Switch (The Forever Series, Book 7) (8 page)

“Yes, and then it was confirmed by other you and other
Constantine. And I, she, had these markings on her arms. Like the ones on your
back but with thorns instead of leaves. And she could walk in the sun I think,
like you can.”

“How do you know about the markings on my back?” he asks
suspiciously.

Oh, oops. “I, err, had a sort of vision awhile back. It’s
not important. Tell me more.”

He stares at me, then takes my hands and pulls me up. He
leads me to the sofa and we sit. “How are you Drake’s daughter?” he asks.

“My mother had an affair with him,” I say. “Obviously.”

He looks at me, abashed. “Obviously,” he repeats.

“Seb, I need to know what you know.”

“It is destined in the stars that the first born son of the
Light Fae King would marry the only daughter of the Dark Fae King and their
child would be the future ruler of a united race.”

Again with the uniting. “I take it you are Aelfric’s first
born then?”

“Yep. Only I don’t see how this can possibly come true. I am
a Vampire and so are you. It makes no sense to me.”

“Me either,” I mutter.

“Not to mention that my father banished me. I haven’t been
back to Court in two thousand seven hundred sixty years.”

“That opens up a whole bunch of questions, like are Faeries
immortal? I suppose they must be, and if this supposed starry fate is
inevitable, how or why would he banish you? Don’t they need you?”

“To answer your first question, yes, Faeries are immortal.
The Fae Kings have been around for thousands of years. As for the other two,
maybe once I was turned it was decided that it would never happen, because it
wouldn’t have been possible. And clearly Drake has no daughters. That he knows
of.” He peers at me, “I am going to assume he doesn’t know about you?”

“Corinne says not and to not go looking for him.”

“That would be advisable,” he says wryly.

I arch my eyebrow at him. “You know him?” I ask.

“I have had the honor, unfortunately.”

“What is he like?” I ask, unable to help myself.

“You said the other you had markings?” he asks, ignoring me.
“He must have found out about her and accepted her as one of the Dark Fae.”

“I guess so. Erm, can I tell you something that you cannot
tell anyone else?” I say a bit warily.

“Livvie, I can assure you that this entire conversation
never happened.”

“Even from CK?” I chew my lip and he squints at me.

“You haven’t told him?”

“I haven’t told anyone. I didn’t know what to make of it.”

“Well he won’t hear it from me but you should tell him.”

“I can’t. Not when you hear what I have to tell you.”

“That sounds ominous. What is it?” He turns to the side to
face me and his shift makes me realize that he still has hold of my hand. I
lace my fingers through his and he squeezes tightly.

“Her and other you, are in the process of…trying to…err…”

“What?” he asks.

“Make the baby,” I say quickly with a bit of a flush, as I
remember being a part of that.

“Excuse me?” he says, eyes wide. “How do you know that?”

“He told me.”

“What?”

“He mentioned it. Mentioned that Drake was getting impatient
and that I, erm, she had to go to Court to learn. You were already going to
your own. And Constantine told me I had to go as well. That it should already
have happened.”

“Shit.” He drops his head to the back of the sofa. “This
is…I still can’t get my head around it. Wait!” He sits up and looks at me
again. “When you went to the future here was it like that?”

“No, but I changed the future by shifting through time.”

“How do you know?”

“Because it wasn’t supposed to happen. I don’t think she
knows, or knew, but she obviously does now.”

“So how do you know that any of this is even true in our
reality?”

I reach up and touch his face and he gasps as he feels the
sparks. “Because I know,” I say.

“Fuck, Liv. What do we do now?”

“I don’t know. See what happens.”

He sighs and we sit in silence for a few minutes until a
question strikes me and I ask, “I’m not prying but how come you grew up in the
human world?”

He looks up startled. “What makes you think I did?” he
responds.

“You said you knew CK as a child. Also you said your
original name was Vincentius, clearly a Roman name and you said your
grandparents were Etruscan. I am going to assume that was a lie,” I say wryly.

He smirks. “Well aren’t you just a little keeper of
information?”

“I would have more if there was record about you in my head.
As it turns out there isn’t. I always wondered why but now I know that CK must
have had it expunged somehow to protect you.”

He laughs out loud and says, “Oh my god. I totally forgot
about your magick brain. So you tried to do a bit of digging, did you? Well I
can tell you that my father, my real father, sent me to a human family to grow
up in Rome to train to be a warrior, they called me Vincentius. The parents of my
human family were Etruscan.”

“So what is your real name?” I ask, leaning forward.

“Kalen,” he says as he too leans forward.

“Huh. Well what do you know?” I say with a smile.

He leans back and disarms me by asking, “How are you doing?
With the whole Cole thing?”

No need to ask where he learned that trick.

“I am barely holding on. Trying to keep my brain busy so I
don’t think about it too much,” I say, pulling my hand from his.

“I’m sorry. I know you probably won’t believe me after
everything I have said, but I am sorry you are hurting.”

“Thanks. Too bad you can’t juju him to forget what I said.”

“You know that I wouldn’t even if I could,” he says softly.

“Yeah,” I sigh heavily.

“I know this is probably too soon,” he says leaning closer
to me again and trailing a finger down my neck, “but now that the leash is
gone, you can be with me.”

“Seb,” I say, scooting back a bit. “It is too soon. It is
too soon for me to even think about being with anyone.”

He sighs. “I understand, but will you think about it now?”

I frown at him, “Did you not hear what I said before? We
can’t be together like that. What if the starry baby turns up? Then what? CK
would kill us both.”

“Liv, we are Vampires. We can’t procreate. The prophecy is
redundant.”

“Not in the other world it isn’t,” I point out.

“Fine,” he snaps. “But you haven’t been acknowledged. You
aren’t Fae. Chances of it coming true now are pretty much at zero.”

Oh, should I tell him about my own prophecy? Although it
does seem that in the other world the future Empress belongs to Constantine.
Although in the other, other world there are loads of kids I have yet to see,
running around. Who knows what the set-up is there?

“Liv, nothing has changed. I still need you. You are still
the one. And now that I know what it is like, I can’t go back. I’m sorry.”

“But…”

“But nothing,” he interrupts me and kisses me, shuffling
closer to me.

With great difficulty I pull back. “Seb…”

“I will get you your charge back,” he says suddenly. “I
can’t make him forget what you said but I can get him to need to come back to
you. If you will give me what I want, I will give you what you want. I can have
him back in your bed by tonight. Not as your husband, but as your charge,” he
presses that point, just in case I try to forget.

“Wha…?” I stare at him in disbelief. “You would do that?”

“I will do anything,” he says quietly. “Even though he will
see it as a betrayal, I will do it, for you.”

“Seb…” I don’t know what to say. I am trying to think about
this. I want Cole back, I need him back, but this way? It isn’t like he will
really be back because he wants to be, but because Sebastian suggests to him it
is a good idea. But…he will be back. Fuck.

He is staring at me, waiting for an answer and I am seconds
away from telling him yes, I’ll do it to get Cole back, when in pops our sire
out of nowhere. Saved in the nick of time again. He really does have an uncanny
knack for that.

“Everything okay in here? You have been gone awhile, I was
worried,” he says as he leans down to kiss me possessively as I sit there
staring at Sebastian.

“Yes, everything is just fine,” Sebastian says bitterly.

“Good,” CK says, ignoring his tone. “Because you need to
come back upstairs now, my sweet. You have a visitor.”

My eyes snap to his. “Who?” I ask.

“Hm, perhaps you should come and see for yourself,” he says
mysteriously.

I stand up as does Sebastian, now also curious and CK grabs
my arm to Teleport me back to my bedroom, followed closely by Sebastian. I look
around but don’t see anybody. “Well?” I say and he points to the sitting room.

“Just brace yourself,” he says as he ushers me out with a
hand on my back.

I am greeted by a tension you could cut with a knife and the
relieved faces of Devon, Lincoln, Xane, Jess, and Cade. And then my gaze falls
on the mystery guest.

I take her in and don’t recognize her at first. She is about
five feet, ten inches tall, with long black hair curling gently to her
backside. She is dressed in a very beautiful dark blue velvet gown with long
sleeves pointed at the wrists, cut low over her impressive breasts, tapered
tightly at her narrow waist and falling elegantly down her legs to pool at her
feet. But it is her eyes that give her away: a bright green like a cat’s but
turned sideways. Dragon eyes.

“Mother?” I ask, as I step forward.

“Yes, dear. It is me. I thought it prudent to come in my
natural guise today what with all the other ‘yous’ that have been popping in
and out lately,” She says dryly.

“Natural guise? This is what you really look like?”

She nods briskly.

“What are you doing here?” I ask Her, wondering why I look
nothing like Her, and also wondering why She chooses to adopt my look when I
see Her.

“You have kept me waiting,” She says in a reprimand.

“Sorry, I was dealing with something,” I answer and She
sighs.

“No, Aefre, you were supposed to come and see me in the
Dragon Realms. You didn’t come.”

“Oh, I know. I am so sorry. Something came up that needs my
attention.”

“Oh?” She raises Her brow in query. “Anything I should know
about?”

I look quickly at the others and say, “No,” at the same time
Xane stands, the only one--apart from CK--being bold enough to speak and says,
“Yes.”

“No, Xane,” I say as She turns to him.

“Speak Young Draconis,” She orders him and he grimaces at
the name.

“No, Mother. It is nothing you need concern yourself with. I
have it under control,” I say before Xane can say anything.

“Liv, She can help,” Xane says, coming to stand next to me,
taking my hand.

“One of you start talking,” She says, stepping closer and
we, as one, inadvertently step back, with me, standing on CK’s toes, as I
didn’t register that he had stepped up behind me at the same time.

“Sorry,” I murmur as he pushes me gently away from him and
steps to my other side.

She flicks Her eyes to him and smiles prettily and he smiles
back. “Well?”

“It’s The Thirteen,” he says. “It has come back to torment
Aefre.”

“Oh that,” She says in disdain, waving Her hand
dismissively. “You are more than capable of getting him to go away again.”

Him? Gee, that was helpful as ever. Honestly, you’d think
She wants me to fail.

“There is a more pressing issue to deal with,” She states
then, sweeping Her gaze over the group and landing on Cade who, to his credit,
doesn’t flinch. “Your presence here is unprecedented,” She says to him. “You
have switched sides?”

“I have,” he says and She nods at him in approval.

“Good. You will be a positive influence on my wayward
daughter,” She says, sweeping her gaze back the way it came and landing on me.
I gulp. Uh-oh, not this again…and in front of everybody else no less.

CK clears his throat, probably in an attempt to either not
laugh or not yell at Her for telling me to stop being such a Vampire.

“Your behavior aside,” She says, narrowing Her eyes at me,
“there has been a terrible, terrible mistake that needs rectifying
immediately.”

“What?” I ask.

“Where is your husband?” She barks at me suddenly and I
flinch.

“He left me.”

“That wasn’t supposed to happen.”

Yeah, no kidding.

“It needs to be fixed. This switch that occurred has messed
up everything.”

“What do you mean?”

“Cole is meant to be by your side, as your husband. There is
an important role for him in all of this and it is at your side,” She says.

“Well, that is just unfortunate because your daughter now
belongs to me,” CK says boldly and I purse my lips at him. I do not belong to
anybody.

“No, she does not,” Tiamat says. “Not yet. Cole is her
destiny and he needs to come back and forget about what happened.”

“That isn’t going to happen,” CK says, stepping closer to
Her. “He left her and now she is mine.”

“Wait, I don’t understand. What are you saying? You can make
him forget what I did and come home?” I ask hopefully, to the baleful glare of
my sire.

“Not exactly,” She says. “You have to go back in time and
undo the mistake.”

“How? I can go to the past but I can’t relive it. I don’t
have that kind of Power.”

“I do,” She says and we all gape at Her.

“Aefre,” CK says quietly. “It is our turn now. He gave you
up. You are mine.”

I shift my gaze from my mother to him.

He shakes his head as he must see what is written all over
my face. “No, don’t do this. Do not choose him over me again. I thought it was
what you wanted? To be my wife.”

“It is, but as I told you in Vegas I am not ready to give
him up yet. I can’t. If there is a chance I can get him back…I have to take
it.”