Trials (The Forever Series, Book 6) (2 page)

“No, you can’t go,” Devon says. “You are my wife. You belong
here with me. You are so different, whatever happened on your travels…” He
stops, looking me up and down with a renewed sense of love.

I shake my head, “No, Dev. I am Cole’s wife.”

“What?” Cole says to me. “No. That’s not right.”

“Yes it is, baby. You gave me these rings. I turned you in
Monte Carlo last May. We got married and I became Queen. Lincoln, I only met
you in June last year and Xane, only a couple of weeks ago. I don’t have kids…”
Btw I don’t even want to know. I add, “Dev, I did turn you in 1506, but in a
barn after your mother nearly killed you. No Holy union and we didn’t get
married. And you turned Jess,” thankfully, I think to myself, “four days ago,
in Vegas. Seb, I don’t know how we are involved here but I only met you a few
weeks ago as well,” I say.

“No, that is accurate. We met in New York in Constantine’s
penthouse,” Sebastian agrees.

“Yes, finally. Something that seems right. Do you know what
my relationship is with our sire?” I ask him.

“Why are you so concerned with your relationship with him?”
Devon snaps at me.

I ignore him, “Seb?”

He shrugs and says, “Who is to say? You don’t see each other
very often. You only came to New York to pick him up on the way to Los
Angeles.”

“On the way?” I ask, confused.

“From London. Where you live. Well the other ‘you,’ I
guess.”

“And CK lives in New York?” I ask incredulously as I look at
him.

“Well, now I know this place is fucked up. I wouldn’t choose
to live outside of Italy if it weren’t for you,” CK says.

“Where did we just land?” I ask then suddenly. “And why are
all of you guys on a plane together in the first place? This is just getting
weirder.”

“Los Angeles,” Sebastian says. “We are all here for your
Coronation.”

I blink at him several times. “Devon said I was already
Queen. What Coronation?”

“This is ridiculous,” Devon says. “I refuse to believe that
you have appeared here from a different, what do you call it? Timeline? It’s
impossible. Not even you, Elizabeth, has the capability to time travel.
Whatever happened to you when you Astralled out of here has traumatized you.
Made you forget. Where did you go?” he asks again.

CK steps forward, “We already told you. We are not of this
time.”

I grip CK’s hand tightly as he does mine. We are the only lifelines
we have now among this hostile set-up. “I need to get to my mother,” I tell
him. “She can help, I’m sure of it.”

“Tiamat?” Xane says. “No, Livvie, Tiamat is dead. We are are
here in L.A. for your Coronation to Empress.”

Again with the Livvie?

“Finn is waiting and our children are ready to take over the
Realms, once you ascend. We need to get moving,” Xane adds.

Our children? Oh Christ on a bike. “Have I just been
breeding with everybody around here?” I snap at them all and CK growls in
protest, crushing my hand in his.

“Fuck this shit,” I say and, squeezing him in a death grip,
I close my eyes and wish us back to, well, I suppose the only place left to go
is 1012, before CK messed everything up.

London, 1012 – Liv/Constantine; Aefre/Constantine

I open my eyes as all there is, is silence and then I hear
CK murmur from across the barn, "Oh my sweet, I love being inside
you." I spin around. Oh crap, we are in the barn, the day I was turned,
along with our Past selves.

“Aefre,” my CK hisses to me as he pulls me behind a pillar.
“We are at the wrong point.”

“No kidding,” I hiss back. “I tried. At least we are no
longer in that hideous twilight zone.”

“True,” he bobs his head in agreement. “Fuck. What are we
going to do?” he asks. I have never heard him so uncertain and I have no
answers for him, so I just shrug and turn and watch us. I have to admit that a
rather large part of me is wildly curious to see my own turning and what
happened next. I know that CK said he ripped Radulf’s head off and that is something
I am dying to see.

“You are watching?” CK asks with his back turned.

“Of course. We are pretty fucking hot together,” I whisper
and he stifles a chuckle. “Aefre!”

“What? I am more interested to see you kill that bastard,” I
admit ruefully.

“Oh, well that I understand. Keep watching,” he whispers as
he turns too then and watches us. “Are you getting turned on by this?” he
whispers casually.

“Very,” I murmur. “Although, I am pretty sure I know how to
treat you better now,” I say with a sidelong glance at him.

He snorts into his hand. “Oh, Aefre. I loved how innocent
you were. Christ, you meant everything to me,” he says softly.

“I know what you mean,” I say just as softly.

Right, so here comes the bit with Radulf bursting in on us.
My hatred flares up for him as I see him again after so long and I actually
take a step forward to do him in myself but CK holds me back. “Allow me,” he
says with a half-smile, as he tilts his head to his Past self.

So this is what happened after he stabbed me. It all happens
kind of quickly. Past CK pushes past me to the floor (gee, such a tender
touch). I glare at my CK and he shrugs. Past CK twirls the spear in his hand
and all Vamped-out shoves it into Radulf and he reaches out for his neck. Past
CK gives a quick check back at me to see if I am still alive, and he squeezes
Radulf’s throat and whispers something to him I don’t follow. Slamming him to
the floor, he tightens his grip and…Oh Christ! He wasn’t kidding. He actually
did rip his head right off his shoulders. I stare back at my CK in shock, my
bloodthirsty sire, who is looking very impressed with himself, I must say.
“What?” he mouths as he shrugs.

“My hero,” I mouth back and he glows.

I wince as Past CK rams the head of my dead husband onto the
spear he has ripped from his gut and then he turns back to Past me to save me.
He sighs as he cradles my head in his lap, whispering to me. He slits his wrist
open and places it to my lips. He leans forward and strokes my stomach as--I
turn to my CK, mouth open--he mourns the loss of my baby? He avoids my gaze,
eyes focused solely on the scene in front of us. I turn back to Past us and
Past CK leaves me now, grabbing the gruesome headed spear as he leaves the
barn. “Where are you going?” I whisper to mine.

“Nowhere you need concern yourself with,” he says.

“Where?” I insist.

He closes his eyes and gestures me out of the barn. I stop
to check on my Past self, looking very bloody yet at peace and then I run,
hoping it works the same--that only we can see each other and not everybody can
see us--and follow Past CK across the field to the front door of the cottage
where he, as mine had told me, places the spear with Radulf’s head on it
outside the door. He then turns and, with a flash of Vampire speed, heads in
the direction of the next cottage along. My parents’ house. I slow to a stop,
my hand on my stomach. We never did get around to finishing that conversation
that we started the other week about what happened to them. I hear screams and
then silence. I turn to my CK, and stare at him. “You killed them?”

“They deserved it after giving you to that monster and
leaving you to deal with him,” he says, stony-faced and unapologetic.

I fall into his arms unexpectedly. “I love you,” I murmur to
him, kissing him. “I love you so much. You are truly my hero. My savior.”

He clears his throat. “You don’t hate me?” he asks slowly.

“God no. I love you. You avenged me,” I say.

He looks relieved and says then, full of confidence, “Of
course I did. I wasn’t about to let them live with their actions.”

I look at him with a whole new love in my eyes and he sees
it and is pleased. “We do still need to fix the damage done. You have to get us
back to before I spoke to…me.”

“I know. That was some fucked up shit. Even for me,” I
mutter.

He lets out a loud laugh before he pulls us into the shelter
of a barn wall. “My Past self is about to come back to get Past you. We had
better stay out of the way this time,” he warns and I agree.

“Aefre,” he says, suddenly serious, “I can tell you now that
I would rather we stay here and live out the next thousand years again then go
back to that.”

“I know. I guess as much as we have opposing sides on me
being married to Devon, I am sure that wasn’t how either of us would have ever
thought it would be,” I say.

“What amazes me is that it lasted that long,” he says,
clearly musing out loud.

“No, I am more appalled that he let me just go off and be
with everyone. Everyone,” I say incredulously, thinking of Cade’s kiss. “And
babies? I mean what the fuck?”

He is frowning at me. “I thought you wanted babies? With
me.”

“Yes, one baby. With you. Not multiple species with several
different people.”

“Oh,” he says, pleased that I have not only reaffirmed my
intention to him but also dismissed avidly any intention of procreating with
anyone else. “Come,” he says, taking my hand. “We should try and sort this out
sooner rather than later. Although I have no idea how.”

“Wait. CK. The fight we had. I’m sorry. You know that I
didn’t mean it. You were and are the best thing that ever happened to me,” I
say.

He closes his eyes, “I know. I mean, I know you didn’t mean
it. I like that you think I am the best thing that has ever happened to you.
You are the best thing that has ever happened to me.”

I nod and grip his hand tighter, ready to whisk us away
somewhere else.

“Wait,” he says.

“What?”

“I have to tell you something. You are going to hate me and
I don’t blame you if you do. I am sorry, but…”

“But what?”

“I can’t let you think that I am angry with you for what you
said at the pool. I am angry with myself because I betrayed you and couldn’t
tell you.”

“What do you mean?” I ask, pulling away from him.

“This job that Sebastian is doing for me. I told you he
doesn’t do something for nothing. He wanted something and I needed him to
complete his task. I agreed to his request. I wish I hadn’t. Being here with
you now, like this, seeing us as we were, makes it impossible for me to lie to
you anymore.”

“What did you do?” I ask, already somehow knowing the
answer.

“Vivienne,” he says, as I also say it.

His eyes flick to mine, “You know?”

“I do now. You fucked her. With him.”

“No! No, I didn’t fuck her. She…I…Christ, I didn’t fuck
her,” he says desperately.

“Well, what then? What would make you feel so guilty that
you had to take it out on me?”

“We did things. What she wanted me to do. I did it. I hurt
her. I hurt her but I didn’t fuck her. Sebastian fucked her but
she…she…relieved me,” he says finally, dropping his head in his hands.

I close my eyes. “She pleased you, you mean,” I say coldly,
aware of my fragile glass house teetering very precariously, especially now,
after recent and disturbing events.

“It wasn’t pleasure,” he says, taking my hand. “It wasn’t
pleasure,” he repeats. “It was…Christ. I don’t know what to call it.”

“You had sex with her though,” I say.

“No. No, I didn’t. Well, not in the literal sense.”

“I wasn’t aware that figurative sex was something you could
do.” I am frowning as there seems to be some sort of
déjà vu
going on here but I can’t quite understand
why.

“Aefre,” he says desperately. “Please try and understand
what I am trying to tell you.”

“I think I know. She used her mouth to give you pleasure, or
whatever it is you want to call it and you feel guilty about it. You
shouldn’t,” I say casually even though I am dying inside. I turn from him so he
won’t see the tears that have sprung from my eyes. Yep, glass houses. They are
a bitch, all right.

“Aefre. Let me explain,” he says, taking my hand.

“There is nothing to explain,” I say. “I told you I hold no
demands on you.”

“And I told you, you do. I love you. I did it for Sebastian.
He wanted us to be together. It is hard for him. He has needs, desires, which
can’t be fulfilled. Being a part of that,” he holds his hand out away from him
in disgust, “brings him momentary fulfillment.”

“So find someone you trust to fulfill his needs in the
ordinary way,” I snap at him.

“There isn’t anyone we can trust with his secret,” he says
and then looks away with a sigh. “Except you.”

“Oh no, we aren’t going there,” I say decisively. “We need
to just forget this now and find a way to fix what has happened. As much as I
love Devon, I am not going back to that mess,” I say, brushing all of this
horror under the mental mat to deal with later.

“Promise me we will talk about it later then. Sort it out,”
CK says.

Do we really have to? I want to vomit as it is thinking of
that woman giving him pleasure with her stupid perfect mouth.

“There is nothing to sort out. Except this disaster, so,
shall we?” I say with a forced smile. I’ve had plenty of practice with those and
he smiles back hesitantly and takes my hand. I breathe in deeply and close my
eyes. I think marketplace, marketplace, marketplace.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t specific enough, as yes, we do land
near the marketplace, but not when I wanted us to.

“Oh crap,” I sigh as I see myself as a sixteen-year-old girl
rushing towards the bell tower, anxious to meet with my exotic forbidden love.

I look at CK and he grimaces at me. “This is going to be
hard,” he says but drags me off so we can again watch ourselves. “Everything is
still going as it was,” he says suddenly as he sees himself give me a rose.
“Maybe you should try again to take us back to 2013. Everything we have seen
since we came back to the past has been exactly how it was.”

“I need a very clear picture of how we left. I was yelling
at you and you were looking at me in that way that makes me think you want to
beat the crap out of me but won’t,” I say.