The Ties that Bind (The Forever series, Book Five) (15 page)

“No, Liv. You don’t need to do that,” Lincoln says.

“Yes I do,” I say firmly and he smiles.

I turn back to Devon, “Which makes you majority shareholder.
My gift to you.”

Devon shakes his head, “No. I don’t want it. I said it
before, Liv, it’s ours. Yours and mine. We stay equal partners. You give
Lincoln seven and a half percent of your shares in both companies and I will do
the same. We three will make up the board, with Scott as CEO, and Constantine
stays as Chairman. All we need now is a replacement for me.”

“You would do that? Give up the chance to be my boss?” I ask
him.

He laughs out loud, “Oh god, when you put it like that, I take
it back! But no, kidding aside, it’s a good arrangement and I am happy with
it.”

“So am I. Everyone gets taken care of.”

“Erm, what about me?” Cole says with a mock wounded look.

I chuckle, “You are my husband, what’s mine is yours.
Although…” I pause for dramatic effect.

He steps closer, “I hope you aren’t going to name me
replacement for Devon. I haven’t got a fucking clue what he does for a living.”

Devon laughs again as do I, “No. The idea is that we spend
more time together. I don’t want you off working while I am stuck at home. But
I am giving you my title at the Studio, pending board approval. Scott has
already had the meeting, we are just waiting for the vote.”

“What?” he asks, shocked. “I don’t know anything about
running a Studio, not to mention I thought you didn’t want me off working.”

“Do I look like I do any work for them? I turn up at a
quarterly meeting and give them money. It’s really not that taxing. Edward runs
the show and we are both happy with that arrangement.”

“Seriously? How much of my money do I have to give them?” he
asks, a bit put out.

“Nothing you fool. You use mine,” I say rolling my eyes at
him. “Ours,” I amend with a quick look at CK who isn’t very happy.

“Oh, well in that case, board approval pending, I accept,”
he says with a cheeky look.

“Good. We are getting our collective ducks in a row. Now
there is one other matter that needs discussing.” I stand as this is far more
serious than who gets what out of my retirement. “There is an issue about to
arise that needs our attention. Specifically for the Vampires in the room.”
Everyone stares at me unclear of where I am going with this. I look to CK and
say, “May we discuss this freely?”

He knows then exactly what I am about to say and he moves to
stand next to me and says, “Yes.”

I have everyone’s undivided attention now that the tone of
the meeting has gone into serious mode. I take a deep breath, “It has been
brought to my attention that some of us are due for a change. A new identity, a
new life.” I let that sink in as Devon looks intrigued and Cole looks a bit
afraid. “Constantine has a few years on us, Dev, but we are still at nine to
his twelve. We need to think about what we are going to do. It isn’t going to
be as easy this time. Well, for you guys at least. But all of us here in this
room are going to be affected by the change and we need to decide together what
our course of action will be. For these purposes we stand as a democracy and a
unanimous vote has to be decided upon. We all have to agree as I won’t have
some of us happy and others not.” I blink but no one yet dare say a word so I
continue, “So, I ask that each of you go away and think up a game plan and
bring it back and we’ll see what our options are.”

“I say the G6 takes a nosedive into the North Atlantic to go
and live next to the Titanic for a while,” Devon grouses albeit with humor.

“I shall bear that in mind for our faked deaths but seeing
as we need it for the next few months don’t be plotting its demise just yet,
okay sweetie?” I say.

“How…how long do we have?” Cole asks with trepidation.

I look to CK, “I guess you should answer that.”

“Not long, two years at the most this time. I will have to
disappear for a while. There is very little chance I can pull off being
thirty-eight without dire suspicion,” he says wryly.

“Thirty-eight?” I say incredulously. “Christ, you can barely
pull off twenty-eight. Which reminds me, Dev, no way will you be able to hit
thirty.”

“Says you. You couldn’t look less like twenty-six if you
tried. Your Aefre and Liv face is far too sweet and innocent.”

“I agree,” CK says. “You always thought you looked older but
you will forever look sixteen, my love, no matter how hard you try.”

Sebastian snorts, “Should have stuck to the rules.”

I focus on him then, “What were you?”

“Eighteen,” he says proudly. “I think I started the rule.”

“You’d like to think that, wouldn’t you?” CK says rudely.

“We are getting off topic. I say we split the difference and
call it a year. Then we will all have to move on to the next life,” I say
decisively.

“Agreed,” Devon, CK, and Sebastian say. Lincoln and Cole
remain silent and it makes no difference to Scott just yet.

“Well?” I prompt them.

“A year? And then what?” Lincoln asks. “I just got my life
back and now I have to be someone different?”

“Just a name, sweetie, and perhaps an extended trip to a
desert island. We are currently all too recognized to be able to carry on
together in the civilized world.”

“I’m in,” Cole says, resigned. “I’m not leaving you,” he
adds pointedly. “So I will do whatever you decide.”

I smile gratefully at him.

“Well in that case, me too. As I am not leaving you either,”
Lincoln says.

“So we are agreed that we will move on in a year. Now we
just need to decide how, where, and when. Go off and think about it and we will
meet again about it in three months. In the meantime we go about the plans we
just made and will deal with those changes when the time comes.”

I dismiss everyone and the tension dissipates. Cade sidles
over to me and says, “What about me? Will I need to change my name, become
someone else?”

“No, you are human. You will get older and die. This change
for us is one of hundreds. We expect it and deal with it. It isn’t for you to
have to worry about it.”

“I expect I will find it difficult. Watching you stay the
same as I get older,” he muses quietly and I am surprised by his melancholy.

“Speak to Nico about it. He has worked for CK for nearly
twenty years now. If anyone knows how to deal with it, he does,” I say and he
starts at my sincerity but then I ruin it by adding, “And if push comes to
shove you could always join us.” I flash my fangs at him and he glowers at me
and stalks off in a huff while I chuckle to myself.

“So it’s time,” Devon says as he comes to put his arm around
me. “Seems like yesterday we were moving to L.A. with our new names and your
new and old look.”

“I know,” I say and we both get lost in the memory of our
move across country.

New York, USA, 2004 – Lexie/Liv

“You ready to go, Lex?” Devon asked me, as I stared out
of the apartment window over Manhattan.

“Yeah,” I said and turned to him with a smile. “It’s Liv
now, remember.”

“Right, had better watch that. Seems you’ve been Lexie
Williams for a while now,” he said.

“I know, it’s going to be hard to pick up a new life
again.” He gave me a cuddle to cheer me up.

“You’re going to miss New York, aren’t you?”

“Very much so. And I had hoped we could go back to
England after this, but maybe next time. Los Angeles, here we come I guess.”

“Wasn’t practical, babe. We had to stay in the States, at
least for this next round. Business here is booming. Everything is set up at
Saxon for you to take over. We will have a blast, just the two of us, as it
should be.” He slung his arm around my shoulders as he ushered us towards the
front door.

“I know. So, Devon Savant, what will we do with this
place?” I gestured to the penthouse.

He chuckled, “That sounds strange to me too. I had gotten
used to being Devon Schaffer. Liv Nelson has bought the place. It’s yours.”

“Oh, good. I didn’t really want to let it go. So many
fond memories. You know, one of these days you are going to have to change your
first name,” I said to him with a sidelong glance. “And you should try Shifting
again. I can’t be the only Vampire to do it. I must have passed it down to
you,” I complain.

“Never!” he exclaimed. “I was Devon when you turned me
and I will always be Devon. I will stick with just the surname change. But I
can’t Shift Lexie, err, Liv. I have tried for years. It is your unique gift and
I am fine with that. I like the way I look, I thought you did too?” he asked
with a devilish smile, which I returned with a sassy wink. “I know you like to
use your gift and have a change of style and a new name to go with it and I
also get why you have to change your original name, Aefre is lovely, but no one
knows how to pronounce it!”

I laughed, “Fine, I will drop it… for now. I know, why my
parents couldn’t have named me Mary or something, I don’t know.”

“Mary?” CK said from the doorway. “I really don’t think
so, my sweet. You should keep your name, I like it.”

“You know how to pronounce it,” Devon pointed out, with a
malicious glare.

“Ah, not really,” I said with a slight smile at my sire.
“You always lapse into a Latin version. It’s sweet.”

“Do I?” he said, ignoring Devon in favor of giving me a
quick kiss. “I didn’t know. So you are Liv now?”

I nodded.

“When will I see you again? I don’t mind coming here, but
I think next time you will come to me. That way we can be alone,” he added
pointedly to Devon’s annoyance.

“Come with us,” I said suddenly. This isn’t the first
time I have asked him that, and I know what the answer will be.

He shook his head, “No, my sweet. My life is in Milan.
You move there.”

“And so the argument continues,” Devon grumbled.

“Well, I guess this is it. The G5 is waiting. We should
get going.” I held my arms out for CK and he took me in a warm embrace and I
wanted to cling to him, and beg him to come with me but I knew better than
that. He would never be truly mine again, no matter how much I wanted him to
be.

“You haven’t Shifted,” he said as he stepped back with a
critical eye, arms still loosely around me. “What will you be this time?”

I patted my bobbed black hair and say with a wide smile,
“Oh, now, this you will be in favor of.” I turned in circle for dramatic
effect.

I looked to him for approval and I got it, in spades. It
made me feel wonderful, and happy.

“Beautiful,” he says. “Absolute perfection. There isn’t a
better look for you than your natural form.” He kissed each of my hands in
turn.

“Yes, there is, in my opinion,” Devon said with a case of
the grumps. “Elizabeth is far better.”

“Thanks, sweetheart,” I said sarcastically. “Just what a
girl wants to hear.”

“You know I love you, Lizzie, in whatever form you take.
I just have my preference.”

“Don’t we all,” I murmured as I peeked at my sire from
lowered lashes. He was staring at me, his dark eyes with flecks of amber,
narrowed slightly.

“It has been a long time,” he said. “I am glad you have
chosen to be yourself.”

I bobbed my head, “I will ring you when we land.”

“Do. I will worry about you until then,” he said with a
slight smile. He Teleported out, still not having even acknowledged Devon’s
presence. I did so wish they could find a way to get along.

Devon and I took a final look back and head towards JFK
and our new life in Los Angeles.

“I should get back downstairs, I suppose she might wake
anytime now,” Devon says sadly. I know he is going to mourn the loss of his
freedom but I am going to make her pay.

He leaves, along with Scott, who is an eager beaver now he
has a new job and recruitment issues to deal with. I hope he can find someone
to replace Devon.

“I will do my best,” he says reading my thoughts as he
leaves. “And don’t worry about the New York offices. I have already hired an
outside auditing company to complete the work you started. They said it should
take them about eight to twelve weeks based on the work you have already done
to get back to you with the results.”

“You mean, get back to you,” I say with a smile and he looks
embarrassed.

“Yeah, I guess so. Thank you,” he says softly. “You have no
idea what it means that you trust me with something that means so much to you.”

“You will be great,” I reassure him.

He nods his thanks and heads off downstairs. I turn to Cole
who is looking a bit uncertain after recent discussions when I get a phone
call. It’s Scott already, needing to use the phone as he can’t get through to
me with my blocks up. “Get down here,” he says as I answer. “She’s up.”

I Astral downstairs leaving everyone to follow however they
can and find Devon on the bed with her, crooning to her and stroking her hair
as she seems to be in a mild panic. He gives her the water and she drinks it
quickly. He glances up at me and has no idea what to do, so I do it for him. My
anger at this girl is dying to come out so I grab her by the throat and force
her up against the wall.

“Liv!” Devon says but I ignore him.

Jess looks terrified now and I know she is starving but she
is going to listen to me first. “What you did was despicable,” I hiss at her as
everyone else joins us, having apparently come via the stairs. “It is not how
we do things. You should have more self-respect than to attempt to kill
yourself so you can be one of us.” I shake her and I have her undivided
attention, saying, “Don’t think for a second this is happy-ever-after for you
and Devon. He doesn’t want this so you are stuck with me.” I let her go as that
sinks in. It’s cruel but the truth and I am beyond pissed. I click my fingers
and a glass of blood appears. I give it to her and she downs it in one gulp. I
take the glass back from her and she casts a glance at Devon who just stares
impassively back at her. He’s been spending too much time around CK to have
perfected that look. I am surprised, though. I thought he might change his mind
once she woke and he felt the bond, but clearly not.