A Forever Series Box Set: Books 11-15: A Paranormal Reverse Harem Read online

  “Stop it,” I shout with my hands clutching the sides of my head. I have a splitting headache and my mouth still tastes like evil shit. I drop to my knees with a banshee shriek as the pain rips through my head. It feels like there is someone in there with a hammer, bashing in the inside of my skull.

  Surprisingly, both men stop their childish fisticuffs and rush to my side right as Cade stands up with a loud, “What the fuck is that noise?”

  That noise would be me.

  I can hear myself still screaming, but now it is muffled and before my eyes roll back up in my head, CK catches me.

  “Aefre,” CK says, rubbing my wrist.

  “Scotch,” I mumble and Remiel hands it to me.

  Our fingers brush and I snatch my hand away as some part of me wants to grab him and never let go. I gulp it back and ask for more. At least I now taste like a fine 30-year and not crap. Ergh, why did Remiel and Xane want to keep on kissing me with me tasting like that?

  “Cade,” I croak out as the Scotch burns down my throat pleasantly. “Are you okay?”

  I struggle to my feet and go to him. He backs away as I extend my hand for him and then stops with that bloody curious look that I am seeing all over the place today.

  “What is this?” he asks.

  “Your dreams have come true,” I say and smile at him. “You are no longer sired to me. You are no longer a Vampire.”

  His frown hoods his eyes and he pops his fangs out to my shock.

  “What?” I ask and spin around to Remiel. “How is he still a Vampire?”

  Are Devon and Cole? I Astral off again without a word and this time have everyone hot on my heels.

  As I arrive in the bedroom, Devon is just sitting up and holding his head in his hands.

  “What the fuck?” he asks, and I know how he feels.

  I go to him and take his hand. He lets me and then it registers with us both. He is not a Vampire.

  “Lizzie?” he asks. “Why can’t I feel our bond?”

  The fear on his face breaks my heart, but I have to say the words. “Xanthe did something to me. I am no longer a Vampire, and for some reason neither are you. We have been reverse-turned.” I turn to look at Cole, who is just waking up and I touch his face. He brushes my hand away and my broken heart shatters into a million pieces. I stifle my cry of anguish and Devon grips my fingers more tightly.

  “I don’t understand,” he says. “How have we been reversed? It makes no sense.” He shakes his head, trying to understand.

  “I don’t know,” I say.

  He looks at Cole, who has come full around, then at Cade, and then frowns. “It happened to all of us?”

  I nod.

  He looks down at his shirt and plucks the bloody material from his chest. “I, we, reverted to our human selves? How we were as we were dying?”

  Such a clever boy. “Yes, it seems so,” I say, and Cole gasps as he starts to get filled in.

  “Then how did we live?” Devon asks before the penny drops. “We are those half-Demon things.”

  He and Cole stare at each other for a long time before they both leap off the bed to opposite sides of the room.

  Now it’s my turn to be curious. What is that about?

  “How come they aren’t Vampires anymore, but I am?” Cade asks a damn good question and one that Devon is not happy to hear.

  “He is still a Vampire?” he asks me, pointing an accusing finger at Cade.

  “Mm-hm,” I say, casting a glance at Cole who is completely shell-shocked. “Remiel, care to share?”

  We all turn to look at Remiel, who stands up straighter. “I must have healed him before the reverse transition was complete.”

  “Huh,” I say, and no one says anything else. The silence and tension go far past uncomfortable.

  “Cade?” I ask. “How do you feel?”

  He shrugs. “Weird. Fine though. Strong. Not like you have left again,” he says.

  Okay, that’s good, I suppose.

  “I’ll leave you to…” he says and gestures at the room. I smile my thanks. He gets how awkward this is and wants out of it. I don’t blame him. I wish I could.

  “I have been a Vampire for over five hundred years,” Devon says woefully. “What am I supposed to do now?”

  I turn to CK and he adjusts his features from the one of terror to his neutral expression. “You shall turn me again,” I say to him and his face lights up, only to be crushed again as Remiel says, “No, that cannot happen. Once you have been reversed that’s it. If you try again you will die.”

  “Die?” I ask. “I cannot die. And if these two could die, they would be dead by now as well.”

  “Well, let me put it this way then,” he says, unhappy to have been refuted. “You will lie comatose for eternity, alive, but never waking up from your transition. It would fail.”

  I gulp, as do the other three in the room. “How do you know that?” I ask.

  “I just do. I know what was done to you, Aefre,” he says softly.

  “What?” I ask. “What was that spell?”

  He shakes his head and clamps his mouth shut.

  Great.

  “Aefre, I will leave you to deal with this, but I will be back for you soon,” he says instead of answering my question.

  Coward.

  I nod anyway, thinking how accommodating he is being. Maybe I am not “all that” now that I am not a Vampire anymore.

  He nods back and Astrals off, leaving me alone with my ex-sire and my ex-charges.

  “So that’s that,” Devon states flatly.

  Silence.

  CK sidles over and takes my hand again. I look up at him, trying to reassure him, but he still looks scared that I am going to leave him.

  I turn to Cole and hold out my other hand for him.

  He doesn’t take it. He just stares at it until I drop it heavily to my side.

  “Cole?” I ask him. I can hear the terror in my voice now, as can everyone else.

  He shakes his head at me. “I…I,” he falters and closes his eyes.

  “Please leave us,” I choke out.

  Neither Devon nor CK leave and quite frankly, I am not going to push them out. So, we will have to do this in front of them.

  I take a step closer to Cole and take his hand. He lets me, so I ask, “Do you still love me?”

  His eyes fly open and his face softens. “Of course I do,” he says. “It’s just different.”

  I slide my eyes to Devon, who is watching us closely, and then back to Cole. “Different how?” I ask. “Do you still want me?”

  Since when do I beg? Now, apparently. If he doesn’t tell me what I want to hear, I am going to be devastated.

  “Yes,” he says quietly. “I still want you. I just don’t need you anymore.”

  I gasp as he pulls his hand out of mine and fists it at his side.

  “What are you saying?” I ask.

  “I don’t know,” he says and slumps down the wall.

  My heart is pounding as I wait for more. He has to say more. He has to say that he still wants to be with me.

  “When I met you,” he says, keeping his eyes averted. “All I wanted was to be with you. When I found out what you were, I made the decision to be with you, for eternity. I thought it would be you and me forever, Liv. I never expected, I never wanted, any of this.” He gestures around the room.

  I drop to my knees in front of him. “I know, baby. I know. I didn’t either. It just happened. But we are doing the best we can. We are happy. Aren’t we?” I can smell my own dread as I wait for his answer.

  “No,” he says after a lifetime. “No, we aren’t. I’m not. This isn’t what I signed up for. I gave you everything, Liv. I have sacrificed everything because I thought you were my destiny. I couldn’t leave before, but now…”

  The tears seep out of my eyes as I hear the words, I desperately didn’t want him to say.

  “This isn’t what marriage is supposed to be like,” he continues, almost to himself.
“You aren’t supposed to cheat on me, and you are supposed to care when I cheat on you.”

  My mouth drops open and I don’t know what to say to that. I had no idea he felt that way. He said he accepted my bonds.

  “Do you care?” he demands suddenly, his eyes boring into mine, and I flinch. “Do you even care that I fucked Dawn while you were away? Do you know that Devon and I…?”

  Devon and I what? I look to Devon and he is staring at Cole with longing and also something else, I want to say revulsion, but that doesn’t make sense.

  Until it does.

  They have the same father.

  Hundreds of years apart, and who knows what else, but still.

  “We didn’t sleep together,” he adds, “but we’ve done stuff while you were off having someone else’s baby. Do you care? Are you jealous?” He stands up again and I follow quickly.

  “Of course I care,” I say to him. “I love you, but what we are…what we were, it’s our nature.”

  “Are you jealous?” he asks me, taking my hands and imploring me to answer him. “Are you jealous that I put my dick in my Feeder and banged her until she came all over me?”

  I know he wants me to say yes, and while it bothers me, I care, but I am just not jealous. How can I be after all I do?

  I shake my head as I can’t say the words out loud, and he lets my hands go and steps back. I know in that moment that I have lost him.

  “I am jealous,” he says. “I am so jealous of your relationship with him,” he says and points to CK, who looks away, trying to stay out of this highly private conversation, “that I dream about killing him.”

  I put my hand up to stop CK from ripping his head off at that comment. Fortunately, he stills behind me, but I can feel the glower over the top of my head.

  “And with Devon. It kills me that you go to him. That he does the things to you that I do. And Lincoln, and Sebastian, and Xane. How can you be so casual about all of this?” Cole asks me, honestly needing an answer.

  “I was faithful once,” I say, and I hear CK gulp behind me. “I was jealous, and it hurt. It tore me up inside. I thought I was being foolish and naïve, but I just didn’t want anyone else. Until one day I did. My first charge came back to me after eighty years apart and suddenly, I broke my promise. And I only felt a small amount of guilt over it.”

  “Aefre,” CK says behind me, but I shush him. I know he doesn’t want to head down memory lane with a couple of visitors in tow, but tough.

  “Do you know why?” I carry on. “Because I finally got it. I finally learned that I was not only capable of loving more than one, but I wanted to. I went so long without affection, in fact the opposite, and I wanted it. I needed it. I needed to know that I was still capable of loving someone other than my savior, and I needed to know that I could still be loved. I wanted to love and be loved, and I still do. Maybe that sounds silly to you, maybe you wonder why I can’t just pick one man, and I can’t really explain it to you. You are all so special to me, and not just because of that damn prophecy, but because you all love me, faults and all, and I want to return that love to all of you, to show you how I care for you.” I take Cole’s hand again. “Nothing has to change between us, Cole. I still love you and I still want you as my husband.”

  “I’m not so sure it’s what I want anymore,” he says with tears in his eyes. “I have reached my breaking point, Liv. When I saw you with Remiel outside. It broke me. I don’t think I can be here now that I don’t have to be.”

  I gulp. Yes, that was a horrid, private moment that was born witness to by too many people. “You’re leaving me?” I ask, reading between the lines but needing him to actually say it.

  “I don’t know,” he says. “I need time to think about it. This has all happened so suddenly. I need to adjust.”

  I drop his hand and step back from him. “Very well,” I say stiffly, trying to cover up my hurt. I can’t blame him for everything he is feeling and what he has said. This has been shit for him. I won’t make him stay if he decides he wants to leave. It’s not what is best for him.

  “Liv,” he implores me, but I step back further.

  If he touches me now, I will never want to let him go.

  “You know that I still love you,” he says.

  I bite the inside of my mouth to stop the tears that are about to break free. “I know,” I say hoarsely. “I love you.”

  I turn from him then and stalk out with CK right behind me. Devon stares at Cole for a moment and then follows us, catching up with me and taking my hand.

  We walk downstairs in silence and by the time we reach the library, I can breathe again.

  “I love you, Lizzie,” Devon blurts out. “I loved you from the minute I laid eyes on you and that hasn’t changed. Do you feel the same?”

  I smile softly at him and reach up to cup his cheek. “Yes, I feel the same. You are still my darling boy. We may not be bonded anymore, but we are still connected through lifetimes of love and passion and friendship. I will never leave you. And when all of this has died down. Ask me again.”

  His eyes light up, swimming with such emotion, I well up. “I will never leave you either,” he says forcefully and kisses me fervently, not caring that CK is growling in the corner. In fact, he would probably have taken me right there and then if CK hadn’t grabbed my arm and pulled me away.

  “You are going around kissing far too many men in front of me for my liking today, Aefre,” he says.

  “Sorry,” I mumble. “I don’t know what happened with Remiel earlier.” Although, I am starting to get a pretty good idea what is going on.

  “You have sworn your love to everyone but me, my sweet. Am I going to have to drag it out of you?” he asks, thankfully ignoring the Remiel thing for now.

  “No.” I smile at him, taking his hands. “Since our eyes met in the marketplace over a thousand years ago, you have been the one for me. We have been through good times and hard times, and even harder times, but I have never, ever stopped loving you. The girl, Aefre, is still inside me, more than you know, and you are her one true love. My one true love. That will never, ever change. I do not need to be your charge to love you, as I hope that you do not need to be my sire to want me.”

  The depth of emotion that passes across his face fills my heart with joy. I hadn’t realized how petrified I was that he wouldn’t love me anymore until that moment.

  “Oh, Aefre,” he says and kisses me softly. “You have always been the light of my life and no, I do not need to be your sire to still want you, or love you, or need you. I have given you everything that I am as the woman that I love.”

  I grab his face and pull his mouth to mine and we kiss before Devon clears his throat.

  I pull back with a slight flush. There have been too many kisses and too many heartfelt conversations made public today.

  “It’s inappropriate, but…” he says wickedly, but I interrupt him with a cry of horror.

  I go a bit thunderstruck as the awful thought pops into my head. “What about Jess?” I squeak.

  “Jess?” Devon asks. “She’s gone. I threw her out after her intolerable behavior.”

  “No!” I yell at him. “If you are no longer a Vampire, what happened to her?”

  His face goes ashen and I turn to CK. “Where is she?”

  He shrugs. “How am I supposed to know?”

  Good question, but I am clutching at straws. If she suffered the same reverse-turning as the rest of us, she will be dead by now for sure.

  “We have to find her,” I say and head for the door. “Where was the last place you saw her?”

  “In the kitchen,” Devon says, following me quickly.

  I aim for the kitchen, but it’s empty. I go to the back door and haul it open, half expecting her to be lying in the doorway dead. She’s not, so I run around to the front, scanning the area for her.

  “Over there,” Constantine says quietly, pointing to the border between my house and Xane’s.

  “She
’s gone,” he adds.

  I Astral to where he was pointing and then fall to my knees in front of Jess. CK and Devon follow slowly this time. I cradle her head in my lap and despite everything she has done, I shed the pent-up tears that I had been holding onto. She had collapsed, probably at the same time as the rest of us, and her mortal wounds had come back. Her wrists are slashed deep and she and the ground are covered in blood. She will never know what happened to her and why she died this way, all alone. For that I have regret.

  “Aefre,” CK says, touching my neck. “Let her go. There is nothing you can do.”

  “I know,” I say through my tears and grip Devon’s hand tightly as he falls to the ground next to me.

  “Shit,” he says in shock. “Shit. She’s dead?”

  “Yes, Devon. I’m sorry,” I say.

  He snorts and says, “Yeah, sure you are.” He takes her head off my lap and places it on his. He strokes her hair out of her eyes.

  I reel back from his harsh words. No, I didn’t like the girl and she betrayed me on more than one occasion it seems, but such harshness was uncalled for. I open my mouth to tell him so, but CK hauls me to my feet.

  “Don’t,” he says. “He has suffered a loss.”

  I look at him and blink. His own face has gone deathly pale and he has his impenetrable mask in place. What is his deal? Why does he care so much that she died?

  I am about to question him when his eyes snap to mine and the mask falls away. “Let us leave him to grieve,” he whispers.

  “No,” Devon says and places her head back on the ground before he stands up. “I am done with her. Please get someone to dispose of her in decent manner before the Hounds scent her blood.”

  And with that he stalks off, leaving me and CK standing there open-mouthed at his hideously callous attitude.

  “What the…?” I stammer and look back at CK.

  CK shrugs and says, “He’s right. The Hell Hounds will be here shortly to investigate and will rip her to shreds if we don’t burn her.”