“Definitely,” he said. “This was fun.” And with that he leaves her, exiting the ladies room without a care in the world. He has fucked away his disgust at himself, enough so that he can face Lizzie when he gets home. He knows she is suspicious of his recent behavior and it has to change as she can never, ever know about what he has been up to behind her back.
Chapter 14
Buckinghamshire, England, September 2013 – Liv
I thought it best to go up to my bedroom after CK shut the door in my face. I can do nothing to stop this beating and even if I did, Cade seemed determined to show his atonement. If this is the way he wants to do it, who am I to argue? I am reassured by his “near-death” comment. At least he will survive this, although I dread to think what CK is doing to him right about now. I try not to think about and start to pace. As I walk past the mini fridge, I stop and decide it’s probably best to top myself up a bit. Cade is going to need to feed after this. I open it, glad that it is fully stocked, and I chug back three bottles and wait. I eventually hear the door to the room next to mine being opened and I rush out. Lincoln has dumped Cade on the bed in a bloody, messy heap. I turn to Lincoln to yell at him for his part in this torture, but he drops to his knees and takes my hand with his head bowed.
I close my mouth as he says, “Forgive me. I know you disapprove, but I had to do this for you, and for me.”
Err, okay. I wasn’t expecting this. He squeezes my hand and I stammer, “Of course. But, Linc next time just leave it, okay.”
“If there is a next time, I will kill him,” he says ferociously and stands with a nod of acceptance at my clemency.
“You know what I mean,” I mumble, and he gives me a half smile.
He leans down to kiss my forehead and says, “Look after him and then I need to speak to you.”
I nod, as I need to speak to him too. To all of them. No one knows yet about my trip tomorrow except Cade. I need to tell my husbands before this thing happens to me and Tiamat whisks me away. I feed Cade and then I get a basin and washcloth from the bathroom and wash his face. He is an absolute mess. He flinches as I clean his cuts and then I lift his shirt to check to see if his ribs are broken. He pushes my hands away and shoves his shirt back down.
I hold my hands up and say, “Fine, I won’t touch you.” Man, he really has a thing about this. “Are your ribs broken?”
“Yes,” he mumbles. “Just leave them, they’ll heal.” He passes out soon after that, so I stand up and sigh at him. Stubborn fool.
My head goes a bit woozy and I need to feed again. I make my way down to the kitchen and find Jess there restocking the fridge with our supply. “Hey,” I say to her as she hands me one of my bottles.
“Hey,” she says back.
I haven’t had any chance to speak to her since I woke up, so I ask, “Everything okay?”
“All good,” she says with a smile.
Okay, awkward much. We were on our way to forming a friendship of sorts, but now it is just weird. I have nothing to say to her. Not even about work, because I don’t know what’s been going on. I land on the only topic we currently have in common and ask, “Where’s Devon?” I swear, if I have to ask that one more time, I am going to scream. Cade needs to get on this case and let me know what’s going on.
Jess’s eyes frost over, and she says, “Why do you keep asking about him? He is not your concern now.”
Come again? I blink at her and she lifts her chin up defiantly at me and it works that last nerve of mine into a ball of oh-you-are-so-dead-missy. I step forward and place the blood bottle on the counter. “Not my concern? He is my charge. He will always be my concern.”
It lights a fire in her eyes, and she steps forward as well. She clearly isn’t afraid of me and that pisses me off even more.
“He is my sire,” she says. “His whereabouts are nothing to do with you.”
“So that means you have no idea yourself where he is?” I ask her cockily and I hit the nail on the head.
“Stay away from him,” she suddenly hisses at me. “He is mine and I don’t want him anywhere near you.”
“Yours?” I mock her, putting my hands on my hips. I have had enough of this little upstart and I am going to give her a lesson in going up against me. “He isn’t yours; he will never be yours. He has no bond to you whereas ours is a tie so fierce it would obliterate you if you felt it. He is mine. Forever. He has nothing with you. He feels sorry for you, so he pretends. He will cut you loose before the end of the year,” I sneer at her.
“You have no idea what we have,” she screeches at me.
I smile condescendingly at her. She knows she has nothing she can throw in my face.
“Please,” I say. “You have no idea of the concept of forever. He would come to me in a heartbeat if I asked him to.” I am goading her into a state of madness. She looks like she would try to kill me if she could, but as CK says, I always play the advantage.
“He wouldn’t choose you,” she says. “He knows that you are whore that puts him last. I always put him first and he will see that.”
“Don’t count on it,” I snarl at her, pissed off at her ‘whore’ comment. Who does she think she is? My Vampire mojo is coming back from the brink and I can sense Devon a few feet away on the other side of the door.
“Don’t count on what?” he asks as he pushes the door open and sees us going at it. I give her a triumphant smile and use every ounce of Power I can muster to Shift (actually it didn’t take that much at all) and then I am standing before him as Elizabeth. His mouth drops open and Jess gasps at me. She knows she has lost now. She was banking on me still being weak and not being able to give him his true sire, but sorry, girlie. I had this ability long before I became Queen, so it is ingrained in me as much as the Vampire is.