by Eve Newton
“I am a big girl, Constantine, I am quite capable of feeding by myself. Oh, and revise his job description, will you?” I say in annoyance. “Besides which, Jess is on top of it,” I add. “She has set me twice daily reminders.”
He smiles then. “Good. Maybe it will go some way to getting you into the habit.”
“Are you coming back with me now?” I ask him.
“No, I am going to file this with the lawyers here first. You go and I will see you later.”
I nod and he kisses me again. “I love you.”
I leave the bedroom, our bedroom, and walk over to the alcove. He follows me curiously but then stops when he sees me retrieve my phone and the pages that I abandoned. I feel him watching me as I walk down the stairs and I feel the pang of his hurt as he watches me leave.
I reach the bottom and find Cade who is talking to Nico and a very leggy, very beautiful, blue-eyed blonde.
“Oh, there you are,” Cade says. “I was just coming to find you. We should be getting back.”
“I know, I’m ready.” I focus on the girl. A Vampire. Nico steps forward with introductions.
“Liv, this is Serena. Serena, your Queen.”
Oh, so this is Serena. No wonder Nico wanted to work with her on this little project. She is quite the looker. I shake her hand a feel a small fizz go through my palm. I now recognize this as a bloodline link. She isn’t CK’s charge, but she is a descendant. I have probably met thousands of his descendants over the years, having only been shielded from his actual charges. I say ‘probably’ as, “So who is your sire?” and “Your sire’s sire?” are not questions we ask. If the information is offered up then grand, if not, leave well enough alone. I am dying to know who her sire is but out of this tacit arrangement, I don’t ask.
“Nice to meet you,” she murmurs and bobs her head.
“And you,” I say. “Thank you for all your work.” I hold up the pages and she smiles.
“No problem. If I can help in any way, please let me know.”
“I will do. Thank you. Cade?” I hold my hand out. He grimaces at it but takes it anyway. “Bye, Nico.”
“Bye, Liv, Cade,” he says before I Astral us back to Toronto.
Chapter 15
Landing back in the suite I let go of Cade, much to his relief. “I hope we won’t be making a habit out of travelling that way,” he grumbles.
“Only now and again,” I reassure him. “I’m going to find Lincoln. I’ll be with him until Cole gets home.”
He scowls at me. “How do you do it? Jump from bed to bed? I don’t understand it, not that I even want to try.”
“It’s hard to explain,” I shuffle slightly and uncomfortably under his scrutiny.
“Humph. Well, stay safe. Do call if you need me but only if you are fully clothed, if you please.” He leaves and I am relieved he dropped it. I care about his opinion for some reason and his disapproval is bothering me. Not enough, however, that I don’t go off in search of Lincoln. I mean, who is going to pass up a roll in the sack with his gorgeous self?
I Astral into his suite without warning and he looks up from his laptop as he senses me.
“Hi.”
“Hi. You okay? You look a little flustered.”
“Oh, it’s Cade. He is quite the prude,” I say softly, and he laughs at me gently.
“I find it amusing that his opinion matters to you.”
“I find it disturbing,” I comment, to which he laughs harder.
“Come here. I have thought of nothing else since our telepathic dalliance earlier. I am dying to get my hands on you.”
I smile seductively and turn from him, walking into the bedroom. He follows quickly, slamming the door behind him.
“Oh, Liv. It feels like forever since I had you,” he says as he comes closer. I back away, teasing him as I strip off until I hit the bed. His eyes laser over me as he comes to stand, towering over me.
“How do you want me?” I murmur to him.
He pushes me down to my knees with a low growl and I grin wickedly. “I want to feel your hot mouth wrapped around my cock,” he says as he undoes his pants and lets them drop to the floor. He kicks them aside and takes his shirt off as I plunge my mouth to him, opening wide to get him inside me. “Fuck, yes,” he whispers as I work my way slowly up and down. “Oh, to see you kneeling in front of me with my cock in your mouth is the sexiest sight, my love,” he says to me and I quiver at his words. “I want to taste you,” he says, pulling me roughly up and flinging me into the middle of the bed. I giggle at his assertiveness as he crawls onto the bed and pushes my legs wide open. He dips his head and licks me and sucks on me until I am thudding against his mouth. He whimpers as he pushes his fingers inside me, feeling me clenching around him. He shuffles up to his knees and brings my legs up straight into the air. He grabs my ankles and opens them again, so I am practically doing splits in the air before he pushes himself inside me. Slowly. Oh fuck, that feels good.
“Oh, Linc, baby,” I moan. “More, I want more of you inside me.”
He obliges me to my delight and shoves himself deep inside me before he starts to rock his hips back and forth. “How does that feel?” he asks me.
“Oh, gods, it feels amazing. You are amazing. Faster, baby. I want you to make me come.”
“Not yet,” he says and my eyes flash at his denial of me. He whispers, “I want this to last. I want you crazy with desire for me.”
“Baby, I am always crazy with desire for you. You turn me on in ways I can only dream about.”
“Mm, yes. I love hearing you say that.” He continues his steady pulsing in and out and I am getting wetter by the minute. He can feel it too as he closes his eyes in restraint. He doesn’t make me wait too much longer, not that I can hold out much longer anyway, as he pulls my legs back up slowly, closing them, thus forcing himself even further into me and forcing me tighter around him.
“Oh, fuck!” I cry out as I come in an explosion around him and he groans but to his credit carries on until my ankles are resting on his shoulders. He grabs my hips and pulls me onto him as he speeds up his pounding into me until I have no choice but to come again and then he follows suit with a loud rumble.
“Oh, fuck, Liv,” he says as he collapses on top of me, hands on either side of my head, as he kisses me. I pull him to me and we just kiss. For the longest time.
I roll us over when he is ready for me again, his Shifter stamina not quite as strong as our Vampire one. I sit us up as I lower myself onto him. “I love having you inside me,” I murmur against his lips. “I love how we connect so perfectly together.”
He whimpers again at me and I revel in it. Revel in bringing this man, so strong, so capable and so enormous, to his knees. I drop my fangs against his mouth, and he pulls my head back and just looks at me, all Vamped out, with a look of such adoration I almost want to cry.
“Bite me,” he rasps harshly.
I duck my head to his neck and pierce his flesh with a quick snap of my jaw. His blood is most delicious. I didn’t really get to taste it much during the whole Alpha-Pairing thing. Had I remembered what he tastes like, I would have insisted on biting him again sooner. He moans as he brings his hand to my clit and starts to play with me as I move over him gently so as not to disturb my fangs. I am unclear on his healing reaction time and it wouldn’t do to rip his neck open without some clue. I retract my fangs and swipe my tongue slowly over the puncture marks noting with relief that they are healing much the same as a Vampire’s would. “Oh, baby. You taste so good,” I mutter as I start to speed up my movements and he continues to circle my clit. I feel a double rush of pleasure shoot through me as he clamps his own set of sharp teeth down on me, raking his claws down my arms in the process.
Motherfucker. His bite is sharp and sweet. I remember from New York only a few short weeks ago. I should point out here that he isn’t drinking my blood, per se. Shifters don’t do that. All he is doing is biting me slowly, letting his teeth break my skin
and the blood seep into his mouth.
He comes suddenly as he pulls back, and I kiss him deeply.
We both fall asleep sometime after that for a couple of hours, wrapped around each other and I dream. I know this time I am dreaming. Each time this has happened I seem to become more aware that it is in fact a dream. Or at least that something is off and it’s not quite real. This I know is a dream. I know because he tells me.
Chapter 16
I am lying on a bed, which one? It takes me a minute to figure out I am in the tower room at Lance’s Castle.
“It may be just a dream,” he says idly, “but I can still sense your fear and it is intoxicating.”
I try to move but I can’t. I am pinned in place by forces I don’t even know about.
He comes to sit next to me and peers down at me. “If you hadn’t tried to discover more about these dreams. If you had kept them to yourself and left it alone, we could have played a bit longer. You liked it at the beginning. You loved it when we made love. I do wish our sire hadn’t interrupted us when you were Emily. So pretty and I wanted to take you that way,” he sulks.
I try to speak, to tell him to fuck off, that he will never have me again, but I can’t. Nothing comes out and I am helpless. At his mercy once again. No, he isn’t Lance. He isn’t Lance. He isn’t Lance. I start my mantra and he just sighs at me. “So strong. But not strong enough.” He extends his claws as his fangs drop and he runs just one down in between my breasts, drawing blood, all the way down to my stomach. “I wish you didn’t heal,” he muses to himself. “I wish I could brand you and not have it heal.” He draws a big “L” around my belly button, and I cringe in desperation at this act that he used on me in the past. I struggle to get free of the bonds holding me, but I just can’t move an inch. He smiles cruelly at me and declares, “You won’t heal, not from this. You will have this on you all the time. For you to see every day for eternity. For all your lovers to see that I made you mine in ways they cannot.” He runs his fingers around the letter and wipes the blood away and licks his finger. I feel the blood well up again and trickle down my side. I am not healing. This is just a dream. I will wake up and it won’t be there. Oh, Constantine, please help me. Please get me to wake up.
“He won’t come for you,” Lance says confidently. “He can’t hear you calling to him. Just like he couldn’t hear you last time.” He trails his claws down lower and I try to push my legs closer together as I know what he is going to do. He chuckles at me and pushes my legs open. “I have been trying to help you, my dear,” he says as he flicks his claws over me, and I wince. “I have been trying to show you what our sire is really like. What he is doing to you. For some reason, you don’t seem to remember the visions.” He frowns. “Do you not remember what he did to Vivienne?” he asks before he plunges his fist full of claws forcefully into me, ripping me apart and breaking my pelvic bone in the process of such a violent assault to me. I scream out loud now. I scream at the top of my voice, “Constantine, please help me! Please, please help me!”
I am pulled into a sitting position by my sire, with Lincoln’s hand at my back. “Aefre!” he says to me desperately. “What is it?”
I blink at him and quickly look down, bringing my hand first to my, thank the old gods, unscathed stomach and then in between my legs where I am also unharmed.
“What did he do to you?” he says quietly as he watches my hand cup myself protectively and I magick up a blanket to wrap around myself. This action has them both overly concerned and they both shuffle back, giving me a bit of space.
“Nothing,” I say shortly, not wanting to relive the horror.
“Aefre…” Constantine starts but Lincoln shushes him.
“Leave her be.” He risks putting his hand on my shoulder in a comforting gesture and I reach up to pat his hand.
“I’m fine. Just give me a minute.”
They both nod and head out to the sitting room. I curl up in a ball on the bed and cry. I try to muffle my sobs with the soft blanket but they both have super hearing and know what I am doing. I can sense them both hovering at the doorway and I Astral myself into the shower. Still with the blanket wrapped around me, I turn on the jets. I turn the hot tap all the way up and even though the steam is coming thick and fast from the scalding water, I can barely feel the warmth. I sit and just let the water pound down onto me. Xane. I need Xane. I can feel his heat and right now my soul is completely shattered, and I need healing. Within seconds he is at my side, hissing at the heat from the water but pulling me to him anyway and wrapping his arms around me. I relax. I can feel the heat seeping into me now. It is searing as he is burning under the boiling water and I flick my hand up to turn it down to midway. “Sorry,” I mumble.
“Don’t be. What is going on?”
“I just needed to feel you.”
“Oh?” he says with a sly look that despite myself makes me smile.
“Your heat. You are the only one I can feel heat from. I needed to feel that.”
“Hm, well, happy to help.”
“How did you know I wanted you?”
“Our bond, my love. I sensed your desperation. Is it The Thirteen? Has It been messing with you again?”
I nod. “It was bad,” I whisper, and he pulls me to him again but doesn’t question me further.
After a few moments, the bathroom door opens and CK and Lincoln peek in and then rush through the door as they see me sitting in the shower with Xane holding me.
“Where did you come from?” CK asks rudely.
“She needed me, I came,” he says just as rudely.
Lincoln reaches into the shower and turns the taps off. “She was cold,” Lincoln says to CK. “She can feel the heat from him.”
I blink up at him as he holds his hand out for me to stand. I take it, careful to keep the soggy blanket around me, and ask, “How do you know?”
He traces my face with his hand. “You don’t have your blocks up,” he says softly, looking at me with such sorrow that I know he knows what I dreamt.
Chapter 17
I tear my eyes away from Lincoln, to see that CK is looking at me sadly. He can see the bond I have with Lincoln and now he knows I have a seemingly special one with Xane as well. He thinks he is going to lose me, but he won’t. I open my mouth to reassure him, but he shakes his head at me. “You should get changed, my love.” He glares at Xane. “So should you.”
Xane clicks his fingers and instantly he is changed and dry and puts his hand on my shoulder and changes me into… I look down and roll my eyes. “Really?” I gesture at myself, regaining some of my composure. He has dressed me in loose black sweats, a tight vest top, and an oversized black hoodie.
He shrugs and says, “Casual is a good look on you. You may pick your own shoes.”
“Bare feet are fine, thank you,” I say. Again, I am bewildered that I prefer my bare feet. If I go anywhere near a kitchen, future me is in for a world of hurt.
“I think you should go now,” Lincoln says to both of them. “Liv needs to rest.”
“I think that is the last thing she needs,” Xane says cautiously, unsure how much authority he has over this situation.
“I said rest, not sleep. I can assure you she is not going back to sleep on my watch,” Lincoln growls at him and they both go on edge.
“Aefre, this is serious. We should talk about it,” CK says, taking my hand.
“We will. Later. I am here with Lincoln and we need to spend some time together. Please. I will catch up with you later. I promise,” I say to him with a smile to take the sting out of my words.
He nods and pulls me to him. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, I am fine. Honestly. It was just a dream,” I say brightly. Too brightly, and I am not fooling him.
He nods anyway and Teleports out, face impassive. Xane, not too bothered now that our connection is cementing itself somewhat, gives me a bone-crushing hug. “You know I will be here in a heartbeat if you need me,” he says.
&
nbsp; “Thank you,” I say, stepping back, and he Astraports himself away.
“Liv?”
“Yes, Linc.”
He hesitates. I know he wants to ask about Xane but changes his mind and takes my hand. “Come, sit with me for a bit.” He leads me out to the sitting room and pulls me onto his lap, circling me with his big strong arms and I sigh, content.
“I won’t tell anyone,” he says quietly, stroking my hair.
I look up at him and smile gratefully. “Thank you. You know what they are like.”
He chuckles. “I do. There will be lots of posturing and bristling going on. Duels to the death and all that.”
I frown at him. “Oh, I thought you meant about the dream.”
He narrows his eyes at me. “That goes without saying, V.A. You know I will keep that to myself. You don’t even have to ask.”
“I love you, Linc. You are so easy to be around. I can tell you anything and you don’t judge or overreact or make demands.” I sigh. “I am glad that I can talk to you.”
“I am glad too. Everything you tell me is our secret. I love our conversations,” he says, and I smile, remembering when we first got back to L.A., we used to spend hours talking, learning about each other. I have told him things that I haven’t been able to tell anyone else and he will never tell. “You can tell me anything. If you want to talk about the dream, I will listen.”
I shake my head. “No, I don’t want to.”
“Fair enough, but if you do. And regarding the other matter, I won’t interfere but do be careful. The intensity of what I felt between you two is staggering. It is going to cause you problems with the others.”
“I don’t love him,” I state. “I am not involved with him.”
“Maybe, not yet. But he loves you and you are connected by a blood bond.”
“I am trying to break it,” I insist.
“I told you I’m not going to interfere. I just want to you to be careful. Your sire will most likely rip his head off if he ever found out just how strong your bond is.”
