“Dragon Realms?” CK asks shortly.
“Yes,” I say. “I couldn’t get home until they let me go.”
I hear a stirring on the bed and look up, expecting Devon to say something to me. Instead, I see Cade. He had been lying on the bed behind Cole and Devon and I hadn’t seen him. He looks even worse than Cole does, and I close my eyes against the pain that I have caused them. I take Cole’s hand and walk over to the bed. I climb onto it and Cole follows me closely, not letting go of me for even a fraction of a second. Cade rolls over in his sleep and places his head in my lap like a content kitten. He grips the soft cotton of my nightgown weakly in his hand and I carefully take his hand in my other one. He opens his eyes slowly and takes me in.
“Back,” he slurs.
I smile and say, “Yes, for good this time, I promise.”
He nods and goes back to sleep. I am about to wake him up to feed him when Cole lunges towards me, shoving Cade out of the way, and has his fangs in my neck before I can blink. He suckles deep and hard and even though he is hurting me, I let him take what he needs. He flattens me underneath him and I can feel him grappling with my nightgown and while I am all for a roll in the sack with my husband, perhaps not while everyone is watching. And by everyone, I do in fact mean all of my people now, including Jess. I push him off me and he releases his fangs with a look of absolute desolation, but he nods understandingly anyway, as he sees all the spectators.
“Later,” I murmur to him as I pull my gown down, this stupid cotton nightgown that I have come to loathe. These older Vampires seriously need to lose the cotton fetish and learn about silk and satin. I change my outfit to suit my liking and feel a world better for it.
I then look up and the questions start. A million all at once, along with hugs, kisses, telepathic murmurings of love with Lincoln and a very quick pull on Xane’s essence to give us both some much needed satisfaction.
“SHUT UP!” Constantine suddenly thunders into the racket. He is holding his head like he has a migraine, but it’s probably more so that it won’t explode in his frustration. Everyone obeys the enraged ancient Vampire and freezes on the spot. “Aefre, I am over the moon to see you, you know that. You know that I love you, my wife, and I have missed you more than my heart can bear…”
I feel a huge “but” coming!
“BUT I AM SO FUCKING MAD AT YOU, I COULD KILL YOU!” he roars at me and everyone takes a step back, even Cole, although he keeps his meager hold on me from a distance. Well, so much for anyone coming to my defense.
I gulp and pull my big girl panties on. There is no point in excuses, they won’t fly anyway. I just have to tell it straight.
“I know,” I say, and he glares at me, mouth open to blast me some more. I beat him to it. “What happened was awful and, and gut wrenching, I know that. I have thought of nothing but all of you for the past five days.”
“Five days?” Cole asks incredulously.
“To me it seemed like five days,” I explain. I sweep my gaze over Devon who has gone really pale. He probably thought time would heal that particularly nasty wound, but for me it was last week, not half a year ago. “Leaving you stranded like that was…”
“Hell,” CK snarls at me.
“I know,” I say softly.
“It isn’t the leaving that I am so mad about,” Cole says sadly.
“I know,” I whisper again, barely audible. “I didn’t know. I swear to you, I didn’t know.”
“How can you not know?” CK asks me. “You obviously fucked him during your Heat, surely that should have been some indicator that things were developing.”
“Not to mention your food intake,” Lincoln mutters and I glare at him. He’s the one that’s supposed to have my back.
“I didn’t fuck him. Obviously or not,” I say firmly. I want that out there so everybody is clear on that.
“Don’t lie,” CK spits out at me. “He couldn’t have been clearer about you carrying his child.”
“Yes, I was,” I say to various sharp intakes of breath. “But it’s not how you think.”
I launch into my story of the dream reality that had been created, just for me, by the master Dream Weaver himself. I glare at Xane throughout this portion of the story as Xanthe was supposed to be protecting me. I watch his reaction and his expression makes it clear that he had no idea that is what happened.
“I’ll kill her,” he growls to my consternation. I’m crazy mad at her, but kill her? Not so much.
“So where is the baby now?” Devon asks into the ensuing silence.
It’s his turn to be on the receiving end of my icy stare. He flinches and shuffles off to sit in the corner like the naughty boy that he is.
“Dead,” I state with so much finality that no one moves a muscle. No one moves to console me, and no one offers up any soothing words.
Just silence.