Trials (The Forever Series, Book 6) (7 page)

“No, it is. Too much. I want you all the time and properly,”
he says sadly. “I need to pull back a bit or I am going to lose control.”

I nod. “We’ll go at your pace, and next time I’ll come
dressed as a nun,” I joke and he looks at me with a pained expression.

“Liv, I am being serious. You need to go now.”

Realizing that he is being completely serious I say, “Sure.”
But this time I go. I Astral back to my bedroom and feel very tired all of a
sudden. I have time for a quick nap, so I climb into bed and I fall asleep
before my head hits the pillow.

“So you fucked her this time?” CK asks with just the
barest hint of resentment.

“No,” Sebastian says. “I couldn’t.”

They are talking in Sebastian’s suite and I am seeing and
overhearing this conversation but from where, I am not sure.

“Couldn’t?” CK scoffs. “Oh Sebastian!” he snaps.

Sebastian sighs, “It’s not what you are thinking.”

“So you aren’t falling in love with her? I am not an
idiot, my boy. I can see the signs.”

“Well could you blame me?” Sebastian snarls at him.
“Everything you see in her, don’t you think I see it too? Isn’t that why you
kept her from me all these centuries? She is so Powerful but has this
vulnerable side that I just want to protect.”

CK is not looking very happy about that. “Protect? So you
are in love with her.”

“Maybe,” he says mutinously. “You don’t understand. When
I touch her…it’s like it was meant to be…” he trails off at CK’s murderous
look. “Oh, don’t look at me like that. This was all your idea.”

“And now you are suffering,” CK says. “I’m sorry,
‘Bastian. I am trying with the book, to see if there is a way to reverse what I
did to you, so you can be free. It is taking time. I don’t know what else to
say.”

Reverse? That’s why he wanted the book? He thinks there
is a way to reverse turning?

“There is nothing to say. I don’t want to be saved. She
knows my secret but I can’t act on it in the way I want to because she won’t.
And I won’t take her by force. Not again.”

“We have spoken of this,” he says casually, turning away.

“What do you mean?” Sebastian jumps up.

“She knows of your desires. Not towards her, but in
general.”

“How?”

“I mentioned it, in passing.”

“In passing?”

“We were talking about something else and it came up,” he
says, avoiding Sebastian’s glare. “That is irrelevant. The point is, she asked
why didn’t we just find someone we trust to fulfill your needs.”

“Because there isn’t anyone we can trust. We’ve tried
that and look how it always turns out.”

“We trust her,” CK says quietly. “I told her that.”

“You did?” Sebastian asks, dumbfounded. “Why would you
say that?”

CK moves to stand in front of Sebastian and raises his
hand to his face and Sebastian turns his face towards him as I would, “Because
I love you, Vincentius. I don’t like to see you suffer so. You and she are my
two greatest achievements. If she can help take care of you then I will allow
it.” Sebastian closes his eyes at the gentle words.

I stare at them in wonder. Never in a thousand years have
I ever heard him speak like that to anyone except me. How is it that I never
even knew about Sebastian and that CK felt this way about him? He said in the
Vegas that he loved him, but Sebastian was dismissive of his feelings, saying
he was just a means to an end. Maybe he doesn’t really know or believe that our
sire does love him.

“What did she say?” Sebastian asks quietly.

“She said no,” CK says just as softly. “Although, in all
fairness, I didn’t really ask her.”

Sebastian sighs and turns away. “Those rules,” he snaps
suddenly, punching the wall with his fist, taking a rather large chunk out of
it in the process. “If it weren’t for the leash around her neck she would be
free to be with me.”

“Well, I wouldn’t say that exactly,” CK says, clearing
his throat.

“You know what I mean,” Sebastian says, waving it off.

“I do, fortunately for you,” CK says with a pointed look.
“I will speak to her again.”

Sebastian throws him a grateful smile and then he turns
into Lance and I am running into his arms. He picks me up and twirls me around,
careful of my baby bump.

“I want to make love to you,” he says with a smile.

I lower my eyes shyly. “There is only one easy way to do
that,” I say, running my hand slowly over my belly.

“Then come, and I will see to your needs,” he says and
takes my hand and leads me up the stairs.

“My needs?” I look at him with a smile.

“Okay, my needs,” he gives in easily with a low chuckle.
“But I am sure I won’t have to try very hard to get you in the mood.”

“You never do,” I say to him and he stops in the corridor
and kisses me. We continue walking hand in hand and he is leading me up the
next flight of stairs. I frown, I feel a slight chill go down my back. “Where
are taking me?” I ask him.

He looks at me curiously, “To our bedroom, my love. In
the tower.” He pushes open the tower room door and I scream and wake up to Cade
shaking me gently.

“Liv. Liv. It’s okay, it’s just a dream.”

My heart is racing and I am all flustered. “Where am I?” I
ask him.

“Your hotel room in Toronto,” he says. “I hope, anyway, that
you haven’t time travelled us somewhere else.” He looks around a bit worried.

“Shit,” I say and cling to him, needing a bit of a lifeline.

He stiffly hugs me back and I come to my senses and pull
back. “Sorry,” I mumble. “I just…”

“You were scared.” He shrugs.

“Scared?” I scoff to cover up the fact that I was indeed a
bit scared. “I don’t think so.”

“Sure,” he says. “Although, I am concerned.” He frowns.
“Liv, there was magick being used in here.”

“What? How so?” I ask in surprise.

“I don’t know what and I don’t know how. It was…evil,” he
replies.

“Evil? As in…?”

“Evil. I have never felt anything quite like it before. What
were you dreaming about?”

I ponder that question briefly, “Erm, I can’t remember how
it started but then I was dreaming of Lance.”

“Who is Lance? Another of your…” he waves his hand about.

“Oh Christ no!” I shout at him in horror at the thought. “He
is, was, an evil man. Vampire,” I amend for his benefit. “Long story but I
killed him. Last year.”

“What was the dream? Was he hurting you in some way?” he
asks and I wonder why he cares.

“No, not at all. The exact opposite,” I say in confusion,
remembering his smile. I don’t think I ever saw a genuine smile on his face,
only just a cruel smirk. “We were together at
Castelul Negru
. Castle
Black. Together and happy.” I leave out the part about the baby. That is too
private.

“Then why were you screaming?”

“He was leading me to our bedroom, but it was the room where
he…” I trail off, not really wanting to tell him my horror story.

“So in your dream you were happy but then you remembered
reality?”

“Yes. Exactly,” I say and he frowns. “Do you know what is
going on?”

“It seems that someone is using magick on you to distort
your reality with your dreams. Whatever happened in that room, I assume was bad
enough to have triggered a real response from you?”

“You could say that,” I mutter more to myself. “But magick
doesn’t work on me. How can someone be manipulating me, my thoughts?” I think
to Sebastian’s gift and my eyes go to Cade’s. “You said you didn’t recognize
the signature of who was using it?”

He shakes his head, “No, it wasn’t anything I have come
across before.”

“So it wasn’t any one close to me?” I ask hesitantly.

“No, definitely not. You think one of them would try to hurt
you?”

“Not intentionally,” I say, hoping I mean it. It can’t be
Sebastian. He wouldn’t use Lance to hurt me like that. My hands reach for the
cuddly black dragon he gave me and I hold it to me, having kept it close to me
for reasons I can’t quite explain.

“Well, rest assured, it is not one of your own,” he says and
pats my hand in a fatherly-type gesture and it makes me smile. “You should,
however, take extra precautions when you go to sleep.” He points to the candles
and I light them.

“Thank you, Cade. I’m still tired. Would you stay with me?
Just for a bit?”

He looks uncomfortable as he glances at Cole’s side of the
bed. “I didn’t mean on the bed,” I say and he looks relieved as I point to the
chair in the corner. “Sure,” he says and gets up to walk over to it as I flop
back down, still holding on tightly to the dragon.

I wake up alone and thankfully not having had any more Lance
dreams. I just can’t bear the thought of him in my head and us together and
happy. Ergh. It makes me want to be sick. My Vampire hearing tells me Cade is
working at the dining table on the laptop. I go and find him and he doesn’t
look up from his task. “Hey,” he says.

“Hi. What are you doing?”

“I am going through the Regency databases trying to find
what is causing your mystery dreams.”

“The Regency databases? How did you get access to those?”

“Constantine gave me the passcodes.”

“He did?” I ask in amazement. “I’m shocked. Wait, you didn’t
tell him about this did you?”

“So am I,” he says with a wry twist to his mouth. “And no, I
did not. I am offended that you think I would tell. I told him you asked me to
look into something and fell asleep before you got any further. He seemed to
buy it. You must be well known for issuing orders and then crashing,” he
chuckles as I bristle at the insult. “He was loathe to at first but Sebastian
told him to quit bitching and give the Hunter bodyguard the codes.” He
chuckles. “Is that what I am? A bodyguard? I am sure that you are more than
capable of guarding your own body.”

“Yes, that I am. Good. Sorry, I don’t mean to offend you but
I suppose we are still learning about each other. No, I don’t think of you in
that way. It surprises me that the others do. Did you find anything?” I go to
stand next to him and lean down to peer over his shoulder. He looks at me now
for the first time and his eyes are directly in line with my barely covered
breasts and he clears his throat and I realize that I am still wearing the lacy
negligee from earlier, albeit adjusted to fit my Liv form. I don’t bother with
covering up now as I am not embarrassed and it’s not like he hasn’t already
seen me naked before. A few times.

“Cade?” I question him and he brings his eyes up from
breasts to my eyes.

“Yes, Liv?”

I arch my eyebrow at him and he shrugs, “I have eyes.”

“Indeed. I asked you if you found anything.”

“Not much to go on, I’ll admit. There are beings called
Dream Weavers that can manipulate dreams but they are fairly low level in
comparison, to you at least, so I think you would be immune, having seen
firsthand how magick doesn’t affect you. I will keep looking.”

“Can I help?” I offer.

“Not unless you have anything more to add?”

I shake my head. “Nope. Sorry.”

I sit and he carries on, tapping away, making notes here and
there. After a few minutes I say, “Speaking of magick, what is it exactly that
your blood is supposed to do to Vampires?”

He looks up, startled by the question, “Forthright, aren’t
you?”

“No point being any other way.”

“True. Well, it incapacitates. Paralyzes.”

“Oh. Is that how you got James to sit still long enough for
you to…” I make a slicing motion across my throat and he chuckles.

“Maybe,” he says and goes back to his work.

“So you killed your first Vampire at sixteen? How long did
you train for?”

He sighs, “Really? We are going to have this conversation?”

“Yes.”

“Fine. We train formally from the age of ten but we are
taught at our father’s feet long before then.”

“That’s young,” I say, mildly shocked. “Are all Hunters
men?”

“No, the first born.”

“Oh. You have brothers and sisters?”

“No. Do you?” he asks with a slight smile.

“Haha, very funny. How did you kill your first?”

“Oh, now that is quite personal, don’t you think?”

I shrug, “I want to know about you. I think this qualifies
as need-to-know.”

“Well, I was lucky that they assigned me a female. It might
have turned out differently had it been a male,” he says and turns back to the
laptop.

“Oh no. You don’t get to end there. Why is it lucky it was a
woman? Gender has no meaning when it comes to Vampire strength and skill.”

“I know. However, I am fairly certain that I wouldn’t have
been able to seduce a male Vampire into bed with me.”

“What?” my voice is a high-pitched squeak and he just laughs
at me. “So you seduced her into your bed and she bit you and then you, what?”

“Turned around and staked her,” he says bluntly. “You wanted
to know,” he adds at my mortified expression.

“Cade! That’s…”

“A genius plan? I thought so. So did my tutor,” he says
proudly.

“Oh my God,” I say to him. “I am speechless.”

“That’s probably a first,” he snorts.

I ignore the barb and say, “I thought you would rather shoot
yourself in the eye than be with one of my kind? Not to mention killing
yourself before you let one of us get our fangs in you.”

“Again,” he says simply. “I had a job to do and I did it the
best way I could.”

“And that is why you are known as the best Vampire Hunter in
the history of Hunters,” I remark.
“Am I?” he asks, surprised. “That’s nice to know.”

“Was she your first?” I ask slyly, trying to knock him off
his high horse.