by Eve Newton
I know I’m staring at her like she is insane, as are Devon and Cole, but a horrible, horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach tells me she is speaking the truth. I move forward still gripping her arm and we silently head up the steps back into the kitchens.
Constantine is still throttling Lance on the floor having a heated conversation in Romanian. He looks up as we enter the kitchen. His face hardens as he sees that in fact, Polly was down there.
“Constantine,” she cries, trying to run towards him. I hold her back and she struggles, but soon gives up, still weak.
“Aefre,” he growls at me. “Finish him. Now.”
I shake my head, no longer concerned with his feelings as I stare at him in pain and disgust.
His eyes go sad at the look on my face. “Aefre. Do it now.”
“No, he is yours to do with as you please,” I say and, letting go of Polly, I make a run for outside again, unable to bear being in the same room as them.
My bare feet sink into the damp grass. It has started raining but I don’t care. I run for the gates and snap to the guards to open them, remembering what Constantine had said earlier. They do as they are told, and I run into the forest, breathing in deeply, trying to clear my head and my memories. I feel stifled and sick. I sink to the floor and cry. I cry so hard, I think my heart is going to break.
A soft whimper draws my attention to my wolf companion, again coming to sit with me. He plops his big head on my lap, and I smile despite myself. He wags his tail as I stroke him, and I start to relax. I couldn’t say for sure how long I’m out here, rhythmically stroking the wolf, listening to him breathing. I murmur all of my problems to him, and I feel better for talking about it, even though he can’t answer me back. My mind goes blank and all there is, is just the two of us sitting in the rain. Suddenly, a black swirl goes up around him. I pull my hand away, wondering what I’ve just done to the poor creature, when the fog dissipates and sitting in front of me is a strikingly handsome man, with short, spiky black hair and the clear green eyes of the wolf.
He peers at me closely and clears his throat. “Whoever you are, thank you,” he says and launches himself at me kissing me, pushing his tongue into my mouth.
I enjoy being kissed by him for a moment, until I remember myself and push him back. “Whoa. Where did you come from?” I ask rudely.
“I could ask you the same question. My name in Lincoln. Lincoln Anderson.”
“Liv O’Dell. What just happened here, Mr. Anderson?”
“Lincoln, please. You broke my curse.”
Again, with the curses.
“What curse? And I don’t think it was me.”
“It was most definitely you. I felt your Power. What are you, Liv O’Dell?”
“Well, that’s a bit of a rude question,” I huff at this point, only now noticing he is completely naked. Closing my eyes and touching his arm, I think of clothes and thankfully, when I open my eyes again, he is fully clothed in a black t-shirt and jeans.
“Huh. Neat trick,” he says, looking down at himself. “You didn’t like what you saw?” he says with a slight twinkle in his eyes.
Blushing a tiny bit, as I did indeed like what I saw, I ignore the remark and ask him again, “What curse?”
“Your friend in the castle there cursed me to roam these forests on an altered schedule.”
“He is not my friend, I can assure you of that. What do you mean ‘roam on an altered schedule?’”
He grins at my English accent, his being, strangely, American.
“Instead of being human and turning into a Wolf at the full moon, I am a Wolf and turn human for three nights of the month, bound to these forests.”
My mouth drops open. “A Werewolf?” I ask hesitantly.
He nods. “You are a Vampire. A Powerful one. And a Shifter? But I can’t tell what kind,” he says.
“I am both.”
He shrugs off my vagueness, asking instead, “What year is it?”
Huh, the second time I have been asked that tonight.
“2012.”
He looks alarmed and then sad. “Fifty-seven years. I’ve been here fifty-seven years.”
“What? Unable to leave even in human form?” I ask.
“No, I have been confined here by his Witches, unable to leave, and no one ever comes. Except the other wolves.”
“Not Witches,” I say as if that makes a difference to him. “Romani. Powerful, magick.”
“But you are more so as you broke the curse. Tell me, how did you do it?”
“I really don’t know. I was talking to you and thought how nice it would be if you understood me and could talk back and then there you were.”
“Lizzie!” I suddenly hear Devon calling me. “Lizzie!” He tracks me down within seconds and I stand up, helping Lincoln up as well.
“There you are!” Devon says as he sees me. His eyes shift to Lincoln and to our clasped hands. I pull away and he shifts his eyes back to mine. “You need to come back inside, right away.”
“Cole?” I ask in panic.
“No, he is fine. It’s Constantine. You need to come.”
“What happened?”
“First tell me what happened here?” he asks rudely, glaring at my Wolf friend.
“Oh, sorry. Devon, this is Lincoln. He is a Werewolf. Cursed by Lance and kept here for fifty-seven years until I just somehow broke the curse. Lincoln, this is Devon, my older Vampire charge, business partner, best friend and lover.” Quite a thorough introduction, but now that everyone is up to speed, I say again, “What happened?”
Still glaring at Lincoln, who returns it, Devon says to me, “He was about a second away from ripping Lance’s head off after you bolted, when Tatiana threw some magick at him and knocked him unconscious.”
“Is he okay? What about Lance?” I ask, worried.
“We don’t know. Lance is in the dungeons behind the wards. Tatiana has some serious boot. She had him down there and chained up before we even knew what was happening.”
“Seriously? She turned on him? But why did she knock Constantine out?”
“We don’t know. She doesn’t speak English, only Romanian and Russian, I think. All she said was your name.”
Having reached the foyer by this time, Devon leads us to the sitting room, where my sire is laid out on the sofa. Polly is sitting next to him, her head on his chest, holding his hand, her eyes closed with a content look on her face. I feel the bile rise up in my throat again as I turn to find Cole pacing by the windows.
“Liv,” he says as he sees me and comes over to give me a tight hug. “Did Devon tell you what happened?”
I nod. I turn to Tatiana. She asks me in Russian if I speak the language.
“Yes,” I reply, and she looks relieved, apologizing for not speaking English.
“Tell me what happened here?”
“I couldn’t let your sire kill Vladimir.”
“He is an evil man, Tatiana. You should have let him.”
She shakes her head. “No, you don’t understand. He is a monster. I hate him and I want to see him dead for all the pain and anguish he has caused. My family has worked for him for generations, forced into slavery for him through an unbreakable curse.”
I roll my eyes, again with the curses. What is wrong with these people?
“But if your sire had killed him, he would have also killed the young woman,” she continues.
I look at her in confusion. “I don’t understand.”
“Vladimir linked them together so that if he was killed, she would be as well. He used Blood Magick, it is unbreakable. I am not able to unlink them.”
“So, one sacrifice to free all of his captives, to free your family from him? I don’t see the problem,” Lincoln says, also in Russian, to my utter surprise.
I turn to him and say, “No. I won’t sacrifice her. We will find another way.”
“There isn’t another way. You are Queen, it is your responsibility to make him pay for his crimes.”<
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“How do you know what I am?” I ask him with surprise.
“It seems the longer I’m around you, the more information I get from you,” he says, somewhat embarrassed, tapping his head.
Brushing that nugget of information aside to deal with later, I say, “She is my sibling, an innocent. I will not sacrifice her, and I will not show my boys that it is okay to turn on an innocent, no matter what the circumstances.”
“Your boys?” he asks as he flicks his glance to a very furious looking Devon and Cole, who are not privy to the content of this conversation, coupled with the fact that Cole doesn’t even know who this guy is yet.
I turn back to Tatiana. “Wake Constantine up, please. The longer you keep him out, the more furious he will be.”
“I can’t wake him. Only you can,” she replies.
“What? I don’t know how?”
“You don’t need to know how. The kiss of true love will awaken him.”
Oh, please. This is getting cornier by the minute.
“He isn’t my true love,” I say. “My true love died two hundred and sixty-six years ago.” I stiffen my back against the pain.
“He is your true love. I can see it in your heart. He has done this awful thing to you. I overheard him and Vladimir talking about it when you went downstairs. But you have already forgiven him, you will always forgive him. You love him unconditionally, not just because he is your sire, but because you belong together. That is true love.”
Now quite thankful that Devon, and especially Cole, cannot understand what we are saying, I shake my head. “No. I cannot forgive him for this.”
“You already have, my dear,” she says again. “You know his reasons for doing what he did.”
Huffing at her, I say, “Why can’t she do it? She is clearly in love with him.”
“He doesn’t love her,” she says simply.
Oh, for fuck's sake. Fine. I stomp over to him and move young Polly out of my way, much to her annoyance. I look at him for a few moments, peaceful, beautiful, and I sigh. I do love him. I always have and I always will, but can I accept this? I don’t know if I can. Leaning forward, I place my lips on his in a sweet kiss that makes his eyes pop open in surprise as he sees me, then remembering what happened, he jumps up in fury moving towards Tatiana.
CHAPTER EIGHTY-FOUR
“Don’t. She’s locked Lance up downstairs. You can’t kill him. None of us can,” I say quickly.
He turns to me but doesn’t get a chance to say anything as Polly flies into his arms and kisses him soundly on the mouth. I turn away, unable to take the stab of pain that shoots through me.
“Aefre,” his voice brings my eyes back to his. “What do you mean we can’t kill him?”
“He has linked himself to Polly via Blood Magick. If you kill him, she dies too,” I say shortly and turn from him again as he still has his arms around my look alike and she is gazing adoringly up at him.
He untangles himself, crosses over to me and turns me around. He sees everything I’m feeling, and he whispers, “I can explain.”
“No need. She already did,” I tell him and pull away.
He glares at her furiously and she drops her head. “I’m sorry, my lord. She threatened me if I didn’t tell her.” She peeks up at me slyly through lowered lashes, causing my indignation to flare up. Little bitch. I narrow my eyes at her. Victim or not of Lance’s cruelty, I won’t have her manipulate this situation. Before I can speak, though, Constantine has crossed over to her and grabbed her by the arm tightly, fury emanating from him as he sees the situation as clearly as I do.
“CK,” I say, going to her defense anyway. “Don’t blame her. This is your doing.”
“CK? Is that what she calls you?” Polly asks with a sidelong glance at me. “You never told me to call you that. I shall call you that from now on when we are together.”
The fury that is now rolling around the room is coming from me. So much for trying to help her! She just turns around and screws with me, again.
“You don’t get to call him that!” I shriek like a banshee. “You don’t get to call him anything!” I cross over to them. “Whatever this little arrangement of yours is, it’s over.”
Constantine looks at me in earnest. “It’s been over for years, Aefre. I haven’t seen her in about sixty years. How long has she been here?” he asks me and not her.
“She says three months.”
He lets go of her and she drops to her knees, contrite. I want to throw up again. He leans down and grabs her arm, hauling her to her feet. “Get up,” he growls.
“We can try again, my lord. I can be everything for you that she can’t. You can be yourself with me,” she says desperately.
“She isn’t the problem. Don’t you see? It is me that can’t be everything for her,” he says sadly and lets her go again. She knows she’s lost him as he takes my face in his hands. Ignoring everyone else in the room, he says, “I’m sorry.” He drops to his knees at my feet. A collective gasp goes around the room from Polly, Tatiana, and Devon while Cole growls a low rumble around the room. Poor Lincoln, who doesn’t know what the fuck he has stepped into, just looks plain uncomfortable. I, on the other hand, am getting pissed off with this vulnerable sire side and again, I wish I could reseal the wormy can from Tuscany.
I drop to my knees in front of him and take his face in my hands. “Stop this at once. It’s pissing me off.”
“I’m sorry,” he says again. “I couldn’t help myself after the last time. I was dead inside. All I wanted was you to love, but I wanted to hurt you. I wanted to hurt you because you had hurt me. I thought you had hurt me,” he amends quickly as I open my mouth to correct him. I cast a quick glance around the room. This really isn’t a conversation to be had here, but here it will have to be.
“Stop,” I say.
His eyes flash to mine.
“You don’t need to tell me any of this. She already explained it,” I say.
“I do need to tell you. I need you to know. It was never really you I wanted to hurt like that. Never.”
“It doesn’t matter. You told me in Italy that you loved me. You told me and you showed me with the… room.” I clear my throat not able to say the word. He looks pained at the reminder. “I pushed you that night, Constantine. I wanted you to show me this monster you revile, that you are so scared to show me. That you think is the real you. Lance is wrong. That is not the real you. The real you, is the man I had to push into hurting me. I know you didn’t want to do it. I made you. The you I know could never want to hurt me like that. I am sorry for trying to make you do something you didn’t want to do. My reasons were selfish. I wanted to be everything for you. Everything you needed me to be. I did it because I thought it would make you happy. Instead, I made you hate yourself and for that I hate myself. You say that I’m the light of your life, but you don’t let me in far enough to shine in your darkness. You have to let me in, or I can’t help you. I know you love me. You showed me that night just how much. It makes me ache for you. It makes me want to do that with you all day, every day for the rest of my life. This is why I got so cross with you for calling it ‘fucking’ all the time.” I smile and he chuckles. The first sound he has made throughout my speech. “However,” I say, serious again, “what you have done is not acceptable. I won’t tolerate it. How many others are there out there?”
“None.”
“Constantine, please, tell me.”
“None, Aefre. There have been others, yes, but they are all dead. I got rid of them all. I tried to be merciful and I let Polly go, asking her never to return. She agreed and I haven’t thought of her in years. I never wanted you to find out what I had done. I had no idea that Lance would do this again.”
A chill goes down my spine at his words ‘I got rid of them all.’
“I know you have wards on your dungeons,” I blurt out then, forgetting myself for a moment. He looks at me sharply, as does everyone else in the room. I pull my face at him cont
ritely and say, “Sorry.”
“Don’t be. There is a very good reason for that, but it isn’t what you think,” he says, resigned. “But now is not the time for that. I will tell you, but not now.”
Well, leave a girl hanging, why don’t you.
“Fine, but promise me that this won’t happen again. I won’t be substituted for your amusement,” I say sternly. He looks mortified, as I have voiced his actions in plain English in front of everyone. “Promise me,” I repeat when he just glares at me.
“I promise,” he says quietly.
I nod briskly and stand, pulling him up with me. I realize I must look a fright, having been out in the rain in the forest before. I didn’t get a chance to fix myself up. Looking down at myself, I catch Polly staring at me in wonder that I can handle him like I do. I push the horrible thought away of what he has done to her, all the time wishing in some weird way it was me. Twirling in a circle, I fix myself up in my normal garb as clearly this party is over before it even started. Which reminds me...
“Where are all of Lance’s friends?” I ask, hand on my hip, as Lincoln, Tatiana and Polly stare at me, now standing in front of them in a tiny black mini skirt, strapless black top and my black Louboutins. My hair is dry and pulled back over my shoulder.
No one replies, so I try again in Russian this time and Tatiana answers me, “Most of them left. Those that stayed are downstairs with him.”
“Fine, what do we do about him, then?” I say again in English.
“A good question, but here’s another one first. Who the Hell is this guy?” Cole asks coming up beside me, possessively putting his arm around me and pointing rudely at Lincoln.
“Lincoln Anderson,” he replies for himself. “Resident cursed Werewolf. Your wife here broke my curse.” He looks at me with a shrug, as he again knows things about me that I haven’t told him.