“You are sure they are threats and not just you fulfilling your desire to maim and kill Vampires?”
“I don’t maim,” he says, glaring at me. “I just get the job done. And I resent your accusations.”
“Oh, I apologize,” I say, now in a really snarky mood which gets his back up. “I didn’t realize that torture wasn’t in your bag of tricks.”
“You need to back up, lady,” he growls at me. “Just ‘cos the weasley worm bit you on the ass doesn’t mean you get to take it out on me.”
We eyeball each other for a few seconds before I give in. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I am in a foul mood and it isn’t anything to do with you. Or Georges,” I add as an afterthought.
“Well go and feed or something,” he grumbles as he pours himself some more coffee.
“I wish that would fix it,” I say as that god-awful prickling comes back across the top of my shoulder and down my arm. What is that? I scratch at it and turn to the windows. The thunder and lightning have picked up, the rain still falling in a torrent. I stare at it, getting lost in the sheer power of it.
Cade comes to stand next to me. “Pretty violent, isn’t it? I didn’t think it got like this here.”
“It doesn’t. Usually,” I mutter absently and open the French doors.
“Hey,” Cade snaps as the rain flies through the opening, drenching us both within seconds. I ignore him and step outside. There is something out here, pulling me towards it. “Liv!” Cade is calling to me as I walk further into the rain, across the wide terrace in just my socks that are now two sodden bits of wool attached to my feet. My hair is wet through and my clothes are glued to me, cold and soaking. “Liv!” he calls to me again, but I keep walking. I throw up a barrier to stop him from following me and hear him cursing as he hits it. I hear him on his phone, presumably to CK, but I forget about him as I concentrate on where I am going. I am following the trail of Power. It is immense. I can feel it clawing at me, almost dragging me forward. I push my hair out of my eyes as I make it to the grass that is now muddy and full of puddles due to the amount of rain that is falling around me. The thunder cracks overhead, loud enough to deafen my Vampire ears, but I just keep walking. The lightning strikes again before a clap of t
hunder and then I see him.
Underneath one of the old garden light posts. Tall. Really tall. As tall as Fraser, easily, with jet-black hair and eyes the color of amethysts, that I can see from here. His black cloak is flapping in the wind about him, revealing his outfit from another time, another world: a black tunic top with loose black leggings and black boots up to his knees and a sword at his hip. I would say he looks just like Xane did the first time I ever saw him, but he isn’t a Demon. I don’t know what he is. The prickling on my arm is getting worse the closer I step towards him and then I stop dead. No. It can’t be. It can’t be, not here. Not now. The lightning strikes again, and he catches it in his hand out of the air, the electricity sparkling in his hand as he holds it.
An evil smile splits his face and he yells at me, “Are you worthy?” before he throws the bolt of lightning at me. Completely caught off guard, it hits me square in the chest and I fly back several feet before I land in a heap on the ground, with my hair standing on end. Slightly dazed, I shake it off as he hurls another bolt at me, which I roll away from through a massive puddle. I can hear CK swearing at me to drop the shield so he can get to me, but I don’t have time to listen to him. It has been a long time since I needed my fighting skills and they kick in, finally, as I dodge a couple more hits, before a wave of pure Power, that ripples visibly off him, sends me sprawling on my arse and now I have had enough of him playing with me. I am Queen of The Underworld and no one should have the Power to toss me around the gardens like a rag doll. Except my mother. Oh, and it seems that Remiel can also do that.
I get mad and I can feel my own Power boiling up and I react on raw instinct before my brain catches up, as he throws another lightning bolt at me and I hold my own hand out to grab it. Expecting it hurt like a bitch and probably fry my hand to cinders, I am stunned when it hovers in my palm like it did with him, but then dissipates quickly. His grin widens in malice as he fires another and another at me, each one I deflect until the fourth one, which is a doozy, I catch and twirl it around my hand like I have watched him do, and bunching it into my fist as a ball of pure electricity, I hurl it at him. It bounces back off his magickal barrier and he laughs. A cruel sound that makes me shiver.
“So, it’s true,” he shouts over the roar of the wind that is whipping my hair into my eyes and blowing my jacket practically off my body. “You are my daughter.”
Chapter 24
I am bouncing a bolt of lightning between my fingers like it was a part of me as I take in his words.
“Drake,” I whisper in dread, now that it has been confirmed, and throw the lightning at him again. He laughs and vanishes in a puff of smoke before my eyes. This can’t be happening. He wasn’t just here. Oh, please let this not be happening. How am I going to explain all of this now? The rain still falls, and the wind still roars, I am wondering why he left and when he will be back. I stiffen my back as I turn back to the castle to see not only Cade and CK standing on the terrace, but Sebastian as well.
Ah, crap.
I drop the barrier and CK rushes forward, dragging me inside and I quake in my soggy socks at the expression that will soon be on his face.
“Aefre, what the fuck?” he yells at me, still deafened by the wind and thunder, until Cade wrestles the doors shut. “Who was that?”
I don’t answer him, and I can’t help but look at Sebastian, who looks back at me with the same fearful expression that is no doubt adorning my own features.
“Aefre?” CK shakes me and I bring my eyes back to him. “Who was that?” he asks now more pissed than concerned. “Do you know who that was?”
“Yes,” I gulp, and I bunch my fists into two tight balls.
“Who?” he asks now, his face impassive and stepping back.
I look again to Sebastian who nods, face grim. CK turns to look at him as if just noticing him for the first time. He comes to stand next to me to show solidarity, but I am all alone in this. Only I can tell my sire and I really would rather be anywhere else right now. “Cade? Would you excuse us, please?” I ask and he leaves without a word, clearly not wanting to be anywhere near this either.
“Tell me now, Aefre. Whoever that was, I want to know,” his voice is like steel and I take a deep breath.
“My father.”
His eyes widen in surprise, obviously not expecting that. “Your father? You know who your father is? Why didn’t you tell me?” The hurt is palpable, and I take his hand, but he pulls it away.
“I have only known for a couple of weeks. I wasn’t a hundred percent sure. I wanted to be sure before I told. This…it…he changes everything,” I say desperately.