Revelation (The Forever Series Book Three) (6 page)

“This is my favorite room,” Gregor says from behind me.

“It is quite the impressive room,” I say turning around with
a smile. Inwardly I am chopping his head off.

“Do you have all of this stored in your memory?” he asks
curiously.

I nod, “Yes. It’s quite the stash.”

He chuckles, “Yes I suppose it is. Did you come looking for
something in particular?”

“You,” I say quietly and touch his arm gently.

“Oh? And what pray tell can I do for you?”

“I can’t stop thinking about yesterday,” I murmur dropping
my eyes to his mouth and then moving them back up to his piercing, pale blue
eyes. His own eyes drop to my show of flesh and he reaches out to touch me in
between my breasts.

“Neither can I,” he breathes and moves closer. Leaning down
he lifts my chin up, tilting my head to his mouth. He drops his head lower and
asks, “What changed your mind?”

“We are working together now, it’s time we all got along.”

He smiles and whispers, “I have wanted you from the minute I
laid eyes on you. I apologize for my behavior towards you when I first met you.
It wasn’t my finest hour.” He trails his hands up my arms and walks us back to
the stacks, pressing me up against the books and asks, “Am I forgiven?”

Not on your life I scream at him silently.

“I am sure you can make it up to me somehow.”

He smiles, “I would like that.” He bends down and touches
his lips to mine softly. He grabs my chin and pushes his tongue further into my
mouth. I stifle the urge to be sick and kiss him back wishing I had not been so
rude to CK that he decided to abandon me in my hour of need. At that point I
finally feel the familiar tingle up my neck and I hear him then. “Room for one
more?” he asks sardonically. Gregor pulls away and I resist the urge to wipe my
mouth on my hand.

“Constantine,” he says, annoyed to have been interrupted.
“Liv and I were just settling some past business.”

“Anything I should know about?” he asks me and I shake my
head.

“We are fine.” I push off from the stacks forcing Gregor to
step back. I sidle over to my sire and I can see he is not amused with me. I
whisper in his ear even though I know Gregor can hear, “I want you. Is there
someplace we can go?”

Smirking he looks at me, “I’m sure we can find a place.”
Looking at Gregor he says, “Excuse us,” and he pulls me away with Gregor
looking jealously on.

As soon as we are out of the library he pulls his hand from
mine, “Nicely done. You have him almost eating out of your hand.” He turns to
walk away.

“Stop calling it ‘fucking,’” I blurt out and he stops dead
in his tracks and I put my hand up to my mouth.

He turns back around slowly. “What would you like me to call
it?” he says and glowers at me. I stalk past him and back to my office. He
follows as I have ignored him and that gets his knickers in a twist. Slamming
the door closed behind him, he warns, “Aefre.”

“Don’t call it ‘fucking.’ Not all the time. That’s not what
we do all the time. Or is that how you see it?”

“You even have to ask me that?”

“Apparently, yes.”

“Oh, Aefre. I like fucking you. I happen to think we are
pretty good at it.”

I huff at him, “Pretty good? Is that all?”

He chuckles and moves closer to me. “Okay, we are pretty
fucking hot together,” he murmurs and a fire starts to burn in the pit of my
stomach. “I only ever want to fuck you.”

Err, what?

“Constantine, I like fucking you too. In fact I love it, but
do you know what I love more? I love it when we make love. Slow and gentle and
all night,” I say, reminding him of last night. He closes his eyes as his lips
part.

“I love that too. But until you are mine and only mine,” he
insists opening his eyes, “I have to deal with it in my own way.”

I nod, not really understanding but pull him to me for a
tight hug, which he returns with a sigh.

The rest of the day goes quite quickly and soon we are
winging our way through the dimensions of space back to the castle, landing in
the foyer and bumping into Nico. Not literally.

“Sir.”

“Nico.”

“Liv, you wanted to talk to me?” he asks. Remembering about
Cole’s mother, I nod.

“Can it wait until a bit later?”

“Of course.” He heads off in the direction of, um, well, I’m
not sure actually. I haven’t had much chance to explore what he has done with
the ground floor rooms in all the commotion.

“Take me upstairs please and try to erase Gregor’s lips from
my mouth,” I sigh in disgust.

He laughs a proper guffaw, and I don’t see what is so
amusing. “Oh Aefre. You have such a way with words. Come, my love. I will make
you forget about everything.” He moves us into the bedroom and goes about it in
a very thorough manner, making me forget even my own name.

Thinking I should probably get up and ring Devon and Cole, I
fail to move as I am content where I am in my sire’s arms.

“You will never truly be mine, will you?” he says softly,
jolting me out of my thoughts, which again he manages to pin down with
precision.

“What?” I ask, feigning innocence.

“Your boys. They will always… be there,” he says unhappily.
“What if I asked you to move in here with me?” Abrupt change of subject again.

“What, like now? CK, I thought we had an agreement,” I say.
Why is he doing this, spoiling my mellow?

“No Aefre,” he says patiently as if to a small child, “when
we are together again.”

“Then I would come,” I say simply.

“Alone?” he prods.

“Probably not. Is that a problem?” I ask. I am starting to
get pissed off now and sit up away from him.

“So you would want to bring Devon with you?”

“And Cole, in time. Look CK, this is not the time to discuss
terms, okay? I’m going to go and find Nico.”

He grabs my hand to stop me leaving, “Terms?”

“Yes, terms. Come that point we will have nearly a
collective four thousand years of baggage to bring to the table. It’s bad
enough as it is, never mind adding another hundred plus years.”

“So you want like a pre-nup? I assure you I don’t want you
for your money,” he smirks at me patronizingly.

I scowl at him, “I suppose, but it has to do with
everything, not just money Constantine. I have conditions. I am sure you do as
well. But this is all irrelevant. We are talking about an unknown date in the
very long future. Now please let me go and speak to Nico.” He reluctantly lets
me go and I grab my robe, which has now been freshly laundered, thankfully, and
the ring is gone.

“Put some clothes on,” he growls.

“No this is fine, thank you.”

“I said put some clothes on.”

“Fine!” I snarl at him and stomp over to the closet. Pulling
out the first thing that I see, I pull it over my head. I find in glee that it
is the shortest, tightest black mini dress known to man with no back and a “V”
slashed to my navel. Oh I’m going to have to thank Marguerite for this. Should
have stuck with the robe, old man, I think in delight as a fire lights up in
his eyes and not in a good way. I beat a hasty retreat just to be on the safe
side, in my bare feet.  I don’t know what it is about this place that makes me
forget about shoes! Descending the stairs, I halt at the bottom. Trying out
this mental map thing again, I close my eyes and concentrate. In my mind's eye
I can see the map layout of the castle and the various people scattered around,
there’s more than I thought. CK must have asked them to stay out of the way. I
find Nico in a room that is at the end of this main corridor. Before I let go
of my mental map I try to extend the perimeter to include the dungeons but all
I get is a blank. Wards. Well D’Arcangelo, what are you protecting if not Pets
down there? I let it go and stalk over to the door behind which I will find
Nico.

Not bothering to knock, I just open the door and find it is
an office. A rather nice one. I think it used to be some sort of storage room
back in the day but clearly renovations have been conducted as well as
reconstruction.

Nico looks up from his desk as I walk in unannounced. He
doesn’t look surprised to see me.

“Liv,” he says.

“Nico. Is now a good time to talk?”

“Of course. What can I help you with?”

I sit and prop my feet up on the desk flashing off most of
my legs along with all the other bits this dress is not covering. Nico’s eyes
quickly sweep over me but return to my gaze, shutters down. Geez. What’s it
going to take?

I launch into the story of Cole’s mother and their history
and the sudden contact after eleven years.

“So you think she’s come looking for a payout?”

“Makes sense. Look I know this is probably really weird for
you. Parental issues are non-existent for us, but could you just take care of
it?”

“How?” he asks warily at my brusque tone.

“In whatever way it is you would take care of it,” I say.
I’m not here to do his job for him. “Look, last time I had parental issues to
deal with, I killed them. I’m not exactly in a position to do that this time.
Just sort it so we don’t hear from her again, please.”

He looks slightly disturbed by my admission but so what. He
knows what I am.

“Okay, I will sort it.”

“Thank you. And there’s one more thing. Although if you
wouldn’t mind keeping it to yourself?” I ask sweetly and he sighs at me.

“Liv. Don’t ask me to keep secrets. Not any more secrets
anyway.”

“Please Nico, as a favor. I just need you to find someone
for me.”

“Who?” he asks suspiciously.

“Well if knew that I wouldn’t need you, would I?”

“Less of the attitude would be appreciated, seeing as I am
doing you a favor,” he growls at me and my eyes open wide at his boldness. “And
this makes two now,” he adds for clarification.

“Keeping score? Is that wise?” I hiss, standing up and
leaning over his desk, mostly to get in his face but also to flash him my tits.
I will get this man to look at me for more than a second if it kills me. It
probably will, actually, if CK knew what I was doing.

He stands and pulls himself up to his full six feet four
inches, causing me in my bare feet to tilt my head right back to continue
glaring at him. Most undignified.

“Fine,” I concede, knowing which battles to pick. Not that I
am scared of him but he does know things I don’t want him blabbing to his boss
about. I sit and return my feet to his desk.

He sits as well and says, “Go ahead,” as if nothing just
happened.

“I need you to find a man for me. He was in the hotel with
us in Milan last week and I bumped into him again at JFK. He said he lives in
New York. Said to call him Cade. I owe him a debt,” I add as unnecessary
information.

Nico has gone still and looks worried, “What else? What does
he look like?”

“Tall, six feet two inches I’d say. Human, early forties I
guess. Dark brown hair and grey eyes. Impeccably dressed, definitely money,
wears a Rolex on his right wrist, he’s left-handed and he has a ring on his
middle finger. It has some weird crest on it. An eagle and a sword. And his
manner is very off-putting. Rude but in a polite way. It’s infuriating.”

Nico is now staring at me. Oops was that too much
information? I smile and shrug. “Photographic memory,” I tap my head. “You
asked.”

“Indeed,” he murmurs.

“Do you know him?” I ask suspicious of his change in manner.

“I will look into it,” is all he says, closed off, and I
know I couldn’t get more out of him if I tried.

CK walks in then looking like he is about to blow a gasket
at my indecent dress and sexy, casual pose.

“I trust you are finished in here.” It’s not a question.

“Yes, sir,” Nico replies and I slowly remove my feet off his
desk and stand. I take CK’s hand by way of placating him for the dress,
although technically that wasn’t my fault – exactly.

“Good. Liv. I don’t have much time left with you. Get back
upstairs,” he orders me using “Liv” to show his indifference to me.

My eyes blaze into his but I can’t win with him so I stalk
out of the room. He doesn’t follow but turns to the door and closes it,
shutting me out.

I use my Vampire eavesdropping abilities but I can hardly
hear anything. Must be that expensive magick again. I turn to go back upstairs
but then decide to try out my own pretty kick ass magick. Standing just outside
of CK’s sensing range, I close my eyes again to concentrate. I focus on my
hearing senses and then try to push out just a bit more. It’s working, I think
excitedly, I can hear them… just barely.

“…Cade,” I hear Nico say.

“What?” CK snaps. “When, where?”

“She said he was at the hotel in Milan and then she ran into
him again at JFK. Said she owed him a debt,” he says warily.

“What kind of debt?”

Oh me and my big mouth, it’s just a coffee for fuck's sake.

“Didn’t say. The way she ran it down, I’m sure it’s him.”

“Yes, I’m sure she managed to give it to you in great
detail,” CK says wryly.

Hey, I think, affronted. Don’t blame me for my eye for
detail and incredible memory.

“Find him and make sure he doesn’t come anywhere near her,
or any of us for that matter,” CK orders.

“On it boss,” replies Nico, and I hightail it with extra
Vampire in my speed back upstairs.

I am lounging innocently on the bed when CK makes his
reappearance to my surprise with a very shocked looking Devon. Smiling, I jump
up and pull him to me and he returns my hug fiercely.

CK pulls me away from him and stands me at Devon’s side,
then he stands in front of us like the headmaster and we are the naughty
students. Oh fuck, I know where this is going. My stomach drops.

Devon looks at me, “Liv, what’s all this about? Why am I
here?”