Switch (The Forever Series, Book 7) (21 page)

“So you aren’t mad at me?” he asks hopefully.

“Oh, I’m mad all right. But not about what you said. You had
no right to leave me out of the plan. I know I left it to you to handle and I
was wrong to do that. It is not your responsibility. It is mine. Cole is mine and
I apologize for leaving it to you. But don’t ever blindside me again like that.
Not about something so important. Okay?”

“Done,” he says easily and grateful that I am not about to
issue a sire-like smackdown. “Things are changing so much, aren’t they?”

“Yeah, you can say that again,” I say.

“I’m making another one,” he ventures cautiously and I turn
to look at him now, fairly sure what he is going to say.

“I’m going to ask Jess to marry me,” he says and I nod
briskly. I knew it was coming. Devon can be rather focused when he wants to be,
and even though he has no bond to his new charge he has very definitely turned
all of his attentions towards her.

“I thought you might. Are you sure? Only a few short weeks
ago you were adamant it was not going to happen.”

“Yes, I’m sure. A few weeks ago everything was fucked up. I
have clarity now.”

“Don’t let it change you,” I say, suddenly worried for him.
“You are…”

“I know. Being so serious and grown up.” He chuckles, “I’m
not changing Lizzie, or not for the worst.” He puts his arm around me and I
lean against him, finding comfort and reassurance in his familiar embrace. “But
there is one thing that I promised Jess and I intend to make good on it.”

“What is that?” I ask. If he says he is leaving me, I will
stake the girl myself.

He clears his throat and looks nervous as he starts, “She
has no issues, or at least she is trying to have no issues, with our, yours and
mine, sexual relationship. And while she accepts that we will always be bonded,
fiercely,” he adds to me with a small smile, “she doesn’t want me to see you
regularly,” he finishes in a rush.

“I see.” I frown and mentally pick out the stake I will use
on her. “You are moving out?” I clench my hand to my stomach waiting for the
confirmation from him.

“What? No, no,” he says to my relief and confusion. “By
‘see’ I mean have sex with. She doesn’t want me to have Fridays with you,” he
says.

“Oh. Err, is that what you want?” I ask, a bit sideswiped
again by this revelation.

He sighs and hesitates, but then says, “Yes. I love her and
want to make her happy. We can still be together, but just not like that.”

“Huh,” I say as I chew my lip. I have to say I am more than
surprised. I never thought he would willingly give it up after he fought so
hard for it. I guess he really does love her. I feel a pang as I think again to
the future where I saw and Jess and Sebastian together.

“Say something,” he says to me, as I remain silent.

“Oh sweetie, I can’t say that I am not surprised, but if
that’s what you want then don’t worry about me. You need to do whatever makes
you happy.”

He smiles at me. “No quick fucks though,” he murmurs to me.
“When we are together it will be proper.”

I burst out laughing. “Done…on one condition.”

“What?”

“You don’t move out. The house is big enough for us all, we
won’t get in each other’s way. I just can’t lose you.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” he says as he kisses me softly and
I melt into his arms. “And I still think that an orgy bed for one of the guest
rooms is a splendid idea,” he adds wickedly.

“Hm, now that I have to agree on,” I mutter as he chuckles.

“I love you,” he says quietly and stands up. “I’ll leave you
to your pensive thoughts.”

“Okay, baby. I love you too,” I say as he steps back and I
am left alone again to consider his actions. Christ, there are so many changes.
Will I ever be able to keep up?

I don’t get left alone for very long as now it appears
everyone wants a word with me. Next up is Sebastian.

“Hey,” he says as he sits. “You up for a bit of company?”

“No,” I say, still annoyed with him for his part in the
Hunt.

“Too bad, Queenie. I’m not leaving.”

“Suit yourself,” I say then sit in silence and wait for
whatever it is he wants to say.

“Can I ask you something?” he says eventually.

“Sure,” I say uncertainly.

“If it turns out that we are destined to be together, will
you…erm…will you, you know…be with me?”

I turn to face him and he is looking slightly flushed. “What
are you asking me exactly?”

He takes a deep breath. “Will you choose me?”

Taken aback, I stare at him. “Seb, I can’t answer that. We
don’t know what is going to happen and I have already made a promise.”

He nods sadly. “But promises were made to be broken,” he
says quietly.

“Not this one.” I take his hand in mine. “I love him. You
know that.”

“Yeah. It’s epic. The stuff of legends. I get it,” he says
resentfully.

“Seb…”

“It’s okay, I should have already known you would choose
him.”

We sit in silence again as I don’t have any words for him.

“I can offer you something that he can’t,” he says.

“I know. But it doesn’t work that way.”

“Feed from me,” he says suddenly.

“What, right here? No, Cole would blow a gasket if he saw
us.”

“Not the Vampire way. Do it the way you want to, the Dragon
way.”

I hesitate, wanting to take him up on his offer, as I am
feeling a bit lacking in the energy department.

“If you won’t feed the Vampire way properly then do this.
For me.”

“For you?” I frown.

“Livvie, you are my Queen, my sibling, and my Princess
Fae-pire,” he says with a sidelong smile. “I want you to look after yourself
and I want to look after you. I know that our sire has issue with this, but I
don’t. Use me.” He turns to sit sideways on the wall and holds out his hands.

I know he is playing dirty, deliberately offering me
something he knows I want and that our sire finds distasteful.

“You don’t play fair,” I accuse him.

“Why should I?” he asks with a shrug. “No one else around
here does.”

Well, I can’t argue with that. Everyone has an angle. Even
Lincoln. Nothing is innocent or what it seems, there is an undercurrent to
everything that everyone does, myself included, and I am tired of it. I want
something pure and honest. This doesn’t even come close to falling into either
of those categories but just for now, I can pretend that it does. That he is
doing this for the well-being of me and not as some tool to one-up our sire.

“I know what you are thinking,” he says and I curse my face.
“And while the appeal of giving you something he won’t is alluring enough on
its own, the mere fact that I will be giving you something to make you
stronger, a part of myself that you need,” he drops his voice to a husky
whisper as he leans in closer, “
that
is far more enticing.”

Oh my. My heart skips a beat and I blink at him to bring my
thoughts back into focus.

“Come Tuesday, you will give me everything I ever wanted,”
he whispers. “It is the least I can do to give you something you want. I owe
you everything. I will forever be yours.”

Oh no. Not again. “Seb, don’t say things like that.”

“Why not? It’s true.”

“Just don’t, please.”

He sighs. “Liv, I am not so stupid that I will pledge my
undying love to you and swear to be faithful to only you. That isn’t who I am.
I will love our time together and cherish every second, but it won’t be the
only thing in my life. Everything you will do for me, that we will do for each
other, is special and it means everything to me. I will be yours, if you want
me. Until then, I won’t be making any changes. So I can say things like that to
you and you don’t have to get your lacy knickers in a twist about it, okay?” he
adds with a lascivious smile.

“How do you know my knickers are lacy?” I ask wickedly and
he laughs.

“You don’t strike me as the sensible cotton underwear type.
But I look forward to finding out for definite in a few days.”

“Maybe I will surprise you,” I say a bit haughtily and he
shakes his head before I add, “Maybe I won’t be wearing any underwear at all.”

His lips part in desire and he draws in a breath. “Don’t be
a tease,” he murmurs as he takes my hands and sits upright. “So, are we doing
this?”

“Yes,” I say, eager to get my hands on his Faerie energy. I
don’t feel too much in the way of a boost from his blood like other Vampires.
It is more than the average Vampire, yes, but the one time I took his energy,
it was pretty incredible. I close my eyes and breathe in deeply. He laces our
fingers and I pull, feeling it leave him and enter me, swirling up through my
arms and into my chest and then spiraling off all through my body. I am fizzing
all over and I open my eyes. My magick wind has picked up and is whipping around
us, my hair floating against the flap of wings from my Dragon, who clearly
approves of this method of feeding. He is smiling at me, the sweetest smile,
and I slowly let go of his essence as the wind dies down. Fuck me, I feel like
I could fly. Without the use of my Dragon form.

“Bloody hell,” I whisper and he grins.

“I am pretty sure that no one else can give you that.”

“I think you’d be right,” I say, refusing to let go of his
hands just yet.

“Am I interrupting?” CK says, Teleporting in next to us and
staring at my flyaway hair and our linked hands.

“Liv was just feeding. The Dragon way,” Sebastian says with
a smile at me.

CK sighs but has the good sense to remain silent.

“I will leave you now, but remember this: whenever you
want.” He leaps off the wall and saunters off, clearly having gotten something
out of the experience as well, but what? I will have to try and remember to ask
him.

“You have an arrangement to take his energy?” CK asks
casually, hoisting himself up onto the wall gracefully.

“Not really. He offered, and I accepted.”

“You said that it was an intimate thing,” he says, almost
accusing.

“No more than the bite,” I say patiently. No point in
snapping at him as it will only get his back up.

“Oh.” He pauses, “Aefre, I am sorry about earlier. I know
after Fraser you were feeling out of sorts and I was harsh with you. I was
worried about what his showing up here would mean for us.”

I take his hand and he squeezes tightly. “I know. You don’t
have to apologize or worry about it. After other Liv and I spoke the first
time, I had changed my mind about wanting to find him. I couldn’t bear to see
my memory of him tarnished with a cruel and evil version of him. It hurts like
Hell to know that she wasn’t lying, but I have no interest in him. He isn’t the
man I loved.” I leave out the part about me itching to get to my own past
Fraser and bring him here to me.

He smiles at me but it looks a bit forced, so I add, “And
even if he weren’t an evil Lance-a-like, I would still never leave you. I love
you.”

He smiles again but this time is it real. “I love you too.
God, I have missed you. Our little dalliance earlier has left me incredibly
frustrated.”

I snort unattractively to his amusement. “You are
frustrated? What about me?”

“Yes, I can imagine you must be. I will have to make it up
to you on Tuesday.” He stiffens slightly as he remembers what Tuesday also
brings, but forces himself to relax.

“Well, if I recall,” I say, ignoring his body language to
his relief, “I am still to owe you a proper seeing to, having you completely at
my mercy.”

He turns to face me and leans closer. “As much as I want to
give you everything your heart desires, my sweet, that is not going to happen.
I am going to take you my way, again and again until you are begging me for
mercy.”

“And will you give it?” I ask against his lips.

“Never,” he says before he plunges his tongue into my mouth
in a kiss so heated it warms me from the inside out.

He lets me go and I am struggling to breathe as he says, “I
told you I would do that with you.”

“Do what?” I ask, almost salivating at his closeness.

“Help you feed that way,” he says, but I can tell he isn’t
very pleased about it.

“I know you find it uncomfortable,” I say with a slight
purse to my lips. “You don’t have to do it.”

“Aefre, if that is what you need, I will give it to you. You
don’t need to go looking elsewhere.”

And there it is. The whole problem with this is that he only
wants to do it because he is jealous. Not because it makes me happy. Pure and
honest? No, I have a far way to go before I get that from anybody.

“Hm,” I say noncommittally and he huffs at me but says no
more on the subject.

“Have you spoken to Cole yet?” he changes the subject
abruptly again, as he does.

“No. I am avoiding him,” I say insolently.

He snickers. “Don’t, my sweet. You know you have to face the
music.”

“Yes, your music that you decided to compose,
sans moi
.”

“Oh no. You don’t get to shove that on me. You knew how he
was feeling and you ignored it.”

“Whatever,” I grouse. “I am not fighting about this with
you.”

“Don’t then. Just go and speak to your charge.”

To my charge, not my husband. Ergh, he is such an
infuriating creature sometimes.

“Fine. I will,” I say, as I stand and he rolls his eyes at
me and my attitude.

“Honestly, Aefre, sometimes you really do act your human
age.”

“Oh? And you find fault with that?”

“Sometimes it surprises me that the Queen of The Underworld
chooses to act like a teenager instead of the thousand-year-old Vampire that
she is,” he says, standing as well to face me.

“Well maybe it is because I never got to
be
a
teenager,” I say hotly and then regret it. “I don’t mean that in a way to
disregard you,” I say quickly. “But I see how carefree they are nowadays and I
never had that. Not even after you freed me from that monstrous life. I always
had to live up to something far beyond my paltry years.”