Trials (The Forever Series, Book 6) (4 page)

“Don’t you know how?” Xane asks, all of a sudden entering
the conversation.

She shakes her head. “No. Where we come from I never had
this Power.”

“You will do now as your past self has learned it,” he says.

She smiles at him and says, “Still giving me direction, I
see.”

He tilts his head at her, “Oh?”

She ignores him and closes her eyes. Gripping CK’s hand
tightly she tries to find the Power inside her that will take them home. CK is
right. There is no fucking way she wants to live through this time again with
what is coming. They barely made it out alive the first time around.

“Bring her back,” Cole whispers. “Please bring me my wife
back.”

She concentrates and focuses on the aircraft they were on when
they disappeared, picturing everybody on board, an exact set of everybody here
but with all new roles.

“You did it,” CK says and she opens her eyes. Back where they
should be. Who knew time travel was just as easy as Astralling?

2113 – Aefre/Constantine; Liv/Constantine

“Holy crap!” Devon says as he sees them. “What the fuck is
going on here?”

“We were pulled away. We are back now,” CK says.

“By whom?”

“It doesn’t matter. We are back where we belong, when we
belong, and with whom we belong,” he says to her pointedly.

Raised voices in the back bring everyone’s attention to the
bedroom. “Who else is here?” she asks in confusion. She stalks over to the
bedroom and opens the door with a gasp.

“No. Oh shit. CK?” she looks at him and he looks at her.

“Oh fuck,” he says, as he looks at us arguing heatedly about
something. He pulls her inside and quickly closes the door so the rest don’t
see them. Us. Them.

*****

We look back at the future us and then CK glares at me. “Oh,
you have really fucked up now, Aefre,” he says.

She looks just as affronted by that remark as I am and I say,
“I didn’t do this. She must have brought them back all on her own.”

“You need to leave. Right now!” Future CK bellows at us.
“This isn’t your time.”

“No. I don’t think we will,” my CK says.

“Don’t be a fool,” I hiss at him. “We can’t stay here now
they are back.”

“Told you,” Future CK murmurs to her and she smiles, taking
his hand.

“You need to go back,” she says to us. “Your family needs
you.”

“Why, what do you know?” I ask her through narrowed eyes.

“You know I can’t tell you that,” she says. “You have to
return to your rightful place. Too much damage has already been done.”

“CK, come my love. We have to go back. I have to try and get
us back.”

CK sighs and turns to his Future self, “How long do I have
to wait?”

“We can’t tell you that,” he says but then adds, pulling her
closer to him, “It will be worth the wait, though I assure you.”

“I have no doubt about that,” my CK murmurs.

I place my hand on his chest. “Your rings,” she says to me.
CK scowls at her and gives them back to me and I replace them.

Future me turns to her CK. “Baby. We should ask them to
start it now,” she murmurs.

His face lightens up, “An excellent idea, my love.”

“Start what?” my CK asks suspiciously.

“The Blood Magick ritual,” she says. “We know it is working.
CK is gaining more power, more abilities like mine, but it is taking too long.
If you two start it now, it will help us.” She places her hand on her CK’s
shoulder and he grabs it.

“Please,” he says to us. “We want this so much.”

“What?” I say. “Isn’t that damaging the future?”

She lets go of her CK and comes to stand in front of me and
says, “Please, Liv. We want this baby but we need your help. Please go back to
your time and start.”

“I’m not ready,” I whisper, horrified.

“But I am,” she states firmly. “It won’t be you who has it,
it will be me.”

I take that in and nod. I guess Future me is ready to be a
mommy.

“But you will need to…erm…” she trails off. She suddenly
yells out in my head, “YOU NEED TO LIFT THE CURSE.”

I step back, startled. “No need to shout!” I snap back at her
in her head. “Why? I need it,” I add.

“The ritual won’t start working until you lift it,” she
responds telepathically.

I look at CK and he is glaring back at us as he knows we are
discussing something privately.

“Fine. But if I get baby Shifters buns or worse in my oven, I
will be coming back here to kick your arse,” I grouse at her.

“Thank you,” she says out loud now, sincerely. “You have no
idea how happy we will be.”

“No worries,” I say, quickly glancing at my own CK.

“Go now, back to your own family,” she says.

“I hope I do end up with my own family,” I say and she peers
at me curiously. “Never mind,” I add. She steps forward and hugs me. I pat her
swiftly on the back.

“Open yourself up more,” she chides me. “You aren’t very
friendly.”

I glare at her and she gives me a look back to say “point
proven.” I adjust my features accordingly. “Bye me,” I say and turn to her CK.
“Bye Future CK. I look forward to finally having you as my sexy husband in the
future,” I wink at him and he glows.

“It was the happiest day of my life the day you became my
sexy wife. And,” he looks at her, “I am glad to see that my wife can still be
made jealous. Even if it is by herself.”

She glares at him and sidles closer taking him in her arms
as he does the same, “Don’t flirt with Past me. It’s creepy,” she says.

“I have to agree,” my CK says to me. “Aefre, if you want to
flirt, I am right here.”

“You flirt? Hah!” I snort and she chuckles at us.

“Come, my love,” I say and take his hand. He grips me
tightly and looks adoringly at me. Her CK looks the same way at her and I smile
at them and close my eyes. We disappear and I hope we get back to where we
belong.

The G6, Pearson International Airport, Toronto, 2013 –
Liv

“Is it you this time? Really you?” Cole asks worriedly as he
rushes to me and, grabbing my hand, he checks my rings.

“Depends, answer me two questions, what year is it and are
you my husband?”

“2013 and yes.”

“Then I think it is really me,” I say before he swoops down
and kisses me.

“Thank fuck,” he says.

“Yes, thank fuck,” Devon says. “Now please can you get rid
of the other you. I love you Lizzie and if we were married I would be over the
moon but Christ, you are wild. I don’t think I can bear you as my wife much
longer.”

“Oh no. Not that one.” I sink my head into my hands and ask,
“She’s here?”

“You both are. Again. I suggest you go and rescue Lincoln
before he does something he will probably regret.” He points to the back of the
jet and, letting go of Cole, I stalk over and throw the door open. “Get your
slutty hands off him,” I snap at myself.

She sneers at me. “God, don’t be so uptight. I’m only having
a little fun. You should try it sometime. You are Queen, you can do whatever
you want with whomever you want. Live a little,” she drawls at me in a New York
accent very similar to Devon’s as she walks her fingers down Lincoln’s Abs. I
take her in completely now, she is still dressed (thankfully) in a very red,
very sexy outfit, even for me, but it is her whole demeanor and attitude that
is surprising. She is hard and cold with too much make-up and long straight
hair to her waist and she clearly has Lincoln right where she wants him--which
is half-naked on the bed under her.

“I said get off him. Go and play with your own.”

“He is no fun anymore, since the kids. He doesn’t like to
play,” she pouts and Lincoln looks like he wants to die at the mentioning of
kids. “I like it here. Your boys are still fun. Even Devon. Where is our sire?”
she asks suddenly and climbs off a slightly relieved Lincoln.

“
My
sire is in the cabin, where is yours?”

She shrugs, “Who cares? I bet yours is better than mine.”
She pushes past me to go off in search of him and I help Lincoln off the bed.

“Fuck me, Liv. I have to say I prefer you-you.”

“Thanks sweetie. That’s good to know.”

“See what I have to put up with?” the other CK says to me
from the doorway. “I think I would probably prefer you as well.”

I turn to him. “She is a terror. Get her under control,” I
snap at him and he snickers at me.

“If only it were that simple. Perhaps you may be able to
exert some control over her?”

“Doubtful. She seems too much for me to handle.”

He pushes off from the doorway where he was standing. “I
don’t want to go back.”

“You have to. You don’t belong here.”

“Please, Aefre,” he says my name hesitantly. “The world we
come from it isn’t right. It isn’t how it should be. The Power has gone
straight to her head, and now she is Empress. I fear for us.”

“I can’t help that. I don’t even understand it. Forwards and
backwards is one thing but where you come from is parallel to here but
everything is different. I can’t get my head around that.”

We hear yelling coming from the cabin and I rush to the aid
of my boys but they seem to have it under control. CK specifically. “Touch me
like that again, I don’t care who you look like, I will end you,” he growls.

“I don’t look like her, I
am
her, you idiot,” she
snarls at him.

“Oh no, you are not. Not in the slightest.” He tackles her
and spins her around to face me, saying, “That is the real Aefre. You are just
some placeholder in an alternative universe.”

Her eyes narrow in hatred as she hears those words and she
says, “I am Empress of the Dragon Realms and The Underworld. I am more powerful
than all of you put together.”

“Then use your Power to take you home. You are not welcome
here.”

“Seconded,” Devon says quickly.

“But Dev, baby. If I stay, we would be married. Isn’t that
what you want?” she says pseudo-sweetly.

“No,” he says shortly. “Not to you.”

Her CK takes her by the arm now. “Take us back, Liv,” he
says quietly. “We don’t belong here.”

“Fine,” she huffs. “But don’t think you have seen the last
of me. My world has become boring, I quite fancy taking a crack at yours.”

“Step foot here again and I will take you down myself,” I
tell her and her eyes glint.

“I look forward to seeing you try,” she says and thankfully
she blinks out of existence, taking a very sad-looking CK with her.

I flop down onto the sofa and everyone comes to sit with me,
next to me, at my feet. “Don’t ever leave again,” Cole says, clinging on to me.
“I thought I had lost you.”

“Same here,” I mutter.

“So where exactly did you go?” Devon asks. “In the first
instance.”

“We already told you,” I say.

“No, you must have explained it to the other us.”

“Oh.” I am beyond weary now. “Xane, I need you,” I say
instead. “I need your energy.”

“Of course,” he says, smug to be asked, and takes my hand in
his. I just sit there, as I don’t even have the energy to pull on his energy.

“Liv?” he says.

“Hm, what?” I ask.

“Get her some blood,” CK snaps. “She doesn’t even have the
energy to feed that way. It’s ridiculous.”

“I’ll get it,” Jess says. “My first duty as your assistant.”

“Thank you,” CK says shortly, avoiding her gaze. I find the
energy in me somewhere to chuckle at him.

“I don’t think she is yours anymore, my love.”

“Yours?” Sebastian says in horror. “She was yours?”

“Seems so,” he says, thoroughly embarrassed. “You may let go
of her hand now,” he says to Xane who just shrugs but doesn’t let go.

“As soon as she has enough energy, she can feed from me.”

“I guess time travel uses up all your reserves,” Cole says.
“Tell us where you went.”

CK fills them in as best he that he can, while I drink the
blood that Jess hands me rather ironically. Once fed, I feel a little better
and try to add what I can to the story. “Somehow, when CK and I were arguing
and I wished to be back in the past, the Power took me literally. I am still
struggling to understand how it is possible, but it just worked the same way as
Astralling. I thought it and it happened. Took me a few goes to get it right
but then, the same can be said for anything I suppose. Practice makes perfect
and all that. But past and future aside the fact that a whole other world
exists parallel to here, is even more disconcerting.”

“You can say that again,” Lincoln mutters and everyone
agrees.

“But how come everyone ended up switching places?” Devon
asks a damn good question.

“It didn’t happen every time. When we went back to the past
we saw ourselves there,” CK says.

“I can only imagine that we aren’t supposed to be occupying
each other’s spaces. Although why Past us remained in their time is a mystery.”
I add.

“Perhaps because when you thought about going to the past it
was for a specific purpose to change it,” Xane says. “When you tried to get
back you were literally bouncing around with no sense of where you were going
and as you were the one doing the time travelling, you ended up pushing the
other’s out of their own existences. Once you all realized that the other’s
existed, and in fact that time travel was an actuality, it made it possible for
you to be in the same spaces.”

We all stare at him. Where did he pull that from? He shrugs
and says, “It’s just a theory.”

Well, can’t say as I have a better one and by the looks of
everyone else, neither do they.

He holds his hand out to me and I take it and we disappear
into the bedroom for a bigger feeding session. I pull on his energy, taking
enough to make myself feel stronger again.

“I love that you take it from me. So I can make you
stronger.” He dips his head and kisses me and says, “I can make you so strong,
Liv.”