“All will be clear soon, Your Majesty. Just know for now that you need him, but just turning him is not the correct way to go about it.”
Still, even after all these centuries, she is all about the cryptic. I gave up a long time ago trying to decipher anything she or my mother said to me.
“Look, Corinne. I went to another world. One like this, but where everything is different. The Other me was married to this man and she had turned him. He was her charge and he loved her so much. I want that,” I say, knowing I sound like a spoiled brat.
“And you will, we just need more time with him,” she says.
“I don’t have time!” I yell, exasperated. “He won’t want me once I start to show.” I clamp my mouth shut as Corinne’s drops open.
“You are with child
again, Your Majesty?” she asks.
“Yes! You are supposed to be all-knowing; how do you not know this?” I ask.
She stares at me and then at my stomach and she puts her hand to her mouth. “The Faerie baby,” she whispers.
I gesture a ‘yes, obviously’ motion with my hands and she remains silent.
“Oh,” She looks shocked and fearful and I have to wonder why. What could this child’s purpose be that would scare her so badly? I smile cautiously at her and she adjusts her features. “Well,” she says, clapping her hands together and standing. “We need to move forward post haste.”
“Okay,” I say, standing as well. “How?”
“Ahmed and I have been allowing Cole little bits of your life into his dreams. Snippets, if you will. He remembers them, but he isn’t sure yet whether he believes it to be true,” she says.
“So why didn’t he recognize me then?” I ask.
“We haven’t shown him exactly who you are yet,” Corinne says.
Well, this is just annoying…and typical of my meddling mother, even from the grave. I stand and watch as she speeds up time again and places her hand on his head. He murmurs something in his sleep and starts to sweat and convulse erratically. I step forward to stop whatever it is she is doing to him when she steps back suddenly and says, “It is done. When he wakes, he will be yours,” and then she promptly disappears. I chew my lip as I stare at him lying there, having no idea what just happened to him. It breaks my heart that this must be what happened to the Other Cole. Manipulated into loving her so she could turn him for…what? That is the big question.
He opens his eyes as I stand over him. I kneel at the side of the bed with a soft smile.
“Liv,” he says as he strokes my face. “My dreams, my beautiful, blonde Vampire.”
Epilogue
London, England, June 2013 – Aefre
We lie in each other’s arms perfectly content. It is almost time to get everything together. I am nervous. I don’t know if I can do what I need to do. If I can’t, if I fail, I will be devastated. But it must be now, I have to go and try to find her. She is the only one who can help me do what needs to be done. My stomach balls up into a tight knot and Cole senses my tension.
“You’ll succeed,” he says, full of confidence in me, and I smile and kiss him.
“I hope you are right,” I say. “I am more worried that she won’t help me. I am asking a lot of her.”
“She will help you. She knows what it is to live without him,” he reassures me.
I chuckle at him. “You have no idea how to process this, do you?” I ask him and he laughs back.
“Not a clue,” he admits. “But I love you and I want what you want, so if you need to find this Other Liv to help you get that, then I am all for it.” He pauses and I wait for what is coming next. “You won’t love me any less, will you? You know, after?”
“Oh, Cole,” I say, taking his face in my hands. “I could never love you any less. In fact, I will probably love you more.”
“Good,” he says. “I will hold you to that. You had better get going, if you expect to do all of this and make it back in time to meet your husband…”
I squeeze his hand tightly. I know he is still unhappy about learning about Constantine and Sebastian and our baby. But he is strong, and I do love him. He is every bit as loving and attentive as the Other Cole was and I know deep down that all of this is our destiny. It is fate that spans across universes. And speaking of universes, I had better get going. I kiss him again and stand and get dressed. I close my eyes and with a deep breath I think of her. She that is me in another world. The only one that can help me in my quest for completion.
The End