Betrayal (The Forever Series) (4 page)

I knew he was right. Everyone else had fled as soon as the shots were fired and I sent Cole and Jess away with Devon. Just by staying with him we showed the world that we were either stupid or not afraid of getting hurt. Hopefully everyone would go with stupid.

“He won’t start to heal until they remove the bullets and then they will sew him up and he will be good as new. We can get away with this, if we just stay calm and level-headed,” Lincoln whispered to me and it was exactly what I needed to hear. I nodded my head, blinking back the tears. They were ushering Cade to the ambulance and I followed quickly. They tried to stop me getting on, but I snapped to them in French, “He is my father,” and they let me on, buying the story as I knew they would. Lincoln said he would meet me at the hospital and I nodded again and then focused completely on Cade. I thought I was in shock, it almost didn’t seem real now that we were tearing through the streets of Paris with the sirens blaring. All too soon, we arrived at the hospital and Cade was raced into surgery. I knew he would be okay. I had made sure of it, but I was nervous as I finally came back down to Earth and realized what exactly it was that I had done.

Lincoln found me a few minutes later pacing fretfully as one of the nurses was trying to get Cade’s information out of me. I had no idea what to say to her. Give his real name? A fake one? I had no idea how he went about his business in the real world and it made me slightly ill. In the end I told the truth. We were disappearing soon anyway, if we had to go earlier than planned, then so be it.

Lincoln hugged me to him and said, “I’ve called Cole. He’s on his way.”

“What? No! Linc! What if the shooter was after Cole? He might try again,” I said in panic, knowing in the back of my head that unless they were made of wood, Cole would have been okay anyway.

“It’s possible,” Lincoln said carefully, “but I know this profession. To maybe miss your target once is a slim possibility, but to miss and then hit the same target four times is impossible, Liv.”

“So what are you saying?” I asked, my panic getting even worse. “That the shooter was after Cade? Why?”

“Why do you think?” Lincoln said gently, pushing my hair back behind my ear. “He defected from a very powerful group to join their enemies. That makes him a traitor, Liv.”

I knew that. Cade and I had discussed it a few weeks ago. He said he was cloaked. “He said he was cloaked,” I repeated my thought to Lincoln.

Lincoln just shrugged and said, “I am only going off the evidence.”

Cole rushed towards me then, followed by Devon and Jess. He crushed me to him, stiffening at the scent of human blood, albeit Hunter blood, all over my hands and clothes. I hadn’t even noticed the burning sensation.

“Cole,” I started and he shook his head.

“I know what you are going to say: that you saved him,” he said.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I had no choice.”

“I know,” he said grimly. “I know you couldn’t let him die. It hurts like a motherfucker,” he whispered, “but I understand.”

“You know it isn’t like that, right?” I asked him, needing him to know that I didn’t love Cade.
That I had no intention of siring him so we could be together.

Cole bobbed his head once, trying to believe me, but I was now horrified as a thought that had never even entered my head during the last hour was now all I could think about.

I stepped back from Cole, my hand on my mouth.

“What is it?” Devon asked, stepping forward and grabbing my arm in case I decided to pass out. I was close, I’ll tell you that.

“What will he be?” I asked. “I sired him, so what will he be?”

Everyone looked at each other uncomfortably and I shrieked again, “What will he be?” I was gaining the attention of several members of staff and people waiting for news on their loved ones.

“Liv,” Cole said, taking my arms and holding onto my wrists. “Liv,” he said again as I started to go into a meltdown. What if he didn’t come out the other end as a Vampire? What if he was some hideous, rampaging beast of mixed blood that I was going to have to kill? Or worse, he died anyway on the operating table because my blood can no longer turn humans?

“Liv!”
Cole snapped at me and I looked at him. “Don’t think about that, not yet.”

It was hardly the reassurance I was looking for, but seeing as no one else had any words of comfort for me, I took it and held it to me as I sat. We waited and waited and eventually a doctor came out and asked to speak to Mr. Sinclair’s daughter.

Cole and Devon both raised their eyebrows at that, but how else was I supposed to be his next of kin?

He spoke to me rapidly in French with Lincoln at my side, asking the questions I was incapable of asking…except for one.

“Can I see him?” I interrupted the doctor who was going through a long-winded explanation of what they did to him in surgery.

“Uh, yes, of course,” he said. “Just you,” he added as Lincoln stepped forward to join me. I nodded reassuringly at him and with a look at Cole that broke my heart as he looked back in
sorrow, I followed the doctor to Cade.

Thirty-six hours later he was still unconscious and my anxiety that he would never wake up was keeping everyone well away from me. Even my husband was reluctant to join me on my bedside vigil.

I twiddled with the small, flat disc made from Faerie Silver that Corinne had handed off to me without undergoing any kind of trial. Queenly perk, she had said, but I wondered if there was more to it than that.

He stirred next to me and my eyes went back to his face, my hand gripping his tightly. I had the curtains pulled tightly closed against the sunlight and he opened his eyes and looked at me through the gloom.

“Where am I?” he rasped and I handed him a glass of water.

“The hotel,” I said. As soon as I was able, after we had checked into the hotel, I went back to him and Astralled him out of the hospital and into bed in my suite. I was sure there was all kinds of Hell breaking loose by his absence, but he couldn’t wake up there. He just couldn’t.

“What happened?” he said after gulping down the whole glass of water. He put his hand to his head as he turned to plant his feet on the floor. He wobbled unsteadily as he got to his feet and I grabbed onto him. He turned instinctively towards me and dropped his new fangs to his utmost horror and bit me without further ado. He pulled back after a few moments and looked at me with such revulsion it nearly made me cry.

“You turned me?” he spit out, stepping back and stumbling in his still weakened state.

“You need human blood,” I said to him, but he put his hands up to stop me coming any closer.

“What did you do?” he asked me in disbelief as he raised his hand to his fangs, pricking his finger.

“You were shot, Cade. You were dying. I had to,” I explained quickly and desperately. “I couldn’t let you die.”

“No,” he said shaking his head. “No! I told you ‘No!’”

“I’m sorry, Cade,” I said. “I know I went against your wishes, but I saved you. You were dying,” I said again, my desperation turning into fear. Fear that he was going to turn from me, fear that he wasn’t going to accept this.

“Saved me?” he said. “You didn’t save me, Liv. You doomed me. I trusted you and you did the one thing that I didn’t want you to do.”

“Doomed you?” I repeated in disbelief. “No, Cade. I saved you. If I hadn’t you would be dead. Don’t you see?”

He shook his head at me, disgust and loathing etched on his face. “You should have let me die,” he said, before he turned from me with great effort, cutting himself off from me.

I finish up my tale of woe, hoping that CK grasps the fact that Cade hates me and wants nothing to do with me.

“I see,” he says. Again, I wait for more, but there is no more. He is processing it and I leave him to it.

Fortunately we land at Heathrow shortly thereafter and we disembark in silence. Cole is attached to me like a barnacle and I appreciate the support. He wasn’t mad with me after what I did, just hurt, as was Devon. But once I explained to them both that there was no love or lust, even, between me and Cade they started to come around. Once they saw Cade’s reaction to his turning and his distance from me, they grew to accept it even more. I am hoping the same can be said for CK.

“I understand,” CK says suddenly as we get into the waiting car.

“You do?” I ask, surprised.

“Yes,” he sighs. “I know you, Aefre. I know that you couldn’t let him die. You did the only thing that you could to save him.” He takes my hand and just like that all is forgiven. I suppose under the circumstances of him being gone and wondering if I would ever come back for him, not to mention he now has me almost right where he wants me, he is not going to do anything to mess it up.

“Thank you,” I say and smile at him. He returns it. Slightly forced, but I can live with that.

“So, where is he now?” he asks.

“I don’t know,” I say. “He came to Rome with us and back to Paris and then he disappeared. I haven’t seen him in about a month.” Thirty-two days to be precise.

“You were in Rome?” CK asks, his fingers squeezing mine.

“Yes, last month,” I say quietly with lowered eyes. I wanted so desperately to go to him, but I forced myself to stay away.

“Oh,” he says miserably. His eyes suddenly snap up to mine and he says, “A month?”

I nod, also miserable now. “He knows he is damaging himself, but he doesn’t seem to care.”

This statement further cements in CK’s mind that Cade is in fact no threat to his newfound happiness and he relaxes somewhat, clearly not concerned as to my newest charge’s well-being.

“And everyone else?” he inquires, politely.

Cole answers for me, as he knows I am still struggling to regain my composure. “Devon and Jess will be back tomorrow. Lincoln should already be there and I have no idea as to Xane’s whereabouts. Liv?” he asks with more than a bit of snark, his concern over my internal struggle all but forgotten.

“He will join us tomorrow,” I say shortly.

“And Sebastian?” CK asks, casually.

I frown at him. “You don’t know?” I ask. “Have you not seen him?”

He shakes his head. “No, I haven’t seen anyone since I left you in March,” he admits cautiously.

“Oh,” I say, somewhat taken aback. I had assumed that Sebastian would go to him. “He is still in the Fae Kingdoms. I haven’t seen him for several weeks.”

“Is he okay?” CK asks. I can see it takes a great effort for him to ask me about his own charge.

“As well as he can be, I guess,” I say. It isn’t very reassuring, I know, but the last time I saw Sebastian he was a mess. Granted, a well-held together mess, but he wasn’t fooling me. He hates being King, he hates his brothers, he hates this civil war, he hates being away home, he hates being away from me, basically he
is just hating everything and everyone at the moment.

We arrive back at the country manor in record time and we all pile out, glad to be back in a home setting and with each other. Grayson unloads the luggage we had to haul around with us as we enter. I call for Lincoln, but there is no answer so he must not be here yet. That leaves me, Cole, and CK to stand in the Entrance Hall, only just a little bit awkwardly. I am dying to ask how this is going to work now, but I chicken out much to my own annoyance. As far as I am concerned, it is up to CK now. He is the eldest and most composed of the three of us and I wait for his lead on what to do.
So does Cole, which only surprises me a little bit. He must be feeling very out of sorts with this and I make a mental note to ensure that he is happy and well taken care of when the time comes.

I don’t have to wait much longer as CK takes my hand and leads me upstairs. I hold my hand out for Cole’s and he grabs it like a lifeline. We trail upstairs, in silence, and CK pushes open the door to mine and Cole’s bedroom. Only now it is mine, Cole’s, and CK’s bedroom. I have thought of this particular moment many times over the last year. However, the reality is somewhat different to how I had fantasized. I always pictured myself firmly in control, the sexy Vampire Queen, taking her two lovers with great confidence and abandon. But right here, right now I am like a deer in headlights. It is absurdly nerve-wracking because we are now going to be together as a true
ménage à trois
. If this goes badly, it sets the precedent for a lifetime of bad sexual encounters and I am not so sure I can handle that.

CK smiles at me. His made-just-for-me smile and I relax then. We have never had bad sex before and we aren’t about to start now.

“You are nervous?” he asks me with a slight smirk. “I can’t remember the last time that happened.”

I giggle and look at Cole, who is looking slightly
nervous himself. “Come,” I say and pull him closer to the bed. He hesitates and I can see his indecision and his doubts as to whether he has made a mistake with his offer. He follows me as does CK, and then I turn and start to undress myself. He won’t be able to resist me and he will relax. I slowly undo all of the buttons on my shirt and reveal my naked breasts to him as I slide it off my shoulders. CK is on me in an instant as I knew he would be, to help speed this along. The sooner we get on the bed, the sooner we can all just get into it. Cole’s eyes go straight to CK’s hands on my breasts and that gets him moving. He strips off his clothes as he watches me closely, trying his best not to get jealous when CK drops his fangs into my neck. He steps forward to do the zipper on my skirt and he pushes it over my hips so that I am now also completely naked. CK withdraws his fangs from me and I turn in his arms to help him lose his clothes. As soon as he is naked he takes me in his arms and falls back to the bed with me, kissing me gently. He scoots us up to the middle and turns us over so I am under him. He kneels in front of me, parting my legs as Cole drops his mouth to my nipple to suck me into a state of desire, as CK concentrates his efforts lower down. I am soon writhing against the silk sheets, crying out as crest after crest of pleasure rips through me. CK kneels again and slides into me as I am still throbbing and he pulls me closer to him, my back slipping easily down the sheets. It doesn’t surprise me that he got there first, as he mutters endearments to me, moving his hips back and forth. Cole muffles my moans as he kisses me and I take hold of him, sliding my hand up and down his silky shaft. I want him in my mouth, so I push him away and sit up. I turn around and get on my hands and knees. CK is back inside me instantly, now pounding into me as I take Cole in my mouth. He whimpers and pushes his hand into my hair as I work my tongue up and down him. CK is pumping into me faster and faster and I know he is ready to let go. He grunts softly as he releases himself inside me, his fingers digging deep into the flesh at the tops of my thighs as he pulls me back to him. Further and further back, pulling Cole out of my mouth as he sits back, with me on his lap. CK tilts my head in invitation to Cole to feed and he does so without hesitation. CK plays with me while Cole feeds from me and I come in a sudden pulsation against his fingers. CK pushes me forward, off him as Cole retracts his fangs and he lets Cole have me now, briefly, to himself. I look into his eyes as I lower myself onto him and his look of desire is masking something I have never seen before. Something so primal, so visceral it takes my breath away. I gasp as he roughly shoves me down onto him and pulls my head to his neck to feed. I drop my fangs and pierce him gently, sucking on him, as CK places soft kisses all the way up my back, causing V.A. to flutter in delight. I release Cole and come loudly, riding him forcefully through my orgasm until he, too, lets go.