by Eve Newton
“Are you okay?” I ask him.
“Fine, are you?”
I shake my head as again, a jolt goes through me. “Devon,” I say suddenly as I grab CK’s hand and Astral us to him.
He is standing in the bedroom of the suite and I can smell the blood before my eyes find the source.
“Fuck,” I whisper.
He turns to me. “Lizzie? What do I do? Help me. Tell me what to do.” His voice gets louder as he starts to panic and shoves a piece of paper at me.
He is staring at me in terror and I am staring at the scene in front of me in absolute horror.
Jess is lying unconscious on the bed, soaked in blood, her wrists slashed and bleeding out. I glance absently down to the paper he gave me, and it says simply: “If you want to help me, save me. If you don’t, my life isn’t worth living.”
“Holy fuck. Holy fuck. Constantine!” I turn to him.
He steps forward to Devon and places his hand on his shoulder. “You have a choice to make, my boy. Sire and save her or let her die.”
EPILOGUE
London, England, April 1746 - ?
I was still in shock. My husband was dead. The man that I loved more than anything in the world, was no longer in this world. I was furious with him. How dare he leave me? How dare he leave me all alone? If he had let me turn him, he would have been there with me then, like he was supposed to be. With me, forever. I started crying again as I stared out of the window of the inn room. Constantine had brought me here by way of an ability that he had acquired that allowed him to be one place one second and another in the next, to wait for something. I didn’t know what; he just said it was something I needed. He was taking me back to Tuscany. I had to get off this island. Whatever it was, wasn’t due for a few more days, so in the meantime I just sat there staring out of the window.
“Aefre, please, my sweet. Don’t cry,” Constantine said as he sat down next to me.
“Don’t call me that. It isn’t my name. Not anymore. I am Emily. Emily Campbell,” I said forcefully.
He stared at me silently. I knew what he was thinking.
“No, I’m not,” I said. “I don’t know who I am. I am nothing, nobody without him.”
“Don’t say that,” he said sadly. “Be Emily. Mourn your loss as his wife,” he added softly.
I shook my head. “I can’t. I won’t ever be her again. She is his and no one else will ever see her again.” I brushed the tears away as I remembered Shifting back to my natural form as soon as Constantine found me crouched a little way from the battlefield, bloody and dirty and in shock, having been pulled away by Fraser’s fellow soldiers. I didn’t want anyone else to see me as her. But who was I? I was not Aefre, I certainly was not Elizabeth, nor Mary, and I couldn’t be Emily.
“Just don’t call me anything. I don’t want a name. Please, Constantine, can we just leave here?”
“Soon, I promise.”
I sighed and continued to just sit and stare and cry.
T he mysterious thing arrived a couple of days later and when Constantine told me we could finally leave, I was relieved. I wanted to be as far away as possible from that dreaded place. Even London was still too close, still too connected. Mind you, Italy wasn’t exactly high on my list of places I wanted to go either with all of its connotations, but I didn’t want to be alone, so I would allow Constantine to take me there. He stood me up and pulled on my cloak.
I just stood there and let him do it. The door to the room opened and in walked the only other person I wanted to see then, and my heart thumped. “Devon,” I said as he strode forward to me and picked me up. “I’m sorry, Lizzie. I would have been here sooner, but I had business that I couldn’t just vanish from. Nice trick by the way,” he said to Constantine, who just grimaced at him. Still no love lost there then.
“You should have come back with me right away. Your sire needs you.”
“It’s fine,” I said. “He is here now. Are you alone?” I peered over his shoulder expecting a charge in tow.
He looked over his shoulder in confusion. “Yes, I am alone.”
I smiled a weak half-smile, relieved he was alone, “You are back then?”
“Yes. I am back. I am sorry I left,” he said. “I was stubborn and a fool. I should never have left you,” he said and bent down to kiss me, but I turned away. He looked hurt but soon realized I didn’t want anyone to kiss me on the lips. Fraser was the last one to kiss me there and I didn’t want anyone else to take that away.
He kissed my forehead instead and twined his hands in my long blonde hair. “This,” he said, “this is going to take getting used to.” He lifted my chin up to gaze into my green eyes and he flashed that devastating grin that I loved and said, “You are so short.”
I smiled the first real smile that I had in days and gazed adoringly at him, my darling boy.
“She is beautiful,” Constantine growled at him.
“I didn’t say she wasn’t. I am just not used to seeing my sire as a petite, green-eyed blonde,” Devon growled back. “Any chance I can persuade you to be Elizabeth again?” he asked me, half joking.
I shook my head and he looked disappointed, asking, “So what do I call you then?
“Nothing,” I told him, the same as I told Constantine.
He looked worried at the seriousness of my tone but didn’t say anything.
“Is your business conducted? Are we free to leave?” Constantine asked him brusquely.
“Free as a bird,” Devon said.
“Good.” He grabbed us both by the elbows and transported us in that very unsettling way to his castle in Tuscany.
We arrived in my old room, which had remained unchanged since I left it two hundred and forty years ago. I looked around in surprise.
“Everything is as you left it, my sweet. I will leave you to get settled. Devon, Francesca will sort you a room when you are ready.”
He left abruptly as Devon looked around in wonder. “This is a very nice room. It’s yours?”
I nodded. “It was. I suppose he wants me to be comfortable and in a familiar place. Would you?” I asked, pointing to the candles.
“Of course,” he murmured.
I took my shoes off and crawled onto the bed.
“I can come back later, if you want to sleep,” he said.
“No, I have missed you. Come here and never leave me again,” I pouted at him.
He crossed over to the bed and held me in his arms. “Yes, ma’am,” he said.
The End
Read on with The Ties That Bind: The Forever Series, Book 5
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THE TIES THAT BIND: THE FOREVER SERIES, BOOK 5
The Ties That Bind
The Forever Series, Book 5
BY EVE NEWTON
THIRD EDITION
Copyright © Eve Newton, 2012
Copyright © Eve Newton, 2017
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.
PROLOGUE
Halyfax, England, 1506 – Elizabeth
I t had taken me nearly two days to get here. I had ridden day and night with only a few hours’ sleep in between and a change of horses to get us there that quickly. I wanted Devon as far away from Helsby as I could get him before he woke up. It would be any time now. I was so excited. I could not wait for him to wake so that we could start our eternal life together. I was still so angry that we didn’t get to complete the proper rites, but I loved him so much and we would be together regardless.
I found us an inn and procured a room in Halyfax. We were not that far from York, which was where I wanted us to
be. It was a pleasant town, fairly quiet and unassuming. After dark, I carried Devon up to our bedroom and waited. He looked so peaceful on the bed. I knew he wanted this and even though it wasn’t how we planned it, I knew we would be married and happy, together forever. I waited by his side, stroking his forehead, willing him to wake.
“When you wake, my darling boy, I will be your wife. I will love you forever and we will have our forever after,” I whispered to him as he slumbered.
I must have dozed off myself as I was roused by his abrupt awakening.
“Devon,” I said and kissed him. He pushed me away, uncertain. “Drink,” I told him and offered him my neck. He looked at me, unspeaking. I was filled with dread that he had changed his mind about wanting this. He soothed that dread as he dropped his new fangs and sank them into my neck, suckling on me deeply.
“Oh, Elizabeth,” he whispered as he pulled away, “I want you.”
Forgetting all about human blood, I let him take me. Pushing my skirts up above my waist, he took me with abandon. I let him take his pleasure as mine could be fulfilled later.
“Oh, yes,” he murmured against my lips as he released himself. “I love you.”
“I love you,” I whispered back and kissed him deeply. “I never want to be apart from you. Are you well? Do you feel this is what you wanted?”
“Everything I ever wanted. I just want you,” he said back to me and I was joyful, like I hadn’t been in a long time.
“Ask me again.”
“Ask you what?” he said in between kisses.
I hesitated. He should have known what I wanted. What we had agreed on.
“Ask me,” I insisted, but he looked at me perplexed.
“I need blood,” he said, instead of the words I wanted him to say.
I blinked at him, thinking perhaps his turning had confused him somewhat. “Devon?”
“Elizabeth?”
I decided to leave it then as he was clearly not in his right frame of mind. “Let us go and feed,” I said.
His eyes lit up. “I want to feed,” he said. “I want to…”
“Want to what, my love?”
“Kill,” he said with a wicked glint in his eye.
My eyes flashed with the same wickedness, all thoughts of what I wanted him to say to me gone.
“Shall we?” I said, offering him my arm. He took it without hesitation.
“Lead the way, my love. I am yours to guide.”
Mine, I thought with a shiver.
We went off into the night and embarked on a mild killing spree with a body count that left us fleeing the town in the early hours before dawn. Oh, he was a beautiful, vicious creature, killing without mercy. But I needed to get him inside before sunrise. We found a disused barn where I told him to wait for me till I returned. It was time to go and perform my sire duty and get him his protection. I knew of a place not far from there, which was why I came this way to begin with.
“I will be back before nightfall,” I said to him and he kissed me passionately.
“I love you,” he said. “Don’t leave me.”
“I must. I must go so that I can protect you, so you can be free to roam with me.”
“Please, make haste. I don’t want to be apart from you. I love you,” he said again.
“I love you, my darling boy. I will be back soon. We will be together now, forever.”
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-TWO
Las Vegas, USA, 2013 - Liv
Devon looks at Constantine in horror. “Sire her or let her die?” he repeats in disbelief. “I can’t do that. I can’t sire her.”
“Dev,” I say as he gives me a terrified look. This is his worst nightmare come true.
“Fuck!” he yells, running his hand through his hair in agitation. He steps forward. “I said I’d help her, goddammit!”
I am on him in an instant. “No, Devon. Don’t do this. Don’t do this because she forced your hand.”
“Lizzie, I can’t let her die because of me. Because of something I didn’t do.”
“No!” I shriek. I won’t let him do this. I make a decision and step forward, saying, “I will do it then.”
Devon looks at me with a mixture of relief and horror, but Constantine pulls me back.
“No, Aefre. You don’t know what will happen.”
“Well, you want to know. Now is as good a time as any to find out,” I hiss at him, agitated to the point of anger.
“You would experiment on an innocent girl?” he asks me in disbelief. “No. This is Devon’s responsibility.” He turns to Devon and says, “You have seconds left, my boy. Make a choice.”
“Devon…” I plead with him not to do this. He is making a massive mistake.
He squares his shoulders, resolute, and slits his wrist open. He leans over her and hesitates for a second before he places it to her lips, making sure it gets into her mouth as he saw me do with Cole. He scrunches his eyes up, hating every second of this.
“Devon!” I scream. I’m struggling in Constantine’s grip.
“It’s done,” Devon says and with a glance at me that breaks my heart as I see his pain and his uncertainty, he goes to slump against the wall, sinking to the floor in the corner, pushing his hands into his hair.
“We need to clean this mess up. Pull yourself together, Aefre. You need to be his sire now, not his friend,” CK advises.
His words snap me into action. He’s right. What’s done is done. I know Devon isn’t ready for this, but he wouldn’t, couldn’t leave her to die. Could he?
Constantine lifts her carefully off the bed and places her on the floor as I strip the sheets off the bed. I grimace at the mattress. The blood soaked through the sheets into it.
“We’ll have to scrub it,” Constantine says grimly.
“No, I may have another way,” I say and hold my hands out over the stain. I pull on the Grimoire for instruction. The blood flies up into my palms in a reverse rainfall and is absorbed into my skin. Primarily used for absorbing energy, I twisted it to work the same with blood. I shake my hands as I feel a slight warming of my palms. I conjure up a fresh set of sheets and make haste. I could have just magicked them straight onto the bed, but the few minutes of busy work keeps me from falling to pieces. Constantine places her back on the bed and I swap her bloodied clothes for clean ones, not wanting to take anymore of her blood by magick. It’s dark and dangerous and I need more instruction on it. I magickly dispose of the bloody sheets and clothes.
And then we just stare at her.
Constantine pulls me to him. “We’d better tell the others,” he whispers quietly.
“No, not yet,” I say to him. “Let him process first.”
“No, they need to know that we are about to have a new member to our little group. Especially as it is one so close.”
A new member: one so close. I want to throw up. I don’t want this girl as part of my family. She isn’t welcome, especially after this horrific stunt she has pulled.
I nod eventually and go to sit next to Devon. He doesn’t acknowledge my presence until I loop my arm through his, resting my hand on his bicep. He leans his head towards me but stays silent for the longest time.
“How long do you think it will take?” he croaks.
“I don’t know, my love. Two or three days? You took less than two, but I was stronger.” I don’t mean it as an insult, it’s just a fact.
“Christ, Liz. I don’t want this,” he says quietly.
“I know.”
“What am I going to do with her? I don’t want her this way. I didn’t even want her any way, but I was lost without you. I didn’t realize how much I needed your attention until it was taken away.”
Fuck. I feel like the worst sire on the planet. I sigh and say, “You don’t need to be with her, but she is going to have to live with you, with us, for a time, anyway. You know that she won’t survive without you. You need to be close to her. Teach her.”
“I don’t want to,” he says mutino
usly.
“Dev, sweetie. I will help you, okay? I will teach her. You just need to be there.”
“You will?” he asks hopefully. “You would do that?”
“I will do anything for you. You know that.” I smile softly at him as his eyes finally meet mine.
“Why wouldn’t Constantine let you turn her?” he asks hesitantly. “What did he mean about experimenting?”
“We are unclear on whether I am able to sire, what with all my new additions.” I don’t go into the whole co-siring business. That is very much a secret I want to keep.
“Oh. Well, thanks for offering, anyway,” he says ruefully. I hold onto the giggle that wants to come out.
“Anytime,” I say instead.
He smiles at me sadly and says, “I don’t want her sharing our home. I don’t want to share it with her.”
Me either, I think, but say instead, “You don’t have to share a room with her. She can have the one next to you. But you need to stay close.” The gods, I hate this. I don’t want to be the voice of reason. I want to tell him to go now, run like the wind as far away as he can, but I can’t do that. He would hate himself if he did and I am Queen now. As much as I dislike this girl, she is one of mine now. One of Devon’s. I can’t leave her to her own devices to end up like Gustav. It is only that thought that keeps my mouth shut and not tell him to go.
“I suppose I can’t expect you to come back to L.A. with me – with us – now with Cole’s trips coming up. I will have to be responsible and do the right thing now,” Devon says.
“You aren’t going back to L.A. You are coming with us. Just as planned,” I say, shaking my head.
“I can’t drag her halfway around the world with us. She needs to be settled. You said that with Cole.”
“I think the best thing for her will be to drag her halfway around the world. She will be hungry, Dev. As much as we try to control her actions, there is no getting away from that. This whole business,” I gesture at her lying motionless on the bed, “is far from perfect. It couldn’t have been more incorrect if we tried. Murder is one thing; suicide is a whole other. Don’t expect her to wake up and be like Cole was. She will be like you were. Worse, even,” I say and again I don’t mean it as an insult, but we are far past any sugarcoating. “Not staying in one place for very long is a better option than taking her back to our home before she is under control.”