The tears prick up eyes as I put my hand to my mouth. “Cole, no,” I whisper. “We can work through this, please.”
“Will you give up the others?” he asks.
I must hesitate for too long because he sighs and says, “I do love you, Liv. I always have and I always will, but if I don’t need to be here then I have to leave. Being here is destroying me. I don’t like who I am, and I don’t want to live with it anymore.”
“Cole, no,” I say again, closing the distance between us and taking his hand. “I love you. I don’t want to be without you. I turned you so we could be together forever.”
“On your terms,” he says. “I would have stayed if we hadn’t been turned back, I hope you know that?”
I nod because I can’t speak, my throat is so tight and I can’t help but weep as he takes his hand back, leaving his ring in my hand.
“Are you going back to her?” I ask nastily, not liking my childish behavior.
“I don’t know,” he says gently. “But I want to get to know my son.”
I can’t look at him as it hurts too much. I never thought it would end this way, or at all for that matter. I wish I could make him stay, but what would be the point? He would be miserable and so would I knowing he didn’t want to be here.
“Be careful,” I mutter. “We have no idea what other powers you have now that your half-Demon self has activated.”
He nods once, having already thought about that.
“Is this really it?” I ask him, suddenly looking back up at him. “Just tell me that you need time and you will be back.”
His beautiful, blue-gray eyes fill with sorrow. “This is it, Liv. I’m sorry,” he says. He turns to leave, picking up his packed bag on his way out of the door. I want to ask how he will get back to Earth, if he will be okay and have somewhere to go, and a story to tell the world about where he has been all these months, but I keep quiet. He is going to be with the mother of his child. I know that deep down. He will go to them and live the life he would have had if he had never set eyes on me. I know that there will be no Tiamat to the rescue this time to turn back time. It’s over for good.
I drop to the floor, landing hard on my knees, but I don’t care about the physical pain. I am torn up inside and I sit that way, crying over his ring for the longest time.
CK finds me that way a lot later. He has changed his clothes, so I assume he and Sebastian went at it again, but he doesn’t want me to know about it.
“Aefre,” he says and sits down next to me on the floor. He takes my hand stiffly as I still haven’t had that shower, he asked me to ta
ke. I feel quite insulted in my pitiable state that he finds me so disgusting to be near. I pull my hand out of his, but he snatches it back and with a more loving attitude he gathers me to him.
“He left?” he asks me as I cry into his shirt.
I don’t answer him for a time, as he knows that Cole has gone so an answer wasn’t really required. I just sniffle into his chest and he lets me. When I have calmed down, I pull back and say, “I don’t want to hear anything you have to say on the subject.”
He looks offended, but only for a minute. He knows that I know anything he says will sound insincere or will come off as if he is gloating. He fiddles with my rings and then decisively removes them from my left hand and places them on the wooden floor next to me. He then slides the rings he gave me off my right finger and onto my left.
“I don’t want to hear anything you have to say on this subject,” he repeats back to me. “You are mine now. Finally.”
I ignore him and scoop up my discarded black diamonds. I stand and walk slowly to my desk and lift the lid of the little wooden box that sits there and drop them inside. I hesitate over my next move. I know I should, I no longer require it, but the act of removing something that I have worn for over a thousand years is more difficult than I ever thought possible.
“Don’t,” CK says from where he is still sitting on the floor. “I want you to still wear it, as I do.”
I slam the lid closed on the box and turn to him. “I want to as well,” I say with a weak smile, glad that he has some kind of sentimental bone in his body. “I’m going to change,” I add, and he smiles in relief as I Astral off to be alone with my sad mood.
Chapter 3
Once showered, I decide that I am not ready to go and see anyone yet. I need more time before I face everyone with the news that Cole left me. I think I am still in shock. A few days ago, I had everything and now I have lost both Lincoln and Cole and my Vampire. It’s sobering and makes me want to take a good hard look at myself.
Tomorrow.
Today, I am just going to wallow in my self-pity like any dumped wife would. I wander through my gardens, not really taking anything in and as I walk into the topiary garden where Cole told me about his son, I quickly spin and head back the other way, when all of a sudden, I emerge from my garden into the little clearing in the woods at home on Earth.
What the…?
Argh, I am sick of that question today.