Trials (The Forever Series, Book 6) (11 page)

“I love you, Emily. Don’t ever leave me,” Fraser says to
me.

I turn to him and kiss him. We are in bed, all three of
us. “I’ll put her back in her crib,” he says.

“No, I like her here, next to me,” I whisper in case I
wake her.

“I know my love, but I want you. I need you. It has been
too long.”

“It has only been a few weeks,” I giggle. “Are you that
frustrated my love?”

“It feels like months,” he complains but brightens as I
stand to take our daughter to her crib.

“Just hold me,” I say as I climb back in bed with him.
“I’m cold.”

“Christ, woman, your feet are freezing,” he says with a
laugh as I snuggle up close to him. He puts his huge arms around me, enveloping
me in his embrace and I relax. Yes, this is where I want to be. Exactly where I
want to be. For the rest of our lives.

“Don’t leave me, Emmie,” he says again. “Don’t ever leave
me.”

“Oh Fraser, I love you. I wo…”

“Aefre! Godammit, wake up! Cade, get some water to throw on
her.”

I awake to my sire straddling me, shaking me, not so gently
I might add. “Get off me,” I snap at him. “What the fuck?”

“Oh thank god,” he says as he crushes me to him. “You
wouldn’t wake up. I have been trying for ages to wake you up.”

“Get off me.” I push him away thoroughly annoyed that he
woke me from such a wonderful dream. More than a dream, it was real. I felt it.
And now I feel the loss of it.

He looks hurt but moves away from me. “Aefre. What is going
on?”

“I want to go back to sleep. I want Fraser,” I say and turn
away from him and Cade stares at me open-mouthed.

“Who is Fraser? I thought she was dreaming about Lance?”

“Fraser is my husband,” I say to him. “Now go away.”

“Husband?” he asks, more confused than ever.”

“Aefre,” Constantine says to me, overly concerned.

“My name is Emily. Emily Campbell.” I turn to them both and
Shift. “Now go away and leave me. I want to be with my husband.”

He takes a step towards me but I turn away from him again and
put my head on the pillow, willing myself to go to sleep again so I can be with
him.

“You can’t let her go to sleep,” Cade says. “I know what it
wants. It wants her in the dream. It wants her to stay in the dream.”

“But why? How?”

“By creating the perfect life for her. For whatever reason
it was Lance but now it is this Fraser. I assume he is… you know….”

“Yes. They were married over two hundred years ago.”

“Don’t talk about him,” I say. “I don’t want you to talk
about him that way.”

“Liv. Tell me about the last dream you had,” Cade asks me
but I ignore him. He comes around to the other side of the bed. “Emily. Will
you please tell me about the last dream you had.”

I smile up at him and say, “It was wonderful. Fraser and I
were together in bed with our daughter.” I hear Constantine choke on that but I
continue, “She was sleeping and I put her in her crib and went back to him. I
wanted him to hold me.”

“Did he say anything?” he presses.

“He asked me never to leave him. I was about to say that I
wouldn’t when you interrupted me,” I say, annoyed.

Cade exchanges a glance with Constantine and I frown at
them, “What is the problem?”

“You can’t go back there, Liv, err, Emily,” Cade says. “This
power wants you to agree to stay in the dream, so that you do. You can’t say
that you will stay. You can’t go back into the dream or you will never come out
of it.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” I say and yawn. “It is perfect and I
want to stay. To live the life we should have had.”

“Aefre. It isn’t real,” Constantine implores me, coming to
sit on the bed next to me. “You have to realize that it isn’t real.”

“But it will be if I stay,” I insist. “Don’t you see? I can
be with my true love forever. Like we were supposed to be.”

He winces at my words. “I am your true love,” he says firmly.
“You belong here with me. Snap out of this,” he says harshly and I just blink
sleepily at him.

“If she wants to go, Father, let her go,” says a smarmy
voice coming from the corner and we all turn to look. Lance. “You will never
end up with her, you should know that by now.”

I am staring at him in terror now, pulling the covers up to
my chin as Cade stands behind me, pulling me a bit closer. Constantine stands
and faces his dead charge, “Whoever you are, I suggest you go back to wherever
the fuck it is you came from.”

“For these purposes, I am Lance. You may address me so. And
I am not going anywhere. Not yet, not until she is destroyed.” He looks at me
with his cold, dead, black eyes and I forget myself entirely. I am no longer
Queen of The Underworld but Lucretia. Broken and damaged, fearful and
exhausted.

“I quite like you in that guise,” he muses as he steps to
the side so he can see me better. CK turns with him, keeping himself in front
of me. “Not as good as the real thing, of course.”

Cade puts his hand on my shoulder and I find a piece of
courage, “Why? Why are you doing this to me?”

“It amuses me to see how vulnerable you are in your dreams,”
he says. “Offer you what you want and you will do anything.”

“I didn’t want a life with you,” I spit out at him and his
evil laugh rumbles around the room.

“No, that was perhaps for my own benefit. Taking the life
you want with our sire and replacing him with myself.” CK takes a menacing step
forward, but Lance holds his hand up and he stops. “But as I mentioned to you
earlier, it was too ambitious. Not that I would do anything differently, mind
you. To see you look at me that way, to kiss me and touch me. To make love to
me.” He closes his eyes briefly in bliss as I shudder at his words. “Oh, it was
everything I wanted. We could have had it if you had just stopped being so
stubborn,” he chides me as he would a small child. “I didn’t want to hurt you,
Aefre, I love you. But you made me do it. You had to be punished for your
behavior.” He sighs and I move further back into Cade who by now has his arms
completely around me.

“Shift and stand up,” Cade says to me. “Do it,” he says and
squeezes my shoulders and I do, making sure that I am dressed in my usual
attire as I Shift.

“Ah, there she is,” Lance says. “I wondered if you would
Shift back. You seemed so happy to be Emily. I nearly had you locked down. Just
another second and you would have been mine. Seems our sire still has the
uncanny knack of swooping in to save you at the very last second.”

CK growls at him and steps forward again. Lance holds his
hand up and again he stops. “I can do this all day. You won’t get near enough
to me. Not that you could hurt me even if you did.”

“What are you?” I ask. “Why are you doing this?”

“You will find out soon enough. At least who I am. My
reasons will become clearer the more I destroy you.”

“You can’t destroy me,” I say with my chin raised.

“No? I have been inside your head. I know your weaknesses.
Ah, right on time,” he says as he turns to Xane who has popped in out of nowhere.

“Get away from her,” he snarls, stepping forward.

“Uh, uh, uh.” Fake Lance holds his hand up and shakes his
finger at Xane who scowls but goes no closer.

“You know what he is?” I ask Xane.

“Yes, I know what IT is,” he says. “You should have told me
that bad dream you had the other night was recurring,” he reprimands me. “I
could have kept you better informed.”

“Well isn’t this precious,” Lance says. “One more knight to
your rescue.”

“Liv,” Xane says. “Get your sword out.”

I twirl my hand and G.I. makes an appearance, I feel better
with it in my hand. I step forward but Lance blocks me as well. It is like
walking into a wall, a forcefield so strong it is holding us all back.

“I had hoped never to see that thing again,” he says,
shifting his shoulders uncomfortably, as he takes in the hellfire sword. “But
it will do you no good against me this time.”

Xane steps closer to me and grabs my hand tightly. “Use me,”
he says. “Use my energy to break through it.”

“Oh, well now.” Lance moves closer and peers at us then
casts a quick glance over at CK who is looking like he is about to rip
someone’s head off. “Look at you two. Quite the power couple. Kept that quiet,
didn’t you?” he tuts at us. “As much as I would love to carry on with this,
whatever it is we are doing here, I am going to let this play out. Daddy
dearest isn’t going to be too happy with you.” He laughs an evil laugh and then
just blinks out of existence. The forcefield drops and we all stumble forward
having been pressing ourselves against it to try and get it to move.

“Power couple?” CK snarls at us. “What have you done, Aefre?
I told you no more bonds to nurture,” he yells at me and Cade snickers behind
me remembering what I said to him the other day.

“Nothing,” I lie. “You know about the ritual. It may have
linked us together more than I first thought but I am not exploring it.”

Xane glares at me for dismissing what he clearly thinks is
more than just a link. I ignore him and say, “We have bigger issues to deal
with, like that.” I wave my sword in the area where Lance had been standing and
CK steps back with his hands up. “Mind where you are waving that thing,” he
mutters.

“Sorry,” I say sheepishly and twirl it back to where it came
from.

“This conversation is not over.” He glowers at us. “But you
are right. This is a bigger issue. What do you know of It?” he asks Xane.

“In Demon folklore It is called The Thirteen,” he says.

Chapter 6

“The Thirteen? What is it?” CK asks.

“Wait, before you answer that, shouldn’t we have everyone
present so we all get the information firsthand?” I ask.

“Yes, that’s a good idea,” Cade says. Hm, nice of him to
have my back.

“Will you two please go and gather the troops and we will
meet you in the library? I need a drink.”

They go off to do my fetching and carrying and I turn to
Cade. “Thank you,” I say and give him a hug, which he returns with a stiff
one-handed pat to my back. I wonder if it is just me, or if he just isn’t a
very affectionate creature in general.

“What for?” he asks.

“Bringing me back to myself.”

“Oh, no worries. It’s my job.”

“No, it isn’t.”

“Hm, well I think it is. He, well, Lance really terrifies
you, doesn’t he?”

“He used to. I guess sometimes I forget that he, the real he
anyway, can’t hurt me anymore. Come, they will be returning shortly.” I grab
his hand and Astral us into the library.

I love this room, it is about four times the size of my
office at home and it is an actual library, with a Dewey Decimal System and
everything. If I thought my collection was impressive, my sire’s is like
something out of a fairy tale. I used to spend hours upon hours in this room
with his books. I pour myself a Scotch and offer one to Cade. He declines and
we wait. A few seconds later everyone else turns up and rushes forward and asks
if I am okay.

“Yes, I am fine,” I say, pushing everyone back. “Thanks to
Cade and CK.”

“You need to tell us what is going on right now,” Devon
says, miffed to be out of the loop. He has always been the first to know
everything about me, so I understand his mood.

“Sit down and we will explain.” I remain standing, as does
Cole next to me, CK, Cade, and Xane.

I make quick work of telling them about the dreams, leaving
out certain bits–-like my impromptu Shift--and after CK gives those in the room
who don’t know a quick rundown of who Fraser is as I stop, unable to speak,
soon everyone is on the same page. I brush away all the concern for my
well-being and joy that I am not stuck in some sort of Sleeping Beauty fiasco
and turn to Xane and say, “You’re up, Mr. Draconis. Spill.”

He smiles at me, “Ah yes, The Thirteen. The most powerful
being in all the Realms.”

“I thought I was the most powerful being in all the Realms?”
I interrupt.

“Not yet, my love,” he says, touching my arm. “You haven’t
yet accessed your true Power.”

I ignore all the bristling going on over his endearment and
touch and say, “Oh,” a bit pissed off with that.

“So what is it exactly?” Devon asks, glaring at Xane’s hand
still on my arm.

“It resides in the Spirit Realms. It consists of
thirteen…parts, for lack of a better term. Individually they are powerful, but
when they come to together, unstoppable. He is the Demon equivalent of the
boogeyman.”

Yikes!

“So the Lance thingy was all thirteen of them?” I ask, not
really wanting to know the answer.

He shakes his head, “Four, maybe five at the most.”

Oh crap. “Are you joking?” I ask hopefully.

“No, I’m afraid not.”

“How do we kill it?” CK asks, blunt as ever.

“Kill it? I’m not sure it can be killed. It’s already dead,”
Xane says.

“Everything can be destroyed,” CK says, which is pretty hilarious,
really, considering up until a few months ago he couldn’t be destroyed. Or at
least no one powerful enough was able to wield the sword until I came along
with my Power of One.

Wait, the sword. “
Gladius Infernus
. You said to get
it out. You must know something else,” I say and grab Xane’s arm now, to more
agitation from the crowd.

“Only to banish it back to the Spirit Realm.”

“Banish? Banish? No, no. We have to find a way to get rid of
it,” CK says forcefully. “I will not have this thing out to destroy Aefre. And
furthermore, I will not allow it to pull her into some dream world full of
lies.” He is on one now and I placate him with a hand to his arm now. He
relaxes slightly but not by much.

“I don’t understand why or how it is using Lance and Fraser
to mess with me,” I muse out loud.