by Eve Newton
“Of course,” I whisper to him and drag him to me for a lingering kiss.
“Well, isn’t this just sweet,” Lance’s voice breaks through my happy state.
I scowl at him, moving us into a large patch of sunlight.
“Glad to see you have made up. Wouldn’t do to be on the outs.” His eyes narrow as he watches me. “I do hope that you are enjoying your… room,” he says slyly, “Although, it may be considered rude to use it without inviting your host to join you.”
My skin feels like it is about to crawl off my body at his tone and insinuation. Although, as I glance at CK and Devon, who have moved in closer to us, I have the awful thought that by his words, he knows just exactly what went on in there.
“I didn’t peg you as one for sharing her, Father,” he continues at our silence. “I was under the impression she was yours to enjoy, alone.” He moves forward and hovers on the edge of the patch of sunlight. At two thousand, three hundred and sixty-one years old, it would take him standing in the sun for a good few minutes before it finished him off. Without the Faerie Silver protecting him, even being near it will affect him. It will be weakening him, standing there on the edge, and I wonder how long he will keep it up. Not leaving me waiting for very long, he steps back to the side table under the pretense of pouring himself a drink.
“The room is fine, thank you,” CK says curtly, also clearly aware that somehow Lance has been privy to the goings-on of the last couple of hours.
Lance nods graciously. “You are welcome to stay as long as you like, but I would ask you to respect my… affliction and leave the rooms as they were when you entered them.”
A polite way of asking us to close the curtains, I guess. I step back to pull them closed, throwing the room into the gloom.
He nods his thanks. “Well, I will leave you for now. I shall see you in the dining hall at nine o’clock.” And off he goes.
“Did anyone else get the impression that he’s been spying on us?” Devon asks bluntly.
“Yes,” CK and I say in unison, but then he adds, “If he has, he also knows about your…” He holds his hands out at his sides, palms facing outward in the universal sign for my virtual armory. I grimace. Not good news.
“We had better go check the room.”
CHAPTER EIGHTY-TWO
C ole and I take a long leisurely shower when we get back to the room, while Devon and Constantine check the room for bugs.
Giggling, we exit the bathroom dressed in our robes and find the other two working. One on a laptop, one on an iPad.
“So, despite no lighting, I assume we have Wi-Fi then,” I roll my eyes at them and they both look up and smile.
“Well? Anything.”
CK indicates the small pile on the table in front of him.
I move closer and discover not only microphones, but also video cameras.
“Oh, fucking wonderful. He saw the entire thing,” I grouse.
“I’m afraid so. We should have been more vigilant and checked it beforehand.”
“But he didn’t know we were coming, why would he have this place rigged as a sex tape room?” Cole asks.
“Lance has certain… tastes. Watching is one of them. If I hadn’t been so worried about keeping Aefre safe from him, I would have remembered,” he says, more annoyed with himself for forgetting, than us having been peeped on, but, as ever, the abrupt change of subject comes and we all struggle to keep up. “I got an email from Louis Harlow.”
Blinking at him as I register his statement, I say, “Oh?”
“If you wanted it, why didn’t you just tell me, and I would have given it to you.”
“I only realized I wanted it after Versailles. But it was too late. Monsieur Du Pont had already sold it off to the L’orleau’s,” I remark with a pointed look at the said Monsieur.
“Wanted what?” Cole asks, lost as ever in our trip down memory lane. Yes, I understand why he gets so pissed off with this. I’m almost certain Constantine leaves out details on purpose to annoy him.
“Castel Gradile,” my sire responds as if that is going to make any difference.
“And that would be?” Cole snaps at my smug sire.
I answer instead with more detail. “After Constantine turned me, he took me to Normandy. The castle there that I woke up in is Castel Gradile.”
“Oh. Why do you want it?”
“Because it is the place where I woke up,” I repeat as if he is dense.
“Actually, you woke up on board the ship when we crossed the Channel.”
Devon’s eyes pop up from his work in surprise.
“So you keep telling me, but I don’t remember,” I huff.
“You were violently ill. I had to give you laudanum to put you back to sleep.”
Devon snorts and says, “Good to see some things never change.” Referring to my lack of sea legs, which made for a very disgusting Atlantic-crossing to America.
“Anyway,” I say, bringing the conversation back round, “as far as I’m concerned that was my first real home. And I want it back.”
“Back? It was never yours to start with,” CK says snidely.
I glare at him. “I named it. You couldn’t even be bothered to do that.”
He shrugs. “It was just a place between Italy and England. William’s father gave it to me.”
Hm, now that I did not know.
“Speaking of,” Devon interrupts. “Why did you call it Gradile?” He taps something on his iPad and peers at it. “Blackcurrants?”
My sire and I exchange a look and he grunts, “It’s private,” much to Cole’s frustration.
Devon, still peering at his iPad, turns it around to show us what he is looking at. “It’s pretty. Called Château Cassis now.”
“Yes, I know,” I grump at him.
“Why did the name change?” Cole asks still pissed but interested enough to ask.
“When Aefre named it, the language of the time was still Norman. Once the French language developed it was automatically reassigned the French version of the name and then the L’orleau’s bought it and kept it.”
“Developed? Christ, you were around when a language was developed?” Cole asks in wonder.
“Several of them, yes,” CK says witheringly.
Looking impressed despite himself, Cole asks again, “So why Blackcurrants?”
“You said before that I tasted like cherries? Well, Constantine…”
“Aefre. I said that’s private,” he interrupts me.
But the cat is already running away from the bag, as Devon finishes my sentence, “Tastes like Blackcurrants. Huh. So did she.”
“She?” I ask and then realize with dread that he means Eloise. “You drank from her?” I ask incredulously.
Devon and Cole exchange a look, then Cole replies, “We both did.”
“What?”
“Jealous?” he responds slyly.
Oh, my husband has a mean side and he isn’t afraid to use it.
Recovering somewhat from my shock at this revelation, I say, “Not jealous. Just surprised she let you.”
He smirks at me but not in a cheeky good way but in a tit-for-tat kind of way. He has lost his temper with all of this history and secrecy “Oh, it wasn’t difficult at all. Once she knew you weren’t there, she all but begged me to do it.”
“Cole,” Devon warns him as he sees the flash of Power-fueled temper in my eyes.
“I see,” I say calmly. “And did she feed from you?”
Watching me closely, he replies, “Yes.” His eyes flick to Constantine and back to mine as he adds, “I know how much that pisses you off.”
Oh, a shit storm is brewing now as I feel the flare of anger go up in CK.
“You told him? That is our business, Aefre,” he snaps at me.
Casting a ‘look what you’ve done now’ glare at Devon, I turn to CK. “He asked me in Monte Carlo. He wanted to know why I left you, so I told him.”
Oh, crap, that was the wrong thing to s
ay. His eyes go to two hard flints that pierce mine.
“You told him before you discussed it with me?”
I have to smile inwardly at the 'discussed' part of that question but have the good sense to keep it off my face. I hope.
“He asked. I wasn’t going to lie.” I look back at Cole, who is looking mighty pleased with himself for causing discord between us. So, no support there then.
“And I suppose you told him about the other time as well?” he snarls at me.
“I didn’t know what happened the other time – as you call it. Remember? All I knew was you left. But you made a colossal fuck up!” My temper getting the best of me, I start yelling now.
“So did you!” he yells back much to my surprise. He, in fact, has done more yelling these last couple of weeks than he has - ever.
“If I may interject,” Devon stands up to join in this heated conversation, “I wouldn’t be standing here right now if he didn’t leave you, Liv.”
Ouch.
Constantine turns to him with a sneer. “Like she said, I made a colossal fuck up,” he throws the insult at Devon, who takes the hit. Badly.
Devon growls at him and moves forward to stand in front of him. “You left her, and she found me. Fell in love with me and turned me so we could be together forever. I have been by her side for five hundred and six years, with the exception of what, fifty? We work together, we live together, up until a few weeks ago, we spent every minute together, every night in her bed. I took care of her. Took care of all of her needs. Sustained her for months at a time when she refused human blood. Can you say the same? No. You left her on the other side of the world, visiting only when you saw fit. You don’t get to come here and dismiss what we have.”
I am staring at Devon in utter amazement at this impassioned speech, while Constantine looks like he is about to rip his head off.
“I had my reasons for staying away. She knows what they are,” CK says quietly.
“I don’t particularly care what your reasons were. You have no idea what she feels when you aren’t there.”
“And you do? You think you know what she feels for me? You have no idea. You cannot even comprehend the strength of our bond.” Constantine steps forward and now they are glaring at each other from inches away.
“I do know!” Devon yells at him. “I do know because what she feels for you, is exactly what I feel for her. But you wouldn’t know what that is.”
“Oh, the charge-to-sire bond thing again,” he scoffs, and it gets my back up as he once again dismisses our feelings.
“You don’t get to dismiss it,” Devon says again. “You can sit there on your all-powerful, I am a creator of a race, high horse all you like, but you will not ever dismiss me again,” he says forcefully.
I am so proud; I’m beaming at him.
“Talk about a God complex,” Devon mutters as Constantine just stares at him as if he has lost his mind. Which he probably has, to be even thinking of talking to my sire that way. People have lost their heads for less.
I gulp.
“You are right to be afraid for him, Aefre,” he says to me, but not taking his eyes off Devon’s furious blue ones. “Insolence will not be tolerated.”
“Constantine,” I bark at him. “Just stop this at once. Both of you. It’s this kind of dissension that is not acceptable. We will not turn on each other! Do you understand?” I shout at them. They ignore me. “Do you understand me?” I shout louder this time and bang my fist on the table to emphasize my authority. “Don’t make me call forth my trusty friend to split you two up,” I threaten menacingly, and finally they step back from each other, relaxing a tiny bit but still glowering at each other. Christ, it’s like Versailles all over again.
Turning my attention back to Cole, who has been silently watching this scene play out, looks somewhat smug.
“You,” I snarl at him. His eyes find mine and he adjusts his features. Quickly. “You have an issue with me, deal with me. You do not ever bring them into our fight again. Do you hear me?”
He looks at me warily, never having been on the receiving end of a sire’s wrath before. “I didn’t,” he says cautiously.
“Whether you meant to or not, your actions started this. You were the butterfly.” But then I think back, yes, he riled Constantine with his comments about Eloise but really, it was Devon who started this. Rounding on my older charge, I snap, “No, you were the butterfly. If you had just kept your trap shut about Eloise’s blood, this would never have happened.”
“I think you will find, my sweet, that you were in fact the butterfly, by telling our secrets. We agreed the naming of the castle was ours to know and ours alone,” Constantine, smarmy as ever, points out and I realize in horror that he is right. It was me. I’m the butterfly and the hurricane was the fight between my sire and my charge.
“Shit,” I mumble, abashed. “You’re right. I’m sorry. It was me. I shouldn’t have told but then Devon shouldn’t have either and Cole should not have said what he did.” I try to shift at least some of the blame.
“So, in fact the only one innocent in all of this is me. Me and my God complex,” Constantine smirks.
“Humph,” I say rudely. “You are never innocent. It was you who brought the whole thing up in the first place.”
Looking amused, he says, “I mentioned an email I received so we could discuss it, Aefre. Like adults. Clearly, I was mistaken that despite our collective years, we are still just the young fools we were when we were turned.”
Devon and I glance at each and burst out laughing at this most hilarious comment, coming from Constantine of all people. I’m delighted to note he included himself in his statement. Even Cole snorts at that and all seems to have calmed down again. I wonder how this argument got so out of control. Especially after everything that we just shared with each other.
“So,” I say, “bringing the conversation back around, in an adult manner, to Harlow’s email. What I should have asked was, why is he contacting you about my interest in his property?”
“He is under the impression that I can talk you out of pursuing it.”
I sigh. “So, he’s not budging then?”
“Doesn’t appear to be. Is this what you wanted to talk to me about last week that we never got around to discussing?”
“Yes. I was hoping you could get him to change his mind.”
“Seems that I’m the middleman in this, even though I sold it nearly five hundred years ago,” he grouses.
“Seems so. Please try and get him to sell it to me. It means a lot to me,” I ask him quietly.
“Well, how can I refuse when you ask me like that?” he says just as quietly.
“Thank you.” I turn to Cole again and say, “We need to talk. Alone, please.”
“The rules are the same, Aefre. We don’t split up.”
“Then put some earphones in or something. I need to talk to Cole. Alone.”
“Fine,” they both agree.
I drag Cole back to the bathroom for maximum privacy.
“And play nice,” I yell back at them over my shoulder as Devon goes to light the candles.
“In three’s!” I hear CK snap quietly and Devon’s, “I know!” snap back.
Closing the door, I take a deep breath. “Did she really feed from you or were you just saying that to piss me off?” I ask.
He takes my hand and pulls it up to his lips. “She did. Only for a second. Devon made her stop.”
I close my eyes and slide down the door to sit in a heap on the floor. “A second is still a second,” I say miserably.
He sits too. “I know. I’m sorry. Although, I’d say we are even now as I know that Gregor drank from you,” he says with a pointed look.
Well, I can’t argue with that.
“And,” he adds, “you also have those two out there snacking on you whenever they feel like it.” He smiles though to show he’s not angry.
“Oh, my love. This has been quite the shit day, hasn’t i
t? Again,” I add in disgust.
“It hasn’t all been shit,” he says shyly. I look at the shower and grin.
“I want to do it again. I just don’t want it ending up like it did today.”
“With CK, you mean?” I ask.
He nods and laughs. “Sorry, but three guys all vying for your attention. It’s too much. Devon, I can handle.”
“Of course, baby. Thank you,” I kiss him softly.
“I feel I need to point out something though,” he says. I raise my eyebrow at him as I wait for him to continue.
“I have had four-ways before, you know. I’m not completely naïve.” I giggle at him and he glares at me, “However,” he emphasizes, “it has always been with three girls, it’s different.”
“I know it is, baby. You don’t need to explain anything to me. I was ridiculously innocent when Constantine turned me. The first time he suggested a three-way, I nearly died! And I had been turned for well over fifty years by then. I suppose I’m lucky in that he didn’t have a sire and his charges were scattered about.” His turn to laugh at me.
“Who was it with?”
“No one. I refused. I only wanted him, and no way was I sitting there watching him fuck someone else. I do know how you feel about this. I just have to remember as it was such a long time ago for me. I have been around centuries-old Vampires for, well, centuries,” I say wryly. “It is difficult for me to have someone so new to consider.”
“So your first one was after you left him? It wasn’t with him?”
“Correct on both accounts.”
“Huh. Well, what do you know. I bet that pissed him off!”
“You could say that,” I say to his delight. “Come now. We need to get ready for this bash.” I stand and pull him up with me. Exiting the bathroom, we find Devon and CK already dressed and much to my annoyance, not wearing earphones or any other eavesdropping blocking devices at all.
Neither of them says anything, nor gives any indication that they heard any of our conversation, which I sincerely hope they didn’t.
“Lizzie, what are you planning on wearing?” Devon asks. “You’d better summon something quickly, it’s nearly nine.”