“Liv was instructing me on how best to deal with Constantine at our first meeting,” Cole informs him.
“Ah, well, don’t threaten to hunt him down and kill him and you’ll be golden,” Devon comments and we all chuckle.
O nce back on the G6, the mood is still light, and I am enjoying every second. This stretch of the flight is eight and a half hours, but none of us are ready for sleeping yet. Devon is in great humor after our earlier encounter and is playing music from his iPad. Drinks are flowing and the joking and teasing is in full force. I’m glad to see my darling boy happy again. He has been so sad for a while now, and it has me worried. I push that thought away as he whisks me off my feet with a laugh, twirling me around to the music.
With about five hours to go until we land, Cole decides it's time to crash, not having our Vampire constitution for booze and little sleep. He falls asleep face first on the bed and I sigh. Well, that’s that then. Again.
Shaking my head, I close the door quietly and make my way back to the bottle of champagne and kill it. Devon just stares at me.
“He passed out,” I state unhappily.
He chokes back a laugh. “That’s humans for you,” he smirks.
“Haha, funny. Shut the fuck up and go back to doing whatever it was you were doing,” I wave a hand in his general direction.
“Do you really think he will hold his own with daddy dearest?” Devon asks with more than a trace of sarcasm. I shudder at his choice of words; it brings back far too many painful memories for me.
“Well, he can’t do any worse than you, at least,” I retort.
He grimaces at the memory. “Yeah, that was pretty bad. However, I stand by my conviction. He was threatening you and I was protecting you,” he states.
“Yes, you were, my hero,” I smarm at him while I bat my eyelashes and he grins.
“God, it was so long ago and yet it seems like yesterday,” he says.
“Tell me about it. I remember every second,” I agree.
“You never did tell me what happened after I left,” he asks, suddenly curious.
I pause. “We talked, you know, sorted stuff out…”
“Did you fuck?” he asks coldly, and I glare at him.
“Not that it concerns you, but no, we didn’t fuck.” A lie by omission perhaps, but now isn’t the time to tell him my sire, usually not one to appreciate a blue-eyed brunette, had been with Élisabeth that night, making passionate love for hours on end after so many years apart. I know that he didn’t want me to Shift because of Devon, knowing I was his sire and that it would hurt him and piss him off.
Needing to distract him from this line of questioning, I sit down next to him and lean my head on his shoulder. He grunts and pulls me closer. We sit in silence until exhaustion pulls me under.
I awake a couple of hours later with my head in his lap. He is asleep as well with his fingers in my hair. I untangle myself and stretch. I check the time, it’s an hour to landing. As I stir, Jenna appears with coffee. Smiling gratefully, I accept the cup and stand. Taking another for Cole, I head to the bedroom.
Still flat out, I shake him gently and he wakes with a start. “What?”
I smile at him. “Coffee?” I present him with the cup.
“Yes, please,” he gulps it down. “Fuck. Vampire metabolism obviously not affected by alcohol?”
I smile and shake my head.
He snickers in response. “Lucky you,” he says and downs the rest of the coffee. “Food?”
“Follow me,” I say, and he does, slowly.
A fter a hearty breakfast, Cole is feeling better. I leave him and Devon to banter while I shower and change.
I carefully selected my arriving outfit: a crisp Chanel strapless dress in black. It’s tight fitting, with a drop to the knee and a matching knee length jacket, and just because I’m still me, my spiked black Louboutins. Smart and casual, yet elegant, with a touch of pizzazz. Pleased with the result, I tuck a last strand of hair into my high, deliberately messy bun and head to the Main Cabin. They both turn and look at me appreciatively and I glow under their admiring stares. “Both of you, get moving,” I clap my hands. “Not landing with you two looking like that.” I gesture in their general unkempt direction.
Cole leaps up first to shower and change. I picked out a navy Armani suit for him with a crisp white shirt to wear with no tie. Devon will no doubt be in his usual black pinstripe, albeit tieless today. Monte Carlo arrival is smart casual, emphasis on the money.
“Help me with my necklace?” I ask Devon.