by Eve Newton
“Are you close? I’m so close. Kiss me and then come for me,” he commands. I do as he says, and he hisses as he runs his hand down my back. I feel a jolt go through me again. I pull away from his lips and cry out softly as the pleasure rips through me.
“Oh, fuck, yes,” he says, bringing his hands up to cup my face. “Christ, I want you to do that again. It feels so good.” And just like, that I do. He groans, then whispers something to me in a language I’m unfamiliar with. All I can follow is the cadence of his words, a lilting, and beautiful sound. I blink as he shoots his cum inside me, increasing the pressure on my rear to pull me even closer to him.
“Oh, Liv. You were worth the wait,” he says before he plunges his mouth to mine. I now have full control of my senses again and I push away from him. “You need to get out of here now,” I say in a panic as I climb off him, grabbing my robe. “If he comes back and finds you here with my scent all over you and vice versa, he will punish us both.”
He adjusts his clothing and stands. “I told you, I will deal with him.”
“Seb, just get out. I need you to leave before he comes back. This was a mistake. It should never have happened.”
“A mistake? I wouldn’t call it that. You could have stopped anytime you wanted but you didn’t,” he points out.
I just stare at him, silently.
“I know you wanted me,” he murmurs.
“Not like that,” I say, finding my voice. “Please, go. I need to shower before he comes back.”
With narrowed eyes, he leaves and I Astral straight into the shower, shedding my robe and burning it with Dragon fire as I turn the taps on. The water pounds down on to me and I want to cry. I soap up, hating myself for what I just did. I betrayed my husband. I told him he could trust me to keep within the boundaries he needs and I didn’t. Constantine will see this as a huge betrayal – going behind his back when I am supposed to be here with him, and with Sebastian of all people. He is the one CK wants me to stay away from and I didn’t. The water washes away all the bubbles and I lather up again trying to clean away the self-loathing. I don’t understand why I just did what I did, but it doesn’t change anything. I betrayed those I love, who love me, and I now have to live with that guilt.
I get out of the shower and get dry in a matter of seconds. Pulling the other robe on, I sit on the sofa where I was before and pick up my magazine.
Constantine finds me like this a few minutes later. I don’t know how long I was sitting there just staring at the same page.
“Everything okay?” he asks in concern as he sees my blank expression.
“Yes, everything’s fine,” I lie with a smile and get up to kiss him, hoping that he doesn’t see my guilt. Or read it off me. Or whatever it is that he does.
“You should get ready. We are meeting everybody downstairs in half an hour.”
“Okay,” I say and slink off to the bedroom.
He follows me. “Aefre. What have you done?” he asks me suspiciously.
I stop dead. “Nothing,” I lie again.
“The guilt is rolling off you. Do you want to try that again?” he says.
Shit, shit, and more shit. I can’t tell him. If he knows what I did then he will punish me by punishing Cole and then Cole will also know what I did. Everyone will know what I did. Well, the best offense is a good defense so I turn around and quip wryly, “Can’t you just read it on me?”
He doesn’t look amused at my defiance and he shakes his head, saying, “I don’t know what powers you think I have, but I don’t ‘read’ people. Leave that to your assistant. Perhaps I should bring him up here and he can tell me what you are hiding.”
“Look, I don’t want to talk about it, okay? Can you just leave it for now?” I beg, unable to say anything else.
“Oh no. Now you have most definitely given me reason to suspect you are up to something.”
I ignore him and get dressed the old-fashioned way, by actually looking through the closet and choosing something at random. He isn’t going to let it drop, so I make a choice. I land on the only other thing I can think of that I want to hide from him. I didn’t want to do this but it’s the lesser of two evils. I hope.
“It’s to do with Xane,” I say, my back still towards him.
“What about him?” he snaps.
“We did a ritual. It may have linked us together,” I say quickly, turning around to gauge his reaction.
Well, ‘fury’ doesn’t quite cover it and I flinch.
“You had better be joking, Aefre. I am not putting up with another bond that you feel you have to nurture.”
“It’s not a bond. And I won’t be nurturing anything,” I say huffily.
He sighs. “Why did you feel the need to hide this from me? And why only now do you feel guilty about it?”
“Because I knew you would be pissed and look at it in the way that you did. I don’t feel guilty about doing it, just that I knew I had to tell you, but I didn’t want to,” I say, sidling up to him and taking his hand in a placatory gesture.
“I am pissed,” he says. “I don’t want to share you with anyone else, Aefre. Especially him.”
“You aren’t going to have to share me with him. Why especially him?”
“I have my reasons,” he says mysteriously. “And no, I am not going to tell them to you,” he adds as he sees me about to ask. “You don’t ever have to hide anything from me, my sweet. Secrets come out and I would have been more pissed if I had found out later.” He pulls me to him, and I want to die. I cannot let the other secret come out. Somehow, I am going to have to get Sebastian to keep his trap shut.
“Just do me a favor?” CK says. “Don’t get involved with him.”
“I won’t. I told you that I won’t.”
He nods briefly. “Make sure that you don’t. I won’t share you with anyone else and I will make certain of that.”
I gulp and nod.
“Good, now get ready. Everybody will be waiting.”
He turns around and leaves me to get dressed, fearful of the secret that I am still holding onto.
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-SIX
We head downstairs to the private dining room where everyone is, as expected, waiting.
“Liv.” Lincoln comes over to me and gives me a sly kiss. “You look wonderful.”
“Thank you,” I say.
In the end, I chose a black dress similar to the pink one that CK dressed me up in. I kept my hair down in loose curls as I know that’s the way CK likes it. I am all about pleasing him now, keeping him happy and not suspicious. I avoid Sebastian in favor of Devon, who grins at me and comes to give me a hug.
“I am so glad you are coming home.”
“I can’t be away from you. It’s ridiculous to even try. I will look forward to my Fridays,” he says, excited. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Jess glaring at me like she wants to stake me. I don’t ask why she is still here. I said I’d stay out of it.
I nod to Scott and then I have to turn to Sebastian. He leans over and kisses me lightly on the cheek. “You do look lovely. I prefer you in white though,” he murmurs in my ear.
“Sebastian,” I warn him, and he chuckles.
“Don’t panic,” he whispers. “I won’t tell, as long as we do it again.”
I glare at him but don’t have a chance to respond as CK sidles over and says, “What, pray tell, are you two muttering about?”
“I was just telling Liv that she looks lovely this evening. She responded by saying she wishes you would let her take us both to bed.”
I stare at him horrified; mouth open.
CK’s eyes flick to me with a small smile. “I am fairly certain she didn’t say that judging by the look on her face.”
Sebastian chuckles. “No, she didn’t but I know she was thinking it. One of these days, it will happen whether you like it or not.”
“I don’t like it. You are to stay away from her,” CK says quietly, menacingly, as he steps closer to Sebastian.
“And what if I don’t? I could always just make her, you know,” Sebastian says just as quietly.
CK’s face hardens into stone at that and the growing atmosphere is palpable. “You should know better than to threaten me, my boy,” he says, lowering his voice even more so that all of our eavesdropping ears struggle to hear, well, everyone except me as I use my super hearing abilities to carry on listening. “Use your gift on her and I will see you dead.”
Gift? What gift? He has a gift? Did he use it on me before? I thought I was immune to such things.
“Noted,” Sebastian says, also in a tone so low that even Vampire hearing can’t pick it up, adding, “But if she starts, I will finish.”
CK growls deeply and loudly so that everyone who hasn’t overheard the last three sentences looks at him warily. I take delight in seeing Jess look terrified and move to stand behind Devon. He ignores her as he is looking at me with that way he has that tells me he knows something about something.
“If you are that worried, you should keep her on a tighter leash,” Sebastian says.
“You are the one who should be on a leash. Make a move and I will ensure that you get it,” Constantine says, and I gulp. This is not going to end well for any of us. I step forward as I don’t want CK to provoke Sebastian into spilling the we-already-did-it beans. I place my hand on CK’s arm and he turns towards me as if he had forgotten I was there. “Whatever you are growling at each other about, can you forget it and play nice? I don’t need a quarrel to fix right now.”
“Of course, my sweet,” CK leans down to give me a lingering kiss.
Sebastian smiles at me when CK lets me up for air and says, “I think we are done with this conversation for now. We have both made ourselves quite clear.” I glare at him itching to know if he somehow controlled my actions earlier.
Lincoln now steps forward and says, “I think we should sit and find out what Liv learned from Xane. I know I’m curious.”
I send him a thankful look for diffusing a potentially bad situation for me, but he looks back at me in a not-so-friendly way. I tilt my head in question at him and he mouths, “Put your blocks up.”
What? Oh, crap. I was that nervous about seeing Sebastian when we came downstairs, I totally forgot about my mental blocks. I cast a quick glance at Scott, who is chewing his lip and trying to look everywhere but at me. Fuck. The cat is so far away from the bag now, it can’t even see it. I put the thought into my head for them both to read: “We’ll talk about it later. Please just leave it for now.”
I look at Lincoln and he nods grimly as does Scott when I stare at him.
I heave a sigh and let CK lead me to the table. We sit and the rest follow. Devon has the sense to dispatch of his little, whatever the Hell she is, first as this is definitely not something she is privy to. Her furious look isn’t well received. Devon gives her one back and she folds like a cheap suit. Sebastian, being foolish enough to sit on my other side, grins at me. I ignore him and, gripping CK’s hand even tighter, I recount the tale of my visit to The Underworld. Leaving out the part about the ritual, of course.
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-SEVEN
“Wow, so basically your Dragon brother is the starter of the Demon race,” Devon says. “That’s pretty impressive.”
CK glares at him and clears his throat in annoyance, never having been given any recognition for his part in creating the Vampire race.
“It’s also kind of weird. I mean, in a bizarre way, I am related to them all. Like some kind of great times-a-million aunt.”
Devon snickers at my consternation. It feels so good to have him back on my side. “You’ve just got family popping up all over the place now. So, what happens next? Do you get some Demon-y type Powers to go with all your others?”
“Yes. I already have them,” I say proudly with a little look at CK’s ring. He catches my glance and tilts his head in question. “Demon magick works similar to Dragon magick but on a way cooler level,” I say. “Xane called it ‘something from nothing’ and that is exactly what it is. Conjuring. It’s beyond awesome.”
“How did you end up with these abilities? Was it another freaky Power transfer? Oh, the gods, please don’t tell me that he bit you,” Devon says with a baleful glare at Lincoln, who just grins.
“No biting,” I say but hesitate after that.
“Yes, Aefre, why don’t you tell the group how you ended up with your new Powers,” CK says in a tone that leaves no doubt that he is still pissed with me about it.
“A small ritual,” I say through gritted teeth, glaring at him. “It was nothing.”
“Ritual? What kind of ritual?” Sebastian asks me now, having been silent thus far.
Oh, for fuck's sake, what’s with all the curiosity with this group? I sag my shoulders as I know I’m going to have to give up the goods, “We shared blood and it just happened.”
“Shared blood? I thought you said there was no biting involved,” Devon says warily.
“Not through biting. He cut me and himself and we…” I put my palms together to demonstrate.
“He cut you? How did he do that?” Devon and Lincoln ask at the same time, as CK looks most upset at the meeting of palms.
“He had this dagger. It just worked. Hurt like a bitch,” I mutter and again look at CK’s hands. It was not unlike the effect his claws have on me.
“Huh. That’s a worry. I was wandering around thinking you were invulnerable,” Devon says, concerned. “Now we find out there’s some mysterious Demon dagger that can hurt you. Why did you not know about it in your armory?”
CK clears his throat as I cast a quick glance at Sebastian, who does not yet know of said armory.
“Oh,” Devon says catching my look. “Sorry. I just assumed…”
Sebastian is looking curious but remains silent.
“It’s not in the armory,” I say.
“It’s not?” CK asks, now looking overly concerned and I pull my face at him. “I thought you said every weapon.”
“I did. I do. With that one tiny exception,” I say.
“And it doesn’t bother you that a Demon is on the loose with the only weapon created that can hurt you?” he snaps at me.
“First thing, I wouldn’t say that Xane is ‘on the loose’, and secondly no, it doesn’t bother me. It cuts me but I heal. Just like before. Just like you do.”
He grumbles but I ignore him as my phone buzzes. Blocked Number. Must be Cade. “Excuse me, I have to take this,” I say and stand up, leaving them all to watch me go in annoyance that they aren’t privy to the phone call. I exit the dining hall so that they can’t eavesdrop.
“Is it really necessary to still block your number?” I ask sweetly. “I know how to contact you.”
He chuckles. “Sorry. Occupational hazard. So, Vegas, baby,” he says, and I grimace at the phone. “I told you I can always find you.”
“Indeed, you did.”
“You look quite fetching in that dress. Although the pink number did it for me.”
I narrow my eyes at the phone making sure I’m not secretly on video call. As I am not, I glance up and around but don’t see him.
“Pink is your color, then, is it? I shall have to remember to continue to wear black,” I say smartly, and he laughs.
“No, I quite like you in black as well. Especially that see-through scrap you had on a few days ago.”
“Oh, yes, the one you tried to kill me in.”
“That would be the one. Although ‘kill’ is such a strong word. I was mostly sure it wouldn’t affect you, but a guy has to try.”
“Yes, so I keep hearing. ‘Mostly sure’ is not really what I wanted to hear.”
“Well, it’s all I’ve got.”
“Humph. So, what can I do for you?” I ask, anxious to move this conversation along.
“Not much at the minute. I wouldn’t get close enough to you before someone took my head off.”
“This is true,” I say in delight. “So why are you cal
ling me?”
“Just to let you know I know where you are, and that I’m watching you.”
“Watching me. That’s a bit creepy, isn’t it?”
“Again, it’s an occupational hazard,” he says dryly. “Make sure to get on your own soon. I will find you when you do.”
“I really don’t know how I will do that.”
“Try, Mrs. O’Dell. We have things to talk about.”
“Fine. I will try.”
“Good,” he says and hangs up.
Infuriating creature. I turn to go back into the dining room when my phone buzzes for a message.
It’s Sebastian: “Meant what I said. My silence for your compliance.”
Arse. I delete it and take a few moments to Passcode lock my phone. Wouldn’t do to have prying eyes, should he send me another message. Like CK, I use letters instead of numbers and randomly chose the first four letter word that comes into my head. Surprisingly it isn’t ‘arse,’ as even I am not that crude. Rather, it’s something that no one in a million years would think of.
I stalk back into the dining room and take my seat, ignoring Sebastian and his look of annoyance that I didn’t message him back. So, what if he tells. Now all I have to do is say that he used his gift on me. Whatever the Hell that is. Besides, it is making more and more sense that he did do something to me. I can’t imagine for the life of me why I would do it otherwise. CK all but offered the three of us together on the jet and I turned him down. I didn’t want to betray Cole, Devon and Lincoln or CK for that matter, I still don’t. It makes no sense and when I try to think about it, it’s all a bit of a blur.
“Who was that?” CK asks anyway, even though I try to distract him with a lingering kiss. Who am I kidding? Just like Cole can’t do it with me, I can’t do it with him.
“Just business,” I say shortly.
“Anything the rest of the class should know about?” Devon asks snidely and I glare at him.
“Nope.”
He shrugs and changes the subject. “We need to speak in private at some point,” he says to me. “I have some questions that need answering.”