by Eve Newton
He couldn’t look more upset if I told him I never wanted to see him again. I take his hand in a conciliatory gesture. Although why I feel the need to apologize is beyond me. He laces his fingers tightly in mine as if he never wants to let go and returns once more to our fearless sire.
“Let us go and see the others. I am sure we can arrange to have some food sent up if needs be.”
We four head downstairs, not thrilled to have Vivienne as a part of our little set, but she and Sebastian seem close now. We enter Devon’s suite and all eyes land on me, of course. With my hand still gripped by CK, they all assume it’s me.
“Liv?” Lincoln asks.
“Yep,” I say almost embarrassed.
“Wow! This is a change. Can I ask why?”
“Everybody, this is Xerxei,” CK grumbles to raised eyebrows.
Lincoln is looking at me like I just fell from the moon and Devon is gaping at me, the adoration clear in his eyes. “Holy crap. Your Demon self?”
I nod. “Yes.”
“You are…” He falters under CK’s baleful glare. “Unexpected,” he says.
“Indeed,” my sire agrees. “She’s hungry,” he barks at Lincoln and Scott. “Get her some food.”
“Food?” three voices ask in confusion, but then they jump to it as Constantine gives them his most menacing look.
Lincoln looks delighted as he piles a plate high with room service and hands it to me. “I have wanted to feed you up since day one. You are way too skinny.”
I blush, taking it from him and I eat for the first time in a thousand years because I am hungry. It tastes heavenly but I am fully aware of everyone’s eyes on me.
“Please don’t stare,” I say. “It’s disconcerting.”
Everyone stops staring and avoids my gaze, except Devon, who sidles over and whispers he wants to see me.
“Sure,” I say, knowing exactly what it is he is after. He leads me to the second bedroom and closes the door with a thump. I sense the disapproval through the closed door but don’t have much chance to worry about it as he is on me like a fly to honey, pushing me up against the door, unzipping the catsuit and freeing my breasts in one swift move. “Oh, god, Liz. You are so hot,” he whispers in between kisses. “I want you.” He picks me up and I wrap my legs around him. He moves to the bed and drops me gracefully on to it as he removes my shoes and pulls down the rest of my outfit. His eyes roam hungrily over me as he gets rid of his own clothes and within seconds, he is on top of me, kissing me and touching me. “I need you.”
I know he does. I know he needs me, this, us. He is going through the worst time right now and it is part of the reason I have let him take me so blatantly.
I roll us over and thrust myself onto his stiff cock as he groans and grabs my hips roughly. I ride him quickly, working us both up into a frenzy. He sits up and roughly pulls my head to the side. “Can I?” he murmurs. I nod and he bites down straight into my neck. He pulls back, breathless. “You taste so good,” he says before biting down again, even harder. My top teeth are aching, wanting to bite him too but I don’t have fangs. I have no way of tasting him and it is killing me. Well, my mother wants me to be less of a Vampire and Xerxei is determined to make her presence known, but I am a Vampire. It is who I am. I live for the bite, the blood, the intimacy of sharing this with those that I love. I try to Shift back again, knowing that Devon will be disappointed, but it still doesn’t happen. We both come at the same time and it feels different. It’s not the same and I am sad, fearful that I will never get my Vampire back. I kiss him deeply, trying to find the connection, the bond we have, but it isn’t there and I start to panic. I remember what my mother said: “If you choose him, be prepared to lose the ones you love.” I didn’t know exactly what She meant then, but I do now. If I choose to be with Xane, to be a Demon, my Vampire bonds will cease to exist. I am not Devon’s sire. I am not Constantine’s charge. I am not a Vampire.
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FORTY-NINE
I need to Shift back, and I need to do it now. But I can’t.
Shit, Cole! He is probably feeling the effects of this. I need to get to him. He can’t survive without me as his sire.
My panicked look causes concern for Devon and he says, “I know. I don’t feel it either. You need to Shift back.”
I shake my head at him. “I can’t,” I whisper. “I’ve tried but I can’t.”
“Can’t?” he repeats, his worry increasing tenfold now. “Liv, you have to.” In his own panic now, he reverts to calling me “Liv” and that makes me even more concerned.
“I need to get to Cole,” I say as I climb off him and get dressed. “The gods only know what he is feeling now.” I stalk out of the bedroom to a room full of avoiding stares. I jump a mile when there is a banging on the door.
“Liv!” a voice shouts. It’s Cole. I am at the door in a flash and yank it open.
“Cole.” I fling myself into his arms, but he pushes me away giving me a ‘who the Hell are you?’ look.
“Cole. Baby. It’s me,” I say to him and he looks twice.
“Liv?” he asks incredulously.
I nod. “Well, Xerxei, actually. But yes, it’s me.” I push him out into the corridor and grab his hand. I head for the stairs and take them two at a time, dragging him up with me as I push open the door to our suite. “Are you okay? What are you doing here?” I ask him in concern. He pulls me closer to him and kisses me but then stops as he inhales deeply and mutters, “Devon.”
“Sorry,” I mutter back. “I will go and get showered.”
“No, it can wait,” he says. “I need to be near to you. After you told me about Devon, I had to come. I knew you would be in knots about it. And him,” he adds as an afterthought. “I just told them I was coming, and I’d be back Monday, and it was tough shit if they didn’t like it.”
I love his boldness. “I’m glad you’re here. But tell me, how do you feel?”
“Like crap,” he admits. “I was fine until I got on the plane and then I just felt…alone. Completely alone. Abandoned,” he whispers. “I didn’t know if it was because you were so far away or if something had happened to you. I tried to call but I couldn’t get through from the plane’s phone. Then my cell battery died so I just rushed straight here from McCarran. I ran into Nico downstairs and he told me where you all were.”
“Oh, Cole. There is something I need to tell you.” I explain my tale of woe to him and he is trying not to panic, as am I, but we both seem to fail miserably.
“No longer a Vampire? That means you are no longer my sire, Liv. What does that mean exactly, for me? For us?”
“I don’t know,” I touch his face, expecting a charge like reaction, but there is nothing. Shit.
An insistent knocking on the door distracts me and I go to open it, more for time to think than out of a need to know who it is.
“Xerxei,” Xane says as he steps into the suite, “I knew you would come.” He leans down to kiss me. I put a hand to his chest as Cole barks, “Get your hands off my wife.”
Xane looks up and acknowledges Cole for the first time, although I am sure he knew he was there all along. “Your wife? You must be Cole. I am Xane.”
“Yes, I have heard about you,” Cole says unpleasantly.
Xane just smiles in response and his eyes return to me.
“Xane, I have an issue. I Shifted earlier inadvertently, and I can’t Shift back. I am no longer a Vampire and it is destroying my bonds. I need to get back to the real me.”
“Maybe this is the real you,” he says slyly.
“Xane!” I snap. “This is serious.”
He sighs. “You say you are no longer a Vampire? At all?”
I shake my head.
“It may be that for all your mother’s wishes your Vampire self is the strongest part of you. The part you need to be whole. It may be that the wards are preventing you from Shifting.”
I stare at him, it makes perfect sense, “Are you saying that somehow I have lost my Qu
eenly ability because I am not a Vampire anymore?” I ask. His insight is pretty helpful.
“Have you tried to do other magick?” he asks.
“I tried to magick up an outfit, but I couldn’t. I thought I was just tired.” I try to Astral and nothing. “I can’t Astral.” I try to light the candles and still nothing. Cole steps closer.
“You need to get out from behind the wards and try.”
“I have a house not far from here that isn’t protected,” Xane says, grabbing my arm. “Come.” He Astraports me out as I yell to him, “Wait, Cole….” but it’s too late, we are standing in the sitting room of a dark house a few miles away from the hotel.
“For fuck's sake, Xane. You cannot just exclude my husband like that. And how come you can Astraport?”
“I still have your blood running through me. Your original blood. I am still a part of you.”
Well! That just smacks of unfair that he gets to keep his advanced Powers while I get weaker. He steps closer and gazes down at me. “Don’t change back. Come back with me to The Underworld. We can be together, just the two of us. As we are meant to be,” he whispers.
“No, Xane. I can’t. This isn’t me. I am not Queen like this, and I cannot, will not, abandon the men that I love just because you ask me to.”
“I love you,” he says. “I love you.”
“No, Xane. It isn’t right.” I step back and try to Shift. Thank fuck it works, and I’m Liv again. I adjust my outfit accordingly, going for my trademark black mini and backless halter top.
He looks pained as he sees the change, but again steps closer to me. He cups my face in both of his hands and drops his mouth to mine. He kisses me slowly and deeply, his tongue moving against mine in the same slow, steady rhythm that he was using against another part of me yesterday. He pulls back and murmurs, “I want to tongue fuck you again. I want to taste you.” I gasp into his mouth at his words as he kisses me again. He runs his tongue along my top teeth, teasing me and my fangs, that have been aching to drop for hours, now descend, slicing into his tongue and drawing blood. He hisses as his blood fills my mouth and I lap at his tongue in desperation. I am hungry for blood now and he tastes like nectar from the gods. I pull his head closer to me, my sharp fangs scratching his tongue, his lips, and he moans in ecstasy. He moves his hand under my skirt and brushes his fingers lightly over me and I shiver. But it jolts me back to the present and I push him away. Kisses and feeding are one thing. Touching falls into a whole different bag.
“I must go. Cole will be worried.” I step back from him and Astral out, leaving him looking mournfully after me.
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FIFTY
“L iv.” Cole throws himself at me as he sees me back in normal form. “Thank God.”
I smile at him and raise my hand to his cheek and this time he reacts. He turns his face into my palm and kisses me there before pulling me so close and kissing my lips. I am quite conscious that I must now not only have Devon’s scent all over me but also Xane’s blood in my mouth. If he notices, he doesn’t say anything, so I kiss him back desperately.
“I need you,” he says as he pushes his hands up my skirt and walks me back to the bedroom. I get rid of my top and skirt in the process. He picks me up and pushes me against the wall. I free his cock and guide him inside me, needing him as much as he needs me. I pull his head to my neck and tilt away. His fangs drop straight into my flesh as he feeds, needing this intimacy to restore our bond, to restore his strength. He pounds into me and I come quickly. He releases the bite and turns us to face the bed. He throws me down in the middle as he strips off his clothes and then he is on me, kissing me, nipping me, licking me, driving me to the point of distraction.
He sits up and pulls me onto his lap. “Feed,” he orders.
I don’t need asking twice. I suckle, slowly and deeply, lost in the taste of his blood, lost in his touch and I can feel our bond stronger than ever, an almost glowing gold ribbon tying us together. He must have thrust inside me again at some point as I suddenly feel the rush again, “Together,” I say to him as I release him. “Tell me when.”
“Now,” he growls, and I am ready for him. We come together in perfect sync and everyone is happy.
That is, everyone except Constantine, who clears his throat from the doorway. “Nice to see you back, Aefre, but did you have to do this on our bed?”
Our bed? We have a bed? Well, I suppose you could call this hotel room bed “our bed” as we are temporarily sharing it, but Cole is not going to like that in the slightest. I chance a quick peek up at him and no, he isn’t impressed.
“There was nowhere else,” I say in a huff. “Unless you would have preferred we go to Sebastian’s bed?” I say, knowing he will like that option even less.
He grunts at me and changes the subject. “How did you find yourself again?”
Pulling the covers over me and Cole in a show of false modesty – more for Cole’s benefit than mine – I tell him the story of the wards and he seems surprised but thrilled. “So, you are weaker when you are not a Vampire?” he says as he sits on the bed.
“Seems so,” I say.
“Tiamat is not going to like that.”
“Tough shit. Even She can’t deny now that without the Vampire, I wouldn’t be who I am. I suppose it makes sense actually,” I muse. “After all, the prophecy was about a Vampire. Not a Demon.”
“Why do you think you Shifted to Xerxei in the first place?” Cole asks, quite enjoying this naked cuddling in front of my sire.
“I don’t know. She seems quite forceful. Although the strangest thing was the Dragon was at peace. She was sleeping.” Both of them look surprised at that as they both know the Dragon is quite active but even when She is still, She is awake and alert. “What is She doing now?” I ask Cole.
He pushes me forward away from him and peers at my back. “She’s doing that thing where She wants me to stroke Her,” he giggles in delight and I shiver as he runs his hand over my back.
I look back at Constantine, who looks like he wants to commit murder. I know it is because he has never really seen me this intimate with Cole before and he certainly wasn’t aware that he has a personal relationship with my Dragon. I smile uncertainly at him and he puts his shutters back in place. “You need to rest, Aefre,” he says quietly.
“I know. I’m exhausted.”
“I’ll bring you some blood and then you should sleep. The girl is probably going to wake later, and you need to be focused.”
I nod my thanks and he leaves silently.
“Our bed, eh?” Cole says slyly. “I thought he preferred his own space.”
“Not lately,” I say lightly, but nothing more as he returns with blood. I down it hungrily and put the glass on the bedside cabinet. I snuggle further down the bed and gratefully lower my head to the pillow. “Can he stay, please?” I ask my sire in a tone that I know he can’t refuse.
He smiles softly. “Of course, my love.” He bends down to kiss my forehead, nods at Cole and leaves again. I look at the clock and it is 2:30 AM. I close my eyes and don’t open them again until it is light out and I’m looking straight into the sleeping face of my sire. My breath catches as I watch him.
I feel Cole’s arm tighten around me as he senses my movement and I turn to him. He is still fast asleep. I lie back down quietly, enjoying being sandwiched between the two. Pity nothing will ever come from this. Devon is one thing; CK is something else entirely in Cole’s mind. After Sibiu, I think it will be a long, long time before he considers it. But that is okay for now. One day, he will come around.
“Having wicked thoughts, my sweet,” CK says softly to me and I turn to him with a smile.
“How can you tell?” I say, just as softly.
“I know you,” he says simply and leans over to give me a deep kiss.
He takes my hand and holds it lightly and I take comfort in his touch, slight as it is.
“I’m glad you are back, Aefre. I thought I had lost you.”
<
br /> “I thought I had lost myself. When I realized that I had no connection to Devon, I understood what it was you were trying to say to me. I’m sorry for being a stubborn fool.” I turn my head towards him as he does to me and we are nose to nose.
“I expect nothing less from you, my sweet,” he says with a soft chuckle. “But I am glad that you see now that without your Vampire self, we all have something to lose.”
I nod.
“I will leave you to your husband. If I don’t go now, I will end up causing trouble between you two,” he says with a smirk. He is gone in a flash of Vampire speed as Cole stirs next to me. I turn to him. “Hey, baby.”
“Hey,” he says, rubbing his face with his hand. “God, I feel like I have slept for months. I always sleep better when you are next to me.”
“As do I.” I kiss him and climb on top of him, but he pushes me away.
“As much as I want you, I have to get out of this bed. All I can smell is you and your sire,” he says with a soft laugh.
“I need to shower,” I say, climbing off him and heading to the bathroom. “Join me.”
No sooner have I stepped into the shower, he joins me with a small smile and says, “Who am I kidding? I can’t resist you when you throw yourself at me.”
“Throw myself at you? I like the sound of that,” I say with a chuckle.
“Here, let me.” He takes the soap out of my hand and gives me a very thorough cleaning. I revel at his gentle touch. He finishes up and kisses me. Then he ruins all of his good work with a hard and fast fuck against the wall of the shower, with the water beating down on us.
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FIFTY-ONE
“I ’ve come to some decisions,” I say to him as we are getting dry and dressed.
“Oh, what about?” he asks, a bit warily.
I tell him and he looks stunned. “Is that what you want?”
“Yes. I have called Scott up here with Lincoln, Devon, Nico, and Cade. We are going to have a meeting about it now. Is there anything you want to say before I speak to them?”