Betrayal (The Forever Series) (18 page)

He nods grimly, his reluctance evident, but I know he won’t go against my plea. He will do as I ask. I breathe out in relief as he storms off and guns it out of the driveway after Devon.

“Why are you doing this?” Cole asks me. CK has given up yelling at me and is standing fuming in the Entrance Hall. Jess has ran away, not that I blame her, so it is just me and my two livid husbands.

“Why are you protecting him, Liv? He handed you off to be killed, or
worse, and I ended up losing you for three months.”

“We!”
CK interrupts with volume. “
We
lost you for three months. We thought you were never going to come back, and you stand there and defend him. Protect him even.”

“I am his sire,” I say with as much strength in my voice as I can rally.

“You are a fool,” he spits out and marches off upstairs.

I turn to Cole knowing I can at least placate him as much as I did with Lincoln. I step forward to touch him, a manipulation of the worst kind, but he holds his hands up.

“Don’t,” he says. “Do not try and get around me by distracting me.”

“Cole,” I say. “Please, you must understand. I would die for you and Devon. I would protect you with my last breath. I owe Cade the same. I did this to him. I ruined him and I will take responsibility for his actions.”

“Owe him?” Cole sneers. “You owe him nothing. He wants to die, Liv. Just let him.” He goes off in the same direction as CK and I am as sure as I stand here that they are going to plot something behind my back. That is, if CK hasn’t already gone off on his own mission to kill Cade. I hear the two of them yelling and leave them to it. I know that Lincoln will come through no matter what other factors get in his way. I make my way to the library and remember the letter that I shoved under the ink blotter. It’s not safe there and I need to move it. I grab it and open the bottom drawer. It has a false bottom and I pop it in there away from anyone who should stumble upon it, and then feel an almighty power rush behind me. I hunch my shoulders as I really do not want to talk to Her right now, but turn around with a haughty expression that She returns and arches Her perfect eyebrow at me.

“
ValamAtrux
,” She says.

“Tiamat,” I say back and
She narrows Her eyes at me. I wait for Her to start, to apologize for Her absence, but all I get it is scrutiny and eventually a slow shake of Her head. “No, it won’t do,” She says in anger.

“I beg your pardon?” I ask
Her, thoroughly pissed off.

“You are weak and have no Power.” She says this as if it is the absolute worst thing ever. Okay, well it kind of is. “You are in no fit state to breed.” She sticks out
Her bottom lip that, on an ordinary person I would call a pout, but She is Empress. She isn’t allowed to pout, surely. Oh, and breed? That very nearly missed my radar.

“What are you talking about?” I ask in an imperial tone that I borrow from my sire.

She heaves a sigh of magnitude and sits heavily on the sofa. All actions that I have never seen from Her before.

“Your deep sleep was supposed to resuscitate you. You were supposed to be well when you woke up,” She explains.

Oh, that is why She left me? Because She thought it would heal me on its own…so She could have me fit to have a baby? Oh no, no, no! This is all just too much for my brain to take.

“Why didn’t it work?” She asks me.

I shrug and say, “I have no idea! Remiel poisoned me, nearly killed me and I lost out on three months of my life. Did you know what he did to me?”

Well obviously
She does. I just need to hear it with my own ears.

“Yes,” She says without a hint of regret.

“Do you know where he is?” I ask.

“Yes,” She says and offers up no more information.

“Well?” I snap at Her. “Where is he?”

She hesitates and then says, “Back where he belongs.”

I pause. I hope She means the Spirit Realm because She hacked him into a thousand pieces this time, but something tells me that isn’t what happened. “The Underworld?” I venture with a croak.

“The Dragon Realms,” She says as if I am dense.

Dense, no. Full of rage, yes. “You have been harboring him this entire time?” I yell at Her. “How could you?”

“He is important,” She says briskly.

“I am important,” I say arrogantly, prodding myself to show my point. “I am Queen of the Underworld, I shouldn’t be laid out like some kind of poisoned Snow White.”

“You were supposed to heal,” She says as if that makes it all better.
“Enough of this!” She says abruptly. “There are more important issues to deal with.”

And just like that the subject gets dropped.

“Oh yes,” I drawl. “You want me to breed. Well, that isn’t going to happen.” I cross my arms defensively and She stands up again.

“Clearly not in this state.”
She sweeps Her hand up and down in disgust. “However, that does not change what is about to happen to you,
ValamAtrux
.”

“And what is that?” I ask, not really wanting to know.

“According to the charts, you are about to go into…” She purses Her lips and looks uncomfortable.

“Into what?”
I press.

“Heat,” She says quickly and if I didn’t know better I’d say
Her cheeks flushed just a little. My cheeks on the other hand are flaming bright red.

“Heat?”
I repeat in disbelief. “Like some kind of bitch?”

“Like some kind of Dragon,” She barks at me, reigning in
Her temper.

“Uh,” I stammer as
She has completely caught me off guard. That is how this is supposed to happen? I go into Heat and mate and get pregnant? Ah fuck. I slump my shoulders and wish for the millionth time that I didn’t always find these things out at the eleventh hour.

“Not happening,” I say in complete denial.

“Yes, it will, Aefre,” She says, reverting to my birth name now that She has got to the purpose of Her visit. “You cannot stop this, but you will not be safe here. You must come back with me where I can protect you.”

“What do you mean, I won’t be safe?” I will be safer here than with
Her trying to pimp me out.

“You will give off pheromones that your men, no, all men, will find irresistible. It will set off their primal instincts and you won’t be able to fight them off.”

Yikes, She makes it sound…well, actually, She makes it sound kind of fun, I think wickedly. A mass orgy with all of my lovers would be just the ticket.

“You will be highly fertile and this is the time to conceive, Aefre,” She adds and my face falls.
Doesn’t sound so fun now.

“But…” I falter.

“It cannot happen this time,” She says. “You need to be strong to bear this child and you are weak.”

She might as well have just said pathetic, because it is written all over
Her face that is what She thinks of me at the moment.

“Who?”
I ask. She clearly has someone in mind for this job and I want to know who.

“The Chosen One, of course,” She says.

Cole then, I think with relief. At least it is my husband and not some Dragon stranger. But still, I said it once and I will say it until I am blue in the face. Not. Happening. Not now, not ever.

“When?”
I ask.

“Tomorrow or the next day,” She replies. “You must come with me. I will keep you sequestered in the Underworld to ensure that it doesn’t happen this time.”

Well, She seems quite adamant that it doesn’t happen, so I decide to trust Her and nod. “Okay, come back for me when it happens. I have, unfortunately, some issues I need to deal with here before I can leave.”

“Sort it out fast,” She says. “Once it hits, I will have to remove you from male presence.”

I nod again, and She disappears. Why me? I grumble to myself and get to my feet. I start to pace, forgetting about that whole embarrassing situation and focusing on Cade. I hope they find him and do as I ask.

Chapter 11

The Underworld, September 2013 – Xane

“You will get me into that room,” he yells at his mother who just stands there glaring at him.

“You know that I cannot,” Xanthe says back to her son. “It is not what She wishes.”

“I don’t give a damn,” he says and his mother draws in her breath at his boldness. “You said you would do anything to ensure this child ends up mine. You will get me into that room during her stay.”

Xanthe shakes her head again and Xane howls in frustration.

“Even if I could, Aida will never allow you past her. Tiamat is completely set on
Her course. I was unable to sway Her. Besides,” she pauses, “the Queen will not be allowed access to any one while She is here.”

That catches Xane’s interest. “Why?” he asks. “I thought Tiamat wanted her daughter with child at the earliest convenience.”

“She does,” Xanthe says. “Unfortunately the Queen is not at her best after her ordeal. She needs to be strong and right now she isn’t.”

“Because she isn’t with me,” Xane growls and Xanthe makes a noise of agreement. “I have had enough of this. The Trial isn’t going to go on much longer. Without her here, showing her loyalty to us, we are going to lose everything.” He turns on his heel, his cape swishing out behind him. He paces across the stone floor of his bedroom at the Castle. It is the only place he can go to have absolute privacy. There are spies everywhere at the moment and he has only two people he can trust. He looks back at one of them and narrows his eyes at her. Can he even trust his own mother now? She said she would make this happen and now she is going against their plan.

“Don’t you dare,” she hisses at him. “Turn against me and you will lose her for good. There is nothing I can do about the Queen’s stay. She will be heavily guarded, but there may be another way to force her to do her duty to us. We will not lose everything we have worked for over some silly child’s poor decision-making. That Vampire in her needs to be squashed!” she exclaims loudly and he steps back. He senses a Shift on the horizon and doesn’t want to be caught by her wings.

“And how, pray tell, do we do that?” he asks sarcastically.

“I’m working on it,” she says cryptically. “What has been done, can be undone. There will be a way.”

“Are you saying there is a way to reverse her being a Vampire?” he asks interestedly. “You do know that when she isn’t a Vampire she loses most of her abilities?” he adds, worried.

“If there is a way, Tiamat will know it,” Xanthe says breezily. “All She needs is an incentive to get on it. Besides, the Queen’s accelerated Powers will have taken care of any weakness.” She dismisses it with a wave of her hand.

His mother is definitely in the loop on something when it comes to Tiamat’s plans. She is one of
Her most trusted advisors. He just wishes he could get her to spill the beans so that he gains the upper hand. Xerxei has too many people vying for her attention. There has to be a way to get himself pushed further up the list.

“We have to accept that The Chosen One is going to father a child with the Queen,” Xanthe says after a long pause. “However, that does not mean that firstly, it will be the only child the Queen will bear, and secondly that it will be the child that Tiamat hopes it will be.” She smiles mysteriously at him and he relaxes. She does have a plan. He just has to be patient and see this through. Patience, though, has never been his strong suit. He needs action on the spot, and this situation has been going on for far longer than it should have. Xerxei’s unexpected coma has thrown everything off course. It has been kept very quiet. Only a handful of people know about it and the circumstances. It would have been a disaster if the news had broken of such powerlessness.

“Fine,” he says. “You stick with your little secretive plan, but speed things along as much as you can.”

Xanthe bobs her head and leaves him alone. There is a knock at the door that draws his attention away from his brooding. Aster sticks his head around and Xane beckons him in. “Sir, we do need to decide what to do about the Dark Fae that the Vampires are using.”

“I know,” Xane says and sighs. He has been sitting on the information of the whereabouts of the Vampires’ blood whores for months. The possibilities are endless and he cannot make a decision on what to do about them. He really should tell Liv about them. He knows she is curious and slightly appalled since her own Dark nature came about that they are used to create the spell that allows them to walk in the sun, but she hasn’t exactly been in much of a position to do anything about it for a while. In fact, knowing her as he does, she has probably forgotten about it as something to think about later. Truly intelligent, but a completely self-absorbed, vain, wayward, arrogant creature. All things that are usually a turn-off for him in a woman, except the smart part. He likes that. But with her he overlooks it all; he is completely in love with her. He wishes that he wasn’t, it would make everything so much easier. If he didn’t care about her, he would force her down here and make her do things his way. That is his way. He doesn’t pander to anyone, especially little blonde women that can bewitch him with a single glance in his direction. Damn her. He should just drag her here and do it anyway.