by Eve Newton
“Can you tell me what I am supposed to feel for her? Lizzie? Can you tell me, because I have no idea. What are your feelings for me? Your sire feelings. Ignore the love and history, like and best friends and all that. Strictly as my sire, what do you feel for me?”
I think about it for a minute. It is difficult to separate the feelings, but I say, “I have a strong urge to protect you. To see that no harm comes to you. I want to guide you and teach you and always be here if you need me. It is important for you to know that you can always come to me. That I will always help you.”
“Nicely put,” CK says with a proud smile.
“I don’t feel any of that for her,” Devon says flatly. “And before you ask, no, it isn’t just that I don’t want to feel it. I just don’t. It isn’t there for me, there is no bond. How is that possible?”
“Possibly because she forced the turning,” CK says, ever one to have an answer. “I have seen this before. Not many times, I’ll admit because it is a very rare thing, for your kind.”
Our kind. Meaning not the Initial Vampires who can sire willy nilly and not feel anything, I suppose.
“So, what do we do about it?” I ask.
“Nothing. There is nothing to do. What about the feelings you had for her before?” CK asks Devon.
“I don’t know. I never really had feelings for her. We were fucking just out of something to do.” He looks concerned as I glare at him. “After Cole came on the scene, I knew that what we had was the most important thing, Liz. I wasn’t going to lose you, so I ended it, but then…” He trails off, but I don’t need him to tell me anymore. “I am still so angry with her, it is clouding everything else,” he exclaims suddenly.
“You need to figure it out. Your detachment to her will be her undoing if you don’t start showing her some affection soon,” CK reprimands him.
“I’m trying. Believe me, what you see is me actually trying.”
“Try harder,” he says.
“Fine,” he says in a huff. “Are we done now? I need a drink.”
“One more thing. Does this help with the thing you were trying to help her with? Her being a Vampire now?” I ask cautiously.
“Yeah,” he says with a sigh. “But this isn’t the way I wanted it to go down.”
I nod and he leaves. I could do with a drink myself now.
“I will get you a Scotch,” CK says.
I nod my thanks, distracted by my phone ringing.
Louis Harlow? What does he want?” “Hello, Mr. Harlow,” I say, answering.
I see CK looking mighty pleased with himself.
“Liv!” he booms back at me with his strong Texan drawl. “How are you?”
“I’m good, thanks. How are you?”
“Never better,” he says. “I trust you are pleased with the arrangement?”
“What arrangement?” I ask, confused.
“Oh, it must be a surprise,” he says with a chuckle. “Well, I am honored that he left it to me to tell you.”
“Who left you to tell me what?” I ask, getting annoyed.
“I set your friend, Mr. D’Arcangelo, to try and persuade you to forget about purchasing Château Cassis last year. I thought he had managed it as I didn’t hear from you again until he called me earlier. Seems he is indeed most persuasive, only he got me to agree to sell it to him, for you!” he says with delight. “Easiest three billion Euros I ever made,” he adds, and my mouth drops open.
“What?” I shriek at him, which just makes him laugh even more. “You sold it to him?”
“I did indeed. I love the old place, but I wasn’t turning down an offer like that.”
I am still trying to process this as he continues, “I have already sent the paperwork to your office in L.A. I believe you are heading back there now. Just sign it and send the papers to the French Embassy. They will do the rest.”
Shit. “Thank you, Louis. You have no idea how much this means to me,” I say sincerely.
“Clearly someone does,” he says gruffly, pleased with my sincerity. “Although, what you want with my old family home is still a mystery. Anyway, it is none of my business, you have what you want, and I am now an even richer man so seems we are both happy.”
It was my family home long before it was yours, I think, but say, “Very. Thank you.”
“No, thank you. I have a dinner to get to so I will leave you to celebrate. As I will,” he chuckles. “Good evening, Liv.”
“Bye, Louis,” I hang up and tears spring to my eyes. This is CK throwing his hat in the ring. He goes out and buys me the one thing he knows I want more than anything else in the world and at great expense to himself. Shit. Shit. No, fuck. Shit just doesn’t cover it. I pocket my phone and take a deep breath, brushing aside the unshed tears. I open the door to the bedroom, and he looks up at me from across the cabin where he is talking to Sebastian. I hesitate for a second and then run to him, the tears flowing quite freely when he picks me up and holds me tight.
“Thank you,” I say loudly, forgetting everyone else, as I give him a deep, lingering kiss. “Thank you. I love you.”
“You are most welcome,” he says, pleased. “You are happy?”
“Ecstatic,” I say through my tears. “I can’t believe you got it for me.”
“Everything is for sale at the right price,” he says modestly.
“Three billion Euros!” I yell at him. “Fuck’s sake, CK.” I smack his arm and he chuckles.
“It’s nothing,” he shrugs.
At this point, I become aware of my surroundings again and everyone staring at us. “Care to share?” Sebastian inquires.
“He bought me Château Cassis!” I say with delight. “It’s mine. Mine!” I jump up and down like a little kid at Christmas and he smiles at me in amusement.
“You bought her Cassis?” Sebastian asks in amazement. “For three billion Euros?”
“Yes. It was worth every cent to see this look on your face,” he says to me, cupping my face.
Cole stands up and I can sense, not only his fury, but his sorrow. “So, it begins,” he says and stalks off, leaving everyone but the two of us confused. I look back at CK and he is smug. Shit. Torn between the two of them, I hesitate and CK cocks his eyebrow at me.
“I will thank you properly later,” I murmur, and he gets smugger as I turn and follow Cole to the bedroom, leaving everyone gaping between me and CK.
Cole has flopped down on the bed and I go to sit next to him.
He says, “So this is him throwing his hat in the ring? Going out and buying the thing you want most in the world and just giving it to you?”
“Seems so,” I mutter.
“He knows how to make a grand fucking gesture, I’ll give him that,” he says grudgingly. “But, Liv, if that is his starting point, what the fuck is next? I can’t compete with that and he knows it.”
“You don’t need to compete with him, Cole. I love you and I am already married to you. I intend for us to stay that way. Yes, it is the perfect gift and I can’t say that I am not over the moon about it, but it doesn’t change anything.” I take his hand as he smiles at me.
“He will probably buy you the moon next,” he grumbles.
I chuckle. “I’m not sure even he wields that kind of money and power.”
“I wouldn’t put it past him. Three billion Euros? Christ, he just has that lying around?”
“Well, it’s hardly under the mattress, but yes.”
“Fuck. Must be nice,” he mutters but then looks at me as I look away, and he realizes that I, too, probably have that lying around. Which I do, but in all fairness as much as I wanted Cassis, I wouldn’t have dropped that kind of money on it. A grand, over-the-top gesture is exactly what it is to show that he can, and probably more for Cole’s benefit than mine.
“We’ll be landing soon, we should go,” I murmur and stand.
“Wait,” he says as he grabs my hand and pulls me onto his lap. “I want to fuck you. I want him to know that he can buy you t
hings, but you come back here and fuck me,” he adds, pulling my dress up.
Well, I’m not overly thrilled with his reasoning behind this. I don’t like being used to prove a point, but there again it isn’t like it hasn’t happened before or won’t again in the future and well, I do want him, so I let him. I lose my knickers as he pulls his already hard cock out and I thrust myself down onto him and wiggle as I settle.
He groans loudly into my neck. “Christ, you feel good. That’s it, baby. Fuck me,” he says as I start to move over him. He drops his fangs and feeds from me hungrily, squeezing my tits hard so that my nipples are two hard points brushing against the fabric of my dress. “Oh, god, Liv, yes, baby. I’m close.” He pulls on my hips to push himself further inside me and I whimper to let him know I’m close too.
“I love you,” I tell him as I come and he too lets go with a very loud, “Oh, fuck, yes.”
I mentally roll my eyes at him. There is no need for extra volume. Everyone can probably hear us anyway and I’m pretty sure we will be met with five avoided gazes and one furious one.
Turns out, I’m right, as we head back into the Main Cabin, hand in hand, after adjusting ourselves. Cole is smug and happy to have proved his point and I am left stuck in the middle. This isn’t going to be easy. I sigh and sit. I meet CK’s gaze and try to tell him with my wretched face that I do love him, and I love what he did. He gets the message as his eyes soften a bit and he gives me a small smile. My mind wanders back to some of the happy times we had there. I remember to this day, how we came to name the place, and I smile at the memory. We had a quick reminisce in Sibiu last year, but as the minutes tick away in an awkward silence, I remember as I look into CK’s eyes and he remembers with me.
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FIFTY-EIGHT
Caen, Normandy, 1065 – Aefre
“I am so glad you came back with Constantine,” he said to me as I pulled the shutters closed. The wind had really picked up and kept blowing the candles out.
I turned with a big smile. “I was not going to let him come here all by himself. I would miss him too much.”
“He is too lucky to have a woman like you, one that would follow him across countries, and, of course, so beautiful.”
I flushed with the compliment. “Thank you, William,” I said as he took my hands and pulled me towards the roaring fire.
“You shouldn’t thank me, you should be with me,” he whispered against my lips. I pulled back moments before he was going to kiss me and that was how Constantine found us.
“William,” he growled as he pulled me towards him.
“Constantine,” he said back mildly. “Aefre and I were just discussing that you still have not named this place.”
“I am hardly here; it doesn’t need one.”
“Oh, but I think it does. It stands in my Duchy and I think you should name it. Or, better yet,” he added slyly, “you should let Aefre name it.”
Constantine looked at me and I lowered my eyes. “Aefre, do you have a name in mind?”
I shook my head. “No, but I will find the perfect name for it.”
“Very well,” he said. “Now, if you would excuse us, William, we have somewhere we need to be.”
I looked up at him. Did we? I did not know we were going somewhere.
“I will see myself out,” Williams said with a lingering glance in my direction. “One day, you will have to make an honest woman out of her, Constantine. She is far too pretty to remain unattached.”
“She is not unattached,” Constantine said with a cold look at William. “She is mine.”
“Then make it official, before someone else does,” he said and stalked off.
He turned to me and gave me a long look. “What other things do you speak of with him?”
A frisson of fear went through me at his tone and I looked down again. “Nothing important. We were just finished with lessons for the day,” I said quietly.
“Humph,” he said and took my hand. “I ought to put a stop to that.”
I bobbed my head in submission, even though I loved learning how to wield a sword. But if my sire did not wish it to continue, then I would cease.
He sighed. “Come here, lovely Aefre. I have missed you today.” He pulled me to him for a deep kiss that melted my heart and I clung to him.
“I have missed you too. I always miss you when you aren’t right next to me.”
“Then you shall have to remain by my side forever, my sweet Forever.”
“I want that more than anything, Constantine. I love you.”
“Then show me how much,” he said and pulled me down on top of him, in front of the fire.
I slowly undressed him, taking my time to kiss him and feel him under my soft touch. He reached for me and slowly undid the laces of the gown, placing little kisses to my breasts as it fell open.
“He wants to do this to you,” he murmured to me with a twinkle in his eye. “I could call him back, if you would be so inclined?” I stared at him, frozen to the spot. He laughed gently at me, “We could both please you, my sweet. Would you like that?”
What was he saying? What did he want me to do? I shook my head at him, and he took my face in his hands and said, “Do not worry, my love. If you want him, you can have him but only here, with me.”
Again, I shook my head. “No, I only want you, Constantine. I love you. I do not want anyone else.”
He smiled that slow, predatory smile that sent a shiver down my spine before he took my nipple in his mouth. I was mortified that he had asked me if I wanted someone to join us in this act. This was just for us. I would never be with another man, ever again. He was all I wanted, all I needed. He bit down on me, fangs down, and I cried out as the wave of pleasure washed over me and I wanted him inside me. He lifted his head and I kissed him as I slid over him and he groaned quietly as he felt my desire for him. “Bite me, Aefre. I want to feel you feeding from me as you please me.”
I did as he asked, and let my fangs drop against his pale flesh. I keened deep in my throat, as I tasted him. He was perfect. No one else tasted like he does. Sweet and sharp. As I drank from him and he released himself inside me, I pulled back and kissed him.
“I know what I want to call it,” I said.
“You have a name already?”
I nodded. “What is the Norman word for…” I leaned over and whispered the word in his ear.
He looked at me, startled. “Why that?”
“Because it is exactly what you taste like to me.”
He laughed. “Oh, my sweet Aefre. You are the loveliest woman I have ever met. We shall name it then, Castel Gradile,” he said the last two words carefully, so I could repeat it.
“Perfect,” I said, clapping my hands. “What will we say when someone asks about the name?”
“We tell them nothing. This is our secret, my sweet. Something that only you and I will share, always and forever.”
I kissed him again, happy and more in love with him than ever.
We land shortly thereafter, and I’m grateful to get off the jet, as is Jess, who practically races me to the door.
“Sorry,” she mumbles as she slams into me and I give her an annoyed stare.
There are two limos waiting for us on the tarmac and I climb into one followed by Cole, CK, Devon, and Jess. The others pile into the other one.
“Fuck, I’m glad to be going home,” I say with a big sigh.
“Agreed,” Cole and Devon say in unison.
“What about you?” I ask my silent sire, who is drumming his fingers on the seat.
“This isn’t my home,” he says shortly, and I gape at him.
“You still don’t think of L.A. as home?”
He turns towards me then with a long look. “No. It hasn’t exactly been a pleasant experience thus far.”
You got that right; I think back to the past six months of the cold shoulder. “Well, maybe we can change that now you are being more amenable,” I inform him and he, at least, has the h
umor to chuckle at me.
“Perhaps.”
The rest of the drive goes in silence, each to our own thoughts and once back at the mansion, followed by the other car, we all pile out.
“This is your house?” Sebastian says to me in wonder.
“Yes,” I say shortly as everyone seems to follow me inside. “Erm, don’t you have your own houses to go to?” I ask them. Certainly, some of them. CK lives on one side of me and I assume Sebastian is going there with him and I procured the house on the other side for Lincoln. It wasn’t up for sale, but I made them an offer they couldn’t refuse (in a monetary sense, not in a “horse’s head in the bed kind of way,” just to be clear) and moved Lincoln in, to his delight. Still close but his own space to roam and do his own thing at the full moon. Contrary to the curse that Lance placed on him, he doesn’t need to Shift three nights of the month as is legend. He doesn’t need to Shift at all but that first month, when he didn’t want to, was a bit of a disaster. He gets moody and aggressive if he doesn’t and on the night of the full moon, it ended in tears, mine due to the state I was in over everything. So now he goes and runs it off and all is well. Which reminds me of the “will you” he wanted to ask me. I have an idea what he wants to ask but will have to remember to ask him about it.
“I will go later. I want to make sure everything is good,” Lincoln says with a subtle glance at Jess. Bless him. I could rip her head off without a second thought, but he still feels this need to protect me from the unknown – and, well – the known as well.
“I am not going back to that house,” CK says, adjusting his cuffs. “I will stay here. With you,” he adds pointedly, and I shake my head.
“No, CK. Go home and take Sebastian with you. We are not all shacking up here. Too much Supernatural vibe. We will all end up trying to kill each other.” He opens his mouth to protest but I continue, “Lincoln, if you don’t mind housing Xane for a few days, that would be great and Scott, you may go pick out a room here. Not the one next to Devon’s. That is for Jess,” I say and her face falls that she has been told she gets her own room and is not sharing with Devon.
“I have my own place,” Scott starts but I silence him with a look. I want him here. All of us close by. I have this dreadful, awful feeling that something bad is going to happen and I don’t want anyone out of sight just yet. I am unsure what this danger is and even less so what I will do when I have to leave Scott here on his own, but that is tomorrow’s problem. Right now, everyone seems to be agreeing to my plan and I smile, happy. I turn a triple pirouette on the marble floor of my foyer and sigh. “Home, sweet, home,” I say to Cole.