The Underworld, July 2014 – Aefre
“Where is CK?” I ask. I really would have thought that he’d have come as soon as he sensed my pain, but I am still waiting for him to show up.
Devon shrugs and says, “I haven’t seen him for a while.”
“Oh,” I say dejectedly. “And Vito?” I have to ask the question because I know I shouldn’t have left him and CK alone earlier.
“He’s at home looking at the maps. Some Faerie guy t
urned up with something from your dad,” he says.
“Oh good,” I say and brighten up considerably after that news. At least Drake has kept his word about trying to help me. And at least Vito is still alive. Although, what he thinks he can do with the maps is beyond me. Even I have had a hard time trying to figure it out and I have been well educated over the last five hundred years, whereas he has been locked up in a dungeon.
“I suppose we should go home. Chrissy is not happy to have me here,” I say.
“I will take you back to my house,” Xane says. “We still don’t know who did this to you.”
“It wasn’t CK,” I say heatedly. “He would never do this to me.”
“Like you thought he would never throw you out of a tower?” Xane challenges me and, well, he has me there. I remain silent and he gloats quietly.
“Fine,” I say in a huff, but more out of the need to piss off CK than for my safety. He will be more than mad to find me with Xane, but too bad. He is supposed to be here with me. I do stop to worry momentarily that something has happened to him, but if he was indestructible before, he is even more so now after his own little power boost. I am sure he is just fine somewhere, off sulking because I have been ignoring him. “Let’s go,” I add brightly, even though my heart has shattered into a million pieces.
Xane takes my hand and Astraports us off to his bedroom with Devon close behind.
Xane gives him a dirty look as he settles me on the bed and Devon says, “Oh, I’m not going anywhere.” He jumps onto the bed next to me and takes my hand. I smile at him and for the first time in a really long time, I feel as close to him as we ever were. I know he feels it too as he returns my smile with a sly one of his own and snuggles even closer to me. Xane, not to be outdone, settles on my other side and takes my other hand. He is not a snuggler, though, so he just sits there in a glowering silence.
Devon, ever one to break awkward silences, states suddenly, “Under different circumstances, this could be kind of fun.”
I snort in amusement, but Xane growls at him. “After what she has just been through…”
“Xane, it’s okay,” I interrupt him, but decide that perhaps some alone time is in order. “I am really tired. Do you mind if I get some sleep?”
He softens and says, “Of course not, my love.” He curls my hair behind my ear and bends to kiss me. “We will find out who did this to you, I swear.”
I nod and kiss him back and then give Devon a hug and they leave me alone with the grief that I have been trying desperately to hide.
Chapter 5
Los Angeles, USA, July 2014 – Constantine
Constantine wakes up with a groan. His head feels like it is splitting apart. He opens his eyes carefully as the destruction that he caused last night comes back to him. He blinks and sits up and then cringes as he takes it in. The room under his house in L.A. that serves as a modern-day dungeon has been completely trashed by him.
He climbs off the bed, naked, and then he remembers all of the other things that he did, and it crashes into his gut and he actually stumbles from the force of his betrayal.
He looks around quickly and he finds her, or at least part of her: the woman who looks like his beloved, lying in a corner, ripped to shreds and without her head. He feels sick as he looks around for it. He sees it near the bed, and he picks it up and places it next to her dead body. He has caused far worse devastation than this in his lifetime, but he vowed he was going to change, to be the man that Aefre needs him to be. But his darkness has crept back over him since her obsession has caused her to pull away from him, and he couldn’t fight it.
He didn’t want to. He needed the release and he reveled in it.
Last night.
This morning he feels like utter shit. He picks up a blanket and throws it over the girl. He tortured her until she was nothing but a rag and then he drained her dry before he ripped her head off her shoulders, leaving her where she fell. He has broken his promises to his wife and even though he knows that she can never find out about this, this secret will come out.
They always do.
He is best attacking this head-on. Aefre will no doubt be wondering where he is. She will not be able to sense him or find him in this room as it is sealed with wards and it would be the last place, she would come looking for him. It was the only room, however, that could contain his rage last night. After his confrontation with Vito, he needed to Hunt and destroy. It was the only thing that kept him going.
He walks unsteadily into the living room area of the underground room, trying to find his clothes. He thinks he lost them somewhere around the sofa. He stripped to jerk off over the woman, after he destroyed her body with his rage. He managed to keep that one promise to his wife. He never fucked this substitute. But when he looks to where the sofa was, all he sees is a pile of fluff and fabric because he has torn it into tiny little pieces, along with all of the other furniture in the room.