A Forever Series Box Set: A Paranormal Reverse Harem: Books 6-10 Read online

  “No, that is accurate. We met in New York in Constantine’s penthouse,” Sebastian agrees.

  “Yes, finally. Something that seems right. Do you know what my relationship is with our sire?” I ask him.

  “Why are you so concerned with your relationship with him?” Devon snaps at me.

  I ignore him. “Seb?”

  He shrugs and says, “Who is to say? You don’t see each other very often. You only came to New York to pick him up on the way to Los Angeles.”

  “On the way?” I ask, confused.

  “From London. Where you live. Well the other ‘you,’ I guess.”

  “And CK lives in New York?” I ask incredulously as I look at him.

  “Well, now I know this place is fucked up. I wouldn’t choose to live outside of Italy if it weren’t for you,” CK says.

  “Where did we just land?” I ask then suddenly. “And why are all of you guys on a plane together in the first place? This is just getting weirder.”

  “Los Angeles,” Sebastian says. “We are all here for your Coronation.”

  I blink at him several times. “Devon said I was already Queen. What Coronation?”

  “This is ridiculous,” Devon says. “I refuse to believe that you have appeared here from a different, what do you call it? Timeline? It’s impossible. Not even you, Elizabeth, has the capability to time travel. Whatever happened to you when you Astralled out of here has traumatized you. Made you forget. Where did you go?” he asks again.

  CK steps forward. “We already told you. We are not of this time.”

  I grip CK’s hand tightly as he does mine. We are the only lifelines we have now among this hostile set-up. “I need to get to my mother,” I tell him. “She can help, I’m sure of it.”

  “Tiamat?” Xane says. “No, Livvie, Tiamat is dead. We are here in L.A. for your Coronation to Empress.”

  Again, with the Livvie?

  “Finn is waiting, and our children are ready to take over the Realms, once you ascend. We need to get moving,” Xane adds.

  Our children? Oh, Christ on a bike. “Have I just been breeding with everybody around here?” I snap at them all and CK growls in protest, crushing my hand in his.

  “Fuck this shit,” I say and, squeezing him in a death grip, I close my eyes and wish us back to, well, I suppose the only place left to go is 1012, before CK messed everything up.

  Chapter 2

  London, 1012 – Liv/Constantine; Aefre/Constantine

  I open my eyes as all there is, is silence and then I hear CK murmur from across the barn, "Oh my sweet, I love being inside you." I spin around. Oh, crap, we are in the barn, the day I was turned, along with our Past selves.

  “Aefre,” my CK hisses to me as he pulls me behind a pillar. “We are at the wrong point.”

  “No kidding,” I hiss back. “I tried. At least we are no longer in that hideous twilight zone.”

  “True,” he bobs his head in agreement. “Fuck. What are we going to do?” he asks. I have never heard him sound so uncertain, but I have no answers for him, so I just shrug and turn to watch us. I must admit that a rather large part of me is wildly curious to see my own turning and what happened next. I know that CK said he ripped Radulf’s head off and that is something I am dying to see.

  “You are watching?” CK asks with his back turned.

  “Of course. We are pretty fucking hot together,” I whisper, and he stifles a chuckle. “Aefre!”

  “What? I am more interested to see you kill that bastard,” I admit ruefully.

  “Oh, well that I understand. Keep watching,” he whispers as he turns too then and watches us. “Are you getting turned on by this?” he whispers casually.

  “Very,” I murmur. “Although, I am pretty sure I know how to treat you better now,” I say with a sidelong glance at him.

  He snorts into his hand. “Oh, Aefre. I loved how innocent you were. Christ, you meant everything to me,” he says softly.

  “I know what you mean,” I say just as softly.

  Right, so here comes the bit with Radulf bursting in on us. My hatred flares up for him as I see him again after so long that I take a step forward to do him in myself but CK holds me back.

  “Allow me,” he says with a half-smile, as he tilts his head to his Past self.

  So, this is what happened after he stabbed me. It all happens kind of quickly. Past CK pushes past me to the floor (gee, such a tender touch). I glare at my CK and he shrugs. Past CK twirls the spear in his hand and all Vamped-out shoves it into Radulf as he reaches out for his neck. Past CK gives a quick check back at me to see if I am still alive, and he squeezes Radulf’s throat and whispers something to him I don’t follow. Slamming him to the floor, he tightens his grip and…Oh Christ! He wasn’t kidding. He actually did rip his head right off his shoulders!

  I stare back at my CK in shock, my bloodthirsty sire, who is looking very impressed with himself, I must say. “What?” he mouths as he shrugs.

  “My hero,” I mouth back, and he glows.

  I wince as Past CK rams the head of my dead husband onto the spear he has ripped from his gut and then he turns back to Past me to save me. He sighs as he cradles my head in his lap, whispering to me. He slits his wrist open and places it to my lips. He leans forward and strokes my stomach as, I turn to my CK with my mouth open, he mourns the loss of my baby? He avoids my gaze, eyes focused solely on the scene in front of us. I turn back to Past us and Past CK leaves me now, grabbing the gruesome headed spear as he leaves the barn. “Where are you going?” I whisper to mine.

  “Nowhere you need concern yourself with,” he says.

  “Where?” I insist.

  He closes his eyes and gestures me out of the barn. I stop to check on my Past self, looking very bloody yet at peace and then I run, hoping it works the same, that only we can see each other and not everybody can see us, and follow Past CK across the field to the front door of the cottage where he, as mine had told me, places the spear with Radulf’s head on it outside the door. He then turns and, with a flash of Vampire speed, heads in the direction of the next cottage along. My parents’ house. I slow to a stop, my hand on my stomach. We never did get around to finishing that conversation that we started the other week about what happened to them. I hear screams and then silence.

  I turn to my CK, and stare at him. “You killed them?”

  “They deserved it after giving you to that monster and leaving you to deal with him,” he says, stony-faced and unapologetic.

  I fall into his arms unexpectedly. “I love you,” I murmur to him, kissing him. “I love you so much. You are truly my hero. My savior.”

  He clears his throat. “You don’t hate me?” he asks slowly.

  “Gods, no. I love you. You avenged me,” I say forcefully.

  He looks relieved and says then, full of confidence, “Of course I did. I wasn’t about to let them live with their actions.”

  I look at him with a whole new love in my eyes, which he sees and is pleased with. “We do still need to fix the damage done. You have to get us back to before I spoke to…me.”

  “I know. That was some fucked up shit. Even for me,” I mutter.

  He lets out a loud laugh before he pulls us into the shelter of a barn wall. “My Past self is about to come back to get Past you. We had better stay out of the way this time,” he warns, and I agree.

  “Aefre,” he says, suddenly serious, “I can tell you now that I would rather we stay here and live out the next thousand years again then go back to that.”

  “I know. I guess as much as we have opposing sides on me being married to Devon, I am sure that wasn’t how either of us would have ever thought it would be,” I say.

  “What amazes me is that it lasted that long,” he says, clearly musing out loud.

  “No, I am more appalled that he let me just go off and be with everyone. Everyone,” I say incredulously, thinking of Cade’s kiss. “And babies? I mean what the fuck?”

  He is frowning at me
. “I thought you wanted babies? With me.”

  “Yes, one baby. With you. Not multiple species with several different people.”

  “Oh,” he says, pleased that I have not only reaffirmed my intention to him but also dismissed, avidly, any intention of procreating with anyone else. “Come,” he says, taking my hand. “We should try and sort this out sooner rather than later. Although, I have no idea how.”

  “Wait. CK. The fight we had. I’m sorry. You know that I didn’t mean it. You were and are the best thing that ever happened to me,” I say.

  He closes his eyes. “I know. I mean, I know you didn’t mean it. I like that you think I am the best thing that has ever happened to you. You are, without question, the best thing that has ever happened to me.”

  I nod and grip his hand tighter, ready to whisk us away somewhere else.

  “Wait,” he says.

  “What?”

  “I have to tell you something. You are going to hate me, and I don’t blame you if you do. I am sorry, but…”

  “But what?”

  “I can’t let you think that I am angry with you for what you said at the pool. I am angry with myself because I betrayed you and couldn’t tell you.”

  “What do you mean?” I ask, pulling away from him.

  “This job that Sebastian is doing for me. I told you he doesn’t do something for nothing. He wanted something and I needed him to complete his task. I agreed to his request. I wish I hadn’t. Being here with you now, like this, seeing us as we were, makes it impossible for me to lie to you anymore.”

  “What did you do?” I ask, already somehow knowing the answer.

  “Vivienne,” he says, as I also say it.

  His eyes flick to mine. “You know?”

  “I do now. You fucked her. With him.”

  “No! No, I didn’t fuck her. She…I…Christ, I didn’t fuck her,” he reiterates desperately.

  “Well, what then? What would make you feel so guilty that you had to take it out on me?”

  “We did things. What she wanted me to do. I did it. I hurt her. I hurt her but I didn’t fuck her. Sebastian fucked her but she…she…relieved me,” he says finally, dropping his head in his hands.

  I close my eyes. “She pleased you, you mean,” I say coldly, aware of my fragile glass house teetering very precariously, especially now, after recent and disturbing events.

  “It wasn’t pleasure,” he says, taking my hand. “It wasn’t pleasure,” he repeats. “It was…Christ. I don’t know what to call it.”

  “You had sex with her though,” I say.

  “No. No, I didn’t. Well, not in the literal sense.”

  “I wasn’t aware that figurative sex was something you could do.” I am frowning as there seems to be some sort of déjà vu going on here, but I can’t quite understand why.

  “Aefre,” he says desperately. “Please try and understand what I am trying to tell you.”

  “I think I know. She used her mouth to give you pleasure, or whatever it is you want to call it, and you feel guilty about it. You shouldn’t,” I say casually even though I am dying inside. I turn from him, so he won’t see the tears that have sprung from my eyes. Yep, glass houses. They are a bitch, all right.

  “Aefre. Let me explain,” he says, taking my hand.

  “There is nothing to explain,” I say. “I told you, I hold no demands on you.”

  “And I told you, you do. I love you. I did it for Sebastian. He wanted us to be together. It is hard for him. He has needs, desires, which can’t be fulfilled. Being a part of that,” he holds his hand out away from him in disgust, “brings him momentary fulfillment.”

  “So, find someone you trust to fulfill his needs in the ordinary way,” I snap at him.

  “There isn’t anyone we can trust with his secret,” he says and then looks away with a sigh. “Except you.”

  “Oh no, we aren’t going there,” I say decisively. “We need to just forget this now and find a way to fix what has happened. As much as I love Devon, I am not going back to that mess,” I say, brushing all of this horror under the mental mat to deal with later.

  “Promise me we will talk about it later then. Sort it out,” CK says.

  Do we really have to? I want to vomit as it is thinking of that woman giving him pleasure with her stupid, perfect mouth.

  “There is nothing to sort out. Except this disaster, so, shall we?” I say with a forced smile. I’ve had plenty of practice with those. He smiles back hesitantly and takes my hand. I breathe in deeply and close my eyes. I think marketplace, marketplace, marketplace.

  Unfortunately, I wasn’t specific enough, as yes, we do land near the marketplace, but not when I wanted us to.

  “Oh crap,” I sigh as I see myself as a sixteen-year-old girl-in-love rushing towards the bell tower, anxious to meet with my exotic, forbidden love.

  I look at CK and he grimaces at me. “This is going to be hard,” he says but drags me off so we can again watch ourselves. “Everything is still going as it was,” he says suddenly as he sees himself give me a rose. “Maybe you should try again to take us back to 2013. Everything we have seen since we came back to the past has been exactly how it was.”

  “I need a very clear picture of how we left. I was yelling at you and you were looking at me in that way that makes me think you want to beat the crap out of me but won’t,” I say.

  “Sounds about right,” he mutters and squeezes my hand as I concentrate like I never have before on getting us back to where we are supposed to be.

  I feel the movement of the jet underneath my feet as I open my eyes and steady myself. CK opens his eyes too and we look at each other and then step back from the numerous shouts. “Where the fuck did you go?” Devon yells at me.

  “Devon, what are you to me?” I ask him, this time nice and calm, not letting go of CK’s hand. If he says “your husband” I am getting the hell out immediately.

  “What? What do you mean?”

  “What are you to me?” I repeat.

  “Err, charge, lover, best friend, business partner…”

  I relax a bit and focus on Cole. “And you?”

  Stepping forward, even though CK is holding me back, Cole says, “Charge, lover, ex-husband…” he trails off with a weird look.

  My shoulders sag. Nooooooo, I wail in my head. Ex-husband? For fuck’s sake.

  “What year is this?” I ask, much to everyone’s astonishment, taking in the unusual outfits and the fact that this isn’t the G6 at all, but some kind of futuristic spaceship. “What year?” I shriek and Cole says, “2113.”

  Chapter 3

  CK and I look at each other. He is smug. “Are we married then?” he asks Sebastian, who is standing in the corner with Jess draped over him like ivy.

  “What, you two? Yes. How could you possibly forget? It was the event of the century.”

  Aw crap, I think, as CK relaxes and says to me in hushed tones, “I don’t mind losing the last hundred years. Everything is now as it should be.”

  “Erm, no, CK,” I whisper back. “We are not staying here. This isn’t right. We must get back to our time. Who knows what will happen if we just stay here?”

  “Oh, we are staying, Aefre,” he says, pulling his hand out of mine and stepping back. “I am not going anywhere.”

  “Fine. Then you stay here, and I will go back and find my rightful place,” I hiss at him.

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” he scoffs, now fully confident of his actions again. “You can’t go anywhere without me, and I am not going.”

  I grab his hand and he takes mine and crushes it, breaking my bones in the process. I wince, even though they heal straight away, but I am shocked, appalled, that he hurt me like that on purpose. “We aren’t going anywhere,” he says again, ignoring the bristling going on that he hurt me.

  “How do you plan on stopping me?” I say now in a right temper with him. But he knows. He knows exactly how to stop me and executes a very thorough Vampire move, which h
as my husband, ex-husband, Cole on his back in a vice-like grip, hand at his throat. “You have just witnessed what I can do, Aefre. Make no mistake that time has dulled that capability. We leave, he dies. In the next place and the next place. I will keep killing him.”

  “What the fuck?” Cole says, exasperated beyond belief. “I thought this was over. You won. You got her. I gave up and let you have her and now I still get shit over it?”

  CK eyes flick to his. “You gave up?” he asks, loosening his grip. “You gave up? You mean to say that you didn’t want to leave her?”

  “No, of course not. What is with you two? Where did you go? Wherever it was, you both need a serious looking-at.”

  I rush to Cole’s side and place my hand on his chest. “CK, please let him go. I’ll stay,” I whisper desperately to him.

  “Good,” he says and lets him go. Cole places his hand on mine and stills. He fingers the rings there, the rings that he gave me. The perfect black diamonds. He looks at me curiously and with hope until CK grabs my hand and pulls them off and pockets them. I clench my hand in a fist, the only ring left on my hand is my Faerie Silver ring and it feels wrong. CK hauls me up to my feet and whispers, “You know what to do.” I blink at him and remove the ring from my right hand and place it on my left. “Good girl,” he murmurs and kisses me. I don’t kiss him back as I am so mad with him, I could kill him. I pull away and rush to the back of the, well, whatever this is we are travelling on, pleased to find a bedroom section. I close the door quietly and the tears fall silently down my face. This is wrong. So wrong. It isn’t how it was supposed to be. We aren’t supposed to just be here like this. We are supposed to live to get here. I have lost Cole. There is no way I can get us out of here as I have no doubt that CK will make good on his threat if I take away his dream.