“I’m sorry,” I say and drop to my knees in front of him again. “You know that I don’t love him, but I am going to have to tell him that I want to be with him so he will trust me.”
“I know,” he says quietly. “I know that Aefre doesn’t love him, but ValamAtrux is a whole different thing.”
“Don’t be worried, my love. I will get them all under control before I go. I promise you; She won’t be in the front when I go to him. I will.”
“If things hadn’t gotten so serious, I would have taken my hand to you for kissing him earlier,” he says sternly.
“And I would have let you,” I say with a slight smirk.
He leans forward to kiss me, but he doesn’t take it any further. I am desperate to make love with him, but it seems to be the last thing on his mind.
Chapter 4
Tuscany, Italy, March 2014 – Constantine
He lets Aefre go back to the Underworld alone. He wanted to make love with her, to reinforce their feelings towards one another now that she is no longer his charge, but he just couldn’t. He needed to get her away from him before she suspected that his quiet calm isn’t because he is shocked to learn about her daughter, but because he already knew about her.
Remiel had whispered it to him during their fight in the garden and he was desperate not to believe him, but somehow, he just knew it to be true. He has kept quiet about it because he knew this would happen. And if she ever found out that he knew, she would hate him. But he knew Aefre would never leave her child there. He wants her to. He cannot bear the thought of looking at a child that isn’t his own every day. The thought of seeing his wife love and take care of another man’s child–and his to boot, is torture for him. He has no idea how he’s going it handle it when she inevitably has Sebastian’s child. That will be ten times worse, but Constantine hopes and prays that she is pregnant with his child now. It will give him something to occupy his mind when the time comes for her to give the Faerie what they want. He will take his daughter away, here to their home, and away from all of this so they can be happy, and he will return when Aefre is done and she can finally be just his. He needs this plan to keep him sane. If he doesn’t have this, he will very quickly pull his darkness back over him and that is something that he doesn’t want. He doesn’t want Aefre to ever have to see him like that again. He is on the brink even now. It tears at him inside, and these additional powers are just making it worse. He doesn’t know how much longer he can hold on the way things are going. He sighs as he stands up and starts to pace.
One thing is for sure. He couldn’t be happier that Cole left of his own accord. It is one less plan for him to have to go through with. It makes him glad in a way that Aefre was reverse-turned and her charges with her, because Devon is now lost to her as well. Constantine can’t see him sticking around much longer once he realizes that Aefre no longer wants him as she wanted her charge. As afraid as Constantine is of losing her himself, he is glad that this happened to her. It makes his job a whole lot easier. He knows that she loved him, adored him even, when she was still human, so after a thousand years he is confident that she still feels that way about him minus her Vampire. All he has to do now is ensure that she stays with him and sacrifices everyone else that has a hold on her.
“What do you want?” he asks as he turns around to see Sebastian standing in the doorway.
Sebastian just stands there in silence.
Constantine regards his charge and he is pale. “You are thinking about the girl, aren’t you?” he says.
“Aren’t you?” Sebastian asks. “We did this to her.”
“No,” Constantine says mildly. “Xanthe did this to her.”
“Semantics,” Sebastian hisses.
“Don’t tell me you feel guilty?” Constantine scoffs.
“Yeah, I do actually,” Sebastian replies. “I was the one who gave the thought to her for her to attempt suicide so that Devon would save her. How do you think that makes me feel?”
“You shouldn’t feel anything,” he says. “You only did what I asked you to do.”
“Don’t you feel anything?” Sebastian asks him bitterly.
“Not about this,” Constantine replies. “The girl was nothing to me.”
“She wasn’t anything to me either, but we are still responsible for this,” Sebastian says and sinks onto the bed.
“You need to get over it,” Constantine snaps at him, irate. “And you need to get your face straight before Aefre suspects something.”
Sebastian shakes his head at him. “We need to tell her,” he says.
Constantine is at his side in an instant, gripping his arm tightly. “We will do no such thing,” he says ominously. “She doesn’t need to know about this. It’s over.”
Sebastian pulls his arm out of his grip with a sullen look. “Fine. Just one more lie to add to the growing pile.”
Constantine sneers at him. “Oh, I get it now. This is less about the girl and more about my wife.”
“My wife, as well,” Sebastian shouts, standing up. “You are going to have to get used to the idea and fucking soon, because I can tell you now, the two of us will be together properly before long. She won’t be able to hang onto the part that is keeping her with you much longer. The Faerie in her will win out. She is so much stronger because of her father’s side. Even you have to see that!”
Constantine hates that it has resorted to this. He doesn’t want to fight with Sebastian, but it seems he will never learn to leave it alone. He needs action. His knuckles are itching for contact with something or someone and without a second thought he smashes Sebastian in the face, and he didn’t hold back. Sebastian crashes through the windows and falls out, breaking several bones as he hits the ground. It’s not enough. He needs to teach his charge a lesson in fucking with him and his wife. He Teleports outside and kicks Sebastian while he is down. Then he hauls him up by his shirtfront. “Leave her the fuck alone,” he snarls in Sebastian face.