The Ties that Bind (The Forever series, Book Five) (24 page)

“So should you,” he says.

“I’ll be fine. CK said he’d send someone.” I do wish I
hadn’t said that as he gets his mood back on again. “You go with Dawn now,” I
say. I have a somewhat vested interest in this desire she holds for him.

She glances quickly at Scott who holds her gaze for a moment
before returning to his reading, oblivious. What a surprise.

They disappear and Esther says there is someone waiting for
me in my office. I excuse myself and make my way over. Pushing open the door, I
find a stranger with my sire.

“Good morning, my sweet,” he says to me as if nothing
whatsoever happened out by the pool yesterday. He kisses me and I blink at him.
There is that denial back in full force.

“Hello,” I say coldly and he blinks back at me, his face
full of innocence. I stare at him for a moment. Was there something I wanted to
ask him? I tilt my head in question and he raises his eyebrow back.

“Yes?” he queries.

I frown. “Nothing,” I say. “What do you want?”

“You need to feed, my dear. I am here to ensure you do. The
Vampire way,” he emphasizes. “With the added bonus of you owe me one.”

“I do?”

“You do. Tit for tat.”

Oh, I see. I wanted him to feed in front of me and now he
wants me to feed in front of him. Not that I am shy about that, he’s seen me
feed a thousand times. More, probably. I think he is here mostly to ensure I do
it “the Vampire way,” as he put it. I narrow my eyes at him and ask the man to
sit. He does and I bend over him, dropping my fangs in the process. CK moves to
stand at my back and trails a hand lightly over my behind as I am bent down. I
take my fill and pull back. “Happy?” I ask sarcastically.

“Ecstatic,” he responds and I am reminded about his
over-the-top, precious, generous gift yesterday. He dismisses the man and he
takes his leave quickly.

“I am still mad at you,” I say conversationally.

“I know you are. I was provoked. I lost control of my
actions and I apologize,” he says formally. He takes my hand in his and I feel
his ring, still on his left ring finger. I twirl it and again I feel I am
forgetting something. “Am I forgiven?” he asks quietly.

“I don’t know. We are all supposed to be getting along, but
there seems to be nothing but dissension. I can’t bear it.”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

“Are you? Are you prepared to go back to the way things were
a couple of days ago?”

“If it gets me what I want, then yes,” he says so seriously
I actually do believe him. “What you said last night about taking it back
really hurt me. Hurt me more than anything and I realize for you to have said
it I must have hurt you terribly, too.”

I must look surprised by his insight as he says ruefully, “I
am not completely self-serving, Aefre. Your feelings mean more than my own. I
will step back and let nature take its course.”

I ponder this for a moment. There has to be a catch. He
doesn’t give up so easily. “I know you are wondering what I am going to ask of
you in return.”

I remain silent to his amusement and he says, “All I ask is
that you reaffirm your promise to me that you will try what we discussed, when
the time is right for us.”

“That’s it?” I ask in disbelief.

“That’s it,” he says.

“I get to keep
Cassis
?”

He chuckles, “Of course, my love. It was a gift.”

“I promise you. I promise you that I haven’t changed my mind
and we will try what we discussed when the time is right.”

He looks so relieved and he kisses me. Bad, bad timing as
Cole barges in, probably having heard us speaking.

“Cole,” CK says before he can open his mouth. “Aefre and I
were just discussing the return to our original agreement. I will overlook the
incident in Las Vegas as you were only reacting to my actions.” I knew he would
somehow twist this to his own ends. Overlook it indeed. “I will step back and
respect your marriage and I continue to get my two days.”

Cole looks from him to me and clearly sees this is what I
want written all over my dumb face and he sighs, weary of all of this, “Fine.
Whatever. I am beyond worrying about it. I know Liv loves me and if she wanted
to leave me she would have when I gave her the option yesterday.” Case closed.
I breathe a sigh of relief that there isn’t going to be a civil war with me
being piggy in the middle and I smile at him. “Thank you,” I say.

He grimaces back at me. I think it was meant to be a smile
but didn’t quite make it.

“Good. Well, I will bid you adieu and leave you two to
whatever is it you do…” CK says, having taken on board what Cole said last
night. He kisses me again--on the mouth--the arse, and takes his leave.

“Always has to have the final word doesn’t he,” Cole says
and he too kisses me on the mouth, thus removing the imprint of CK and claiming
the final word for himself.

“Liv. We need to have that talk now, please,” Xane says from
the doorway, pulling us apart.

“Fine. Cole would you mind?”

“Yes, but I do have to go over a few things with Dawn so I
will leave you to your business,” Cole says, a very clear emphasis on
“business.” Geez.

“Xane.” Cole says as he pushes past him.

“Cole.” Xane says back just as unpleasantly and I want to
hit them both. I am tired and weary of this infighting.

“What is it?” I say, flopping down into my chair and putting
my feet up on the desk.

Instead of sitting at one of the chairs allocated on the
other side of the desk, he comes to stand next to me, trailing his hand up my
leg. I quickly pull them down and stand. “Xane,” I warn him and he shrugs.

“I am not letting you off the hook that easily about you
trying to break our bond,” he says.

“Xane. I’m sorry but I can’t do this. If I knew the
implications I would have refused.”

“No, you wouldn’t have because it is your duty. Just stop
denying it so we can be together,” he says softly, taking my hands in his and
placing them on his chest.

I close my eyes at the feel of him. The heat coming off him
that I feel, that makes me want his arms wrapped around me. “Stop,” I say
weakly and he drops his mouth to mine. He kisses me and pulls away, a serious
look on his face. “Xerxei, don’t you see that we belong together? A female
Dragon and a male Demon. We would be the most powerful beings in all the
Realms. You have to stop fighting this and accept our destiny.”

I want to. Oh god, I want to, but I stop myself. I won’t
lose myself to my Demon self. I won’t abandon my Vampires, not even for this.
This feeling of completion, of being whole. Like the void I didn’t know was
inside me is now filled.

“Xerxei,” he whispers. “Come to me. You know you want to.”

“No,” I shake my head, “I can’t.” I step back and quickly
gather my thoughts and change the subject. “I need to ask you something.”

“Anything,” he replies, perching himself on my desk.

“That dagger you had. Where did it come from?”

“Dagger? You mean the one from the ritual?”

“Yes.”

“Why do you want to know?”

“I’ll show you.” I bring forth my trusty dagger from
Nagyvárad and slice it across my palm.
Nothing. I throw it on the desk and point out to my sides, waving my fingers
about. “Nothing in the armory hurts me. That isn’t in my armory and it hurts
me. Where did you get it from?” I ask again. He ponders the question for a
moment, picking up the dagger and examining it. “Nice,” he says to himself.
“Explain this to me,” he points to my sides and waves his fingers about as I
did.

“Every weapon
ever created.”

“Every weapon?”
he says in wonder.

“Every one
created
.”

“I knew you had
access to
Gladius Infernus
but I didn’t realize it was all of them.
Impressive.” His eyes glint as he takes in the possibilities and I see for the
first time a sliver of his Demonic side. He sees me noticing and he covers it
up quickly.

“So how is it, I
don’t have access to that one?” I ask again.

I can see him
debating whether to tell me or not, his desire to win me over with honesty
beating out the desire to keep it a secret.

“It hasn’t yet
been created,” he says. “At least not here.”

Gee, cryptic
much?

“I need a bit
more than that,” I say, crossing my arms.

He too crosses
his arms, mimicking my gesture. “The Dragon Realms are not of this world. Not
even part of this…” he waves his hand about, “network of Realms, which we all
come from. The Underworld, Earthside, the Spirit Plane are all connected.” He
pauses and I am thinking Spirit Plane? like some kind of idiot. “The Dragon
Realms are far beyond any of this. The dagger I pulled on comes from there. As
time moves so differently there and its plane of existence is fundamentally
different, as far as your armory is concerned it doesn’t exist. So therefore no
weapon from there exists,” he explains.

Interesting.
Makes sense, I guess.

“So that would
lead me to believe that the armory and the Power behind it is what protects me
from harm from the weapons in it,” I deduce quite nicely if I do say so myself.

“I would say that
is a strong possibility,” Xane agrees.

Huh. It also goes
some way to explaining why fangs and claws work on me. As they are very much
weapons in their own right, they aren’t weapons that have been created and are
obviously not in the armory. Well, I’ll be. I am finally learning useful stuff.
Maybe I should pursue something with Xane. He seems to know a lot about all of
this and helps me draw conclusions that I would never have come up with on my
own.

“I told you we
would be exceptional together,” he whispers as my face must give my thoughts
away. “I will leave you to think it over now that you see the possibilities of
what we could be.”

He Astraports
out, leaving me alone and confused.

Glancing at the
clock I see it is now 8 AM. I haven’t sensed Devon yet and go off in search of
him. Them, I think unpleasantly.

I don’t find them
downstairs so head up to his room. Pushing the door open I find that it’s empty
and the bed not been slept in. Hm, must have taken my advice then. Makes me
chuckle though to think he didn’t want to bring her to his bedroom.

I knock on the
door next to his. No response. I use my Vampire hearing to listen, ignoring the
voice in my head that yells, “Eavesdropper!” at me. I hear breathing so at
least they are both still alive. I push the door open--it is my house after
all--and discover them both fast asleep. Fully clothed to my relief, but
entwined around each other, her head on his chest and their fingers laced
together. She looks at peace. Good. This will go far in her efforts to control
herself. Devon senses my presence and opens his eyes. He sees me watching them
in the gloom of the heavy drapes drawn tightly to protect her, and he grimaces.
Obviously not best pleased to be found this way. I wonder why that is? He
untangles himself carefully so as not to disturb her.

“Hey,” he says
softly

“Hey,” I say. “I
was concerned. It’s late.”

He looks at the
clock. “Yeah, we only got to sleep late.” I nod knowingly and he snaps, “We
were just talking.” Why he feels the need to defend his actions is beyond me. I
hold my hands up in defense and he sighs, “Sorry. I am still trying to get used
to this.”

“No need to
apologize. I know what you are going through.”

“Can you take
over for a bit? I need a break,” he says.

“Of course. I
told you I would take care of you. And her.” I smile softly at him.

“Thank you,
Livvie.” He smiles gratefully back. He rises and kisses me, “I’m going to take
a shower and then go to work. Well ex-work, I guess it is now. I have things
that need sorting before I can pack in completely.”

“Are you sure you
want to? Pack in, I mean? You don’t have to just because I am.”

“No, I want to. I
love my job, I love our company, but I love working with you. It won’t be the
same if you aren’t there. Besides, I will still have my work cut out for me.
Not only do I have yours and mine to deal with, seems now that I am available,
everyone else has come to me with requests to handle their portfolios,” he says
wryly and I laugh out loud before I put my hand over my mouth, not wanting to wake
Jess.

I pull him into a
tight embrace, “Because you are the best. Everyone knows that you have the
golden touch.” As I say the words, an idea forms in my head. I pull back and
stare at him. He looks back at me suspiciously and asks, “What? What are you thinking?”

“Golden touch,” I
repeat. “Everything you touch comes up trumps,” I say excitedly.

“What are you
saying?” he asks, confused.

I glance at Jess
and pull him outside closing the door quietly, “Think about it, Dev. You never
fail. When it comes to money, you never fail. Every investment, every card
game, every spin of the Roulette wheel…It’s no fucking wonder we have more
money than we know what to do with. You have a gift.” I slap him on the arm and
he looks at me blankly.

“I have no idea
what you are saying right now.” He rubs his face with his hand and then through
his hair causing it to stick up adorably.

“You have a gift.
A real gift. Your knack for numbers is just a bonus.”

He frowns at me,
“So you are saying that I’m not as clever as I like to think I am?”

I laugh again at
him taking his face in my hands, “Oh no, my darling boy, you are every bit as
clever as you think you are and more. You just have a bit of a power boost.
Fuck me. I can’t believe I never saw it before.”