I am relieved to say in the least that the bites have started to heal and are just deep pink scars now. “Yay,” I say, clapping my hands. I am still nowhere near a hundred percent, but this is a start. I notice that the flowers have gone black and shriveled up which is most disconcerting, and I want to ask about it, but Jess whisks them away and gets rid of them.
Lincoln joins in the celebration a few minutes later and gives me a big squeeze. I hold on to him tightly, having missed him terribly. Suddenly, he lets a howl of rage and pulls back, grabbing my shoulders painfully. “Cade?” he roars at me. “He did this to you?”
“Wh-what?” I stammer.
“Liv,” he warns me. “Don’t lie, I can see it.” He taps my head and I mentally stake myself. I have no blocks up and he can see everything. “Cade betrayed you to Remiel?” He asks it as a question, but it is more a statement of fact, one that causes everyone to freak out with a lot of hissing and growling.
“It’s not like that,” I start, but Lincoln shakes his head at me. He knows I am lying to protect Cade.
Lincoln stalks off out of the kitchen and I follow him closely, everyone hot on my heels firing questions and accusations at me.
I grab Lincoln’s arm and make him stop. “Linc,” I say desperately. “Don’t do this.”
He has let his own thoughts into mine and he is on a mission. A kill mission and this is what I had been trying to avoid.
“Please,” I beg him. “I have forgiven him for what he did. He felt trapped and he took the only way out he could. Remiel sensed his weakness and preyed on him. He is as much a victim in this as I am.”
“Don’t you dare defend him!” CK answers for Lincoln with a bellow that nearly deafens me. I turn to him to plead Cade’s case to my sire, but I am interrupted by the slamming of the front door. We all look towards it and notice that Devon has disappeared through it.
“No!” I shout as I lunge forward, dragging the door open. Devon is already in the car, squealing down the driveway. “Dev!” I shout, but it is useless. I am in no fit state to run to catch up to him, so I try to Astral into the car next to him. I cry out in agony and instead of ending up in the car, I end up in a crumpled heap on the floor. “Fuck,” I yell as Cole helps me up. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that Devon is now going to find Cade. His attempts before were probably half-hearted at best, but he is also now on a mission and I know he will find Cade and kill him.
“Linc,” I say, turning back to my Alpha. The reasonable one. The one who listens to me. “Go after him, and don’t do anything if you find Cade. Just please promise me you will call me the minute you find him, and I will come and sort this out. Stop Devon, please,” I beg.
He nods grimly, his reluctance evident, but I know he won’t go against my plea. He will do as I ask. I breathe out in relief as he storms off and guns it out of the driveway after Devon.
“Why are you doing this?” Cole asks me. CK has given up yelling at me and is standing fuming in the Entrance Hall. Jess has run away, not that I blame her, so it is just me and my two livid husbands.
“Why are you protecting him, Liv? He handed you off to be killed, or worse, and I ended up losing you for three months.”
“We!” CK interrupts with volume. “We lost you for three months. We thought you were never going to come back, and you stand there and defend him. Protect him even.”
“I am his sire,” I say with as much strength in my voice as I can rally.
“You are a fool,” he spits out and marches off upstairs.
I turn to Cole, knowing I can at least placate him as much as I did with Lincoln. I step forward to touch him, a manipulation of the worst kind, but he holds his hands up.
“Don’t,” he says. “Do not try and get around me by distracting me.”
“Cole,” I say. “Please, you must understand. I would die for you and Devon. I would protect you with my last breath. I owe Cade the same. I did this to him. I ruined him and I will take responsibility for his actions.”
“Owe him?” Cole sneers. “You owe him nothing. He wants to die, Liv. Just let him.” He goes off in the same direction as CK and I am as sure as I stand here that they are going to plot something behind my back. That is, if CK hasn’t already gone off on his own mission to kill Cade. I hear the two of them yelling and leave them to it. I know that Lincoln will come through no matter what other factors get in his way. I make my way to the library and remember the letter that I shoved under the ink blotter. It’s not safe there and I need to move it. I grab it and open the bottom drawer. It has a false bottom and I pop it in there away from anyone who should stumble upon it, and then feel an almighty power rush behind me. I hunch my shoulders as I really do not want to talk to Her right now but turn around with a haughty expression that She returns and arches Her perfect eyebrow at me.
“ValamAtrux,” She says.
“Tiamat,” I say back, and She narrows Her eyes at me. I wait for Her to start, to apologize for Her absence, but all I get it is scrutiny and eventually a slow shake of Her head. “No, it won’t do,” She says in anger.
“I beg your pardon?” I ask Her, thoroughly pissed off.
“You are weak and have no Power.” She says this as if it is the absolute worst thing ever. Okay, well it kind of is. “You are in no fit state to breed.” She sticks out Her bottom lip that, on an ordinary person I would call a pout, but She is Empress. She isn’t allowed to pout, surely. Oh, and breed? That very nearly missed my radar.
“What are you talking about?” I ask in an imperial tone that I borrow from my sire.
She heaves a sigh of magnitude and sits heavily on the sofa. All actions that I have never seen from Her before.
“Your deep sleep was supposed to resuscitate you. You were supposed to be well when you woke up,” She explains.
Oh, that is why She left me? Because She thought it would heal me on its own…so She could have me fit to have a baby? Oh no, no, no! This is all just too much for my brain to take.