“Xerxei, I presume,” CK says from the doorway.
“Yes.”
“Beautiful as always. But Shift back, if you don’t mind.”
“I can’t.”
“What do you mean you can’t?” he snaps.
“I mean, I can’t. I tried but I can’t do it,” I say woefully, and he is at my side in a flash.
“Try again,” he says.
I do try again. But nothing. “I can’t,” I say again.
“You mean you are stuck this way?” he asks in disgust.
I frown at his words ‘stuck this way.’ “Seems so. For now. Not to your satisfaction, I see,” I add nastily as I stalk off to get dressed.
“Aefre,” he says, following me. “I am just concerned.” He grabs my arm, turning me to him. I can see his overly concerned features and I sigh.
“I know. So am I. But tell me what I want to hear,” I say quietly, needing his approval, his validation.
His eyes soften as he looks at me, knowing my concerns. “You are beautiful,” he tells me again, pulling me even closer. “So beautiful and very sexy,” he murmurs against my lips. “I love you,” he kisses me.
“You think I am very sexy?” I say.
He gives me a thorough once-over, eyes lingering in all the right places. “Very,” he says as he focuses on my breasts, before sweeping his gaze up to my eyes.
I smile slowly and a Shift occurs. Not that I get back to my natural form, but my eyes change. He raises his brow at me, and I look in the mirror. Blue. A bright piercing blue that seems to belong to the House of Dracul. Great. Now I fucking look like Xane and his entire family.
CK sighs. “He won’t be able to stay away,” he says to himself.
“Oh, baby. Don’t worry about him,” I say, not wanting to discuss Xane. I turn from him and try to get dressed the magickal way, only I can’t. So, I turn to the closet and sift through, trying to find something out of the few clothes I brought that will fit this form. I land on a tight black catsuit that still fits length-wise – just – but is tight over my breasts. I pull the zip down to ease the pressure and my huge tits almost spill out of the outfit. “We should go downstairs.”
I turn back to face him, and his eyes are on fire. For all his petite green-eyed blonde preference, he clearly also has a thing for taller, blue-eyed, black-haired, large-racked women. Oh, shit. Devon is going to freak. This thought must pass across my face as he says, “Devon will want to be with you to
night. Just come back to me when you are done.” He walks away from me, but I don’t let him get very far.
“Hold on a minute.” I grab his arm as he did to me, as he enters the sitting room. But what I was going to say gets left unsaid as we are greeted by Sebastian and Vivienne. They both stare at me, clearly wondering who the Hell I am and then look to CK who shrugs. “It’s Aefre. Or better yet, Xerxei.”
Sebastian’s eyes nearly pop out of his head as he looks back to me and whistles. “Christ, Liv. You look amazing,” he says in admiration. Vivienne, now completely healed, just glares at me with open hatred. I glare back. She adjusts her features and steps back lowering her eyes. Finally! Some fear. It’s about bloody time. I am smug then as I look back to Sebastian, “Thank you.”
“Any reason for the Shift? Or just to show us how stunning you are?” he sidles over, giving me the same lingering once-over that our sire did.
“Back off, Sebastian,” CK says quietly. “She may be Xerxei, but she is still mine.”
He holds his hands up. “I’m only looking. You would have to be blind and a eunuch not to stare.”
Flatterer. I am glowing under his compliments, and all is truly forgiven. “I Shifted earlier. She is staying for a while,” I say, not particularly wanting to admit to him, and especially Vivienne, that I can’t Shift back.
“Well, I can’t say that I’m not disappointed that we no longer look similar, but you are smoking hot. And very bad ass,” Sebastian says.
“I do look bad ass, don’t I?” I agree.
“Shall we go?” CK says now, getting pissed off.
I nod. “Yes. I hope the boys ordered food. I’m starving,” I say and stop traffic.