“What’s the matter?” he asks, and for a minute she thinks he cares, until she sees him cast a quick glance at Liv’s bedroom door and he grimaces.
“Nothing,” she snaps, pulling her arm out of his grip. He raises his eyebrow at her tone, and she looks back at him sheepishly. “Sorry, I’m just feeling sorry for myself,” she admits.
“Why?” Sebastian asks with what appears to be genuine concern.
She likes him. A lot. They hooked up once, seems like a lifetime ago, and if he had been around more, she would have tried again. She isn’t sure if he and Liv have slept together, but she would wager a large amount that they have and the fact that she got there first makes her flush with joy. But she hesitates. She shouldn’t say anything about her feelings to him because she can’t trust him, but suddenly she can’t stop her runaway mouth. “Why? Because you have no idea how painful it is to be second best in your sire’s eyes!” she cries. “To always have to compete for his attention and then feel like you have won it just by being persistent! And even then, to know that he is thinking of someone else when he is with you. You just have no idea,” she finishes up.
Sebastian’s eyes harden, as does his grip on her arm. “You are joking, aren’t you? Telling me that I don’t know what it feels like? I invented that feeling, little girl, so don’t whine to me again about how shit your life is and how your sire wants someone else. Try living with what I have to put up with before you bitch and moan about poor old you.”
What the Hell? Jess is dumbfounded by his outburst, but then she gets it.
Ah crap. She had completely forgotten that Sebastian is also Constantine’s charge. He will know better than anyone how she feels.
“Sorry,” she mumbles. “You’re right. I shouldn’t have said anything.”
He lets go of her and with his mouth set in a grim line, he puffs out in a cloud of smoke, leaving her alone and feeling guilty for hurting him. She just can’t get it right lately. But then she shakes it off. No one feels sorry for her, so why should she feel sorry for anyone else?
Jess peers into the library to find it empty and a complete disaster. The desk has been thrown through the French doors and is currently sitting haphazardly outside on the terrace. This isn’t the first time this has happened, frustrations have been running high, but usually it is rectified immediately. No one wants to show what they think of as weakness. Jess picks her way over the desk to get outside. Her foot slips slightly and she kicks one of the drawers as she stumbles. She stoops to pick it up and move the desk back into place when something catches her eye. It looks like the bottom has come loose. She tips it upside down to see the damage caused underneath, but it is perfectly intact. She flips it back over and pokes at the loose bottom.
It’s a false bottom.
She quickly scans the area to make sure no one is watching her, and she pulls out the fake bottom to discover a letter. Her heart starts to pound as she hopes this is something that Liv has been hiding and that she can use to destroy her. It isn’t addressed to anyone, so she pulls it out of the envelope and her eyes widen in surprise and victory as she reads the declarations of love from Other Fraser.
Oh, this is good! This is very, very good! Jess can’t believe her luck that she has come across a plan for Liv to go and get Other Fraser and bring him here. There isn’t a single one of her men that will accept that, and they will be united in that refusal to allow her to do this. This might just be the force to bring her down. She takes out her phone and brings up the camera function. She takes a few quick photos of the letter before she stuffs it carefully back into the envelope. She will come back for it once she has thought of a way to let the men know of this plan. She doesn’t want Liv knowing that anyone has found this yet, so she quickly replaces the letter and drops the false bottom back in place. If she tidies this mess up herself, no one will come across this evidence like she did.
She wants to go and find Devon, but she knows it will be fruitless. until Liv forgives Devon of his affair with Other Li
v, he will be distant and only use her to feel better. She hates it, but she will do anything for him, no matter what he asks. A slight frown creases her brow as she thinks of the one thing, he could ask of her that she could never do. He hasn’t yet, but she has a horrible feeling he might, just might, in the throes of his depression, ask her to be like Elizabeth. She couldn’t bear it if he did that, but as she thinks about it more and more as it gets dark outside, if that is the only way to hold onto him then she will do whatever she has to. Even that.
Chapter 8
The Underworld, March 2014 - Liv
The fog clears from my head and I stretch like a lioness, all limbs and claws. I had Vamped out at some point during our lovemaking and I haven’t retracted yet. I don’t want to. I want to relish what I am, what I really am, for a few moments before my world crashes down around me and I am back to choosing Faeries or Dragons.
“I love you,” Cole mumbles into my hair and I turn and smile at him. He kisses my mouth and then slips into a deep sleep. I turn to CK and he smiles down at me. He is already up and getting dressed.
“Where are you going?” I ask him, annoyed. He isn’t big on cuddling, but just once it would be nice, especially as he hasn’t seen me for six months.
“To send a missive,” he says. “We cannot turn up to see Rosalina unannounced.”
“What? Not even you?” I ask slyly.
He chuckles sadly. “No, not even me.”
I am wildly curious as to her World. It sounds quite spectacular. I am sure to discover all sorts of new things when we go.
“Stay with your charge,” he says softly. “He needs you.”
“What about you?” I ask. “Don’t you need me?”
He closes his eyes briefly and if I expected anything else, I would be a fool. “I cherish you, sweet Aefre. My body craves you, but he is weak. He needs you now. We will have time later.”
I feel like I want to cry. Why, even now, he cannot be vulnerable is heartbreaking. I turn my back on him and cuddle up to Cole, who sighs in his sleep and wraps his arms around me. Fine then. The great and mighty Constantine doesn’t need me, then I don’t need him.
Who am I kidding? The second he leaves the room; I feel his loss and I allow myself a few tears of sorrow. I must have drifted off at some point with Cole still twined around me, but I awake alone. That sort of surprises me. I expected no alone time for the next few days. I grab my robe and it takes a second for my night vision to kick in. It is really, really dark. Almost eerie. I peek out of the French doors over the terrace and the night sky is an empty black pit. I haven’t been here in the Underworld at night before, so I didn’t really know that there are no stars and no moon. I suppose seeing as there isn’t really a sun either that shouldn’t come as a surprise. There are also no lights of any kind, city or residential like you find on Earth. It is just black. I turn and go to check on Cade. He is sleeping soundly, and I brush his hair off his forehead and stare at him for a moment. His color is looking much better, but he still doesn’t look well. I reach for the empty glass next to his bed and slice my wrist open, dripping some blood into it for him for when he wakes. I replace it gently and stroke his forehead again. He turns away from me and I am just feeling rejection all over the place today. I quietly leave his room and go in search of my husbands. As I reach the bottom of the stairs, a crash from the library makes me jump. I put my hand on my racing heart and pause. I can hear voices talking in hushed tones. It’s Cole and CK. I sit on the bottom stair and listen with my Dragon hearing Powers. Neither one can sense me this far out, so I am going to do some snooping. I will learn far more this way than if I just outright ask what is going on.
“You have to tell her,” CK says as something else slams into place. I can only assume he is putting the desk right that went flying through the windows earlier.