I growl at her again but CK is now growling at me. We are headed into seriously dodgy territory here.
“You whore,” I spit at her. “You just wanted him for yourself. So, jealous that I, the woman you always saw as so fragile and weak, managed to get him into my bed.”
“Oh, I got him into my bed,” Carlotta scoffs. “More than a hundred times.”
“As a whore,” I snarl at her. “Never as a woman he wanted.”
“Ahem,” Frederick clears his throat and what excellent timing. CK is about to blow a gasket, killing everyone in the room except me, but that is only because I am still holding onto his daughter.
“This is not the time for the past,” Frederick says quietly, giving me a pained look. He knows what her being here is doing to me, and to him. Because of her and her spiteful mouth, we were torn apart before we were ready to split, Frederick banished to the ends of the Earth and me punished daily for nearly a month by my sire of the time for daring to fuck one of his men. Again.
“Agreed,” Constantine says, now calmly.
Whatever caused that I would dearly love to know. But all I need to do is look down and see my daughter gurgling away in my arms.
“Aefre. Carlotta is in need of a safe haven and I will not turn away a Vampire in need. She is free to stay here until she is safe. Frederick, please leave my sight before I do something that I will regret later,” he says stiffly.
“You are taking her side over mine?” I ask him with fire in my eyes.
“It isn’t about sides, Aefre,” he says with a sigh.
“Like Hell it isn’t,” I spit out and then Astral off with Thia to her nursery, where I hope he doesn’t follow me. I need time away from him right now. And her smug face.
Bitch.
The old castle whore used to be a friend until she found out that Frederick and I were engaging in certain activities. I had no idea she wanted him for herself. I always thought she was after Constantine and I was never worried. He would never have entertained her as a serious mistress due to her profession. She never once mentioned Frederick by name so how was I to know that the green-eyed monster would show its ugly head when she found us in the barn that day back in 1501? I managed to ensure her departure soon after she ran to Constantine with the news and had hoped to never see her traitorous face again. Why now?
I heave a sigh and sit in the rocking chair facing the window. The view soothes me and soon the anger I felt dissipates enough for me to be able to breathe again without it hitching.
“I know what you are thinking,” Frederick says from behind me.
“You’ve taken her to your bed,” I state flatly.
He speeds around to face me, his face serious. “You know that there has only ever been one woman since Sylvie died that I have taken to my bed,” he says quietly.
I look up at him in sorrow. I can count on one hand the amount of times he has mentioned his dead wife. The woman he killed the night he became a Vampire. “I know,” I say just as quietly. “Fucked her then. Whatever.”
“Never,” he says vehemently. “Not after what she did to us.”
“But she worships you, clearly.”
“And?” he asks. “She doesn’t know me. Not like you do.”
I bite my tongue, wanting to say so much but not being able to.
“I want to speak to my wife,” Constantine says, entering the room with his overbearing presence.
Frederick nods and leaves without a word.
“Not talking to you,” I say shortly but still take the bottle off him anyway to give to Thia.
“Tough,” he replies, closing the door. “I know you hate her. I do too. Believe me, the last person I want to see right now is the woman that brought me bad news when the bad news is currently living in my home.”
“Our home,” I point out.
“Of course,” he says. “But she is being hunted, Aefre. By this new taskforce. You cannot honestly ask me to leave her to be slaughtered.”
“Why not?” I ask. “It’s her problem. She is the one that got on their radar, obviously. Why bring us into it? We are in enough danger already.”