Cole groans. “Not you as well!” He sinks his head into his hands. “I knew that was coming, but it still hurts to hear it out loud, man.”
“I know,” Devon says lightly. “What can I say? You being around has forced my own issues to be confronted. I don’t like it any more than you do. I should have stepped up hundreds of years ago. I could have ensured Constantine never became a bigger part of her life after she left him and turned me.”
“But where would that have left me?” Cole asks, intrigued by this admission, but pissed off about it too.
“Other Liv still has Other you,” Devon shrugs it off.
“So let me get this straight. You are saying that you want to be in a three-way marriage with us?”
“Yes,” Devon says boldly.
“Fuck’s sake, man. How can I agree to that?”
“It isn’t just for you to agree to. If Lizzie wants this, then there isn’t a damn thing you can do to stop it. And make no mistake about it, I am going to ask her. When the time is right.”
“Really?” Cole drawls.
“Yes, really. I am sick to death of being on the sidelines when I should be with her. I like you, Cole. I feel a lot for you. And I have come to you about this first because of that. I didn’t want to blindside you with it.”
“What about Jess?” Cole asks quietly, dying inside. If Devon and Liv get together in that way, he has no idea if he will be able to keep hold of her. It’s worse than what Constantine wants in a way.
“What about her?” Devon shrugs. “This has nothing to do with her.”
“I don’t know what to say,” Cole stammers.
“Just say you will be happy to share her with me as I am happy to share her with you. We belong to her. Both of us. Together we can cut him out of this.”
Devon has said the exact right thing, at the exact right time. And he knows it.
He searches his sibling’s eyes. “What about Lincoln?” he asks.
“I have absolutely no problem with
their relationship the way that it is,” Devon replies “Do you?” It’s a challenge.
“Not really,” Cole admits. “He is bound to her, so I get it. I don’t like the way he went about it, but it’s done, and we’ve moved on and he’s a good enough guy. I know he loves her and that it is as pure as it can be.” He doesn’t need to add that he knows Constantine’s love for her is the exact opposite of pure. It is toxic and he has no way of cutting him out of Liv’s life. But with Devon’s help, and even Lincoln’s, he feels they may stand half a chance.
“For you,” Cole says softly and means it with his whole heart.
Devon’s eyes fill with so much emotion, things he hasn’t ever seen in the older Vampire’s eyes before. He nods once and stands.
“When?” Cole croaks out.
Devon shrugs. “When the time is right. I can’t fuck it up again,” he says with a smirk.
Cole snorts in amusement.
“Anyway, we’d better round up the troops so you can tell them what Lizzie said. I guess everything I said about another lover, is kind of moot now. I will be there for you when she isn’t here.”
Cole raises his eyebrows but stays silent as he has no idea what to say to that. Frankly, because he has no idea what Devon meant by it. He nods briskly and Devon leaves him alone with his racing thoughts. Fuck. He didn’t expect this. He knew Devon and Liv had planned on being married, but it was he who never followed through. There is no way she will refuse him if, when, he asks again. Cole knows he is all right with that though. He knows it will make Liv happy to have her two boys with her all of the time. And that’s what makes this okay. He feels less frustrated and less lonely now that he knows he will have someone there for him, however that will work, when Liv has to go away. He is not so naïve as to think that they can get rid of Constantine right away. It will take work and effort and probably betrayal and a whole load of other stuff, but he will do it to get his wife free from that toxic relationship. He is beyond tired now but casts his gaze across the grounds restlessly and spots Constantine on the terrace reading a newspaper and smoking a cigarette. Geez, he really doesn’t sleep much. How long has he been there? Hopefully not long enough to hear them plotting. Fuck. No, surely Devon would’ve known if he was there.
Cole stares at him and Constantine, sensing his eyes on him, looks up, that impassive look on his face that Cole has tried to master in the mirror, but can’t. Constantine holds his gaze for a few moments and then goes back to reading his paper.
Cole hates him. He is so jealous of him and he hates it as he never used to be the jealous type. But he hates everything he feels about him and just hates everything about him. His perfect good looks, his charm and appeal, his immaculate dress sense, his authority and power, that he knows sends Liv all mushy, because he has seen it. That ring! That ring he gave her that she wears on her right hand and never takes off. Cole wants to rip it from her finger every time he sees it. His wealth, his confidence, his age. Both his true age and the age he was when was turned, made, whatever. Forever twenty.
Cole is always highly conscious that he is the oldest in human years of this group. It’s disconcerting to know how young they all were. Liv especially.
Oh, yeah, that also makes Constantine a filthy pervert, one more thing to add to his Things-I-Hate-About-Constantine list.