprised.
“You. All that jewelry,” he gestures.
I smile serenely. “This is nothing, wait until it’s tiara Sunday,” I joke, but he remains serious. Narrowing my eyes at him as he turns to dress, I watch him, enjoying taking in his every move. Conscious of my gaze, he eventually turns to me with a cryptic smile. I raise an eyebrow at his look, and he cocks his back.
“Like what you see?” he asks seductively.
I breathe in deeply. “Oh, yes,” I reply.
He reaches into his jacket pocket and pulls out a small pale blue box. My breath catches and I take a step back.
“You need one more,” he says as he drops to his knees in front of me and opens the box. Inside is a perfect circular five-carat black diamond ring with three quarter-carat clear diamonds on either side in a platinum setting.
“Marry me,” he says simply.
My brain fights to keep up as I stare at him.
“What?” I ask in horror.
“Marry me,” he repeats. “I love you and I don’t want to be without you, Liv. Please say ‘yes.””
I inhale deeply and try to quickly process this. Marriage is one thing; him growing old and dying while I continue to get stronger is something else entirely.
“Cole…I…” I falter.
He knows the root of my hesitation and looks me straight in the eye. “I don’t want to ever be without you, Liv. My answer is ‘yes,’ if yours is.”
“How do you know what my question is?” I ask stupidly.
He laughs quietly. “It’s been the elephant in the room for a few weeks now. I know I can't be with you unless you turn me, and my answer is ‘yes.’”
“What?” I say again, sounding like a complete imbecile. I can’t turn him. Not now, not after this prophecy nonsense. I can’t risk it coming true, or worse, Gregor and Eloise finding out and killing me before I can do it. Or even worse, they kill Cole before I can get to him. That thought turns me cold inside. I just stare at him.
Dropping to my knees in front of him, I clasp his hands in mine, searching his eyes. “Do you know what you are asking for?”
He nods slowly. “I do,” he says, firmly.
“Really, truly, no going back? This is what you want?” I press.
“Yes,” he says with conviction.
“Are you sure?” I insist, trying to put him off. I haven’t sired anyone in five hundred and six years, and I’m reluctant to start again now in case CK is right. Oh, and Devon is going to be pissed beyond belief.
He nods again. “Positive. I want to make history with you, Liv.”
“Are you sure you know what you are giving up? Your family, your friends, they can never know,” I say.
“I don’t have any family that counts, except you. You are my family now. You are all that matters to me. Marry me, turn me. All I want is you,” he says.
Inwardly, I am melting at his words, it is everything I ever wanted to hear, but reality is a vicious bitch. I want to say ‘yes’ in the worst way. I want to be with him, I don’t want this Council thing to ruin what is the best thing that has happened to me in a really long time. Since being turned, I have been married exactly once in one thousand years, to Fraser, who didn’t want me to turn him. With the exception of Constantine, who never asked, and Devon, who asked, but then that plan went to Hell in a handbasket, I have never wanted anyone that much before, or since, that I would even consider marrying. Cole is different. He is special. I love him completely, I want him, I want to be with him forever.
“If you mean what you say…” I fold like a cheap suit.
“I do, Liv. I do.” He kisses me. “Never have I wanted anyone as much as I want you. If that comes with a price? I will willingly pay.”
“A price?” I ask, feeling like someone has just chucked a bucket of cold water over me.
He nods. “Yes, a price. I will renounce my life for you. I will become what you are, so I can love you forever.”
I falter at his words. He is saying everything I want to hear.
“Please say ‘yes,’” he whispers.
“Yes,” I whisper back and, elated, he pulls me to him, kissing me. He slips the ring on my finger. I grip his hand in mine. Overwhelmed with happiness, and fear that I am making a massive mistake, I ignore all thoughts of Constantine’s warning and I just fall into the moment.
Cole and I are still on our knees kissing when Devon saunters back in. “Oh, don’t mind me,” he says sarcastically.
Pulling away from each other, Cole and I are grinning like teenagers as we stand up, hand in hand, turning to face Devon. Knowing I’m going to have to tell him now, I say to Cole, “Can you give us a moment, please?” Cole nods his understanding and kisses me quickly, squeezing my hand and leaving us alone.
Devon is eyeing me suspiciously. “What’s going on?” he asks.
“Devon, sit, please.” I sit on the bed and pat the spot next to me, his eyes never leaving my face as he walks slowly over.
“He asked you, didn’t he,” he says flatly, a statement, not a question. His blue eyes fill with sorrow as they flick to the ring on my finger. “I see,” he says softly.
“Devon, I…”
He interrupts me. “Liv, it’s okay, I knew it was coming. I’ve known for years, centuries even, that this day would come. I knew it would be with him the second I saw you look at him.” He sits down heavily and takes my hand. Tears well up in my eyes at his words. I want to tell him about the prophecy, but CK said to keep it quiet. Instead, I say, “I want to keep it quiet. I don’t want anyone getting wind of this until after it’s done.”
He frowns and says, “Yeah, I understand. Do it right this time, eh? No murders, accidental or otherwise, to fuck it up. Get to Holy ground and do it right. I will help you.”
Oh, my darling boy. “I love you, you know,” I say tearfully, and he turns to face me.
“I know,” he says simply and gets up to get dressed as I walk over to the door.
“This doesn’t change anything between me and you,” I say, pausing with my hand on the door handle, casting a sideways glance at him.
He pauses briefly midway through putting his shirt on. “Meaning?” He turns to look at me
“Meaning, it doesn’t change anything between me and you,” I repeat pointedly.
He silently nods his understanding and resumes getting dressed.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Exiting the bedroom, I take a moment to steady myself. That went better than I could have hoped for. I know Devon won’t say anything as I have asked him not to. He wouldn’t betray my confidence. I just hope that we can keep a lid on it. However, I now have the added problem of my sire needing to know the details. If anyone can protect me, it’s him, should I need it, which I sincerely hope that I don’t. I also sincerely hope that he isn’t the one I need protecting from. I don’t foresee a very pleasant afternoon on the horizon for any of us. Calming myself and putting on my game face to cover my dread, I head back to the Main Cabin. Cole is seated at the table fiddling with a drink. He looks up as I sit next to him and he slides the Bourbon over to me. “Thought you might need this.” I smile my thanks and down it in one gulp, slamming the glass heavily to the table, my charm bracelet also hitting the deck with a loud thunk. “Everything okay?”
“Funnily enough, yes,” I say, still surprised at how okay. “More t
han okay, accepting even.” Cole looks relieved. “One down, a bigger one to go,” he says. “If he tries to kill me, I give you my blessing to turn me on the spot.” He jokes, but I can sense his nerves and I gulp.
“He’d better not try to kill you. When I turn you, it will be by choice,” I say wryly, cottoning on to the idea that the prophecy said a ‘Holy Union’. If I don’t do it on Holy ground, then we should be left alone.
“On Holy ground?” Cole asks. “To bind us together, forever?” he asks.
Startled, I look at him. “Yes. How did you know about that?” I ask him.
“Devon’s story. You were supposed to do that with him,” he says without a hint of jealousy, which surprises me.
Oh, shit!
“Of course. Yes, well that didn’t end very well. I hope it’s different with you.” Meaning no murders, no Holy ground, just a plain old, garden variety turning.
He leans forward to kiss me softly. “Me too. I don’t fancy missing the race because I’m too busy turning into a Vampire.”
I giggle despite myself and we both relax a bit as Devon joins us. He sits opposite Cole and stares at him for a long time.
Cole stares back.
Finally, Devon speaks, “I guess I should welcome you to the family, but instead I’m going to warn you that if you hurt her in any way whatsoever, I will hunt you down and rip your head off.”
Cole looks alarmed.
“Try to look less startled when Constantine says it to you. He’s big on ripping people’s heads off,” Devon says while grinning.
Cole chuckles. “Will do,” he says in relief.
“Seriously though. I’m happy that Liv is happy. It’s been a long time and she deserves it. Take care of her.”
They both look at me and Cole takes my hand. “I intend to,” he says.
We land shortly thereafter in France and catch the helicopter into Monte Carlo. From there, a limo takes us to the hotel. The press is out in their droves snapping away, looking for the money shot. I have asked Cole to hold off announcing our engagement until I have told CK. It would be far, far worse should he (and the rest of The Council) find out via the press. I have taken off the emerald necklace and replaced it with the long, dangling gold chain that I had on earlier, which I popped the engagement ring onto. It is now nestled between my breasts, under my dress, where it can’t be seen. I was reluctant to take it off, but it had to be done.