Secrets (The Forever series, Book 8) (7 page)

His thoughts end there as he is now outside Sebastian’s
door. He doesn’t bother to knock as he pushes the door open. He is waiting for
him, as he knew he would be. It has been many years since they were together in
this way. Decades even. It has been even longer than that since Constantine was
with a man other than Sebastian. He wonders briefly what Aefre would make of
this side to their relationship. Knowing her voracious sexual appetite, she
would revel in it. Watch them take each other greedily, before she made them
take her the same way. With that thought dancing nicely in his head, he closes
the door with a soft smile that his beloved boy returns.

Chapter 3

Kingdom of the Dark Fae - Liv

Who knows how long I have been sitting on this mud floor.
Time seems to have no meaning here. I wonder if they even have clocks or
calendars for that matter. It seems like awhile. Long enough that I have fallen
asleep and woken up and had a visit from Remiel in the process. Turncoat. I
should have known he wasn’t to be trusted. Still, my sire is safe and I am sure
he will comply with my request to not try to rescue me. Can’t say the same
about any of the others. I wonder how they will decide since democracy is not high
on Constantine’s list of favorite things. As I sit here for longer and longer I
can only assume that they have taken me at my word and left me here. Which is
fine, but I am getting bored. If Drake doesn’t turn up soon I might go mad.
Maybe that’s his plan? Maybe he knows I am here already?

I sit and twiddle my thumbs, fiddling with my charms and my
rings and then he appears. In a puff of smoke just outside the bars of the
cell, he is there. Drake. King of the Dark Fae and my father.

“Well, well,” he says with a smirk. “I knew you would be
capable, I just didn’t think you would do it.”

I stand and face him. “Does this make me worthy?” I sneer at
him, giving as good as I get.

He laughs. “Oh yes. I would say that I am proud but…” He
shudders. “You are still behind the bars and a crossbreed that makes my skin
crawl.”

“Oh really? If I am such an abomination why did you come to
find me? I was doing just fine without you. Better even,” I tell him.

“Yes, I am sure you were. However, you are clearly my
daughter and as much as I would like to deny you, that seems impossible,” he
says.

I stand right in front of him, the bars separating us by
inches. “Deny me. I dare you,” I say to him and he laughs.

“Oh no, my dear. You are mine and you will take your place
in this Court,” he says firmly.

I grab him by his tunic front and pull him towards me. He
flinches against the iron but it doesn’t burn him. Must be a King thing. “Do
you really want to test me?”

He grabs me back and says, “Do you really want to test me?”

“Might be fun, I’d like to see how I measure up against a
Fae King,” I say confidently.

“Oh my girl, you will take your hands off me right now
before I take them off for you. Make no mistake that I hold any affection for
you. You are here to do a duty and nothing more,” he says mildly.

“Whatever,” I say, sounding just like a petulant teenager
and letting him go, but not before I do massive power pull on him and free
myself from the cell.

He starts in surprise and then laughs. “There you go. All it
takes is the right motivation.”

“In that case, I will be leaving now. I have places to be,
people to see, that kind of thing,” I say.

“You aren’t leaving,” he says.

“Watch me,” I say as I prepare to Astral my arse out of
here. Or at least attempt to. I’m not sure if I can now or not. I certainly
couldn’t from inside the cell.

“Leave and I will return for you and not only bring you back
here, but I will bring every member of your so-called family back here with you
to rot inside their very own cells.” He smiles as he has my attention. “I am
sure your sire can hold his own, at least for a few weeks. He is remarkably
difficult to kill and he still owes me his blood, but I wouldn’t bet on the
others so much.”

“You are sick. What do mean he owes you? And if you threaten
my family again I will kill you,” I snarl at him, pissed that he has me over a
barrel.

“Is that any way to speak to your father?” he asks with a
laugh, ignoring my question.

“I will fight you to the death to protect them. You will not
get your hands on any of them,” I say, going all fierce in protection of my
boys.

“So protective. It’s misguided, really. You should care for
your own well-being more than theirs,” he says.

“Fuck you. You clearly don’t know the first thing about
family,” I hiss at him and get a resounding slap across my face for my efforts.

“Use that language with me again and I won’t stop at just a
slap,” he threatens.

“Oh yeah? What will do you, strap me to the floor and bleed
me out like you did with my sire?” I ask cockily.

“As much fun as that would be, I need you well and alive. At
least for a time. No, I think somewhere more in the region of ripping your
fangs out and then removing every single one of your claws. I hear that hurts
and has dire consequences for your kind,” he says innocently.

I blanch. Very few people, Vampires and other creatures
aside, know about the dire consequences of such an act. Unfortunately I do know
and it isn’t pleasant. Defanging a Vampire is probably the worst thing you can
do to one. Worse than death. They don’t grow back and you are left without the
ability to bite. While that may not sound like a big deal, it is. It is not
only the loss of the bite, but also the loss of a prime piece of yourself that
makes you innately a Vampire. It eventually starts to drive you crazy, and I
mean funny-farm crazy. It might take decades, maybe less depending on your
strength of character, but you will eventually lose your mind and your senses
and become nothing more than a feral creature that needs putting down. Combined
with declawing, you might as well just stake the Vampire on the spot as the
degradation is quick and painful and ugly. How do I know? Because I saw Lance
use it more than once on my fellow prisoners. How I was lucky enough to not end
up on the same end of that treatment remains a mystery. Maybe because he kept
hoping I would give him myself, and if I did he wanted me as a fully
functioning member of the Vampire club.

“I see that gave you pause,” he says, interrupting my
thoughts.

“How do you even know about that?” I ask.

“Oh, I know almost every way to destroy your kind. You see,
Vampires are probably the worst creatures to roam the Realms. Stealing our
blood so that they can walk in the light. It’s despicable behavior,” he says.

“They don’t know,” I say, needing to defend my race. “They
don’t know it’s the Faerie blood that activates the protection spell. I only
just figured it out a few weeks ago.”

“Not just Faerie blood,” he says. “But knowledge of the ins
and outs matters not. There are those who do know and still continue to offer
us up as some sort of prize.”

I blink at him and his hatred, but I suppose I have to give
the man a break. From his point of view it must feel like the ultimate
humiliation. “Only those deemed worthy get the silver,” I say and it’s lame,
but I feel I need to say something.

“Perhaps, but then it gets passed to those who didn’t earn
it. That’s the part I don’t get,” he says, puzzled. “If you are going to fight
for something and be deemed worthy of it then it should be yours to keep. Who
is to say that the one you give it to is worth it?”

Good fucking point. And not one I had ever even thought of.
“I…err…yes,” I say, flustered and somewhat embarrassed that this had never
crossed my mind before. All you have to do is look at Constantine and Lance to
know it is true. “As Queen, that is perhaps something I can look to change,” I
say with an authority that I don’t feel.

“Ah yes, Queen of the Underworld,” he says, casting his
critical gaze over my casual muddy outfit. “It’s easy to forget when you look
like something the cat dragged in.”

“Hey!” I snap. “You are the one who Vamp-napped my sire,
forcing me to come to this place to get him. You really should keep your cells
in better shape if you expect your prisoners to look decent.”

“I didn’t Vamp-nap him,” he says, offended. “He offered to
come in exchange for me leaving you alone long enough to recover from
your…injuries. And if prison cells are supposed to be comfortable, it sort of
defeats the object, wouldn’t you say?”

“He asked you to do that?” I ask softly.

“Yes, I have to say you put up a damn good fight. Your Fae
powers are coming along nicely. You pulled up that storm and used it like a
true Princess. For that, I think I may be proud. I haven’t decided yet. But you
were most definitely on the losing side. A word of advice, power isn’t
everything. You need to know what to do with it. Your sire is a warrior. He was
born a warrior and he fights like a warrior. If you expect to beat him, you
need to fight like a warrior too.”

“I expect never to see him again, let alone fight him
again,” I say, the hurt of what he said and did to me coming back to the
surface.

“Well can’t say that I blame you. That fall looked like it
hurt,” he says with mock concern.

“Hurt?” I yell at him. “It broke every bone in my body.”

“And yet here you are, perfectly fine as he knew you would
be. So, daughter, are you going to stay and do your duty, or am I going to have
to track you back to Earth and start rounding up your friends? I can start with
the man you call your husband,” he says.

“Lay a finger on Cole and I will rip your head clean from
your shoulders,” I say forcefully.

“Cole? Our information had you in an unholy union with the
Demon Overlord,” Drake says with a small frown.

Oh crap. I had forgotten about that ruse and as usual I
stepped in it big time. Cole wouldn’t last a day at the hands of the Dark Fae.
Xane at least would not only last longer, he would also have every Demon from
every Realm out to rescue him.

“My marriage is not an unholy union,” I say through gritted
teeth, ignoring the question of who exactly my husband is.

“It is not recognized in the Fae Kingdoms. Your union will
be with Kalen and it will take place at the next full moon. Three weeks from
now. There is much to do in preparation,” he states.

“I am not marrying Kalen. I am already married.” I stamp my
foot and again feel, belatedly, like a sullen teenager.

“You will marry Kalen and you will bear the destined child.
That is your duty to me and this Court. Your only duty,” he says with an
emphasis that makes me gulp. What does that mean exactly?

“The clock is ticking, so to speak. You agree to your duty
or…” He grabs my chin in a powerful grip that has forced me back up against the
iron bars. “Or I send the Dark Guard for your charge and I start ripping his
claws out one-by-painful-one.”

My sire side surges to the forefront and I knock his hand
away from me and I grab him again in a tight fist. “If you hurt him in any way
whatsoever, you will see just exactly how powerful I can be,” I hiss at him.

“So you’ll stay then?” he asks.

I nod once, grimly. I don’t have much choice. As much Power
as I wield, I am certain he has more or at the very least he knows how to use
it better.

“Grand,” he says jovially, like he didn’t just threaten to
brutally mutilate Devon. Or Cole. It’s unclear which one he meant, but it makes
no difference. I will do anything to protect them both, even if it means
staying here. He turns us towards to the long corridor and pushes me forward.
“We have a long walk up, you can start by telling me about your lineage. It’s
quite confusing.”

“Can’t you just puff us back upstairs?” I ask.

“Where is the fun in that?” he asks and shrugs. “Well…?”

“Well what? You know what I am,” I say with a sniff.

“I know I am Dark Fae and your mother, for Her sins, is a
Dragon. What happened after your cursed conception remains somewhat of a
mystery,” he says.

“Don’t talk about my mother,” I grouse.

“I loved your mother,” he says fiercely. “But we were doomed
from the start. The fact that She kept your birth a secret from me is
unforgivable. She knew how much we needed you.”

I raise my eyebrow at his tone, but stay silent, hoping he
will continue. I don’t know a whole lot about this bunch except what Sebastian
and Xane have told me. It would be nice to be clued in so I know just what I
have let myself in for.

“If I had known about you, I could have protected you,” he
continues, and I am stunned that he said that. I got the impression he would no
sooner stake me than look at me. “I could have prevented you from becoming this
revolting, tainted creature. I have a job in front of me to convince the rest
of my people to accept you. And they aren’t going to do it with you looking
like that,” he sneers at me.

Oh. And there I thought he cared for a minute.

“What is wrong with the way I look?” I ask, offended.

“You look nothing like me.” He gestures up and down at me in
exasperation. “Even if you looked like your mother it would be better than
that. I mean how did that even happen?”

That? I finger my long blonde hair and pout. “Somehow I took
after my human parents,” I say quietly.

“Yes, well pity that there isn’t anything we can do about
that Saxon lineage,” he says and sighs.

Actually there is, but I am reluctant to help this beast in
any way. I sigh and attempt to Shift anyway to look like I belong. To my
surprise it works. Long, straight black hair and violet eyes. I change nothing
else about myself though. I figure it will be easier for me if they accept me.
I fear as it is, the contempt is going to outweigh the acceptance. He stops
dead as he looks at me. “How did you do that?” he demands.