He sighs. “Aefre. Just leave it for tonight. Come to bed,” he wheedles her.

She shakes her head ferociously. “No, you found the back doors to almost all of the other Realms. I have found the rest. I just haven’t found the fucking one that I need!” She slams her fist on the table in frustration.

“You need to take a break,” Constantine insists.

“No, I need to catch one,” Aefre snarls at him before she throws him an apologetic smile.

He smiles back at her tightly.

“Maybe it’s not here,” Vito says and ends up on the receiving end of her icy glare. “Hear me out,” he adds to her gently, with an adoring gaze that makes Constantine want to tear his eyes out now.

“Sorry,” she mumbles.

Constantine growls at her apology. All he got was a half-smile.

They both ignore him and his non-verbal complaints. “The Dragons and the Faeries were the original creature’s eons ago. Earth and the Underworld were, by all accounts, created long after. Maybe you cannot find the back-door portal to the Dragon Realms because it isn’t here.”

“It’s in the Fae Kingdoms!” Aefre shouts in his face and he grins at her.

“Precisely,” he says, and Constantine now wants to smash Vito’s face into the French doors before he rips his head and hands off.

“Why did I never think of that?” Aefre says to herself.

“Because you need a break,” Vito says kindly and she nods slowly.

“Maybe you are right,” she agrees.

Constantine growls again at her. Loudly this time. Why is she listening to Vito and not him?

“I will take one, as soon as I get back,” she says, standing up and rolling the maps up.

“Get back from where?” Constantine asks even though he knows exactly where she is going.

“The D.F.K.,” she says and transports herself via the Faerie way, off to her father’s Kingdom.

Constantine roars in anger and turns to throw his glass of Scotch into the fireplace. It smashes and the flames roar up momentarily before they die back down. He turns back to Vito with a menacing stare. “What the fuck did you have to tell her that for?”

“She needs to explore all avenu

es,” Vito replies.

“Could you not have left it until the morning?” he spits out. “She is exhausted. She needs to rest.”

Vito shrugs. “It seems to me that you don’t really want her to find her daughter,” he says slyly.

Constantine is in front of him in an instant with his hand around his throat. “I only want what is best for her. That is the only thing I have ever wanted.”

“Only if the best thing for her is you,” Vito says mildly.

Constantine squeezes, but Vito says, “If you kill me, you will lose her. You know that now.”

It takes everything that Constantine has to pull his hand back. “I should have killed you when I had the chance,” he snarls and turns away.

He doesn’t want to look at him anymore. He doesn’t know what possessed Aefre into bringing Vito back home with her from the D.F.K. He has been very vigilant, so he is sure it isn’t because of that. Not the least of which, she isn’t doing that with anyone, including him. Her obsession has taken over her life and his along with it.

“Have you tried to call him?” Vito suddenly asks.

Constantine turns around in disbelief. “And why would I do that?” he asks.

Tags: Eve Newton Fantasy
Source: readsnovelonline.net