“No, that is accurate. We met in New York in Constantine’s penthouse,” Sebastian agrees.
“Yes, finally. Something that seems right. Do you know what my relationship is with our sire?” I ask him.
“Why are you so concerned with your relationship with him?” Devon snaps at me.
I ignore him. “Seb?”
He shrugs and says, “Who is to say? You don’t see each other very often. You only came to New York to pick him up on the way to Los Angeles.”
“On the way?” I ask, confused.
“From London. Where you live. Well the other ‘you,’ I guess.”
“And CK lives in New York?” I ask incredulously as I look at him.
“Well, now I know this place is fucked up. I wouldn’t choose to live outside of Italy if it weren’t for you,” CK says.
“Where did we just land?” I ask then suddenly. “And why are all of you guys on a plane together in the first place? This is just getting weirder.”
“Los Angeles,” Sebastian says. “We are all here for your Coronation.”
I blink at him several times. “Devon said I was already Queen. What Coronation?”
“This is ridiculous,” Devon says. “I refuse to believe that you have appeared here from a different, what do you call it? Timeline? It’s impossible. Not even you, Elizabeth, has the capability to time travel. Whatever happened to you when you Astralled out of here has traumatized you. Made you forget. Where did you go?” he asks again.
CK steps forward. “We already told you. We are not of this time.”
I grip CK’s hand tightly as he does mine. We are the only lifelines we have now among this hostile set-up. “I need to get to my mother,” I tell him. “She can help, I’m sure of it.”
“Tiamat?” Xane says. “No, Livvie, Tiamat is dead. We are here in L.A. for your Coronation to Empress.”
Again, with the Livvie?
“Finn is waiting, and our children are ready to take over the Realms, once you ascend. We need to get moving,” Xane adds.
Our children? Oh, Christ on a bike. “Have I just been breeding with everybody around here?” I snap at them all and CK growls in protest, crushing my hand in his.
“Fuck this shit,” I say and, squeezing him in a death grip, I close my eyes and wish us back to, well, I suppose the only place left to go is 1012, before CK messed everything up.
Chapter 2
London, 1012 – Liv/Constantine; Aefre/Constantine
I open my eyes as all there is, is silence and then I hear CK murmur from across the barn, "Oh my sweet, I love being inside you." I spin around. Oh, crap, we are in the barn, the day I was turned, along with our Past selves.
“Aefre,” my CK hisses to me as he pulls me behind a pillar. “We are at the wrong point.”
“No kidding,” I hiss back. “I tried. At least we are no longer in that hideous twilight zone.”
“True,” he bobs his head in agreement. “Fuck. What are we going to do?” he asks. I have never heard him sound so uncertain, but I have no answers for him, so I just shrug and turn to watch us. I must admit that a rather large part of me is wildly curious to see my own turning and what happened next. I know that CK said he ripped Radulf’s head off and that is something I am dying to see.
“You are watching?” CK asks with his back turned.
“Of course. We are pretty fucking hot together,” I whisper, and he stifles a chuckle. “Aefre!”
“What? I am more interested to see you kill that bastard,” I admit ruefully.
“Oh, well that I understand. Keep watching,” he whispers as he turns too then and watches us. “Are you getting turned on by this?” he whispers casually.