by Eve Newton
“Hi,” he says with his fist in the air.
“Hey,” I say and bump my own against his, much to his amusement.
“Check you out. You went to Harvard?”
“Yep. You?”
“Yale,” he says, and I wonder how on Earth he ended up here, doing this. It must be written all over my face as he says, “Long story. Maybe one day I will tell you.”
I nod and let him in. He sits at the dresser again, but I shake my head at him. “Turn around.”
“Why?” he asks.
“I always bite to the left. I bit you that side yesterday evening. Turn around so I get your other side. You are new to this, aren’t you?”
“Does it make a difference?” he asks, perplexed. “I’m healed.”
“It does long term. Just do it.”
He spins around.
“Long term? You plan on keeping me around then?”
“Have you not already been brought on long term?” I say as I settle myself on his lap to his surprise.
“Six-month contract. I’m just in it for the travel,” he jokes.
I snicker. “Well if that’s what you are after, you came to the right place. Would you consider a longer term?”
“Maybe,” he says slyly, and I smile as I drop my fangs and tilt his head to the side. He hisses as I bite him and can feel his pleasure as I drink from him. I leap off him as soon as I am finished, and he clears his throat.
“Thank you,” I say, and he blushes slightly.
“No, thank you,” he says, standing. “I guess I will catch you later.”
“You sure will,” I say as I wave him off, distracted by the darker clouds that are forming overhead. Shrugging it off, I go to find CK. I amble down the main corridor towards the stairs, when a very disagreeable young man practically runs me over as he comes flying up the stairs. He glares at me as if it is my fault and gives me a sweeping once-over with a look of distaste. Okay, I know I don’t look my best but hey, no need to be so rude.
He pushes his wire-rimmed glasses up his narrow nose and steps back. “Excuse me,” he says in a haughty French accent, and not in an apologetic way, but in a get-out-of-my-way way.
“I think not,” I say, giving him my best haughty glare back and he narrows his eyes at me.
“I am in a hurry. I have a job that needs completing for Mr. D’Arcangelo. I am sure your boss would not want you holding me up. Go back to cleaning or whatever it is you are supposed to be doing.” He dismisses me with a wave of his hand.
Boss? Cleaning? I think in fury. Why, you little wormy bastard. I open my mouth to blast him from all sides, when CK appears at his side. “Problem?” he asks, also taking in my über casual outfit with a raised eyebrow.
“Your staff is getting in my way,” the worm says loftily and CK bites his lip in a humungous effort not to laugh.
“My staff? Err, no Georges, this is the lady of the house.”
I grin smugly at him, crossing my arms as his face drops almost to his feet and he stutters his profuse apologies. I wave him away as dismissively as he did to me, his face puce as he hurries on his way.
“Lady of the house?” I murmur to CK as I pull him to me for a kiss.
He leans down with a soft smile. “I do like the way that sounds.” He kisses me quickly and adds, “Although, the lady looks like a surly teenager. Perhaps a bit more effort wouldn’t go amiss?”
“I’m cold,” I say in a huff. “Warn me next time we have visitors.” I stalk away from him with as much dignity as I can, as he chuckles at me and I make my way to the library to wait for him to finish his business with the weasel.
I find hot coffee and Cade and I smile at both. “You have been far too secretive over the last few days,” I say, pointing a finger at him and then at the coffee pot. “Spill it.”
He humors me and pours me a cup and hands it to me. “Nothing you need to worry about.”
“You say things like that, it makes me worry,” I say, taking a sip and lighting the fire with my mind at the same time.
Cade stares at the fire and then back at me. “Impressive. But really, nothing for you to worry about.”
“Are you slacking off?” I ask. “I don’t pay you to slack off.”
“I’m not slacking off. There are just some aspects to my job that you don’t need to know about until they become problems.”
“Like what?”
“Like nothing,” he says as blandly, as if he hadn’t already repeated it twice.
“Cade,” I warn as I slam the mug down. “Don’t test my patience. I have already been wound up by Georges the weasley worm.”
“Who?” he asks and then circles his eyes with his finger. “French glasses guy? Why, what did he do to get on your bad side?”
“Told me to go clean something,” I mutter, still annoyed and get even more so when Cade bursts out laughing. Loudly and for a long time.
“Can’t say you shouldn’t have been expecting it. Look at you. You look like you belong in a gang or something. What is with the outfit?”
“I’m cold!” I yell at him.
“Cold? I thought Vampires were immune to temperature?”
“Indifferent is the word you are looking for and we are. At least I was.” I frown. “But never mind that. Back to you.”
He sighs. “Fine. We are in the process of taking out minor threats. Nothing big and nothing that you should be worrying about.”
“Minor threats? What do you mean?” That has my ears open as I lean forward.
“Exactly what I said. Minor threats. I told you when I came to work for you that there are groups that oppose you. They are gaining more of a foothold but are still small enough to take out without the big guns. Nico and I are taking care of it.”
“You are sure they are threats and not just you fulfilling your desire to maim and kill Vampires?”
“I don’t maim,” he says, glaring at me. “I just get the job done. And I resent your accusations.”
“Oh, I apologize,” I say, now in a really snarky mood which gets his back up. “I didn’t realize that torture wasn’t in your bag of tricks.”
“You need to back up, lady,” he growls at me. “Just ‘cos the weasley worm bit you on the ass doesn’t mean you get to take it out on me.”
We eyeball each other for a few seconds before I give in. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I am in a foul mood and it isn’t anything to do with you. Or Georges,” I add as an afterthought.
“Well go and feed or something,” he grumbles as he pours himself some more coffee.
“I wish that would fix it,” I say as that god-awful prickling comes back across the top of my shoulder and down my arm. What is that? I scratch at it and turn to the windows. The thunder and lightning have picked up, the rain still falling in a torrent. I stare at it, getting lost in the sheer power of it.
Cade comes to stand next to me. “Pretty violent, isn’t it? I didn’t think it got like this here.”
“It doesn’t. Usually,” I mutter absently and open the French doors.
“Hey,” Cade snaps as the rain flies through the opening, drenching us both within seconds. I ignore him and step outside. There is something out here, pulling me towards it. “Liv!” Cade is calling to me as I walk further into the rain, across the wide terrace in just my socks that are now two sodden bits of wool attached to my feet. My hair is wet through and my clothes are glued to me, cold and soaking. “Liv!” he calls to me again, but I keep walking. I throw up a barrier to stop him from following me and hear him cursing as he hits it. I hear him on his phone, presumably to CK, but I forget about him as I concentrate on where I am going. I am following the trail of Power. It is immense. I can feel it clawing at me, almost dragging me forward. I push my hair out of my eyes as I make it to the grass that is now muddy and full of puddles due to the amount of rain that is falling around me. The thunder cracks overhead, loud enough to deafen my Vampire ears, but I just keep walking. The lightning strikes again before a clap of t
hunder and then I see him.
Underneath one of the old garden light posts. Tall. Really tall. As tall as Fraser, easily, with jet-black hair and eyes the color of amethysts, that I can see from here. His black cloak is flapping in the wind about him, revealing his outfit from another time, another world: a black tunic top with loose black leggings and black boots up to his knees and a sword at his hip. I would say he looks just like Xane did the first time I ever saw him, but he isn’t a Demon. I don’t know what he is. The prickling on my arm is getting worse the closer I step towards him and then I stop dead. No. It can’t be. It can’t be, not here. Not now. The lightning strikes again, and he catches it in his hand out of the air, the electricity sparkling in his hand as he holds it.
An evil smile splits his face and he yells at me, “Are you worthy?” before he throws the bolt of lightning at me. Completely caught off guard, it hits me square in the chest and I fly back several feet before I land in a heap on the ground, with my hair standing on end. Slightly dazed, I shake it off as he hurls another bolt at me, which I roll away from through a massive puddle. I can hear CK swearing at me to drop the shield so he can get to me, but I don’t have time to listen to him. It has been a long time since I needed my fighting skills and they kick in, finally, as I dodge a couple more hits, before a wave of pure Power, that ripples visibly off him, sends me sprawling on my arse and now I have had enough of him playing with me. I am Queen of The Underworld and no one should have the Power to toss me around the gardens like a rag doll. Except my mother. Oh, and it seems that Remiel can also do that.
I get mad and I can feel my own Power boiling up and I react on raw instinct before my brain catches up, as he throws another lightning bolt at me and I hold my own hand out to grab it. Expecting it hurt like a bitch and probably fry my hand to cinders, I am stunned when it hovers in my palm like it did with him, but then dissipates quickly. His grin widens in malice as he fires another and another at me, each one I deflect until the fourth one, which is a doozy, I catch and twirl it around my hand like I have watched him do, and bunching it into my fist as a ball of pure electricity, I hurl it at him. It bounces back off his magickal barrier and he laughs. A cruel sound that makes me shiver.
“So, it’s true,” he shouts over the roar of the wind that is whipping my hair into my eyes and blowing my jacket practically off my body. “You are my daughter.”
Chapter 24
I am bouncing a bolt of lightning between my fingers like it was a part of me as I take in his words.
“Drake,” I whisper in dread, now that it has been confirmed, and throw the lightning at him again. He laughs and vanishes in a puff of smoke before my eyes. This can’t be happening. He wasn’t just here. Oh, please let this not be happening. How am I going to explain all of this now? The rain still falls, and the wind still roars, I am wondering why he left and when he will be back. I stiffen my back as I turn back to the castle to see not only Cade and CK standing on the terrace, but Sebastian as well.
Ah, crap.
I drop the barrier and CK rushes forward, dragging me inside and I quake in my soggy socks at the expression that will soon be on his face.
“Aefre, what the fuck?” he yells at me, still deafened by the wind and thunder, until Cade wrestles the doors shut. “Who was that?”
I don’t answer him, and I can’t help but look at Sebastian, who looks back at me with the same fearful expression that is no doubt adorning my own features.
“Aefre?” CK shakes me and I bring my eyes back to him. “Who was that?” he asks now more pissed than concerned. “Do you know who that was?”
“Yes,” I gulp, and I bunch my fists into two tight balls.
“Who?” he asks now, his face impassive and stepping back.
I look again to Sebastian who nods, face grim. CK turns to look at him as if just noticing him for the first time. He comes to stand next to me to show solidarity, but I am all alone in this. Only I can tell my sire and I really would rather be anywhere else right now. “Cade? Would you excuse us, please?” I ask and he leaves without a word, clearly not wanting to be anywhere near this either.
“Tell me now, Aefre. Whoever that was, I want to know,” his voice is like steel and I take a deep breath.
“My father.”
His eyes widen in surprise, obviously not expecting that. “Your father? You know who your father is? Why didn’t you tell me?” The hurt is palpable, and I take his hand, but he pulls it away.
“I have only known for a couple of weeks. I wasn’t a hundred percent sure. I wanted to be sure before I told. This…it…he changes everything,” I say desperately.
Sebastian puts his hand on my shoulder, and I cringe. I don’t think he meant to do it but CK’s eyes zero straight in on it and without looking at either us, just focusing solely on Sebastian’s hand, he says, “But you knew? She told you?” He spits out the last word and we both flinch.
Sebastian, being a braver soul than I, steels himself and says, “Yes. She had to, because of who he is. Because of who she is.”
“And she would be who, exactly?” he asks Sebastian, but his eyes are now boring through mine like two black lasers.
“The Dark Fae Princess,” Sebastian says. “Her father is Drake. King of the Dark Fae.”
“The Dark Fae Princess,” he repeats, and his super brain is figuring it all out in the microseconds it takes him to say it out loud. “The counterpart to the Light Fae Prince. You.”
Sebastian nods and I just stand there, motionless.
“She is your supposed Chosen One,” he states it and then lets out a sad laugh. “It all makes sense now, the sudden turnabout. Why you changed your mind about being with him. Because you two are supposed to be together.”
“I tried to warn you,” Sebastian says. “I told you what I felt when I touched her. You said it was impossible, that she couldn’t be Faerie, but you were wrong.”
“And you were right. You two found out and kept it a secret. Your own little secret to share and keep from me. How could you?” he asks, but I don’t know which one of us he is talking to. Probably both of us. “You knew and you didn’t tell me. I expect this from her but not from you.” He turns to Sebastian and I feel a mild sense of outrage at the “I expect this from her” comment, but I push it down because I know he is hurting.
“I’m sorry,” Sebastian says. “I wanted to tell you. I asked her to tell you, but she wanted to see if Drake ever showed up looking for her. If he didn’t then none of this matters.”
Thanks, Seb. Way to throw me under the bus…again.
“None of it matters? Oh, I’d say it matters. The two of you lying to me about something so important.”
“No, not lying.” I suddenly come to life. “Protecting you from something that I hoped would never happen.”
“Protect me? I don’t need protecting, Aefre. I don’t know how many times I have to tell you that and I would rather you had come to me before he showed up here throwing lightning bolts at you. So, what now that he has come for you? Are you and Sebastian supposed to swan off into the sunset together?”
“No!” I say forcefully. “That isn’t going to happen. I don’t care what he says, I am not joining his Court to be married off and bred.”
Sebastian’s hand still on my shoulder tightens painfully and I curse myself to death right now as I realize what I’ve said.
“Bred? You are expected to breed? With Sebastian?” he asks deathly quiet and I die a little inside at the expression on his face. “You know this is what is expected and yet you still went to him today knowing?”
“It won’t happen,” Sebastian says, trying to repair the damage I have caused. “She hasn’t been acknowledged yet. She still might not be. Drake is a bigot of the highest regard. He believes only in true blood. Liv is only half Faerie, if that.”
“But you still knew. You still fucked each other knowing that she might get pregnant. This is unforgivable. From both of you.”
“Constantine, plea
se just listen,” I beg him.
“No, I am done listening to your lies. I cannot bear to look at either one of you. You have betrayed me in a way that I never thought could be possible.”
“No, Constantine. It isn’t like that.”
“It is exactly like that, Liv. Please leave now, both of you just get out.” He hasn’t raised his voice the entire time and that scares me more than if he had. Not to mention he called me “Liv”. His quiet calm belies a deeper rage and I would have preferred if he had yelled and hit me than have him walking silently away from me. I take a step to go after him, but Sebastian holds me back.
“No,” he says quietly. “You don’t want to go after him. Just leave him be.”
“I can’t,” I say, the tears falling down my face. “I have to make him see that I didn’t mean to hurt him.”
“Give him some time. He will see. Just give him a bit of time. I’ll go and take Cade with me, but you stay. You have a better chance of getting through to him alone than if I am here. But just give it some time. Do not follow him now,” he emphasizes but I’m not listening.
“Why are you even here?” I ask.
He doesn’t answer straightaway, just pulls up my sleeve and I stare at my arm in horror, taking in the swirls and thorns that other me had, forming slowly and now that I see them, painfully.
“No,” I say. “No. This is going to make everything worse.”
“I felt you use your Power. Only a Dark Fae can control the storm like that. Despite what I told Constantine, you have been acknowledged, Liv. Your father will come back for you.”
I pace the library like a caged animal. Half an hour has passed. Sebastian left and I am itching to go and find CK and try to make this right. I am not one to sit around waiting and it is driving me crazy. I decide to fuck it and go to find him, to confront him. Alone, I might have more luck as Sebastian said. I don’t have long to wonder where he is, as I hear the crashing and smashing as soon as I exit the library. He is in the South Tower. The one with the Substitutes room. He probably went there because he thought I wouldn’t follow him. Well, screw that. I’m going up there whether he likes it or not. I race up the steps on foot, not wanting to Astral so that I give him as much notice as I can that I am coming. I reach the top and see that the door has been ripped clean from its hinges and I duck as various ornaments come flying through the open doorway. A vase that probably costs the average person’s annual salary flies over my head and smashes against the wall into a thousand pieces.
