by Eve Newton
“Sure,” he says and goes to leave but stops as CK puts his hand on my bare shoulder and says, “What the Hell is this?”
I peer over my shoulder at him. “What is what? I can’t see from here.”
“This.” He pokes me repeatedly on my collarbone.
“Hey, stop with the prodding. I don’t know, is it another marking?”
He looks at it closely and Sebastian comes around to have a look as well. “DX? What does that mean? Roman numerals?”
DX?
“What? Let me look,” I say. I march into the bathroom and face them, looking back over my shoulder and clear as day, in a previously empty spot on my collarbone, is a ‘D’ about three inches in diameter with an ‘X’ in the middle. Oh, shit on a stick. I know exactly what that means. I chew my lip and meet CK’s eyes in the mirror.
“What is it, Aefre?” he asks, knowing that I know.
“That would be my Demon marking,” I say and brush past them on the way back out of the bathroom.
“Excuse me? Demon marking? You have a Demon marking?” He is livid.
“It appears so, yes.”
“Aefre!” he barks. “Start talking.”
“I met my Demon self today. She is quite kick-ass,” I say, waiting for the shitstorm.
“Your Demon self?” Sebastian asks.
CK is looking at me with unbridled fury.
“Yes. I am Xerxei, of the House of Dracul and apparently, Mistress of the Domain,” I say, thoroughly embarrassed. “That would be what the ‘X’ and the ‘D’ stand for.”
“Oh, you are, are you?” Constantine sneers at me. “You have been branded with those initials for eternity now? What a fucking coincidence you share his name. ‘Fucking’ being the operative word here, I’m sure.”
I growl at him and he glares at me. “Nothing to say, Aefre? Or should I call you Xerxei? I’m sure he does.”
“Constantine, don’t be an arse. It isn’t like that,” I lie through my teeth, but no way am I admitting to what we did. “Yes, it would seem that they are a permanent addition. But it’s no surprise that I have a Demon part. I have every other part.”
“The only part you need is your Vampire part,” he snarls at me.
“Not according to my mother,” I say and then wish I didn’t.
“You saw Tiamat?” he snaps. “When?”
“In the Underworld. She paid a visit after Xerxei made her appearance,” I say, which is true.
“What did She want?” he asks suspiciously.
“To speak to me. About being a better Dragon. I am letting the side down with my unruly Vampire behavior,” I say with just a tiny bit of resentment.
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me.”
“She wants you to be a better Dragon?” Sebastian asks. “What the Hell does that mean?”
“It means, Sebastian, that I am no longer allowed to let my Vampire side rule, to the point where I stop being one altogether.” So, that is a bit of an overstatement, but I’m getting my mad on now.
“What? You are a Vampire!” CK roars at me. “You don’t just get to stop being one. Especially you. Does she know of your voracious appetite?”
“Yes. She knows. She wants me to use my Dragon to feed. Well, sustain. Feed is not the right word.”
“And how, pray tell, do you do that?”
“Sebastian, come here,” I say, quite glad of the demonstration as I’m starving again now. He obeys without comment. “Hold your hands out palms down,” I order. He does as he is told, and I show them my rudimentary Dragon energy-sucking ability. I feel a crazy rush and I relax again now, happy. Must be that Faerie blood, I think as I narrow my eyes at him to his astonishment. “Wow. That’s impressive. Although, I do prefer the Vampire way. Far more intimate,” he leers at me but without malice.
Constantine is watching in disbelief. “No. This is not right. You are a Vampire. You are my Vampire. I made you.” He is most put out and I feel sorry for him.
“It’s okay, my love. I am still yours and will always still be a Vampire. Tiamat just wants me to…” I try to say it delicately, “embrace my true nature.” I lace my fingers through his and twirl the ring I gave him. He brightens up a very small bit. “I need you to help me,” I say quietly, knowing that he won’t be able to resist coming to my aid.
He nods. “Very well. I don’t suppose you managed to find out anything about the book?” he asks, dismissing the topic at hand for one he finds more appealing.
“Sort of. She knew you were looking for it and asked if you had found it and translated it. I told Her yes, and a bit. I said that I would see Her next week as I have no clue what it is you are really after. I’m to take you with me.”
He looks surprised. “I thought I couldn’t go.”
“Well, lucky for you, She is smitten with you, you handsome, clever young man,” I say with a slight smile and he snorts.
“Young? Maybe compared to her. I find it very unnerving speaking with Her, as She looks like you.”
“I know what you mean. I think She does it on purpose.”
“She looks like you?” Sebastian asks.
“That’s hard to say, certainly She can Shift to look like me, but I don’t know if that is Her natural form or not. I thought it was at first but the last two times She has cloned me, right down to my accessories, so I don’t know,” I say.
“I’m glad that I can go with you. I’m in the right mood to give that woman a piece of my mind.”
“No, CK, don’t go in all guns blazing.”
He looks affronted. “I wasn’t planning on. Despite what you think, I do have tact, Aefre.”
“Well, don’t piss Her off. She is already mad at me.”
“What for?”
“Choosing the uncertain path,” I say mysteriously. “I have no clue what that means, so don’t even ask. CK, I still need to talk to you, please.”
“I will leave you two alone,” Sebastian says.
“Thank you,” I say as he leaves.
“What is it, Aefre?” He looks concerned by my serious face. “Should I be worried?”
“No, but you are going to be mad,” I say.
“Oh?”
“We never got a chance to speak about it after the Jess thing, but you will come with us to Miami and to Europe, yes?”
“You are still going? I thought you would have cancelled in light of your decision to teach our newbie the Vampire way?”
“No, we are still going. The three of us. I just assumed you would be as well.”
“Well, I’m not leaving you to wander around the globe alone,” he says with a slight smile as I had said that to Cole.
“Okay, good. After this is over. After the movie is finished and after Jess is in control and Devon can take her back to L.A., I…” Shit, just say it woman. “I need some time alone with Cole. A lot of time. Without interruption.”
His face hardens as he registers what I’m saying. “How long?”
“A week at least, if not more,” I say in dread.
“I see.” He pulls away from me and ponders this for a good long while. Long enough that I get to pour myself a drink, make myself comfy on the sofa and have a look through the rest of Sebastian’s gifts. Each one is meaningful in some way and I am really surprised. I think he is trying to show me that he does know me and doesn’t think of me as a wanton whore. Although, my eyes do go straight to ‘W’ expecting something unsavory there but what I see is a globe. The World. He gave me the World.
“Ten days,” CK says eventually. “Ten days starting with a Thursday to the next Saturday and I get the following Sunday to Wednesday. Take it or leave it.”
“Done,” I say without hesitation. I will have to work on Lincoln and Devon will be unhappy, but my priority is spending proper time with new charge. All of this time apart is not good for him.
He nods. “I am not entirely unreasonable, Aefre. You just need to be able to offer me something in return.”
Oh, s
ure, if I looked up 'unreasonable' in the dictionary, my sire’s photo would take up the whole page.
“I may have more than that to offer you,” I say carefully.
He looks at me sharply. “I’m listening.”
“While my mother is very protective and defensive of Cole, She said today that you would make an excellent partner for me one day.” I leave out the ‘for a while’ bit.
He beams. “Of course, I will. We belong together.”
Hm, I seem to be hearing that a lot today.
“It has also been suggested that I may be able to…” I clear my throat, a bit embarrassed to discuss this with him. It’s odd and unnatural.
“Be able to what?” he prompts me.
“Bear children,” I say quickly, looking away from him.
“What?” he says, somewhat dumbstruck.
“Not with a Vampire. At least not with any ordinary Vampire,” I say just as quickly.
He frowns. “Then what are you saying? You want to get pregnant with what? Lincoln’s pups?” he asks as if he can’t believe it. “Or Xane’s Demon babies?” he yells at me.
I roll my eyes at him. “No, you idiot.”
He glares at me. This is the second time in a few short days I have called him an idiot, which is probably the only times in his supremely long life anyone ever dared.
“I want to find a way to make you no ordinary Vampire.”
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FORTY-THREE
“Say that again?” he asks now, beyond confused.
“While you were busy with Vivienne, or not busy with Vivienne, whatever,” I amend at his look, “a few things happened, and we saw Corinne.”
“Corinne?”
“Yes, downstairs.” I launch into my tale about the wards and my blood amplifying the status of himself, Devon, and Sebastian. “So basically, Sebastian’s gift worked on me because, while his own power is strong, my blood made him stronger.” I decide to leave out the Faerie bit for now. “You can Teleport because I am making you stronger.”
“Okay, yes, I get that, but why would you think that has anything to do with what you said before?”
“I obviously don’t know for sure, but I think it might. I think my blood might evolve you into something more, more like me, if we tie ourselves with the Blood Magick bond. The proper Blood Magick bond.”
He is staring at me like I just fell from heaven and offered him the world on a silver platter.
“You would do that? You would try this for me?” he croaks out.
“For us. I would do this for us.”
“Oh, Aefre,” he swoops down on me, folds me in his arms and picks me up from the sofa, twirling me around. I laugh at his joy and I see for the first time, maybe just a tiny glimpse, of what he might have been like as a human.
“I had hoped for just a child to raise with you, but to know that I might get one of my very own. Our very own. That would be the greatest gift of all.” He plops me down gently. “Let’s do it. Let’s do it now. Do you know how?” His eagerness makes me love him even more, but I shake my head solemnly.
“No, Constantine. Not right now. I’m saying we will try this in the future. When we are married. When I am able to do this with you.”
His face falls as he realizes I’m serious. “Of course. I forgot for a moment that you are anything but free to be with me,” he says bitterly.
“I’m sorry. I wish I could give you what you want right now. I need to find a cloning spell,” I mutter more to myself.
“Well, if you find one, I want the real you,” he says, and I smile at him. “How did you think of this?”
I can’t answer that, not honestly at least. I try for semi-truth, “The Blood Magick that Lance’s Romani performed was a weak version of the real thing. The intent was dishonorable, and it made the spell dark and twisted.”
“Twisted how?”
“Its sole purpose was to link two bodies together so that if one died the other would as well. There was nothing more in it than that. But this isn’t the true purpose of the spell. Its true purpose is for good: a tie to bind soul mates, true loves, for eternity. It is the most powerful of all spells and the effects are limitless, if performed correctly with the right people.”
“I see. How do you know this?”
“It is a form of Dragon and Demon magick.” I leave out the bit where it is strongest when connecting a female Dragon to a male Demon. Somehow, I am going to have to find a way to untie that one. So far there is nothing in the Grimoire that I can use or know how to use.
“You think that it will work?” he asks hopefully.
“Well, I have proven you are my true love. Am I yours?” I ask slyly.
“Do you even have to ask me that?” he says, shaking his head at me.
“Prove it,” I challenge him with a glint in my eye.
He frowns at me. “How do I do that? Is my word not good enough?”
“I want you to prove it. Find a way.”
“All right, I accept your challenge,” he says. “I will find a way to prove to you that I love you unconditionally and without prejudice. That you are my true love.”
I smile widely at him. “I look forward to it.”
He smiles back. “I look forward to making a baby with you. I want a girl,” he declares, twining his fingers through mine.
“Given it some thought, have you?” I joke.
“Yes. A girl. And I want to call her ‘Eternal,’” he says back seriously. “A tweak on your own name.”
“Okay, my love. You have not been a human for many centuries, so I don’t mind reminding you that it isn’t something you get to choose.”
“I know that,” he snaps at me as I hide my smile. “But it’s what I want.”
“Okay,” I say again.
“Speaking of being human…” he changes the topic in his abrupt fashion, “If you could be human again, would you?”
“Erm, that is a bit redundant, isn’t it? I can’t say I have ever even thought about it. Would you?” I ask, interested
“Maybe. If you were as well,” he says.
“But we would grow old and die together. Where is the fun in that?” I ask lightly.
“There are so many things we miss out on, Aefre. So many things that I want to feel again.”
Gee, melancholy much?
“Well, I am afraid to say that even if I could reverse being a Vampire, I am just too many other things now to ever be human again. But I don’t think that I would want to be.”
“Hm, I suppose that is true. I suppose I have been thinking about it a lot because of my desire for a child. If you can offer a solution, I could think of nothing more that I want than to spend eternity with my two beautiful girls.” He smiles at me.
“Or a boy,” I say.
He chuckles. “You have made me so happy today, Aefre. I love you more than I ever thought possible. Thank you.”
“It is my sole mission in life to please you,” I say.
“If only that were the truth,” he mutters. “Come, we should go and see what is going on downstairs. I think your boy might need you near him for a while.” I must look astounded at his remark as he says, “I am feeling magnanimous. Just go with it while it lasts.”
I grab his hand and Astral us downstairs before he can change his mind.
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FORTY-FOUR
Scott nearly jumps out of his skin as we land next to him.
“Sorry,” I mouth, and he waves it off. I go into the bedroom to find Devon. He is lying flat on his back on the bed staring at the ceiling.
“At least it is comfier than the floor,” I say, going to sit next to him.
“I wish she would wake up already. Get it over with,” he grumbles.
“Dev. Are you going to be okay with her once she does? I know you are upset with her right now but hating her is only going to make things worse.”
“I don’t hate her. I hate what she did. What she made me do. Will you tell her it’s not okay? That what
she did was wrong?”
“I will, don’t worry about that. But I think she needs to hear it from you first. After you have reassured her, she is going to be fine,” I add.
He looks at me then. “You said you would take care of it. Of her. You said you would do it for me.”
“I will, Devon. But no matter how much responsibility I take on, you are still her sire. The one she will find comfort in and need to be with.” It kills me having to defend her. I don’t think I can do it much longer. I am this close to just leaving her here and going home.
“I’m not sharing a room with her. In New York. Or Miami, or anywhere else.”
“Sweetie. We aren’t going to New York. From here we are going to Toronto. Scott is sorting it all out and you can have separate rooms. Grayson can watch her. Okay?”
“Thank you.”
“No worries. I am here to fix your problems,” I say with a smile and brush his hair away from his forehead. He turns his face into my hand and sighs. “You should get out of here. Get some space. Why don’t you go and hit the casino? Try and win us a shitload of cash,” I say.
He chuckles. “You know that I will. I never lose.”
“No, you don’t.” I smile.
“Will you come with me?”
“Sure. CK is feeling generous, he said to make the most of it.”
“I don’t even want to know what you promised him to get him to say that,” he says as he sits up and pulls his t-shirt over his head. “Let me get showered and changed.”
“Okay, baby.” I kiss him softly and leave him to his business.
“Bad news, Liv,” Scott says as soon as I walk back into the sitting room.
“Oh, Scott. Don’t start a sentence with those words, please,” I beg him.
“Sorry. We have to give up some rooms. There is a conference coming into town first thing tomorrow and they need the rooms free.”
“What? Just offer them more money or ask to speak to Xane. He’ll sort it.”
“I did offer them more money and also offered to pay for the other guests to be put up elsewhere, but it’s a big conference. There are no rooms anywhere. And you speak to Xane. He’s your….” he pauses, waving his hand around, “friend.”