A Forever Series Box Set: A Paranormal Reverse Harem: Books 6-10

by Eve Newton

  “I need to get out of here,” Devon mumbles and she lets him go. There is no getting through to him right now. She watches him leave his bedroom and cocks her hip. She needs to get out of here too. This place is strange, and she doesn’t feel comfortable here. There is only one person she can go to who will help her get back to Earth and she goes in search of him.

  Aster is sweet. He is Xane’s right hand and since they all moved to the Underworld her job has become all but redundant. Aster takes care of everything for his boss’s new wife. She wasn’t very pleased with that arrangement, although the animosity it caused with Liv’s husbands was amusing to see. She is interested to see how exactly Liv is going to juggle her three husbands now. Three! She is such a slut.

  She finds Aster crossing the lawn from Xane’s house to theirs. She is glad she didn’t have to go knocking over there. That place creeps her out even more than this house does. She has been in it once and it was exactly how she had imagined the mansion of a Demon would look: black, gothic, cold, foreboding, and downright chilling.

  “I need a huge favor,” she says to him as he sees her.

  “What?” he asks, fixing her with a shy stare.

  Jess knows he fancies her, and she plays on this. It’s about time she got some attention around here. She was used to having guys throw themselves at her, but not with these men. No, they only have eyes for one woman. Jess stamps the green-eyed monster back down and smiles seductively. “Can you take me to the house in England?” she asks.

  “Why?” he asks. He is a man of few words; she has come to learn.

  She pulls her cell phone out of the back pocket of her jeans and waves it at him. “I need to make a call and, well, there is no cell reception here.”

  Aster stares at the phone and Jess knows he is wondering what the fascination is. They don’t have phones here, not when anyone who is important enough can just be next to the person they want in the blink of an eye. Too bad this wasn’t factored in when she, as an unimportant person, was forced to live here.

  Aster grabs her arms and Astraports her to Earth. “One hour and I’ll be back,” he says shortly before he disappears again.

  Jess breathes a sigh of relief when she sees the bars appear on the screen. She needs to talk to someone and the only person she can think of is her old friend from L.A., Feenyx. She dials and waits.

  Voicemail.

  “Fee, it’s Jess. Call me back as soon as you get this,” she says and hangs up. Great, hopefully she won’t take too long to return her call.

  Jess makes her way up the stairs to her old bedroom. She closes the door and a shiver goes down her spine. She feels like she is being watched and it is creeping her out. She goes to open the curtains and the dust swirls up as she pulls them apart, letting in the much-missed sunlight. Jess takes a moment to close her eyes and be bathed in the sun. Her eyes fly open as she hears a scuffling sound and she spins quickly to scan the room. She can’t see anyone, unless they are…she gulps…under the bed. She shakes off her fear as she is a Vampire, dammit. Anything on Earth should be afraid of her, not the other way around. She drops slowly to her knees to peer under the bed to see who the mystery creeper is, and she lets out a scream of epic proportions.

  With her heart pounding, Jess leaps onto the bed as the little mouse scuttles across the floor, probably more terrified of her than she is of it. She feels completely ridiculous and is glad that no one was around to see her freak out over a tiny rodent. She should be used to the creatures by now. Her poor childhood homes were filled with the god-awful things. Her heart starts to slow, but she jumps again as the shrill ringing of her phone, still clutched in her hand, goes off. Feeling more like a fool, she climbs off the bed and answers, “Hey, Fee.”

  The two girl’s chitchat for a while, Fee chattering nonstop about her college life and Jess starts to get a pang in her stomach. She can’t talk to Feenyx about her problems with Devon. She won’t have the faintest idea where she is coming from. She thinks Jess has a glamorous life, having been swept off her feet by a gorgeous billionaire to live in London. Of course, she doesn’t know the truth about her being a Vampire and she is forbidden to tell. She would never put her friend in harm’s way like that. But she is different now and her old friends won’t understand her. She ends the call soon after this heartbreaking revelation and sinks to the bed. She truly is all alone. She has nothing except her devotion to her sire, who can’t even be bothered with her now that his sire is back. She starts to hate her life, her choices.

  She had plans once upon a time.

  Big plans.

  She was going to go to Harvard and be a lawyer. A top lawyer in New York, and men would fall at her feet and she would dismiss them all in favor of furthering her career. She wanted money and power and minions to do her bidding. Now she is the minion, and any money she has is Devon’s and she is at the bottom of the food chain with regard to any power.

  She gets more depressed as she thinks on her sorry life and not for the first time, she wishes she had never made the choice to get Devon to save her. She still doesn’t understand where it came from and she probably never will. What’s done is done. She cannot be un-turned and her sire will never be bonded to her. All she wants now is what the others have, is that so much to ask? She doesn’t think so. She wants what she was promised, what she risked so much for. She wants a bond to her sire like Liv’s, so fierce that time and space and Substitutes and shock pregnancies don’t make a damn bit of difference to them. She wants someone to have that epic love with her that hits them in the stomach and consumes every part of their being until it turns into an obsession.

  The only way she will ever get that now is by turning someone and she is too shit scared to do that. No, the way she was promised is the only way. She just has to get Remiel to come to her and give it to her like he said he would. She softly calls his name, but as expected, he doesn’t turn up, once again not important enough to be heeded. She flops back on the bed and coughs as the cloud of dust floats up around her.

  Someone really ought to be looking after this place. She waves her arms about as she stands and pockets her phone. What a waste of time and effort to get here. She leaves the bedroom and pauses in the hallway. She pushes open the door to Liv’s bedroom and steps inside. The room looks huge now that the massive bed is no longer occupying the space. They shipped it to the Underworld so that Liv could have her own bed to sleep in when she returned home. No one else got the same courtesy, she thinks bitterly. She opens the closets to find them empty and spins to take in the rest of the room. She doesn’t know what she is looking for, but she’ll just know when she sees it. The dresser holds nothing either and the bathroom is also empty. She was hoping for something she could use to hurt Liv, but as usual, the woman is untouchable.

  Every time Jess tried to take what was hers, it didn’t work. After Cole rejected her and Devon forbade her to try again, she needed a new target. She knew throwing herself at Constantine was a huge mistake. It had taken every ounce of courage she’d had to go to him and offer herself to him. She really thought he’d take her, hurt her probably, and she was prepared for that.

  But no, so devoted is he to his stupid wife, he turned her down. She was more disappointed than relieved when he threw her out after slicing into her. He is incredibly sexy and so dangerous which just makes him more attractive to her and his blood, oh God, her mouth starts to water as she thinks of drinking from him. But the fact that he is Liv’s husband is just icing on the cake.

  She sighs as she thinks of her failures and heads back downstairs to wait for Aster, who turns up right on the hour to ship her back home. She smiles her thanks and he looks like he wants to say something, but he clamps his mouth shut and disappears. Jess is glad. He’s nice and attractive, but the only way she will put out for someone other than her sire, right now, is if he belongs to Liv.

  On that note, she runs upstairs to see Cade. Their one time together had been pretty good, and it had made Devon really
jealous, which had made her feel good. Afterwards, he’d punished her, of course. It was only then that she realized he was only pissed off because it was Cade. The one who told Liv about his affair with Other Liv.

  She knocks on Cade’s door, but there is no answer. She pokes her head around the door, and she sees him sleeping. It’s all he seems to do. She hopes never to have to find out firsthand what losing your sire is like.

  “Hey,” she says gently, as she climbs on the bed.

  He opens his eyes and smiles at her. “Hey,” he replies with more strength in his voice than she has heard for a while.

  “You sound better,” she says with a genuine smile.

  “I feel better,” he says and sits up.

  She can’t help but rake her eyes down his muscular chest. He is quite a bit older than her in human years. She thinks he was early forties when he was turned, but he is still super-hot.

  “What?” he asks as he sees her looking at him and she shakes her head with a smile.

  “I guess a quick fuck worked wonders,” she says dryly.

  Cade looks at her with anger on his face. “It’s not like that,” he says. “I fed from her. That’s it.”

  “Hey, you don’t need to defend yourself to me,” Jess replies. “You do whatever makes you feel better.”

  “I am not sleeping with her,” he insists and the look of absolute distaste on his face piques her interest.

  “You aren’t, are you?” she asks incredulously.

  “No,” he growls.

  “You don’t even want to, do you?” she asks again, full of glee that she has finally found a man who doesn’t want that whore.

  “No,” he says again with a flush. “I don’t think of her that way,” he adds quietly.

  Jess can’t help her delighted laugh but shuts it when Cade throws her a murderous look.

  “Sorry,” she mumbles. “I just find it odd. How does that work with her being your sire?”

  “My body wants her, but I don’t. I loathe it that I can’t live without her, now drop it. Case closed,” he says with a pointed look and stands up to enforce it.

  “God, you really are miserable, aren’t you?” she says quietly.

  He starts to say something, but then he stops. He knows that she wasn’t being sarcastic. “Yeah,” he says finally and stalks off to the bathroom.

  Jess watches him go and all the guilt that she had been trying to push away comes right back up to the surface. He is this way because of her. She did this to him and she hates herself that someone innocent is suffering because of her actions. She was trying to hurt Liv, not Cade. She had contacted the Hunters and told them she would get them Liv. All she needed to know was did they have the means to capture and contain her. They had assured her they had a gilded cage that could trap a Dragon, so Jess had bargained that everyone else walk away while they took Liv. She didn’t know that they were going to take out Cade first for being a traitor. It hadn’t even occurred to her that she was hand delivering their most wanted fugitive to them. He hadn’t deserved what happened to him and she will have to live with her part in his turning for eternity. She can only hope that he eventually comes to accept what he is and learns to live with it.

  She slopes off, feeling even worse than she had earlier. She wants to find Devon now and have him hold her. And hopefully more. But he won’t feed from her and she sure as shit isn’t allowed to feed from him. The last time she tried he nearly took her head off. In the literal sense. Ever since he started up this whatever it is with Cole, he has grown more and more distant from her and she just has one more person to hate and compete with. It is killing her. She needs the upper hand for just once and it will take her a long way. She is startled when she bumps into Sebastian on the stairs.

  “Whoa, watch where you are going,” he says to her, grabbing her arm to steady her.

  She glares at him and he looks closer at her. “Everything okay?” he asks.

  “No,” she spits out.

  “What’s the matter?” he asks, and for a minute she thinks he cares, until she sees him cast a quick glance at Liv’s bedroom door and he grimaces.

  “Nothing,” she snaps, pulling her arm out of his grip. He raises his eyebrow at her tone, and she looks back at him sheepishly. “Sorry, I’m just feeling sorry for myself,” she admits.

  “Why?” Sebastian asks with what appears to be genuine concern.

  She likes him. A lot. They hooked up once, seems like a lifetime ago, and if he had been around more, she would have tried again. She isn’t sure if he and Liv have slept together, but she would wager a large amount that they have and the fact that she got there first makes her flush with joy. But she hesitates. She shouldn’t say anything about her feelings to him because she can’t trust him, but suddenly she can’t stop her runaway mouth. “Why? Because you have no idea how painful it is to be second best in your sire’s eyes!” she cries. “To always have to compete for his attention and then feel like you have won it just by being persistent! And even then, to know that he is thinking of someone else when he is with you. You just have no idea,” she finishes up.

  Sebastian’s eyes harden, as does his grip on her arm. “You are joking, aren’t you? Telling me that I don’t know what it feels like? I invented that feeling, little girl, so don’t whine to me again about how shit your life is and how your sire wants someone else. Try living with what I have to put up with before you bitch and moan about poor old you.”

  What the Hell? Jess is dumbfounded by his outburst, but then she gets it.

  Ah crap. She had completely forgotten that Sebastian is also Constantine’s charge. He will know better than anyone how she feels.

  “Sorry,” she mumbles. “You’re right. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

  He lets go of her and with his mouth set in a grim line, he puffs out in a cloud of smoke, leaving her alone and feeling guilty for hurting him. She just can’t get it right lately. But then she shakes it off. No one feels sorry for her, so why should she feel sorry for anyone else?

  Jess peers into the library to find it empty and a complete disaster. The desk has been thrown through the French doors and is currently sitting haphazardly outside on the terrace. This isn’t the first time this has happened, frustrations have been running high, but usually it is rectified immediately. No one wants to show what they think of as weakness. Jess picks her way over the desk to get outside. Her foot slips slightly and she kicks one of the drawers as she stumbles. She stoops to pick it up and move the desk back into place when something catches her eye. It looks like the bottom has come loose. She tips it upside down to see the damage caused underneath, but it is perfectly intact. She flips it back over and pokes at the loose bottom.

  It’s a false bottom.

  She quickly scans the area to make sure no one is watching her, and she pulls out the fake bottom to discover a letter. Her heart starts to pound as she hopes this is something that Liv has been hiding and that she can use to destroy her. It isn’t addressed to anyone, so she pulls it out of the envelope and her eyes widen in surprise and victory as she reads the declarations of love from Other Fraser.

  Oh, this is good! This is very, very good! Jess can’t believe her luck that she has come across a plan for Liv to go and get Other Fraser and bring him here. There isn’t a single one of her men that will accept that, and they will be united in that refusal to allow her to do this. This might just be the force to bring her down. She takes out her phone and brings up the camera function. She takes a few quick photos of the letter before she stuffs it carefully back into the envelope. She will come back for it once she has thought of a way to let the men know of this plan. She doesn’t want Liv knowing that anyone has found this yet, so she quickly replaces the letter and drops the false bottom back in place. If she tidies this mess up herself, no one will come across this evidence like she did.

  She wants to go and find Devon, but she knows it will be fruitless. until Liv forgives Devon of his affair with Other Li
v, he will be distant and only use her to feel better. She hates it, but she will do anything for him, no matter what he asks. A slight frown creases her brow as she thinks of the one thing, he could ask of her that she could never do. He hasn’t yet, but she has a horrible feeling he might, just might, in the throes of his depression, ask her to be like Elizabeth. She couldn’t bear it if he did that, but as she thinks about it more and more as it gets dark outside, if that is the only way to hold onto him then she will do whatever she has to. Even that.

  Chapter 8

  The Underworld, March 2014 - Liv

  The fog clears from my head and I stretch like a lioness, all limbs and claws. I had Vamped out at some point during our lovemaking and I haven’t retracted yet. I don’t want to. I want to relish what I am, what I really am, for a few moments before my world crashes down around me and I am back to choosing Faeries or Dragons.

  “I love you,” Cole mumbles into my hair and I turn and smile at him. He kisses my mouth and then slips into a deep sleep. I turn to CK and he smiles down at me. He is already up and getting dressed.

  “Where are you going?” I ask him, annoyed. He isn’t big on cuddling, but just once it would be nice, especially as he hasn’t seen me for six months.

  “To send a missive,” he says. “We cannot turn up to see Rosalina unannounced.”

  “What? Not even you?” I ask slyly.

  He chuckles sadly. “No, not even me.”

  I am wildly curious as to her World. It sounds quite spectacular. I am sure to discover all sorts of new things when we go.

  “Stay with your charge,” he says softly. “He needs you.”

  “What about you?” I ask. “Don’t you need me?”

  He closes his eyes briefly and if I expected anything else, I would be a fool. “I cherish you, sweet Aefre. My body craves you, but he is weak. He needs you now. We will have time later.”

  I feel like I want to cry. Why, even now, he cannot be vulnerable is heartbreaking. I turn my back on him and cuddle up to Cole, who sighs in his sleep and wraps his arms around me. Fine then. The great and mighty Constantine doesn’t need me, then I don’t need him.