by Eve Newton
“Tell me what?” he asks warily.
“She’s dead, James. I killed her. And Gregor,” I add as an afterthought. For the second time in as many minutes, he has me at a disadvantage. I’m pinned beneath him, his hand at my throat, while he bangs my head painfully on the floor. Christ, will I never learn? I grip his shirt front and shove at him, while CK pulls him off me by the scruff of his neck. “I can fight my own battles,” I say to him huffily as I stand up, dusting my jeans off.
He raises an eyebrow at me. “I know. But I’m not taking any chances. Not with you,” he says.
To James, I say, “You can’t win this. Even if I was alone, you can’t win. She’s dead. Deal with it or I will finish you off as well.”
“Why?” he asks in defeat, “Why did you do it?”
“It was part of the plan,” I snarl in loathing. “Plus, I hated her. She has been the bane of my very long existence, if it wasn’t for her, I never would have…” I trail off with a quick look to CK. He doesn’t look best pleased at the reminder of my rash behavior nine hundred years ago.
“I loved her,” James says sadly. “You know that.”
I do know and I feel just a tiny bit sorry for him. If he had been the one and ended Constantine, I would be devastated and probably try to stake myself.
“I know,” I say quietly. “I’m sorry that you are hurting.” I can’t really say any more than that.
Less forgiving than me, CK pushes him to his knees and says, “Now, bow to your Queen before you get the fuck out or I’ll take it upon myself to finish you off.”
He stares up at me in surprise. “Queen? Is that what all this is about? You killed my sire to be Queen?”
“No, I killed her because my mother wanted me to, she was no longer required.”
“No longer required? I required her!” he says in pain.
I soften even more. “CK, let him go.”
He doesn’t question me, and he lets him go.
“I’m sorry,” I say again. He stands up and slinks out without another word.
“We haven’t seen the last of him, you know,” CK warns.
“I know. But I can understand how he feels. If anything ever happened to you…” I turn from him not really wanting to think about that.
“You okay?” I say to Cole, who has been silent, along with Devon, throughout this encounter.
He nods. “Yes, fine.”
“Watch your back. He may try it again,” I say as I pull him to me.
“Don’t leave my side then,” he says quietly with a slight chuckle.
“Ahem.” CK clears his throat in an effort to remind us of his position on that, like we needed reminding. “Now about that other matter, why we are here in the first place?”
“Really? After everything else that has just happened? CK, I need to get back to L.A. Our little trip to the Dragon Realms has lost me yet another couple of days. I have a life to get back to,” I snap. He flinches briefly. I think. It’s hard to tell. I drop like a stone onto the sofa, exhausted, hungry, and dreading getting back on the jet to head back to Italy in a couple of days’ time. Plus, all the work this Queen malarky is going to throw at me.
Making a decision, my first royal decree if you will, I stand and say, “We’re going home to L.A. Now, all of us. All of us.” I repeat the last part to get my point across with a hard glare at CK.
“Aefre, I told you the other day, I am not moving to Los Angeles,” he says.
I all but wither under the glare from Cole. He knows the tide is turning. He is just going to have to get on board with CK being around more. And so is Devon, for that matter.
Ignoring the burning gaze from my irate charges, I turn back to CK. “Yes, you are. I’m not flitting around the world anymore. It’s exhausting and I have a new Council to build. I’m doing it at home. If you want this arrangement to stand you will do as I say.”
The evident fury on my sire’s face at my order, makes me smile inwardly. “Do I need to remind you of the terms of this arrangement, my sweet?” he hisses at me.
“Liv, don’t do this,” Cole begs me quietly.
Devon – who still doesn’t know about the terms – flicks his eyes from me to Cole to CK and back to me.
“Do I need to remind you that you work for me now?” I hiss back. “You will be wherever I say you will be.” Okay, I am actually surprising myself now as well as him as his astounded look lasts longer than his usual fleeting expressions.
He steps closer to me, glaring down his perfectly straight nose. I’m still inches shorter than him even in my heels. “Say that again?”
“I said you work for me now and you will be wherever I want you to be,” I say, not backing down to his, and my own, utter amazement.
“Liv,” Cole says quietly but I ignore him. This is between CK and me.
“Aefre,” he growls. Once again, I get the Old English pronunciation, which warns me he is over the top mad at me. “I am still your sire and you will respect that, or do you need another lesson to remind you?”
“Lizzie.” It’s Devon this time.
I step even closer to him. I glare up at him and say quietly, “I told you what would happen if you tried that again.”
“And I told you what would happen if you threatened me again.”
At an impasse, we just stand there, neither of us backing down, the tension ratcheting up several thousand notches. All four of us are getting even more agitated, yet none of us move.
“I work for you, how?” CK asks me suddenly, catching me completely off guard.
“You’ll be my proxy, of course,” I say, recovering quickly and saying it like it’s obvious.
He raises his eyebrow at me. “I will?”
“Well, I will give it to Devon if you don’t want it.”
His eyes flick to Devon, who probably looks gobsmacked, and back to me. “I accept,” he says as if I offered it to him instead of telling him he had to do it or else.
“And you will move to L.A.?” I push.
“It doesn’t seem like I have much choice, now does it?” he says, his sarcasm evident.
“No, not really,” I say breezily.
His eyes harden even further. “Don’t push it, Aefre. I am still not happy about the changes you are making to our agreement. I haven’t decided what to do about that yet.” I hear Cole suck in his breath as if punched.
I roll my eyes at CK and step back relaxed now.
“Oh, don’t think this is the end of it, my sweet,” he says as he senses my release of tension. “It is far from over.” I nod briefly, understanding that we will ‘talk’ about it without an audience. He releases some of his own tension now that he has put me back in my place. Or so he thinks.
I clap my hands together, pleased to have gotten my own way. “I have the perfect place for you to live,” I say smugly. Three sets of eyes bore through me in varying degrees of query.
“Oh?” he says.
“Yes, I have been preparing for you to eventually, at least, want a house near me, although how it never occurred to your own self, is not only a mystery but also slightly insulting,” I point out with a slight sulk.
He looks surprised then happy that I wanted him closer to me.
“So,” I continue, “I bought the house next to mine years ago. It’s been renovated and redecorated to your taste and is waiting for you.”
“You bought me a house? We will be neighbors?” he says with a slight smile.
“Yes.”
“Why have you never brought it up before?” he asks quietly.
I shrug. “I was never sure if you would say yes. It was easier just to wait for the right moment.”
“Well, how can I say ‘no’ to that?”
“You can’t,” I say.
He hugs me tightly.
“I always wondered why no one ever lived in that house,” Devon pipes up. “How come I never knew about it? I would have seen the financials,” he adds, perplexed.
“I used Saxon m
oney to buy it. It went through the accountants.”
“Oh,” he says flatly, clearly not pleased that he was deliberately cut out of the deal.
Finally bringing my gaze back to Cole, having avoided him thus far, he looks annoyed, but resigned.
“With regard to Cade,” I say, bringing the conversation back around full circle, “it can wait. We have far too much to accomplish. If it becomes pressing, we will deal with it then. In the meantime, we need to get back home. Dev, let Jim know we’re on our way to JFK.” He nods and pulls out his phone.
“I will need to go back to Milan for a couple of days. I will see you there on Tuesday. No, make that Wednesday as I will have to fly in,” CK adds and frowns at the inconvenience.
“Okay,” I say, having expected he would say that anyway.
“Good. You have been so strong these last few weeks, Aefre,” he says softly. “I am so proud of you.”
I twinkle under his praise as he kisses me quickly and pulls out his own phone to call Nico to come to get him.
O nce CK has gone, with assurances that I’m fine after all the upheaval, destruction, and mother issues, we head out ourselves. Back on the dreaded G6, I snuggle up to Cole and even though he is upset with me he lets me.
“So, if you are Queen and I’m your husband, does that make me King?” he asks with a chuckle.
Devon snorts in mirth.
“I don’t think so, my love,” I say apologetically, with a little laugh as he looks mock sad. “Oh, Dev, that reminds me. Tiamat said that my Shifting ability is a Dragon thing and it isn’t passed down to my Vampire charges.”
“Ah ha! I knew it wasn’t me,” he says smugly. I grin at him.
We sit in a companionable silence for a few minutes and then Cole asks, “When are you going to try and Shift?”
“I don’t know. I’m a bit nervous about it,” I admit shyly. He pats my hand in reassurance.
“I’m sure you will do it on the first try.”
“Such confidence in me,” I say dryly. “My problem is that I have no idea what my Dragon self looks like. When I Shift to look like someone else, I obviously know what I want to look like.”
Devon ponders that for a moment. “But when you Shift, do you have to think about it or is it like imprinted?”
“Well, imprinted, I guess, for forms I know.”
“So, you think ‘Elizabeth’ and you are?”
“Yes.”
“Then just try it. Think ‘Dragon' and see what happens. Not right now, though,” he adds hurriedly, looking around the small aircraft.
“Hm, it might work, I suppose.”
“It also stands to reason that if Tiamat looks like you in human form, then maybe you look like Her in Dragon form.”
I nod. “She called you clever,” I say shrewdly, enjoying his preen at the compliment.
L anding at LAX a couple of hours later, we all gratefully disembark and ask Grayson to head to… you guessed it, X-tasy. Seems to be a ritual now. I am beyond starving and ask for two Feeders much to the alarm of my boys.
“Stay with me, Dev. Please,” I ask. “Not sure if I can pull back.”
He nods grimly, keenly aware that there isn’t much he could do to stop me anyway. I bare my fangs I bite down once, then twice, remaining in perfect control. The calm comes over me and I flex my shoulders.
“Thank you,” I whisper.
He gratefully goes off to fulfill his own needs as I head to find Cole.
As soon as we are home, Cole pulls me into my office. “We need to talk.”
I was expecting this, so I square my shoulders and let him start.
“I know that whatever I say won’t make a damn bit of difference, but I’m going to say it anyway. I’m not happy about you moving your sire in next door to us. I’m especially not happy about the part where you didn’t discuss it with me, us, first and I’m even more upset that you pushed him into rethinking the terms of our arrangement. And before you say anything, I know about the real arrangement and its terms. I agreed to them as I assume you did as well, in return for that engagement ring you’re wearing. Or engaged to be engaged ring, whatever,” he grouses. “Furthermore, you gain all this new Power, a new title, become ruler of a nation, then within minutes, flit off to a different Realm – I’m not even really clear on what that means – for a couple of days with him and he gets to meet your mother. Your mother, Liv. Do you know how special that is in these circumstances? He learns about your true nature and your true purpose firsthand, while I’m left to worry about you and whether I will ever see you again. And it really pisses me off that he doesn’t call you Liv! Don’t ask me why? I don’t really know why. Maybe because Aefre was the name you were given as a human and he knew you as a human. I’m just so frustrated and mad that more often than not, you choose him over me.” He ends abruptly.
I stare at him in silence at his tirade.
“Wow. Okay. Feel any better?” I ask sardonically. Unsurprisingly, he isn’t amused as he waits for me to respond.
“Well, where do I start? I’m sorry about the house thing. I am responsible for restructuring the Underworld and I need to be here at home to do it. It seems the best idea to get him to come here so I’m not traveling around the world on a weekly basis. It’s too confusing and disruptive. If he is next door, it’s simple, easy. I made the decision and then it was out. I knew the only way to get him to even think about considering it, was to push him. I would never let him destroy us, Cole. I have told you that. I love you; I want to be with you. This,” I hold up my hand, “this is a promise I made to him so that he wouldn’t tear us apart.” I take a breath, knowing that I haven’t been entirely honest with him about the ring. He pounces as soon as I stop talking.
“The fact that you have to make promises to him to stop him from tearing us apart is part of the problem, Liv. The fact that you obviously think that if he makes a play for you, he will win.”
“Clearly you think that as well or you wouldn’t have agreed in the first place,” I snap but then regret my words as his face hardens.
“What I think is irrelevant. I made a decision to keep us together, to keep him from interfering. Your agreement is clearly an acceptance that you will be married and without me one day.”
I close my eyes and breathe in deeply. Opening them again, I find him searching my face for a reaction. I choose to ignore his last comment and move on, saying, “We didn’t mean to be gone a couple of days in the Dragon Realms. Tiamat said that time moves differently there, we thought we were gone an hour tops. I’m sorry that you were worried. I’m sorry that for whatever reason Corinne wanted him to go with me. I can’t answer for that. I am acutely aware, Cole, that you have been royally shafted – excuse the pun – since I turned you. I have asked you to accept things, asked so much of you. But I do love you. I love you more than anything. I don’t purposefully choose him over you. Sometimes it just happens. We are all in a very special set of circumstances now and we are all trying to adapt. Me especially, being thrust into this bizarre position, but CK’s whole world has changed as well. He was one of four Chosen ones. He helped create a new species and helped keep order among the Vampires for nearly three thousand years. Eloise was right to query his loyalty to her and The Council, in a way, but he chose to have faith in me. To be loyal to me even though he knew his whole reason for existing would crumble away. I don’t expect you to understand or accept that. It is just a point that needs to be made. As for him not calling me Liv? I see in a way, why that pisses you off, but he called me Aefre for a hundred years before I ran away and then again for another two hundred and fifty when he found me again. It’s habit. Even Devon calls me Lizzie again. I’m sure you will always think of me as Liv. It’s only natural.” I stop speaking. I know he has heard me. Whether or not he accepts what I have said, remains to be seen.
“Fine,” he says in defeat. “I hear you. I get it. I don’t want to be jealous of him, but I can’t help it sometimes.”
“Loo
k, Cole, we are together now. We love each other and we decided to turn you so we could be together. We are married and we are in love with each other. Trust that. Trust me.”
“I do. I do trust you. It’s him I don’t trust,” he says mutinously.
I chuckle despite myself. “You would do well to never say that to his face. He did save you today and has fought your corner since Monte Carlo. Despite what you may think, and as weird as it is for any Vampire, never mind him, he has called you family and he means it. He wouldn't have said it if he didn’t. Christ knows he’s never said it before.”
He grunts grudgingly as I hold my arms out to him. He accepts my embrace, so I Astral us off to our bedroom. Enough talk. I haven’t been with my husband for days and I want him.
A fter a night of unbridled passion with Cole, I awake feeling very happy and relaxed for the first time in ages. The source of my Power has been revealed, I have a mother again, my future – while uncertain – has a sense of purpose now and I know what I must do. I have woken up early. It’s still dark out so I pull on my robe and wander out to the balcony. The gods, it feels good to be home. All of this to and fro-ing has been a nightmare. Leaning on the railings, I take in the view, feeling completely happy. A familiar tingle goes up my neck and I turn with a big smile expecting my sire. My smile turns to horror – worse – terror, as I see who is standing before me. Evil, black eyes are focused on mine in an amused anger. “Lucretia. It’s nice to see you again, Sister. It has been far too long.”
CHAPTER SEVENTY-FOUR
“L ance,” I breathe, trying desperately to hold myself together. “What are you doing here?”
He breathes in deeply, taking in the sudden spike of my fear. A cruel smile crosses his face. “Just here to congratulate you on your… promotion.”
Sending out as many panic signals as I can, I stand still, unable to move an inch under his intense stare. Within seconds, Constantine is at my side in concern, but his face hardens into a mask of pure hatred and darkness as he sees Lance. “I warned you never to set foot near her again,” he growls, taking a step forward in front of me.