by Eve Newton
“You want like a pre-nup? I assure you I don’t want you for your money,” he smirks at me patronizingly.
I scowl at him. “I suppose, but it has to do with everything, not just money, Constantine. I have conditions. I am sure you do as well. But this is all irrelevant. We are talking about an unknown date in the very long future. Now, please let me go and speak to Nico.”
He reluctantly lets me go. I grab my robe, which has now been freshly laundered, thankfully. To my crushing disappointment, I check the pocket to find that the ring is gone.
“Put some clothes on,” he growls, distracting me from my pain.
“No, this is fine, thank you,” I say brusquely to mask it.
“I said put some clothes on.”
“Fine!” I snarl at him, my temper firing up. I stomp over to the closet. Pulling out the first thing that I see, I pull it over my head. I find in glee that it is the shortest, tightest black mini dress known to man, with no back and a ‘V’ slashed to my navel. Oh, I’m going to have to thank Marguerite for this.
Should have stuck with the robe, old man, I think in delight as a blaze lights up in his eyes and not in a good way. I beat a hasty retreat just to be on the safe side, in my bare feet. I don’t know what it is about this place that makes me forget about shoes.
Descending the stairs, I halt at the bottom. Trying out this mental map thing again, I close my eyes and concentrate. In my mind's eye, I can see the map layout of the castle and the various people scattered around, there’s more than I thought. CK must have asked them to stay out of the way. I find Nico in a room that is at the end of this main corridor. Before I let go of my mental map, I try to extend the perimeter to include the dungeons but all I get is a blank. Wards. Well, D’Arcangelo, what are you protecting if not Pets down there? I let it go and stalk over to the door behind which I will find Nico.
Not bothering to knock, I just open the door to find it is an office. A rather nice one. I think it used to be some sort of storage room back in the day, but clearly renovations have been conducted as well as reconstruction.
Nico looks up from his desk as I walk in unannounced. He doesn’t look surprised to see me.
“Liv,” he says.
“Nico. Is now a good time to talk?”
“Of course. What can I help you with?”
I sit and prop my feet up on the desk, flashing off most of my legs, along with all the other bits this dress is not covering. Nico’s eyes quickly sweep over me, but return to my gaze, shutters down. Geez. What’s it going to take?
I launch into the story of Cole’s mother, their history and the sudden contact after eleven years.
“So, you think she’s come looking for a payout?”
“Makes sense. Look, I know this is probably really weird for you. Parental issues are non-existent for us, but could you just take care of it?”
“How?” he asks warily at my brusque tone.
“In whatever way it is you would take care of it,” I say. I’m not here to do his job for him. “Look, last time I had parental issues to deal with, I killed them. I’m not exactly able to do that this time. Just sort it so we don’t hear from her again, please.”
He looks slightly disturbed by my admission, but so what. He knows what I am.
“Okay, I will sort it.”
“Thank you. And there’s one more thing. Although if you wouldn’t mind keeping it to yourself?” I ask sweetly.
He sighs at me. “Liv. Don’t ask me to keep secrets. Not any more secrets, anyway.”
“Please, Nico, as a favor. I just need you to find someone for me.”
“Who?” he asks suspiciously.
“Well, if I knew that I wouldn’t need you, would I?”
“Less of the attitude would be appreciated, seeing as I am doing you a favor,” he growls at me.
My eyes open wide at his boldness.
“And this makes two now,” he adds for clarification.
“Keeping score? Is that wise?” I hiss, standing up and leaning over his desk, mostly to get in his face but also to flash him my tits. I will get this man to look at me for more than a second if it kills me. It probably will, actually, if CK knew what I was doing.
He stands and pulls himself up to his full six feet four inches, causing me in my bare feet to tilt my head right back to continue glaring at him. Most undignified.
“Fine,” I concede, knowing which battles to pick. Not that I fear him, but he does know things I don’t want him blabbing to his boss about. I sit and return my feet to his desk.
He sits as well and says, “Go ahead,” as if nothing just happened.
“I need you to find a man for me. He was in the hotel with us in Milan last week and I bumped into him again at JFK. He said he lives in New York. Said to call him Cade. I owe him a debt,” I add as unnecessary information.
Nico has gone still, looking worried. “What else? What does he look like?”
“Tall, six feet two inches, I’d say. Human, early forties, I guess. Dark brown hair and gray eyes. Impeccably dressed, definitely money, wears a Rolex on his right wrist, he’s left-handed and he has a ring on his middle finger. It has some weird crest on it. An eagle with a sword. His manner is very off-putting. Rude, but in a polite way. It’s infuriating.”
Nico is now staring at me. Oops, was that too much information? I smile and shrug. “Photographic memory,” I tap my head. “You asked.”
“Indeed,” he murmurs.
“Do you know him?” I ask, suspicious of his change in manner.
“I will look into it,” he says shortly. I know I couldn’t get more out of him if I tried.
CK walks in then looking like he is about to blow a gasket at my indecent dress coupled with my sexy, casual pose.
“I trust you are finished in here.” It’s not a question.
“Yes, sir,” Nico replies.
I slowly remove my feet from his desk and stand. I take CK’s hand by way of placating him for the dress, although technically that wasn’t my fault – exactly.
“Good. Liv. I don’t have much time left with you. Get back upstairs,” he orders me using ‘Liv’ to show his indifference to me.
My eyes blaze into his but I can’t win with him, so I stalk out of the room. He doesn’t follow, but turns to the door and closes it, shutting me out.
I use my Vampire eavesdropping abilities, but I can hardly hear anything. Must be that expensive magick again. I turn to go back upstairs, but then decide to try out my own pretty kick ass magick. Standing just outside of CK’s sensing range, I close my eyes again to concentrate. I focus on my hearing senses and then try to push out just a bit more. It’s working, I think excitedly, I can hear them… just barely.
“…Cade,” I hear Nico say.
“What?” CK snaps. “When, where?”
“She said he was at the hotel in Milan. Then she ran into him again at JFK. Said she owed him a debt,” he says warily.
“What kind of debt?”
Oh, me and my big mouth, it’s just a coffee for fuck's sake.
“Didn’t say. The way she ran it down, I’m sure it’s him.”
“Yes, I’m sure she managed to give it to you in great detail,” CK says wryly.
Hey, I think, affronted. Don’t blame me for my eye for detail and incredible memory.
“Find him and make sure he doesn’t come anywhere near her, or any of us for that matter,” CK orders.
“On it, boss,” replies Nico.
I hightail it with extra Vampire in my speed back upstairs.
CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE
I ’m lounging innocently on the bed when CK makes his reappearance, to my surprise, with a surprised looking Devon. Smiling, I jump up and pull him to me. He returns my hug fiercely.
CK pulls me away from him and places me at Devon’s side. Then, he stands in front of us like the headmaster and we are the naughty students. Oh, fuck, I know where this is going. My stomach drops.
Devon looks at me, “Li
zzie, what’s all this about? Why am I here?”
CK answers for me, “You are here to join us. You may please your sire, but you will not fuck her. Nor will she touch you.”
Devon and I look at each other with matching expressions of surprise and disappointment.
“Do you agree to the rules?” he snaps.
Devon, ever one to spend time with me in any way that he can, nods. “Yes,” he says quickly before CK changes his mind. I’m more reluctant as I know there is more to this than CK’s magnanimity.
“Lizzie?” Devon asks.
“Err, yes,” I say hesitantly.
CK looks pleased, but he knows I know there’s more to this. He pulls me in front of him. Then he turns me to face Devon. “One more thing,” he says conversationally. “Shift!” He barks the order at me and my heart sinks.
There it is.
The Catch.
Dread wells up in me as Devon’s eyes go wide, then harden as he realizes what Constantine wants me to do.
“No,” I say forcefully. “I promised,” I add, pleading now.
CK scoffs. “Please, it’s not like I haven’t been there before.”
Devon scowls at me. “I knew it! Versailles. You told me you didn’t fuck,” he snarls at me.
“We didn’t fuck,” CK answers blandly on my behalf. “We made love for hours and hours,” he adds wickedly.
Oh, now he calls it making love. Arse.
The hurt on Devon’s face is apparent. I know this is what Constantine wanted. Not to hurt Devon, but to hurt me. Devon’s feelings are inconsequential and that pisses me off.
“Don’t do this,” I say to him quietly.
Snaking his arms around me, he whispers in my ear, “I told you I didn’t have to physically hurt you to punish you, my sweet.”
“Punish? Lizzie? What is he talking about, punish you?”
“She is defiant, frustrating, drives me crazy and deserves to be punished,” Constantine repeats my own words to Devon, whose eyes nearly pop out of his head.
“Lizzie?” he asks desperately.
“Constantine,” I whisper, “Don’t do this. I promised him.”
“All the more reason why this works for me. I said I would owe you a new and creative form of punishment. Now, seeing as the conventional ways are no longer acceptable to me, you will do this,” he says quietly, trailing his hand down my arm. “Now Shift!” he snaps, gripping me suddenly.
I flinch.
Devon is in agony as he looks at me. He knows I’m torn between my own sire and my loyalty to him. I know he doesn’t fully understand what is going on here and why should he? This has nothing to do with him. He is just a way for Constantine to get his kicks without disturbing his newfound principles.
“Shift,” Devon whispers to me.
I shake my head. “No.”
“Do as your boy says,” Constantine murmurs, now smug and for just a second, I see the monster and I hate it.
“It’s okay, Lizzie,” Dev says, resigned, knowing he can’t win this. He closes his eyes in pain and it wrenches at me so much, I want to throw up. With a heavy heart, I Shift into Elizabeth.
Constantine steps back from me, feeling the jolt from my own pain. Good. Serves you right.
But, as always, he recovers quickly, pulling me to him. He pushes the thin straps of the dress down my shoulders and drops his fangs. He takes a bite out of me that makes me hiss.
Unable to resist me in this form, Devon steps closer, pulling on the straps even more, so my breasts pop completely free. He rubs his thumbs over my nipples, and I arch my back, pushing myself closer to my boy. He pulls the dress down lower and lower as he drops to his knees in front of me. I step out delicately so as not to disturb CK’s fangs in my neck. He is sucking deliciously slowly. It is driving me wild.
Devon trails his hands back up the inside of my legs. I feel my knees go weak as I go damp. His desire for me is masking his pain. He flicks his fingers over my clit and then into my pussy. With my sire feeding from me and my darling boyfinger-fucking me, it’s too much to bear. My knees buckle as the wave of pleasure bears down on me. I throb around Devon’s fingers with a soft cry.
Constantine tightens his hold on me as he feels me about to drop and releases his bite, slowly, seductively licking over my already healed puncture marks, all the way up to my jaw.
“Oh, Aefre, you taste so sweet when you come,” he whispers.
I melt. I can’t help it. I love him and even though what he is doing to Devon, and to me, is cruel and torturous, I forgive him.
Still in Vampire mode, he plunges his mouth to mine nipping at my lips, his hold on me getting even tighter. I whimper as his claws inadvertently nick my skin.
Devon, never having been on the receiving end of an Initial Vampire’s claws, is mesmerized by the blood seeping out of my cuts that are so slow to heal. He stands up and lowers his mouth to the wounds, lapping at me as they heal. I put my hand up to the back of his head to push him closer to me, but Constantine bats it away.
“Remember the rules.” He disapproves, retracting his fangs and, thankfully, his claws.
Sandwiched between the two now, both the same height, similar in stature, but that is where the similarity ends. I wonder how I could fall in love with two so very different men.
My Power is roaring at me to take them both and defy Constantine’s rules. I know deep down that I could. I’m stronger with this Power, I could take control of this without batting an eye, but it isn’t our way. I won’t turn on my sire even though he has hurt me.
As for Devon, I look into his clear blue eyes, so full of longing and pain that his beautiful Elizabeth is about to get defiled by someone other than him. He accepts it though, in a roundabout way, to help me. To help me please my sire. I will make this up to him somehow, I vow to myself, before Constantine pulls away from me.
“Get on the bed,” he orders.
I do as I’m told, pliant to protect my boy further from his wrath. The happier my sire is, the better this will end up for Devon and that is all that matters now. Pleased with my obedience, he orders Devon to do the same and with a quick glance at me, he does.
Constantine undresses quickly, since he was only in sweats and a vest it is a simple process. “Lie down,” he snaps to Devon, who does so warily. CK climbs on the bed and positions me where he wants me, which is apparently hovering over Devon on my hands and knees, my heavy breasts brushing against his shirt. Unable to keep from touching me, Devon reaches up to tug roughly on my nipples and then takes one in his mouth. I moan. Constantine moves behind me and inserts two fingers into me, rubbing his thumb over my clit.
I’m so aroused right now, I could quite happily stay like this forever, but I crash back down to reality when Constantine whispers harshly to Devon, “Watch while I fuck your sire. I want you to watch her come.” Devon breathes in sharply as I gasp at being impaled from behind with such force it rocks me forward. Bracing myself against the vigorous thrusts, I close my eyes against Devon’s pain.
“Open your eyes, Elizabeth,” Constantine snaps and I should have known. I take my time in doing so. Despite this situation, I feel the pressure start to build. Constantine is rock hard inside me, clearly highly turned on by this, and is pushing against my G-spot with each thrust. Staring into the sad blue eyes of my charge, who is still playing with my nipples, I mouth to him, “I’m sorry,” before I explode in a mind-shattering orgasm. Devon pulls my head down to him and plunges his tongue into my mouth, pushing his tongue urgently against mine as Constantine is ramming his cock into my still throbbing pussy, stoking the dying fires back to life. My Power is roaring in my head now. It’s deafening. Actual screeching and blazes of fire.
Devon pulls away as a current shoots from me to him. I can see my eyes reflected in his: two slits of burning fire. I blink. Still reflected in Devon’s eyes, are two bright green eyes like a cat but turned sideways. I close my eyes and drop my mouth to Devon’s as another wave of ecstasy rushes through me.
My back is burning again, and I’m panting, breathless as I pull away from Devon and brace myself for another blinding orgasm from my sire. Christ, he is bringing the house down with this performance tonight.
“Fuck,” I yell as my whole body feels like it is on fire.
Grabbing a handful of my hair, Constantine pulls me back towards him, lowering us down, not even for a second leaving my body. I’m straddling him now, reverse cowgirl style. He is squeezing my tits as I move against him, taking over the rhythm.
“Devon!” I growl.
He is on his knees in front of me like a shot. I reach out to undo the buttons on his shirt. Constantine pulls my hands away.
Hissing at him, I resume my task. The Power is going all guns blazing now. I think Constantine can feel the enormity of it, as he doesn’t protest further. Shedding Devon of his shirt, I pull him closer and start to work on his pants. Freeing him, I stroke his already enormous cock. He groans at my touch. Pushing him backwards, I lean forward bringing CK with me and insert his cock into my mouth with a moan of delight. Working my tongue up and down him, licking and sucking as Constantine pounds into me from behind.
Devon cries out, “Fuck, Liz!” and comes in my mouth while CK and I come together in an explosion of fire and desire.
I swallow quickly and breathe in deeply. We are all panting like dogs. I have never felt quite so satisfied in all of my long, long life. The Power is resting again now, and I cringe as I’m probably in for a world of trouble for breaking the rules.
“Well, that didn’t go exactly according to plan,” CK says wryly.
I’m so relieved at his tone that I laugh out of sheer nervousness.
“That is some Power you are harboring, my sweet.” He withdraws from me slowly, leaving me wanting so much more. Leaning over for the now ever handy cigarettes, he lights two and hands one to me. Devon takes mine from me. CK hands me his and lights another one with a self-satisfied expression.
“Good for you, was that?” I ask nastily.
He grins at me. “Oh, you have no idea, and I don’t hear you complaining.”