“Constantine,” I say in that way so he knows that I’m pissed.
“Liv,” he says back, in that way so I know he knows I have called him Constantine.
“May I have a word?” I say sweetly – too sweetly – and now he knows there is a shitstorm brewing.
“Of course. ‘Bastian, please leave us.”
“Sure,” Sebastian says with a contrite glance at me.
Oh, he fucking wants to be friends now after he threw me to the murderous ancient Vampire. Jerk.
He leaves – via the door, I’m happy to note – and I turn my furious glare on my sire. “You two seem to be all chummy. You have forgiven him for what he did?”
He sighs, that world-weary sigh he has perfected, and says, “He has explained. I have accepted his reasons. Please just leave it at that.”
Err, what?
“Are you fucking kidding me? He raped me!” I yell, going with Lincoln’s terminology to make my point. Although I don’t believe that, per se, as I know the difference.
His eyes snap to mine. “Is that how you feel?” he asks earnestly.
“Yes,” I state, feeling only a bit guilty. I’m being unfair, as I was obviously enjoying it once it got going, but at the same time, I did not want to.
“You feel that strongly about it?” he asks seriously, suddenly looking very worried.
“Yes,” I state again with absolute conviction. Now we seem to be getting somewhere. “He completely manipulated me. I didn’t want to do it and yet I had no choice. Do you know how disgusted I feel with myself? Do you know how awful I feel that I betrayed you? That I betrayed Cole, Devon and Lincoln? Do you know how shitty I feel that I cannot ever tell my husband about this in case he leaves me?” I ask. I’m beyond angry now at his blasé attitude towards this. My rage is flaring up again and my Dragon isn’t very pleased either as She moves swiftly across my back. He is staring at me in horror at my words. I bring it all home as I say quietly, “He violated me, and you don’t even seem to care. Does he mean that much to you, or do I mean so little, that you can just overlook this?”
“He had his reasons,” he says again
just as quietly. “I have accepted them and as much as I hate what he did to you…he did it out of some misguided sense of duty.”
“What?” I shout at him. “What the fuck does that mean?” Not waiting for an answer, I continue yelling at him, “You know what he did, and you find it that easy to forgive him? You punished me for months over Lincoln and he just walks off into the sunset with this?” I am on the verge of tears at his betrayal. “I can’t even look at you right now,” I say, disgusted, and I Astral off, still in my pajamas, to Lincoln’s suite. He is the only one I can bear to be around right now.
He isn’t there but I use our Alpha bond to call him to me. He is there within minutes.
“Clearly it didn’t go well, then?” he asks wryly as I burst into tears.
“No, he is an arsehole. Forgave Sebastian, just like that,” I sniffle as I step into his arms. He cuddles me to him, and I feel better just for having his massive self around me.
“He forgave him?” Lincoln asks, extremely surprised. “I thought he would have done him in.”
“Me too. Or at the very least clobbered him a bit. But no. Said he gave his reasons and he accepted them.”
“Oh. Interesting. What do you suppose they were?”
“How the fuck should I know?” I yell, pulling back from him. “And I can’t think of a damn good reason why our sire chose him over me.” Tears forgotten; my anger gets the better of me again. “I don’t want to see him. If he comes here, tell him to piss off,” I say as I climb onto the bed.
Lincoln looks at me wryly and says, “Sure, I will tell the ancient Vampire, who could beat me to death without breaking a sweat, to piss off.”
I chuckle at him. “You tell him and if he makes a move, I’ll protect you.”
He frowns at me. “I don’t like the sound of that. It sounds wrong. I’m the one who should protect you.”
“Oh, get over yourself,” I tell him. “It is the way it is in our world.”
“Maybe so, but I still don’t like it. I want to be able to keep you safe from everything. Even him.”
“Just shut up and come here. I want to be here with you, not talking about him,” I say.