The Forever Series, Book 4
BY EVE NEWTON
THIRD EDITION
Copyright © Eve Newton, 2012
Copyright © Eve Newton, 2017
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PROLOGUE
Los Angeles, USA, August 2012 - Liv
L ooking out over the ocean from my balcony, it felt good to be home. We had been back for a couple of months now and things had settled down. We were heading to New York soon, around the end of October when Cole has to go to Canada to start shooting his film.
That was a process and a half to get his contract sorted. Devon did a bang-up job in the end, but the negotiations were intense. Taking into account all of the Vampire factors without saying as much, took some doing. By far the trickiest point was, of course, the Faerie Silver. He can never take it off and without drawing undue attention to it, I had to go and procure another. In the end, it was two small, flat discs about the size of a penny, which I inserted under his skin, so completely unnoticed and yet still protecting him. It was an idea we had no clue would work after a massive brainstorm, and both fortunately, and unfortunately, Devon made a choice to be the guinea pig as my unknown status was unreliable. Thankfully, it worked, and all was well. Both of them were protected but neither wanted to take off the ring I gave them. It was sweet and I knew exactly how they felt about it.
"More?" Lincoln asked me, bringing my attention back to him sitting next to me.
"Please." I held my glass out for him to pour more wine into it.
I fell back into my reverie and thought back to what happened after Lincoln made his declaration back in Transylvania.
All Hell broke loose and I mean that in a literal sense. I had been in Hell since that day, as my sire was no longer talking to me. And I don't mean in just his usual lack-of-forthcoming way. He was cold and hard and as much as I tried to get him to forgive me, it just made things worse. He’d tried to take out Lincoln and I had to use my Dragon-given Powers to stop him. He was so furious with me.
"Penny for them?" Lincoln asked.
I sighed. “Three guesses."
"Oh. He'll come around," he tried to reassure me.
"I hope so," I said quietly. He took my hand. We sat in a companionable silence for a while.
After killing Lance, his magick-bearing Romani slaves were released from their curse and were beyond grateful to me. They pledged their support and loyalty. I offered them Castle Black to stay in as I had no use for it and I certainly would never go back there. It was the least I could do for allowing him to live so long in the first place.
"How are things coming along with the gathering of the packs?" I asked, needing a distraction.
"It's good. The last two meetings went better than the first two," he chuckled.
"I can imagine," I said dryly. "I can only assume the outrage that must have ensued when they found out a Vampire was their new Queen."
"I think it helps that you are no regular Vampire. They understand you better because they think of you as a Shifter yourself. Want to talk about trying that again?"
"No, not really. I mean, trying not talking about it," I said. I tried to Shift to my Dragon form a couple of weeks ago and it didn't go well. In fact, it just plain didn't go. It was very frustrating as I usually excelled at everything I did and yet, I just seemed to be coming up with one failure after another. My failure to keep my sire happy, my failure to keep my husband happy, my failure to Shift.
Constantine had revised the terms of our agreement in that, while I still go to him for two days in the week, I had been given times to come and go as it suited him. These was emailed to me on a weekly basis. It was all incredibly humiliating and hurtful but his new threat to keep Cole from me pushed me to endure it. Cole wouldn’t manage on his own without me. He was still too new. For Constantine to even suggest forcing us apart was a cruel and unusual punishment against his own kind.
My phone beeped next to me. Well, that was my cue.
"I'd better go." I pointed next door to where Constantine lived. I was surprised he’d still decided to come, but apparently, his sense of duty to the Underworld was greater than his hatred of me.
"Okay," Lincoln said and looked at me with pity. Cole gave me a quick hug and a chaste kiss, not wanting his scent to linger on me. The feeling of guilt radiated off him having me do this because of him.
CHAPTER EIGHTY-SIX
New York, USA, January 2013 - Liv