by Eve Newton
I watch in horror as Constantine lowers his left hand to her neck and agonizingly slowly, he rakes his claws down her throat, down her chest, across her breasts. She cries out in a mix of pleasure and pain. Sebastian silences her with a kiss as she writhes under the torturous touch. Constantine continues to drag his claws down her slowly, in deep cuts that are bleeding profusely and so slow to heal due to the depth of the wounds. Christ, she must be in agony, I think as I watch, unable to tear my eyes away. Sebastian pulls back from his kiss and she gasps loudly as Constantine’s claws gouge into her stomach and lower, finishing just above her pubic bone. He releases his bite and turns to face her as Sebastian pours a bottle of Scotch over her cuts, she buckles under the searing pain, screaming as he holds her down. Fuck me! I know how that feels. Like acid, remembering that he did that to me last year when I tried to force his monster on me. I gulp then as the realization truly hits me. This is me witnessing his inner monster. The beast he reviles and never wants me to see. I thought it was what I wanted but I don’t. I want to unsee what I am seeing, but I can’t. I keep looking away but every time I do, I am back, faced with this horrendous scene in front of me. Constantine pulls away from her and drop his fangs again, claws extended as he lightly brushes the points over her barely healing cuts. She whimpers but the look on her face tells me she is reveling in it. Sebastian drops his mouth to her wounds and licks them, lapping at them, cleaning the blood away and speeding up the healing process. She relaxes as she starts to heal quicker, until I see something that makes me want to die on the spot. Sebastian is making him play with her. His hand is over Constantine’s. He has his claws out, nicking her delicate skin in wicked little cuts as Sebastian forces him to circle her clit. She moves against their hands, encouraging them and with a low, feral growl that rumbles deeply around the room, Constantine inserts two fingers inside her, ripping her apart. She screams. A horrible sound of pleasure coupled with pain. I back away, still trying to look away, but I can’t. Lance truly did learn from his sire. Our sire. This was one of his more painful sexual acts on me, but Vivienne must be in beyond agony now as Lance didn’t have the sting that Initial Vampire claws have. Constantine was right. She is strong. She does want it and she can take it. Sebastian is making him pulse in and out of her, tearing her to shreds as she begs for more. He removes his hand, shaking Sebastian’s free and Sebastian moves in between her legs. Kneeling in front of her, he licks her, healing her slightly before he lifts her hips and enters her, rubbing against the cuts, in what I know will be like salt on a wound. Constantine stands up and moves over. Sebastian inserts him, rock hard, into his mouth. Vivienne moans in delight as she is abused, tortured, by these two men who are now finding their own pleasure. One of whom I love more than anything in this world. He comes quickly with a loud groan filled with anguish and desperation, not pleasure. Sebastian grabs his wrist and pulls him even closer, sinking his fangs into him as he continues his vicious onslaught to Vivienne. Again, I try to look away but this time due to the intimacy between Sebastian and Constantine. I have never seen it before. Sire and charge of the same gender and I have often wondered how they express their love for each other. Clearly in this case, it is through a shared experience. It is also clear that this isn’t their first rodeo together. And certainly, not with her. Every movement is planned, Constantine inflicts the pain and Sebastian eases it, takes it away. I dread to think what it is I missed at the beginning. She basks now under the final ministrations of Sebastian, an extreme orgasm ripping through her. He comes as well and Constantine sinks his fangs into Sebastian, feeding deeply from him. One thing has been made abundantly clear to me throughout this ordeal. For Constantine, this has absolutely nothing to do with sex. For him, it’s all about the pain.
I wake up and heave over the side of the bed. Nothing comes up, though, as I haven’t eaten in, I can’t remember how long, and it has been hours since I drank any blood.
The sound of my dry retching wakes Cole and he holds back my hair in an oddly human reaction which calms me somewhat.
“Liv, baby. What is it?” he asks, concerned.
I pant and wipe my hand over my mouth, reaching for the water on the bedside cabinet, noting it is a little before six in the morning. I drink the whole bottle as Cole strokes my hair and I relax a bit.
“Liv?” he presses when I finish.
“A bad dream,” I say. “A very, very bad dream.” The thought of it makes me want to start heaving again but I push it down. What the fuck? Why would I dream of them? And them doing something so disgusting? And why would it follow on from the one I had before? Wait? Did it? I can’t remember exactly.
“What was it about?” Cole asks.
I think about it for a moment. “Erm…” It is starting to fade to a black hole of nothing. “I can’t remember,” I say finally.
“Liv, you can tell me,” Cole says quietly. “There isn’t anything you can’t share with me.”
“I know, baby. Really, I can’t remember.” The harder I try the less I come up with. Something to do with Ponte is all I have. I sigh and push Cole down to the bed, snuggling against him. Finding comfort in him. I soon forget all about the dreams I can’t remember as he strokes my back and my Dragon flits across from side to side, following his hand. I giggle as it tickles. “Turn around,” he says. I do as he asks, and he pushes me slightly away so that he can stroke Her. I feel the glow coming from Her as She luxuriates under his touch.
“I love you so much,” he whispers.
I turn in his arms and kiss him. “I love you. Make love to me.”
He doesn’t need asking twice as he kisses me, leaving me, as promised, breathless and wanting more.
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED SIXTY-THREE
T he arrival of dawn has brought with it the arrival of, well…Dawn. She and Scott are sitting outside on the terrace drinking coffee. He is ignoring her in favor of Devon’s Financial Times even though she is mooning at him over the top of her coffee cup, her blue eyes all doey. That, however, changes as we step out on the terrace and her attentions go straight to my husband as she gushes, “Hi, Cole,” with a bright smile.
I just stand there until she remembers me and says, “Hi, Liv.” Right…so much for being friends.
“Hi, Dawn,” Cole says, and I smile at her. “You made it, then.”
“The Studio didn’t leave me much choice. I am to drag you back Sunday night,” she laughs and blushes as she is no doubt thinking of dragging him off to bed.
“Humph,” he says rudely and sits with a mood on now that he is reminded he has to go and CK will be staying.
“Don’t worry, baby,” I remind him. “Remember, we are coming to Toronto with you. I no longer have to go back to New York.”
His face brightens as he remembers. “That’s right. You don’t. That is Scott’s job now,” he says, happy that he knows I won’t be leaving him. Until Tuesday, that is, but I don’t say anything about that.
Scott looks up from his FT. “Yep. You are free as a bird to be wherever you like.”
Dawn isn’t looking best pleased that she will no longer have Cole to herself, so I throw her a bone. “Cole. You should feed, baby,” I murmur.
“So should you,” he says.
“I’ll be fine. CK said he’d send someone.” I do wish I hadn’t said that as he gets his mood back on again. “You go with Dawn now,” I say. I have a somewhat vested interest in this desire she holds for him.
She glances quickly at Scott, who holds her gaze for a moment before returning to his reading, oblivious. What a surprise.
They disappear and Esther says there is someone waiting for me in my office. I excuse myself and make my way over. Pushing open the door, I find a stranger with my sire.
“Good morning, my sweet,” he says to me as if nothing whatsoever happened out by the pool yesterday. He kisses me and I blink at him. There is that denial back in full force.
“Hello,” I say coldly. He blinks back at me, his face full of innocence. I s
tare at him for a moment. Was there something I wanted to ask him? I tilt my head in question and he raises his eyebrow back.
“Yes?” he queries.
I frown. “Nothing,” I say. “What do you want?”
“You need to feed, my dear. I am here to ensure you do. The Vampire way,” he emphasizes. “With the added bonus of you owe me one.”
“I do?”
“You do. Tit for tat.”
Oh, I see. I wanted him to feed in front of me and now he wants me to feed in front of him. Not that I am shy about that, he’s seen me feed a thousand times. More, probably. I think he is here mostly to ensure I do it ‘the Vampire way,’ as he put it. I narrow my eyes at him and ask the man to sit. He does and I bend over him, dropping my fangs in the process. CK moves to stand at my back and trails a hand lightly over my behind as I am bent over. I take my fill and pull back. “Happy?” I ask sarcastically.
“Ecstatic,” he responds, reminding me about his over-the-top, precious, generous gift yesterday. He dismisses the man, who he takes his leave quickly.
“I am still mad at you,” I say conversationally.
“I know you are. I was provoked. I lost control of my actions and I apologize,” he says formally. He takes my hand in his and I feel his ring, still on his left ring finger. I twirl it and again, I feel that I’m forgetting something. “Am I forgiven?” he asks quietly.
“I don’t know. We are all supposed to be getting along, but there seems to be nothing but dissension. I can’t bear it.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“Are you? Are you prepared to go back to the way things were a couple of days ago?”
“If it gets me what I want, then, yes,” he says so seriously, I actually do believe him. “What you said last night about taking it back really hurt me. Hurt me more than anything and I know, for you to have said it, I must have hurt you terribly, too.”
I must look surprised by his insight as he says ruefully, “I am not completely self-serving, Aefre. Your feelings mean more than my own. I will step back and let nature take its course.”
I ponder this for a moment. There has to be a catch. He doesn’t give up so easily. “I know you are wondering what I am going to ask of you in return.”
I remain silent to his amusement and he says, “All I ask is that you reaffirm your promise to me that you will try what we discussed, when the time is right for us.”
“That’s it?” I ask in disbelief.
“That’s it,” he says.
“I get to keep Cassis?”
He chuckles. “Of course, my love. It was a gift.”
“I promise you. I promise you that I haven’t changed my mind and we will try what we discussed when the time is right.”
He looks so relieved and he kisses me. Bad, bad timing as Cole barges in, probably having heard us speaking.
“Cole,” CK says before he can open his mouth. “Aefre and I were just discussing the return to our original agreement. I will overlook the incident in Las Vegas as you were only reacting to my actions.” I knew he would somehow twist this to his own ends. Overlook it indeed. “I will step back and respect your marriage and I continue to get my two days.”
Cole looks from him to me and clearly sees this is what I want written all over my dumb face. He sighs, weary of all of this. “Fine. I want Liv to be happy, that’s all.”
Case closed. I breathe a sigh of relief that there isn’t going to be a civil war with me being piggy in the middle. I smile at him. “Thank you,” I say.
He grimaces back at me. I think it was meant to be a smile but didn’t quite make it.
“Good. I will bid you adieu and leave you two to whatever is it you do…” CK says, having taken on board what Cole said last night. He kisses me again, deeply and passionately and takes his leave.
“Always has to have the final word, doesn’t he,” Cole says, and he also kisses me on the mouth, thus removing the imprint of CK and claiming the final word for himself.
“Liv. We need to have that talk now, please,” Xane says from the doorway, pulling us apart.
“Fine. Cole, would you mind?”
“Yes, but I do have to go over a few things with Dawn so I will leave you to your business,” Cole says.
“Xane.” Cole says as he pushes past him.
“Cole.” Xane says back just as unpleasantly and I want to hit them both. I am tired and weary of this infighting.
“What is it?” I say, flopping down into my chair and putting my feet up on the desk.
Instead of sitting at one of the chairs allocated on the other side of the desk, he comes to stand next to me, trailing his hand up my leg. I quickly pull them down and stand. “Xane,” I warn him, and he shrugs.
“I am not letting you off the hook that easily about you trying to break our bond,” he says.
“Xane. I’m sorry but I can’t do this. If I knew the implications, I would have refused.”
“No, you wouldn’t have because it is your duty. Just stop denying it so we can be together,” he says softly, taking my hands in his and placing them on his chest.
I close my eyes at the feel of him. The heat coming off him that I feel, that makes me want his arms wrapped around me. “Stop,” I say weakly as he drops his mouth to mine. He kisses me and pulls away, a serious look on his face. “Xerxei, don’t you see that we belong together? A female Dragon and a male Demon. We would be the most powerful beings in all the Realms. You have to stop fighting this and accept our destiny.”
I want to. Oh, the gods, I want to, but I stop myself. I won’t lose myself to my Demon self. I won’t abandon my Vampires, not even for this. This feeling of completion, of being whole. Like the void I didn’t know was inside me is now filled.
“Xerxei,” he whispers. “Come to me. You know you want to.”
“No,” I shake my head, “I can’t.” I step back, quickly gathering my thoughts and change the subject. “I need to ask you something.”
“Anything,” he replies, perching himself on my desk.
“That dagger you had. Where did it come from?”
“Dagger? You mean the one from the ritual?”
“Yes.”
“Why do you want to know?”
“I’ll show you.” I bring forth my trusty dagger from Nagyvárad and slice it across my palm. Nothing. I throw it on the desk and point out to my sides, waving my fingers about. “Nothing in the armory hurts me. That isn’t in my armory and it hurts me. Where did you get it from?” I ask again. He ponders the question for a moment, picking up the dagger and examining it. “Nice,” he says to himself. “Explain this to me,” he points to my sides and waves his fingers about as I did.
“Every weapon ever created.”
“Every weapon?” he says in wonder.
“Every one created.”
“I knew you had access to Gladius Infernus, but I didn’t realize it was all of them. Impressive.” His eyes glint as he takes in the possibilities and I see for the first time a sliver of his Demonic side. He sees me noticing and he covers it up quickly.
“So how is it, I don’t have access to that one?” I ask again.
I can see him debating whether to tell me or not, his desire to win me over with honesty beating out the desire to keep it a secret.
“It hasn’t yet been created,” he says. “At least not here.”
Gee, cryptic much?
“I need a bit more than that,” I say, crossing my arms.
He also crosses his arms, mimicking my gesture. “The Dragon Realms are not of this world. Not even part of this…” he waves his hand about, “network of Realms, which we all come from. The Underworld, Earthside, the Spirit Plane are all connected.” He pauses and I am thinking, Spirit Plane? like some kind of idiot. “The Dragon Realms are far beyond any of this. The dagger I pulled on comes from there. As time moves so differently there and its plane of existence is fundamentally different, as far as your armory is concerned it doesn’t exist. So, therefor
e, no weapon from there exists,” he explains.
Interesting. Makes sense, I guess.
“So, that would lead me to believe that the armory, and the Power behind it, is what protects me from harm from the weapons in it,” I deduce quite nicely, if I do say so myself.
“I would say that is a strong possibility,” Xane agrees.
Huh. It also goes some way to explaining why fangs and claws work on me. As they are very much weapons in their own right, they aren’t weapons that have been created and are obviously not in the armory. Well, I’ll be. I am finally learning useful stuff. Maybe I should pursue something with Xane. He seems to know a lot about all of this and helps me draw conclusions that I would never have come up with on my own.
“I told you we would be exceptional together,” he whispers as my face must give my thoughts away. “I will leave you to think it over now that you see the possibilities of what we could be.”
He Astraports out, leaving me alone and confused.
Glancing at the clock, I see it is now 8 AM. I haven’t sensed Devon yet, so I go off in search of him. Them, I think, unpleasantly.
I don’t find them downstairs, so head up to his room. Pushing the door open, I find that it’s empty and the bed not been slept in. Hm, must have taken my advice then. Makes me chuckle though to think he didn’t want to bring her to his bedroom.
I knock on the door next to his. No response. I use my Vampire hearing to listen, ignoring the voice in my head that yells, “Eavesdropper!” I hear breathing so at least they are both still alive. I push the door open – it is my house, after all – and discover them both fast asleep. Fully clothed to my relief, but entwined around each other, her head on his chest and their fingers laced together. She looks at peace. Good. This will go far in her efforts to control herself. Devon senses my presence and opens his eyes. He sees me watching them in the gloom of the heavy drapes, drawn tightly to protect her, and he grimaces. Obviously not best pleased to be found this way. I wonder why that is? He untangles himself carefully so as not to disturb her.