Switch (The Forever Series, Book 7) (22 page)

“No, you didn’t. It was my fault that made you think that
and I am sorry. I demanded too much of you, too quickly. I know that now. If I
could take it back, I would.”

“Fine, but let me have a tantrum every now and again,” I say
with small smile.

“As you wish, but go and speak to Cole. His anxiety is
driving me crazy from here. I don’t know how you can ignore it.”

“I’m not ignoring it,” I say, insulted. “I am trying to
decide what to say to him.”

“It’s easy,” he says. “You apologize to him for being a
neglectful sire and that what he did was normal and not wrong and then you kiss
and make up.” He frowns. “Well, actually, scrap that last part. I don’t want to
think of you doing that.”

My sorrowful expression catches him off guard. “What?
Neglectful? You think I have been neglectful?” I ask.

“Yes,” he says carefully. “You ignored his desire and
rejected his ask for help.”

The tears well up and I can’t stop them from tumbling down
my cheeks as I stand there feeling terrible, as all he says is true.

“Aefre, don’t cry about it. Just go and fix it,” he says
gently, putting his arms around me and holding me close. “I don’t like to see
you so upset over something I can’t mend for you. You being a neglectful sire
is turning me into a helpless one,” he says with a smile to his lips and I
snuffle as I look up at him with a half-hearted laugh.

“Well, I wouldn’t want that,” I say. “I know how you hate
being helpless. I will go and apologize to him.” I step back from him and he
nods briskly.

“But no kissing and making up,” he growls at me and I
chuckle as I head back into the house.

“Thank you,” I say softly over my shoulder. It doesn’t
surprise me that he doesn’t reply, knowing how torn up inside he is: wanting
the rift between me and Cole, but also knowing he has to do everything he can
to fix it.

 

I find Cole on the balcony to our bedroom, overlooking the
garden towards the woods. It also happens to overlook the spot where I had been
sitting on the wall. How long has he been there? I don’t mind if he saw me with
Devon or CK, even, but Sebastian and I shared something private. If he ever
caught wind of what I might be and what I am going to do, he will leave me. I
know that now without a doubt.

“Hey,” I say as he continues to stare out at the woods.

“Hey,” he says back, not turning around.

I sit next to him and take his hand. He lets me, but I sense
his reluctance.

“Cole, I am sorry. I have been a terrible sire to you and a
terrible wife. I should have been more attentive and taken your desires
seriously and I shouldn’t have made you feel bad about it. Can you forgive me?”

He turns to me then with a look of surprise. “You are
apologizing to me? I should be apologizing to you. I let you down. I gave in to
my desires and I shouldn’t have.”

“Yes, you should have. You shouldn’t have had to hold on to
them in the first place. It is my fault for forcing my ‘piety,’” I use Devon’s
word with sarcastic air quotes, “on to you.”

He snorts in amusement. “I can think of a million adjectives
for you but pious is not one of them.”

I smile gently and feel that damn prickle over the top of
shoulder again. I rub it absently and ask, “Am I forgiven?”

“There is nothing to forgive,” he says, now squeezing my
hand tightly.

“Cole, there is something I think we need to discuss
though,” I say seriously and he sighs.

“I know what you are going to ask and yes, I am fine with
what happened.”

“Fine?” I ask with a frown.

“They were sent here to hurt you, us. That makes it fine in
my book.”

“Cole.”

“Liv, don’t make a big deal out of it. If I felt bad or
guilty or whatever, not only would you be able to pick up on it, I would tell
you.”

Well that is true, I suppose but…“You killed, Cole. Not
once, but twice. That changes a person.”

“Just once,” he says.

“What?” I ask, now confused.

“I killed just the one. I drained the other one but it was
your sire who killed him. I didn’t know you could drink from a dead person.”

Huh, knowing CK’s tactics as I do, I can imagine a swift
snap to the neck before he passed him onto Cole, incapacitating the second one
with his claws while going after the third with his fangs, leaving Sebastian
and Devon to handle the other two. A skilled and graceful killer, my sire.

“As long as the kill is fresh,” I mutter and then shake my
head as we are getting off topic.

“I think he gave that first one to me to get me used to the
draining,” he muses. “Who knew he cared?” he sneers.

That doesn’t sound like my sire, he is a firm believer in
just getting on with it, but maybe he took it easy with Cole as I wasn’t there
to guide him.

“I’m sorry,” I say again. “I should have been there.”

“Stop it,” he chides me. “I will try to do better next
time.”

“No, you don’t have to do that, Cole. You should be who you
want to be. Not who I am trying to be. It’s your decision.”

“It’s our decision,” he says with meaning before he kisses
me.

“Very well,” I say and as far as I am concerned then, case
closed.

He sighs as he senses the closure and changes the subject.
“I want to live here. Can we? After the movie is finished, instead of going
back to L.A., can we come back here?”

“Here? You like it here?” I ask in surprise.

“I love it here. It’s gorgeous. So peaceful. We could just
be, here.”

“If that’s what you want. We can live here before we have to
move on.”

“Oh yeah, I forgot about that,” he says.

“We’ll just have to run it past everyone first, though, make
sure they are on board.”

“Fuck’s sake,” he mutters. “Just once I would like a
decision to be just ours. We can’t even fucking decide where to live without
everyone else agreeing to it. Does it have to be that way?”

So it’s not like I wasn’t expecting that, but I still scowl
at him. “You know that it does.”

“No, what I know is that I don’t want anybody else included
in this decision,” he says, standing up. “I don’t give a rat’s ass if they stay
or go, but you will tell them we are coming back here to live and that’s final.
There will be no agreeing to anything.”

I stand as well and face him square on, about to put up a
fight about equality and all that, when it strikes me. He is right. “You know,
you are absolutely bloody right. We are married and we get to decide where we
want to live and to Hell with everyone else. I am their Queen and if I tell
them to stay, then they have to stay.” I am triumphant in my decree but his
shoulders sag.

“Not quite what I was going for, Liv. I don’t want you to
tell them anything other than
we
are staying. What they do is up to
them.”

I think that over. No, it won’t do. I can’t have them all
running around the globe without me, looking for trouble. We are all going to
stay together. I open my mouth to say that when he beats me to it.

“You don’t have to look so concerned, it’s not like any of
them will argue with you. Devon will want to be wherever you are, Jess will be
wherever he is, Constantine won’t leave your side and Sebastian won’t leave
his. Lincoln needs you so he won’t be going anywhere and Xane has a crazy
fixation with you that, quite frankly, makes me uncomfortable, so he probably
won’t leave either.”

Well, when you put it like that…but oh crap, that does throw
a rather large spanner in the Pack works. I chew my lip and give Cole what he
wants, trying to figure out a way to also give Lincoln what he wants.

“Thank you,” he says and kisses me lightly as my brain is
working furiously to come up with a plan.

“No worries,” I say, distracted by something I can see over
by the woods. I step closer to the railing and squint, trying to get a better
look in the almost dark.

“What is it?” Cole asks, looking where I am.

“I don’t know. I feel like we are being watched. There is
someone out there.” I Astral off without thinking, just determined to find out
who this creep is that keeps peeping on me. I land on the outskirts of the
woods alone and I look around, catching a glimpse of Cole leaping off the
balcony and landing gently on the terrace below before he sprints in my
direction. “Liv!” he shouts. “Liv!”

His cries get the attention of everyone else, who swarm out
of the house almost instantly. I roll my eyes at them and turn back to the woods,
hands on my hips. The prickling in my shoulder starts up again and it feels
like a hundred bees attacking me. I scratch at it fiercely, drawing blood.

“Don’t ever fucking do that again,” Cole snaps at me as he
reaches my side. “You scared the shit out of me.”

“What is it? What is going on?” Devon asks.

“Liv and I were talking on the balcony and she said she
thought someone was watching us and then she just Astralled down here, without
a word or a thought for her own safety,” Cole says as if I am an irresponsible
little child.

“Sweetie, I am more than capable of taking care of myself,”
I assure him. “Besides, there is no one here. They left as soon as I turned
up.”

“Can you get a feel of what it was?” Xane asks, stepping up
next to me, staring into the woods.

What, not who? Interesting choice of word.

“No. Should I be able to?”

“Don’t see why not. Try.” He shrugs.

I do try, but sense nothing. “Nothing at all. Well, I can
sense all of us and even the animals, but nothing out of the ordinary. Whatever
it was it’s gone.”

“Was it The Thirteen?” Lincoln asks.

I shake my head. “No, I don’t think so. I mean he hasn’t
been shy about sneaking up right next to me, why would he watch me from afar?”

“Do you think that whatever it is, is the same thing that
was watching you when you were at…, um, in Italy the other week?” Cole asks,
clearly not happy to use the castle name.

That gets CK’s attention, who had up until now been scanning
the woods like his eyes were some sort of laser. “You felt you were being
watched?” he asks.

Cole looks smug that I had mentioned it to him and not CK.

“Yes, when we were outside…walking,” I say with a slight
pause, “I felt we were being watched from the terrace. That rise in Power I
had? It came from that. I thought it was The Thirteen at the time but I don’t
think so now.”

CK looks smug now as he knows we were not walking when that
rise of Power came up, in fact we weren’t even upright at the time.
“Interesting,” he muses. “A new player?”

“Another creep you mean,” I grouse. “Let’s go back inside,
it clearly isn’t here anymore.”

We all turn to go back inside except Lincoln who grabs my
hand and says, “I’ll stay out for a bit. I could do with a run.”

“Okay,” I say easily but know that a large part of his
reason for staying out is so that he can roam the woods and scare off any
potential stalkers. CK sees through this as well as he nods approvingly but
then stops when I catch his eye. “I’ll see you later.” He bends down to give me
a swift kiss on the forehead and I mumble, “Take care.” He looks busted but
then just shrugs it off and heads into the woods.

Chapter 12

Cole and I disappear back upstairs as soon as we get inside
and he makes love to me slowly, I think in response to our quarrel earlier. He
takes his time with me and I fall asleep feeling very loved.

In the dream I am running. Well, no, more like gliding, my
feet skimming across the ground as I pursue a woman who is running for her
life, screaming as she looks back at me and stumbles. I let her fall to the
ground and stand over her, my long white dress drifting ghostly around me as my
hair floats up in the magickal wind.

I smile a predatory smile at her and she screams again as I
drop my fangs. I lean over her and take her arms in my hands, bringing her neck
closer to my mouth. All I can hear is her screaming as I pierce her soft skin
and drink. I keep drinking until the screaming stops and her head lolls back
and she goes limp like a rag doll. I let her go and she slumps to the wet
ground, the rain lashing down now soaking her dead body as I wipe my mouth
delicately and walk away.

 

 

I awake at 4 AM drenched in sweat, my heart pounding from
the nightmare but at the same time the urge to Hunt and kill washes over me. I
swallow and slow my breathing. I am feeling stifled. Cole’s arm is draped over
me, pinning me to the bed and something heavy is lying on my feet.

I remove Cole’s arm gently and lift my head. The sight at
the foot of the bed makes me smile, and I instantly feel better about the
nightmare I just had. Lincoln, in Wolf form, is curled up fast asleep on my
feet. I like the feeling of safety his presence brings and although Cole
probably won’t be best pleased to wake up and find him here, I like it. Tonight
is the full moon and he will probably stay this way now until dawn tomorrow. Not
out of necessity, but out of choice. He is less likely to rip someone to pieces
if he is in the form he is supposed to be in today. I carefully pull my feet
out from under him, and wiggle them to get them working again. I slip out of
bed and out onto the balcony to look out over the dark, misty grounds towards
the woods. I don’t expect to see anything and am not surprised when I don’t. I
turn and smile as I feel Cole drape my robe over my shoulders.

“He may be a Wolf but he still has eyes,” he murmurs disapprovingly
at me and I giggle.

“Sorry, baby. I forget sometimes.”

“I wish I could,” he says so quietly. “Do you mind if I stay
in the city tomorrow and Wednesday?” He changes the subject.

“Of course not. Why though?”

“I don’t feel right staying here without you,” he says.

“It’s your home too, you know,” I remind him.

“I know, it’s not that. Being here in this bed alone will
just be a reminder that you are with him and not with me.”

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