“I don’t know anything except that she went with him. To what end, only she knows,” Constantine growls, pissed off beyond belief that his wife could be so reckless.
“Can’t you find her?” Devon asks, pacing up and down the Great Hall, where Constantine now regrets agreeing to meet with him.
“Do you think I would be standing here alone if I could?” he says.
“Shit, what do you think she’s doing?” Devon asks, stopping his pacing and placing his hands on the back of a chair.
“Making some kind of deal, I suppose, to get her Dragon back,” he replies with a frown. He really does not want to know what kind of deal. Remiel made it perfectly clear that he and his wife have made love recently, and while he knows deep down, she did it to keep Remiel on her side, it eats away at him knowing that his archrival has been with her that way.
“What is all of this noise about?” Drake demands as he strides into the room. He gives them both a fierce scowl and Constantine has had enough of this. He wants to leave this place never to return and to make sure his wife never comes back either. There is a way he can make that happen; he just has to be tactful about it. If she suspects that he is doing it for any other reason than for her well-being, she will turn it around on him.
“Aefre went off with Remiel to a place I can’t get to her and to do the gods only know what,” Constantine replies as Devon is silently fuming in the corner. Constantine can sense that he is also not happy to be here, and it’s good. He can work with that. Aefre is still so attached to her…he feels the vomit come up into his throat…fiancé. He cannot believe he allowed that to happen. What kind of fucking stupid idiot has he turned into? He should have killed the little fucker where he stood, instead of watching him propose to his wife. All he knows is, it must be broken and soon. But for now, Aefre is so protective of him, she will do anything to make him happy.
“Tell me that you are joking,” Drake says in a tone that Constantine recognizes as one he uses himself. It usually has the creatures he is intimidating quaking in their boots. Drake won’t get that reaction from him.
“Sadly not,” he says.
“That girl!” Drake yells, seething, as he thumps his fist on the table. “What do you know?”
“He took her Dragon away from her yesterday when we went to go and fetch the sword of Saint George,” Constantine replies to Devon’s shock and Drake’s intrigue.
“How the fuck did he do that?” Devon splutters.
Constantine shrugs and sighs. The Great Hall is now filling up with Aefre’s people and all he wants to do is go and pace and fret where no one can see his growing panic. If anything happens to his child, he will murder anyone who had anything to do with it. Including her. He grits his teeth. That was his other power talking.
“Did you know about this?” Devon asks Lincoln, who shrugs and shakes his head.
“She didn’t tell me anything,” he says. “So, she has gone off half-cocked as usual, only this time she has no Vampire, no Dragon, and is pregnant.” He counts the list off on his fingers. “Fuck’s sake, woman,” he mutters.
“She is making a deal with him to get her Dragon back, that is the only possible reason, and as a result, we have to be prepared for whatever she offers him in return,” Constantine says.
“He really took the Dragon away?” Drake asks with his arms folded.
“Yes, it weakened her terribly,” Constantine says. “I can understand her desperation, I just wish she had let me help her,” he adds, now wanting to defend his wife’s actions so that he doesn’t look like he isn’t supporting her.
“She doesn’t let anyone do anything for her that she thinks she can do herself,” Devon says.
“Agreed,” Lincoln says. “God knows she will never learn to accept help.”
“What’s this sword you went to go and get? Why did you take her with you?” Devon suddenly demands.
“I have already mentioned this,” he snaps, but belatedly remembers that Devon was a no show at that particular meeting. He huffs out a breath at Devon’s puzzled look. “She came with me against my wishes and I will leave her to tell you about the sword,” Constantine says, and silently adds, if she comes back. He doesn’t really know where Dracul fits into this, but he does know that she asked him never to reveal that it was Dracul that told her about Delinda. Whether or not she has told other people about her brother’s part in it, isn’t his business. He made a promise and for the love of all things unholy, he intends to keep at least one promise he has made to her.
“You know where the sword is?” Drake asks and Devon scowls at him.
“Knew,” Constantine cor
rects him. “We no longer have it.”
Drake rumbles loudly and Constantine is happy to let everyone assume Remiel took it until Aefre decides to tell them otherwise. It makes no difference. They don’t have the sword either way.
“So, we just have to hang around here and wait then for her to get back?” Devon snaps at no one in particular.
“It seems so,” Constantine says and makes a show of pulling out a chair and seating himself stiffly in it to await his wife and unborn child’s return.
Chapter 16
Place Unknown, September 2014 - Aefre