Switch (The Forever Series, Book 7)
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Authors: Eve Newton
Switch
The Forever Series Book Seven
By Eve Newton
Edited, Produced, and Published by Writer’s Edge
Publishing 2013
All rights reserved.
© 2013 by Eve Newton.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be
reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system in any form or by any means without
the prior written permission of the publisher.
All characters in this book are fictitious, and any
resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Other Books by Eve Newton
Forever
(The Forever Series Book One)
The Power
of One (The Forever Series Book Two)
Revelation
(The Forever Series Book Three)
Choices
(The Forever Series Book Four)
The Ties
That Bind (The Forever Series Book Five)
Trials (The
Forever Series Book Six)
Switch (The Forever Series Book Seven)
Table of Contents
Buckinghamshire, England, 1966 – Jacqui
“Devon?” I called to him. “Devon?”
He came sauntering into the library with his usual
swagger. “What is it, Jacqus?” he complained. “I’m busy.”
“I need your help with something,” I said and pointed to
the rolling library ladders. “This needs to go back up there.” I held out the
book to him.
He looked at me in disbelief. “You called me away from
the World Cup Final to ask me to replace a book on the top shelf?”
“Yes,” I said to him, as I swung my long red hair out of
my bright green eyes. “Your book, you replace it. If you think I am going up
that rickety ladder to the ceiling you have another thing coming.”
“Jacqui, my dear. I do love you, but I am going back to
watching the football. The ladder is fine. Go up yourself, or I will do it
later,” he said to me as he turned to leave.
I huffed at him. “Fine then. CK is due any minute. I am
sure he will have no problem in helping me,” I yelled at his retreating back,
hearing him mutter something about staying well out of the way.
“Jacqui,” my sire asked from behind me, where he had
Teleported in, making me jump. Damn man, he needs a cowbell. He leaned over to
kiss me and frowned at my Shift. “Beautiful as always, my sweet, but you really
should keep your natural look.”
“It’s boring,” I said to him, returning his kiss with a
passionate one of my own. “It has been far too long since I have seen you.”
“Your natural look is not boring,” he admonished. “But
yes, indeed it has been. I don’t mind coming to see you here. Are you returning
to Seattle soon?” he inquired.
“Yes, we are leaving tomorrow. Devon just had to be here
for the World Cup,” I said. “I did tell you we were here a couple of weeks
ago,” I reminded him.
He shrugged, “I had business to attend to. Will you be
staying over there much longer? I want you to return to the Continent and me.”
Oh, I wanted to return to him, but he didn’t want me in
that way so I shrugged myself and said, “A few more years, then Chicago and
then I have plans to go to Boston.”
“Boston?” he asked in surprise.
“Yes, I want to go to Harvard.”
“We have perfectly fine universities in Italy,” he
frowned at me.
“I know, I have attended them all,” I reminded him with
my own frown. “I want to go to Harvard.”
“You won’t find it as easy as all that to get in
nowadays, my dear.”
“I know. We have to go to school first.”
“You are going to high school?” he asked me in utter
disdain.
“Well not right now,” I snapped, getting irritated. “A
couple of decades from now. We have other plans first.”
“We, humph,” he said rudely under his breath. “So you
required help from someone called CK?” His beautiful dark eyes found mine and I
looked down in horror.
“Err, I just needed this going back up there,” I said,
stammering slightly because he heard me call him by a nickname. He is going to
have my head for this, I thought with a gulp. “It’s no problem, I can do it,” I
said and hastily pulled the shaky ladder to me, which was in desperate need of
replacing after years of neglect. Devon and I hadn’t been back here since the
war and the old place needed a good renovation. I ascended gracefully in spite
of the ridiculously short skirt and long boots, just to get away from his
knowing look. I replaced the book and hesitated as he came to stand underneath
the ladder looking up at me. I climbed slowly back down and felt his hand run
up my bare leg as I got in touching range.
“I can’t say that I am all that pleased about you showing
off your legs to the world in this skirt,” he murmured to me and I swallowed
loudly, but glad that he dropped the nickname thing. His hand inched further up
under the skirt and my breathing all but stopped. I let go of the ladder and
fell back into his waiting arms, tilting my head up for a kiss, but I got a
shock when he placed me back on my feet.
“You call me ‘CK’ when you speak of me?” he asked
casually and again I looked down, contrite.
“Sorry, sir,” I mumbled. “It is your initials, it is just
shorter. I won’t do it again.”
A silence grew and I waited for the speech to come on
respect and being brash and presumptuous, but it didn’t come. I dared to look
up into his eyes and all I saw was amusement.
“You are the only person I have ever come across that
would dare to be that overly familiar with me.”
“Sorry, sir,” I mumbled again.
He stepped closer and tilted my chin up. “Shift so I can
tell this to my real charge if you please.”
Surprised, I took a step back and Shifted back to my
natural form. My clothes now hung a bit looser on my tiny frame. Devon always
grumbled that I was too skinny in this form. He was right, so I did try to make
my Shifted persona’s curvier. He smiled his heart-stopping smile at me. “That’s
better. I do prefer it when you look like Aefre,” he said to me. “You are a
special girl, my sweet. I do love you, so.”
I simpered under his words but I wished that he meant
them in the way that I wanted him to. “I love you too,” I said back.
“I know you do. I like that you have given me a
nickname.”
I looked up into his eyes. “You do?” I asked in surprise.
“Yes, it makes me feel special to you,” he said so softly
that I had to lean forward to catch it. “I want you to call me that, always
from now on.”
“Really?” I asked, my eyes wide. “You don’t mind if I
call you that? Even in front of other people?”
He laughed. “I especially want you to call me that in
front of other people. It will show them what we mean to each other and that
they are not a part of it.” He casted a quick glance down the corridor where
Devon had disappeared and I sighed. I did so wish they didn’t hate each other so
much. “But only you,” he said then as he tapped my chin with his index finger.
“Only you.” He pulled me to him then to give me the kiss I had been waiting
for. “Do you want me, my sweet?”
I smiled, slowly and playfully. “Yes, CK,” I said before
he whisked me up in his arms and Teleported us giggling to my bedroom.
Tuscany, Italy, 2013 (Other) – Liv
“I’m always here,” he says as I rush into his arms. Well
actually that is kind of the wrong way to describe it. I rush towards him
expecting him to pick me up in his arms but it is more like running into a
brick wall as he keeps his arms firmly by his sides. He grunts as I slam into
him and then brings his hands up to steady me.
“Are you feeling okay, Your Majesty?” he asks me, his
beautiful eyes now concerned but not in a loving way.
Your Majesty? Why is he calling me that?
“Linc?” I say to him cautiously.
“Ma’am?” he queries back just as cautiously.
CK, err, Constantine is at my side then. “What did you just
call him?”
I frown at him and then at Lincoln who is frowning back at
me. I can’t say I have ever seen him look quite so serious. And menacing. Okay,
clearly this relationship is not a personal one. He is suited and looks more
like security than my sweet, gentle Wolf-lover.
“
Mr. Anderson
, I suggest you take a step back.
Clearly the Empress is not feeling herself today,” Constantine says as he grips
my arm.
Empress? Oh yikes.
“Where is the Queen?” he barks at Marguerite.
“I am here, Father.” A beautiful girl comes down the stairs
to join us all standing here in the Entrance Hall. And she doesn’t say “father”
in that creepy Lance way; she says it like he is her…dad. “Is Mother all right?
There is quite the commotion going on.” She kisses him on the cheek and he
gazes at her lovingly. Her long blonde hair is the same color as mine but her
eyes are her father’s, no doubt. She is my daughter. Mine and Constantine’s.
Well, other me, obviously, I think, clearing my throat.
“I think she is under the weather. I want her back in bed.
Now,” he snaps and Ramon picks me up in his arms and carries me back up the
stairs towards the bedroom.
“Wait,” I call. I want to know her name but we have rounded
the corner and disappeared from their sight.
“You need to feed,” Ramon says to me. “It is past time.” He
shuts the bedroom door and places me gently on the bed.
Well I am not arguing with that. I am famished and as he
strips off his t-shirt, I get a bit hungrier, but not for blood.
I drop my fangs and feed deeply from him as he holds me
close. He has always been a bit flirty but this is something else. I pull back
and retract my fangs and he kisses me passionately, pushing one of his hands
into my hair and the other going inside my robe.
Hey! Hang on there a minute! I push him away and he
whispers, “He won’t be back up for a few more minutes. He knows you are
feeding.”
What? I think blindly as he pushes me back and lowers his
mouth to my naked self.
Oh! I jolt as his tongue licks my nipple. She clearly has a
sexual relationship with her Feeder but it doesn’t seem that Constantine knows
about it. Interesting. And awkward. I push him away again and he frowns at me.
“Is everything okay? Are you not happy with me anymore?”
Err, how do I answer that? Should I mention that I am not
their…gulp…Empress? What if they believe me but don’t believe who I am and they
try to kill me or something? I have no idea what they would do here. Everything
seems so formal and antiquated. Beheading might just be their thing. It’s all
wrong. Maybe best to keep quiet about it while I try to figure a way to get
back home. I am going to have to assume that the “me” from here is inhabiting
my body back at home. Oh crap. All of my boys will think she is me unless she
tells them, just like everyone here will think I am her. Oh what to do, what to
do? Ramon is still staring at me waiting for an answer so I make a decision to
lie and say, “I am not feeling very well. Please leave me.” I pull my robe back
together and with the dignity of an Empress (I hope) climb back into bed to
rest my aching head. This is so bad. Ramon leaves me and Constantine finds me
shortly thereafter.
“My love,” he says sitting on the bed next to me. “How can I
help?”
I shrug, as I have no idea.
He pulls my face towards his. “Are you pining for him? I
know he has been gone awhile this time,” he says very softly with a look I
can’t quite place.
Pining? Do Empresses pine? Apparently they do.
I just stare at him, not knowing what he is talking about.
“You can tell me, Aefre. I know how you feel about each
other. That it is expected. I know you love me and will always be my wife. Just
tell me so I know that you aren’t still upset with me or that I have failed you
again.”
I nod. What else am I supposed to do? Might as well go with
the cover story he has thrown at me, although it might be useful at some point
if said pinecone would turn up and announce their return soon.
He nods then sadly and says, “He is returning today. I am
leaving for a short while so you can be with him.”
Come again?
“Where are you going?” I ask him.
“To the city. I have some things I need to take care of
anyway.”
“Where is our daughter? I want to see her,” I ask suddenly.
He looks at me warily. “Cassis? She is downstairs handling
the, uh, fallout from your episode earlier.”
Cassie? We named our daughter Cassie? No, wait: he pronounced
it “
Cassis
” as in the Château? Huh, I wonder why we named her after a
castle?
“I want to see her,” I say again.
“I don’t think that is a good idea, my love, after your
recent argument. She is as stubborn as her mother,” he says with a soft smile to
take the sting out of his words.
Oh. What did we argue about? Don’t suppose I can really ask
that without sounding like a complete head case.
“I need to go and get ready. Serena will be up shortly to
rearrange your schedule. Today you will stay here and make sure that you spend
some proper time with him. He will no doubt be feeling the same as you,” he
says in a way that is so matter-of-factly that I actually blink at him. Whoever
this “he” is, he is clearly accepted by my sire. Her sire. Whatever. The strange
thing is, I feel my bond with him. It is strong. Stronger than the one with the
other Constantine, not as strong as my CK, but strong enough that he obviously
doesn’t feel a change. Or too much of one to be suspicious about it. I find
that slightly disconcerting. I always thought it was the two souls, or
essences, that connected, but it doesn’t seem that way. It seems to be more
fundamental than that. The blood. Our blood. Seems kind of obvious though, now
that I think about it. And then the horror thought strikes me: if I can feel
this with him, then she can feel it with my own and my two boys.