“You don’t need to know how. The kiss of true love will awaken him.”
Oh, please. This is getting cornier by the minute.
“He isn’t my true love,” I say. “My true love died two hundred and sixty-six years ago.” I stiffen my back against the pain.
“He is your true love. I can see it in your heart. He has done this awful thing to you. I overheard him and Vladimir talking about it when you went downstairs. But you have already forgiven him, you will always forgive him. You love him unconditionally, not just because he is your sire, but because you belong together. That is true love.”
Now quite thankful that Devon, and especially Cole, cannot understand what we are saying, I shake my head. “No. I cannot forgive him for this.”
“You already have, my dear,” she says again. “You know his reasons for doing what he did.”
Huffing at her, I say, “Why can’t she do it? She is clearly in love with him.”
“He doesn’t love her,” she says simply.
Oh, for fuck's sake. Fine. I stomp over to him and move young Polly out of my way, much to her annoyance. I look at him for a few moments, peaceful, beautiful, and I sigh. I do love him. I always have and I always will, but can I accept this? I don’t know if I can. Leaning forward, I place my lips on his in a sweet kiss that makes his eyes pop open in surprise as he sees me, then remembering what happened, he jumps up in fury moving towards Tatiana.
CHAPTER EIGHTY-FOUR
“Don’t. She’s locked Lance up downstairs. You can’t kill him. None of us can,” I say quickly.
He turns to me but doesn’t get a chance to say anything as Polly flies into his arms and kisses him soundly on the mouth. I turn away, unable to take the stab of pain that shoots through me.
“Aefre,” his voice brings my eyes back to his. “What do you mean we can’t kill him?”
“He has linked himself to Polly via Blood Magick. If you kill him, she dies too,” I say shortly and turn from him again as he still has his arms around my look alike and she is gazing adoringly up at him.
He untangles himself, crosses over to me and turns me around. He sees everything I’m feeling, and he whispers, “I can explain.”
“No need. She already did,” I tell him and pull away.
He glares at her furiously and she drops her head. “I’m sorry, my lord. She threatened me if I didn’t tell her.” She peeks up at me slyly through lowered lashes, causing my indignation to flare up. Little bitch. I narrow my eyes at her. Victim or not of Lance’s cruelty, I won’t have her manipulate this situation. Before I can speak, though, Constantine has crossed over to her and grabbed her by the arm tightly, fury emanating from him as he sees the situation as clearly as I do.
“CK,” I say, going to her defense anyway. “Don’t blame her. This is your doing.”
“CK? Is that what she calls you?” Polly asks with a sidelong glance at me. “You never told me to call you that. I shall call you that from now on when we are together.”
The fury that is now rolling around the room is coming from me. So much for trying to help her! She just turns around and screws with me, again.
“You don’t get to call him that!” I shriek like a banshee. “You don’t get to call him anything!” I cross over to them. “Whatever this little arrangement of yours is, it’s over.”
Constantine looks at me in earnest. “It’s been over for years, Aefre. I haven’t seen her in about sixty years. How long has she been here?” he asks me and not her.
“She says three months.”
He lets go of her and she drops to her knees, contrite. I want to throw up again. He leans down and grabs her arm, hauling her to her feet. “Get up,” he growls.
“We can try again, my lord. I can be everything for you that she can’t. You can be yourself with me,” she says desperately.
“She isn’t the problem. Don’t you see? It is me that can’t be everything for her,” he says sadly and lets her go again. She knows she’s lost him as he takes my face in his hands. Ignoring everyone else in the room, he says, “I’m sorry.” He drops to his knees at my feet. A collective gasp goes around the room from Polly, Tatiana, and Devon while Cole growls a low rumble around the room. Poor Lincoln, who doesn’t know what the fuck he has stepped into, just looks plain uncomfortable. I, on the other hand, am getting pissed off with this vulnerable sire side and again, I wish I could reseal the wormy can from Tuscany.
I drop to my knees in front of him and take his face in my hands. “Stop this at once. It’s pissing me off.”
“I’m sorry,” he says again. “I couldn’t help myself after the last time. I was dead inside. All I wanted was you to love, but I wanted to hurt you. I wanted to hurt you because you had hurt me. I thought you had hurt me,” he amends quickly as I open my mouth to correct him. I cast a quick glance around the room. This really isn’t a conversation to be had here, but here it will have to be.
“Stop,” I say.
His eyes flash to mine.