“Fuck off,” I seethe. He tried to coerce me! It is a very dangerous gift for someone as dangerous as Frederick to have. Except for the more powerful of the Light Fae, there are no other creatures or beings that I know of who have this gift, except, of course, Remiel. His way is incredibly strong; Frederick is an amateur compared to him, but it doesn’t make it any less terrifying that it almost worked on me. Again!
“Tell me how you acquired that gift?” I demand of him, trying to regain my composure.
“I don’t tell my secrets to just anyone,” he replies caustically.
“I am not just anyone,” I remind him.
“No, that you are not,” he agrees, with a faraway look in his eye. “But you still don’t get to find out.”
“Tell me this then,” I say in exasperation. “Who is your sire?”
I catch him completely off guard with my (not so) random question, but I am dying to know. I have been dying to know since I started to learn more about this oaf in the mid 1400’s. I know for a fact that it isn’t CK–there is no way on this Earth or any other one that he would have been my protector if he had been– but that is all I know. He is old, really, really old, but I am not altogether convinced he is a Master Vampire, so the possibilities are, quite literally, endless…but there is only one that always springs to mind, and it still makes me shudder.
“That is a very rude question for a lady,” he chides me.
“If you aren’t going to answer me then we are done here. Go now before I call Constantine here myself to dispatch of you,” I remark more than a little irked.
He laughs at me again. “You wouldn’t dare,” he mocks me.
“I am no longer so merciful,” I say, trying, but failing, to convince him. “Don’t test me.” Once again, I turn to leave, but as I reach the door, he once again makes me spin back around with his next words.
“The man I work for is very interested in you,” he says casually.
I stride back towards him with narrowed eyes. “And that would be?” I ask with my hands on my hips.
“Now that would be telling,” he says. “Perhaps a little something to convince me?”
“All you get is the reassurance of me not beating you into a pulp if you stop with the games and tell me why you are here,” I bark at him. Here, now after all this time. I am getting beyond pissed off now. I need less drama in my life, not more.
“Now you are just turning me on,” he says.
Rah! He is so exasperating. It is clear to see that he learned this behavior from his centuries in service to my ex-sire.
“Fine, don’t tell me,” I say nonchalantly. “I’m not interested.” I turn around again and as I reach the door and pull it open, he says, “Laurentis. I work for Laurentis.”
My mouth drops open. I go dizzy I turn around so quickly, but as expected, he has Teleported out, leaving me confused as to the cause of not only the major risk he took in coming here, but what the Hell Laurentis wants with me.
I suppose in some sick-o way, I am his daughter-in-law several times over, but he is the one man that I have no desire to meet.
Ever.
He is the one that has caused all of this mayhem with his spawning left and right. I feel kind of guilty because if he hadn’t, I wouldn’t have the most important men in my life right now, but still. It has to be acknowledged that he is a first-class jackass. Among other things.
I do wish Frederick had stuck around now and told me more as this is going to eat away at me and I have enough to deal with. Best thing now is just to try and forget what Laurentis wants with me and never, ever tell CK that his bio-dad has sent a man he wishes to kill if he ever lays eyes on me again, sniffing around me. I gulp as I think of the consequences to that particular revelation.
I fluff out my hair and plaster a smile on my face as CK suddenly appears with a suspicious look. Lucky for me, I am already naked so there is very little to do in the way of distracting him from his obvious inquest. I drop the towel and with a wicked look over my shoulder at him, I dive into the pool and, as expected, it is less than ten seconds before he joins me and makes me forget about Frederick and his mysterious visit.
Chapter 1
The Underworld, July 2014 – Constantine
Constantine watches his wife silently from over by the fireplace. She has her head bent over the desk, her eyes scrunched up against the long hours she has spent pouring over the blueprints and map that he himself had drawn up while trying to find her in the Dragon Realms.
She has been at this for three solid months, with no lead. He scrunches his own eyes up as Vito places his hand on her shoulder and she smiles up at him briefly, before she returns her gaze to the task at hand. It doesn’t go unnoticed that her shoulders relax slightly under his touch. Constantine wants to rip the man’s hand off for touching her, even more so as it has been days since he touched her himself. She has become completely obsessed with finding her daughter. They haven’t even done the Blood Magick ritual for a few weeks and he isn’t sure how much longer she can hold onto her other personalities without them bursting forward at inopportune moments.
“Please, my sweet,” Constantine says. “Please, take a break from this.”
She looks up at him; she didn’t even know he was standing there. “I can’t,” she says. “There has to be a back door into the Dragon Realms, and I will find it.”