“Watch your tone,” she says sharply. “You may be Overlord, but I am still your mother.”
He glares at her for scolding him, glad that no one was around to hear it. He has a reputation to maintain.
“She will be back,” she adds softly. “And when she is, I will stop at nothing to get her where she should be.”
“The only place I need her is in my bed,” he says harshly. “Maybe then everyone will stop poking their nose into my business.” He knows he doesn’t mean it. He also knows his mother can tell he is a lovesick fool, but she wisely chooses to say nothing. “Will she bring it back with her?” he asks quietly.
“I don’t think she will be allowed to,” Xanthe says carefully.
“Good,” Xane says. “The last thing I need to look at is a child that isn’t mine.”
Xanthe purses her lips and he jumps up to stand in front of her. “What aren’t you saying?” he asks suspiciously. “You think she will find a way, don’t you? Or do you think she will stay?”
Xanthe shakes her head. “I don’t know what she will do. She is unpredictable and emotional at the best of times.”
“You know why that is,” Xane barks at her. “Find a way to get rid of that Vampire and do it soon.”
Xanthe bobs her head and knows she is dismissed. Xane goes back to his chair to contemplate what life will be like when Xerxei is just his.
Cole awakes sometime later, not alone. Jess is brushing her hair at the dresser and she turns to him as she hears him stir.
“Feel better?” she asks.
“No,” Cole says. “Where’s Devon?” He is uncomfortable being here alone with her.
“He’ll be back soon,” she says. “Can I ask you something?” She stands up to come closer to him and he shrinks back into the bed. She has a stalker-like air about her. He has seen that crazy look in the eyes of women the world over and he has nowhere to hide right now.
“Sure,” he gulps, wishing Devon would hurry up.
She sits on the bed and with her eyes boring into his, she asks, “Why did you fuck your Feeder? You could have come to me.”
“What?” he asks quickly.
“I can treat you well,” she says, licking her lips. “I have more stamina than a human.” She sneers the word and he wonders when she got so arrogant.
“I don’t,” he says, trying to make a joke of it, but she remains serious. “It was nothing to me. A moment of weakness. I love my wife and I will remain true to her.”
“Until the next time she disappears,” she says.
Cole is getting pissed off with her now, but he is in no fit state to do anything about it.
She leans in closer to him and he has nowhere to go. “Just remember for next time,” she whispers.
“There won’t be a next time,” Cole says adamantly.
“For what?” Devon asks, finally returning and Cole has never been so grateful to see him. Jess’s attitude has changed for the worse and it worries him. She is trouble.
“Nothing,” Cole murmurs.
“I was just telling Cole that next time he has a moment of weakness,” she says and looks back at him as she repeats his words, “he can come to me.”
Devon raises his eyebrow at his charge. She is being far too bold, and she needs to be taught a lesson. “Cole, would you excuse us please?” he says, looking directly at Jess.
“Definitely,” he says and scrambles out of the bed. He doesn’t want to be here for the fight that is brewing.
Cole pads into the library and hits a wall of tension so great he actually reverberates off it.
“You can’t be serious,” Constantine says to Corinne, who has come back and is looking paler than usual.