“Straight up it will work, she didn’t say it out loud, but I know that woman’s face better than I know my own. And you are just as much a part of this as Constantine. In fact, probably more so, as you were turned by her after she met Constantine. You were next in line. You need to step up and whisk her off her little Vampire feet and declare that she turns you again. I do not relish eternity seeing that fucker with her,” he says with a scowl in “that fucker’s” direction.
“How do I know I can trust you?” Devon asks. “How do I know that you aren’t just saying this because you don’t want to end up in a tussle with Constantine over her? I would give you a run for your money as well, you know.”
Lincoln snorts at him. Yes, Constantine would kill him without breaking a sweat. Devon probably could kill him as well if he were a Vampire, but he wouldn’t go down without a fight. “Make no mistake that I love her, and I will always be a part of her life. I am giving you this information because you will do the right thing and let me have her when I need her.” The threat lingers in the air and Devon’s eyes go hard.
“So less about me and more about you,” he drawls.
“We are all in this for ourselves,” Lincoln says, not denying it. “I am merely giving you the ammo that you need to get him away from her.”
“In exchange for my consent to fuck her whenever the need arises in you,” Devon says coldly.
“Don’t you dare demean what we have,” Lincoln says to him. “It isn’t about fucking. You know that. You saw how it affected me being without her.”
He can see that Devon remembers when his eyes go softer. “Yeah,” he says. “I know.”
Lincoln waits as Devon heaves a sigh.
“I hope this fucking works, man, because I am not all that keen on being a Vampire again,” he says eventually.
“If it gets you what you want, what difference does it make?” Lincoln asks.
“It makes a difference if it doesn’t work,” Devon says.
“It will,” Lincoln says with confidence. “I will make sure of it.”
“Oh yeah?” Devon scoffs. “And how exactly are you going to do that?”
“She trusts me,” Lincoln says and that is all he has to say about that. “Take it or leave it.”
“Take it,” Devon says.
Lincoln nods stoically. “With the news of Cole out now, you have been given some time. She won’t be making any declarations now as her mind is in turmoil. Deal with whatever you need to with regard to that area and once you are free of any blame or guilt, ask her to turn you again.”
Devon nods and turns to go up the stairs. He pauses for a moment and turns back. “Your own reasons for doing this aside, thanks.”
“No worries,” Lincoln says with a shrug. Over his dead body will he ever allow Aefre to be with Constantine. There will be no room for him there and eventually Aefre will be persuaded to grow distant from him and in the end, leave him to his fate without her.
Devon is a good guy. Lincoln can trust him to let him have his place with her. In fact, he may even be persuaded to allow Lincoln to join them in their marriage. He has no issues with regard to Devon in that area, and he knows that they are both compatible at simultaneously pleasing Aefre. That is something he knows that she misses, and she will definitely be pleased with the suggestion.
With a lighter heart than he has had for the longest time, he smiles to himself and turns to rejoin the argument that is still going on over Cole and Aefre.
He frowns when he senses a shift behind him, and he glances over his shoulder to see Sebastian disappear out of the front doors. He didn’t know that Sebastian was around. Where did he come from, where was he lurking?
Lincoln brushes aside the concern that he overheard his and Devon’s conversation. His Wolf senses would have picked up on someone close enough to be in earshot of them.
He puts his two cents’ worth in on the Cole issue. Lincoln isn’t all that keen on having him return to the fold, although he has no wish to see the man come to harm, he just doesn’t want him in Aefre’s life. He complicates things for her, makes her less than she is destined to be with all of his rules and guilt-tripping. And then he watches as Constantine storms away in fury that he has been beaten this time.
“But she won’t stand for this,” Lincoln says, once he has left. “We need a plan that she will accept, or she will go off, probably to her doom,” he adds darkly.
“Leave it with me,” Drake says just as darkly.
The Dark Fae Kingdom, September 2014 - Aefre
“Dev, can it wait?” I ask as I open the door to see him standing there restlessly.
“The berating you want to give me for keeping this from you can wait. There is something else I need you to do,” he says quietly and grabs me by my elbow. He ushers me off to a bedroom a little bit away from mine and shoves me inside.
He closes the door quickly and says, “I have been to see him. He is doing as well as he can, but he needs to see you. To give him hope,” he says urgently.