Betrayal (The Forever Series) (3 page)

“You need to feed first,” I say to him and right on cue there is a knock at the door.

He frowns at me. “I’m fine,” he says. “Your blood was more than enough.”

I pull away from him. “No, you are not. You need human blood.” I open the door and let in one of the men standing there. I am glad to see it is a man. I wouldn’t have been too happy to have him feeding from a woman while dressed only in a towel.

He sighs at me and runs his hand through his hair. I wait patiently and his frown deepens.

“Oh, I’m not going anywhere,” I say breezily.
“Whenever you are ready.”

“I do not need supervision, Aefre,” he says sternly and I smile at him.

“I know you don’t. But I want to stay, please,” I cajole him.

“Fine,” he grumbles and takes the man by the shoulders and turns his back to me. I roll my eyes at him. He is so private about it, even now. It’s so silly. He finishes up and the man scampers off to let the other one in.

My turn.

I smile sinfully at CK and with my eyes fixed firmly on his, I bite down on my Feeder and his eyes darken in desire. His lips part and his breathing
deepens and he takes a step closer. I release the man and he too departs, leaving us alone with only a towel separating me from his massive erection--a towel he discards as he advances on me as I slowly lower the zipper on my skirt and push it over my hips to show him my lack of underwear. He has me on the bed and under him in a flash after that, impaling me with a force I never knew possible. He was truly starving himself of everything a Vampire needs, suffering due to his sorrow and I feel avenged by his actions. He finishes quickly, in a matter of seconds, but, muttering apologies for his haste, he slows down and takes me again, making sure to bring me satisfaction before he lets himself go again.

He rests his forehead on mine for a few minutes and then kisses me again. “How did you get here?” he asks me.

“We flew from Paris to Florence and I Astralled from your apartment there. We really do need to get moving now, Cole is waiting for us,” I answer him.

He grunts in response and gets off me. He gets dressed in silence as I watch him. “You should get yourself cleaned up,” he says gruffly.

I nod and head to the shower, being quick about it. He is ready and waiting for me when I come back out. He silently takes my hand and Teleports us to his apartment and we exit it hand in hand. I know he wants to ask me something, but is holding back, so I say to him, “What is it? What do you want to ask me?”

“It’s nothing,” he says so I drop it. If he wants to ask me, he will.

Half an hour later we are back on the jet and Cole is hugging and kissing me fiercely, once again staking his claim on me. CK nods to him and goes to sit. We follow and we sit quietly while we take off. To my surprise, Cole breaks the silence by clearing his throat. We both look at him and he puts his hands on the table and looks directly at CK.

“Now that you are back, we need to discuss something,” he says and pauses while CK remains silent. “I know that Liv told you awhile back that I was unhappy with this arrangement of her going to you every week.”

CK shifts his eyes to me in query and I shrug. I have no idea where he is going with this.

“She said that you would listen if I came up with an alternative arrangement. I have, so you will listen,” he says.

No one says another word for a few minutes.

Cole clears his throat again and steels himself. “I don’t want Liv to go off and see you for two days every week anymore. I want her by my side every day and every night, and I know that is what you want as well. Seeing as neither one of us is going to give her up, there leaves us only one solution.”

My breath hitches as I think I know where he is going with this.

“You will move in with us,” he declares. “Completely into our lives. You will share our house, our room, our bed. Liv and I will stay married, of course, but we will share her equally. She will be with both of us every day and every night unless or until she decides that she wants to choose one of us for good.”

My eyes remain glued to Cole’s face, whose eyes remain glued to CK’s. I cannot believe that he has just offered that. I am floored. I chance a look at CK who, to my surprise, looks even more shocked than I feel.

“You will share her?” he asks in disbelief. “What’s the catch?”

Cole shakes his head. “No catch. I want her always, and I want her to be happy.”

Shrewd as ever, CK narrows his eyes. “I have a counteroffer,” he declares.

Of course he does.

Cole nods grimly, having expected that.

“Aefre divorces you, marries me, and I let you share her with me, in our home until she decides it’s time to cut you loose.”

“CK,” I hiss at him, but he ignores me. As does Cole. This is quite clearly between the two of them and never mind little old me over here, the one they are discussing as if I weren’t even here…as usual.

Cole snorts derisively. “Not a chance. I am not divorcing her because you will take that as your cue to swoop in and take her from me regardless of any other agreement we come to.”

Huh, nice one. He has clearly thought about all of this and I wonder when he came up with this idea. It strikes me suddenly that he thought of this months ago. That is why he asked me for one month, on our own, just the two of us. He wanted thirty days of me to himself before he gave half of me up to his challenger. I swallow loudly and he looks at me, knowing that I have drawn this conclusion. I love him so much in that moment, I almost weep.

CK sniffs delicately. “Well you have thought this through, haven’t you?”

“Do you accept?” Cole asks him.

“I agree to everything except the housing arrangement. I want time with her in our home,” CK states.

Cole flinches at his use of “our home,” but sets his mouth. “What do you propose?”

“Six months, July to December, in Italy.
January to June in England. Or L.A. Whichever you choose,” CK says smoothly.

“Done,” Cole agrees and they shake hands. I blink at them and clear my throat. They both look at me as if they had forgotten I was even here.

“Do I get a say in this?” I ask, already knowing the housing thing isn’t going to happen.

“This is not what you want?” CK asks me seriously.

“Yes, I want this,” I say quickly before anyone changes their mind. “It would have been nice to be included in the negotiation though. I have concerns that need addressing.”

They both frown at me and I bite my lip.

“You two have to stop sniping at each other,” I say before either one can speak. “This will only work if we all get along.”

They stare at each other for the longest time. I know that Cole is waiting for CK to say something first as he is the one with the obsessive jealousy--not that he would ever admit that.

“I will put all of my feelings of jealousy aside, if you will,” CK says, and once again I find myself with my jaw on the floor.

Cole nods and is about to say something when CK interrupts him, “On one condition.”

Oh here we go. I knew that was far too easy to be true.

“Aefre becomes my wife. I will not have her in any other capacity than that which she deserves,” he says.

“No,” Cole says forcefully. “I will not divorce her.”

“I am not asking you to,” CK says. “I am merely saying that I will also take her as my own wife.”

Cole furrows his brow. “I don’t understand. We cannot both be married to her.”

“Yes, we can. You have had a human civil ceremony, but what I propose is that we join together in a hand fast.”

I stare at CK. A hand fast, the old Pagan ritual that binds two people together.

“That is what I wanted with her centuries ago and I will not enter into this agreement without it.” He looks directly at me as he says it.

Cole ponders it for a moment. I’m not sure he knows what it is or what it entails. He confirms this by asking, “What exactly is it?”

“An ancient form of marriage,” CK says shortly.

Cole looks at me and my feelings about this must be written all over my face. His eyes tighten and he looks back at CK and says, “Very well. We are agreed.” They shake hands and the deal has been struck.

I now belong to both of them.

Chapter 2

We sit in silence, each contemplating the arrangement in our own ways and what it means for each of us. My thoughts drift off as usual, unable to stay very long in one place for too long. I know I am going to have to spill the Cade beans to my sire and, well, sooner rather than later is always the best way with him. I grip Cole’s hand and he looks up at my sudden contact with him. He knows what I am about to do and he squeezes my fingers and nods. CK looks at us and I take a deep breath.

“CK, there is something that I need to tell you. But before I do, please know that it wasn’t planned. I didn’t want this, it just happened,” I blurt out before I lose my nerve.

“What is it?” he asks, straightening up, sensing a very dicey subject is about to arise. “What have you done?” he adds accusingly and, well, I have to spit it out now.

“When we landed in Paris, three months ago, there was an incident. Well, it was more than that. There was a shooting, at the airport. One of us got hit,” I start.

“Who?” he barks, interrupting me.

I gulp loudly as this is it. As soon as I say his name, he will know what I did. “Cade,” I say and close my eyes tightly, waiting for the lambasting to occur.

When there is nothing but silence, I risk opening one of my eyes to look at him. Then I close it again as I can’t bear to look at the expression on his face. I can’t decide if it is fury, pain, both, or something else entirely.

After what seems like forever he says, “Cade.”

I wait for more, but nothing.

It finally occurs to me that he is waiting for me to confirm his worst fear, not wanting to say it out loud himself.

I nod. “Yes, he was shot four times in the chest and he was dying. I had to, Constantine. I wasn’t going to leave him to die in the middle of the sidewalk.”

“Say the words, Aefre,” he croaks out at me. “I need to hear it.”

“I-I turned him. I am his sire,” I say and he hisses at me, slamming his fist on the table top, making Cole and me jump in our seats.

“I told you, Aefre!” he yells at me. “I told you, NO MORE BONDS TO NURTURE!” He stands abruptly and I sink back into my chair, wishing it would swallow me whole and spit me out somewhere very far away from this tiny aircraft. The look of absolute rage on his face almost makes me do the chair's job and Astral myself away, but it wouldn’t solve anything. It would only make him even madder with me. I have to face this head on, so I stand up as well.

“Let me explain,” I say calmly.

“Oh, I think it is quite clear,” he says. “You took it upon yourself in my absence to tie yourself to yet another man that I have to share you with. When will it be enough, Aefre? When you are the exact same as your Other World replica?” he adds nastily.

He knows those sentiments will hurt me more than anything else he can say at this point, and it does. I don’t want to be like her. I want to yell at him
to get stuffed, but it won’t get me anywhere so instead I say quietly, “It isn’t like that. Let me explain, please.”

He sits just as abruptly as he stood and says formally, “Very well. Explain your actions in a way that can justify to me what you did.”

I grit my teeth and sit. Cole takes my hand again in a show of support and I love him for it. He is showing Constantine that even as my current husband and charge, he accepts what I did without comment.

Well…maybe not completely without comment, but I’ll get to that momentarily. I breathe in and start my tale from when I fell to my knees and made the decision to save him.

Paris, France, March 2013 – Liv

“Linc,” I said as I grabbed his arm. “What should I do?”

Lincoln sighed at me and said, “Respect his wishes, Liv. He doesn’t want you to turn him.”

I shook my head and said, “No, it isn’t acceptable to me. I can’t let him die. I don’t want to let him die.”

The squeal of the ambulance sirens was getting closer and my uncertainty was wavering. I had seconds to make the decision and I made it.

He wasn’t dying on my watch.

With a look at Lincoln, I slit my wrist open again and placed it to Cade’s mouth.

“Liv,” Lincoln said, pulling my arm away. “You are making a mistake.”

But it was too late. It was done.

“If this is a mistake, I will deal with the consequences, Linc. I had to do it.”

“I know,” he said softly then and shuffled back to let the paramedics in to see to Cade. He hauled me to my feet as I just sat there staring at him. I couldn’t let them take him away to the hospital. I needed to get him back to the hotel where he could transition in private. I put my hand up to stop them from working on him, but Lincoln grabbed it and pulled me to him. “Let them do it their way,” he murmured to me. “We will go to the hospital and figure it out. We have drawn enough attention to ourselves, by just being here with him.”