Betrayal (The Forever Series) (9 page)

She looks at me in confusion so I explain, “I can’t bring Devon forward unless I take someone with me.”

“I don’t understand,” she says, still not getting it.

“In order for me to take Devon out of the past I need to take someone with me and leave them there.
Two to go in, two to come out. Do you see?”

“Oh,” she says and nods. “That won’t be a problem.”

“You do understand me, don’t you? They will have to stay there, in the past,” I press because I’m not sure she gets it.

“Yes, I understand. I said it won’t be a problem,” she says with an annoyed look at me. Well fair enough then. I feel for the poor soul she is so willing to abandon. That of course throws up its own issues, but again, not my problem I guess.

“Very well, I will come to you tomorrow morning. Be ready. Where are you staying?” I ask.

“I am in London with Cole,” she says.
“Claridges.”

I nod again at her and she returns it and throws me a warning before she vanishes. “If you don’t stick to your word, I will come back here and blow your World to Hell and back. Do you understand me?”

I gulp as I am sure she would have no qualms about destroying me. I don’t blame her after what I have just learned. I sigh and exit the library to look for Esther, wondering what I am going to say to everyone about me going off for the day on my own.

Chapter 5

Buckinghamshire, England, June 2013 – Cole

He just stares at Devon over the billiards table. He has no idea what to say to him.

“Devon,” he starts, but Devon just shakes his head at him.

“This is a betrayal,” Devon states. “You had no right to make that arrangement with him.”

Cole frowns at him and says, “She is my wife, Devon. I did what was best for me and for her and our relationship.”

“No,” Devon says. “Don’t you get it? The only one who gets anything out of this is him. He will take her from you
now, he will push you out and then me. Don’t fool yourself, Cole, into thinking that you made the right decision here.”

“You don’t know what you are talking about,” Cole says to him carefully. “You can’t possibly know what it has been like for me these last months with her going to him. I did what I needed to do. I am sorry that it hurts you, but I don’t really understand.”

“You don’t understand?” Devon asks him. “You know what I feel for her. You of all people know.”

“But you aren’t with her in that way,” Cole says, knowing he is possibly making a mistake. “You are married to Jess now. You told Liv that you were giving up on her.”

“She told you that?” Devon asks in disbelief. “She tells you what we talk about?”

“Sometimes, if she thinks I need to know something. I am her husband, Devon. We talk,” Cole says, starting to get a bit annoyed that he has to keep telling people this.

Devon turns away from him and stares out of the French doors. After a moment he says, “Well, in the interest of you needing to know stuff, I haven’t given up on her. I just told her that to see if she would choose me.” Devon turns back around to face him and Cole wants to punch that look off his face. “She let me go, but I have every intention of getting her back.”

“Is that a threat?” Cole asks quietly.

“Just fact,” Devon replies. “I’m sorry,” he adds after a beat. “I shouldn’t be saying any of this. I am just hurt that you wouldn’t come to me with this. If you were open to sharing her, why not with me?”

Oh. Cole gets it now why Devon thought it was a betrayal. He thinks Cole chose Constantine over him. “Dev, if he wasn’t in the picture, if she hadn’t gone back for him, it would have stayed just the two of us. This is not my ideal, in fact it is quite the opposite, but I need her at my side all of the time. This was the only way I could ensure that she stays with me and that he couldn’t take her away from me. I have thought this through and I know the risks of it, but she won’t leave me now that she has everything she wants, and I gave that to her. Me. Not him. It was inevitable, I just suggested it first.”

“But what about me?” Devon asks. “Where do I fit into this new arrangement?”

Cole shrugs and says, “You will have to discuss that with her. It isn’t for me to decide that.”

“No, just to let that bastard get everything he ever wanted: her as his wife and me out in the cold,” Devon says bitterly.

“I would hardly say that,” Cole says. “You did just screw her after all.”

Devon’s eyes flash and he says, “I have the right, she is my sire.”

“I know,” Cole says. “I’m not telling you that you can’t. I am merely saying that you aren’t left out. Liv won’t allow that. You know how she feels about you,” he adds jealously because he is also very clear on Liv’s feelings for his sibling.

“I used to,” Devon says sadly. “I used to know. I wonder now. She turned you, married you, married him, and accepted without even a bit of resentment that I married Jess…”

“Oh, she was jealous,” Cole snickers in spite of the somber mood. “You don’t need to be worried that she has accepted this, because I can assure you she is struggling with it. Didn’t you notice before?
With the vote? She went straight to you, only you. Not you and Jess.”

Devon looks up at him, hope burning in his eyes. “No, I didn’t even realize until you mentioned it. I guess Jess is pretty mad at me for also forgetting about her,” he says.

Cole shrugs. “I am sure you can make it up to her. But you need to speak to Liv, sooner rather than later.”

He hates having to do this, to be the voice of reason. He loves Devon like a brother, but he hates the relationship he has with his wife. He has to accept
it, it is just as simple as that.

“So I take it the other one is still in a mood about his turning?” Devon asks, changing the topic.

“You could say that,” Cole says. “He disappeared for a month, Liv couldn’t find him anywhere. Not for lack of trying,” he adds in irritation. “He seems determined to destroy himself. I say to just let him.”

“Agreed,” Devon says. “If he can’t be grateful that Liv saved him, then he should just be left to his own devices.”

They share a knowing look, united in their mutual dislike of another sibling to share their sire with.

“Well, I suppose I should go and find her,” Cole says. “It has been a trying morning already.”

“Isn’t it always?” Devon retorts.

Cole snorts and says, “Yeah, this more than most. I met Tiamat earlier,” he says and pauses for dramatic effect, “and Drake as well.
Together, at the same time!”

“What?” Devon splutters. “They were both here? How did that end up?”

“In a fight,” Cole says. “But they were sure to kiss and make up after it.”

“Oh god,” Devon says.
“Seriously? I bet Liv was less than impressed with that.”

“You could say that. Fortunately it was overshadowed by the fact that the Faerie seem to be quite adamant that she and Sebastian marry and produce that baby.”

“It won’t happen,” Devon reassures him with a slap to the shoulder. “Apart from her own distaste, there is no way in Hell that Constantine will allow that to happen. I mean Christ, can you really see him agreeing to let her sleep with Sebastian, never mind getting pregnant with his child?”

“No,” Cole says and with a laugh he tells Devon of the fight the two of them had outside, which has them both howling with laughter, their bond to each other restored.

Liv finds them like that a few moments later. She takes in their laughter with a raised eyebrow. “I see everything in here is fine,” she says.

Cole crosses to his wife and kisses her. He can still smell Devon all over her and he shifts uncomfortably, but does his best to ignore it. It is strange because it only really bothers him when they have been together without him.

“Yes, everything is good,” Cole says and she smiles at him.

“Good, because there is something I need to tell you both. Please sit.” She indicates to the sofa.

Cole’s stomach twists into a knot as this sounds serious. He really hopes it doesn’t have anything to do with Cade. Devon looks equally as worried, but she smiles at them with reassurance. “It’s nothing bad, just a bit weird.”

They wait for her to start, but she stays silent and starts to pace. Eventually she says, “I wasn’t going to mention it, but I just can’t sit on this and not tell you. It would seem like a betrayal in a way, I guess. But we keep this between the three of us, okay?”

They both nod at her and Cole is smug that he gets to keep Constantine out of the loop on something.

“Remember during the switch, I found out that Other Aefre had no charges? That you weren’t there with her?” she says.

“How could we forget,” Devon mutters and she smiles sadly at him. Cole knows how hard that was for Devon, to know there was a land where she was and he wasn’t.

“I don’t really know how to say this so I guess I’ll just say it,” she says, chewing her lip. “Other Aefre has just come to me in the library and asked a favor of me. She wants me to go back to her past and bring her Devon, to her present.”

Cole’s mouth drops open as he stares first at Liv, then at Devon. “What?” he asks as Devon remains silent. “You can’t possibly have agreed to that!”

“I did, I am going tomorrow to get him,” she says.

“Liv! The consequences, have you not thought this through?” Cole yells at her. He is not angry, just in shock that she agreed to do this.

“You have to go,” Devon says suddenly. “You have to.”

“Devon!” Cole exclaims.

“Cole,” Devon says calmly. “It’s all right for you. Your
Other self is still alive and I am guessing turned by now?” He looks to Liv for confirmation of this and she nods. “If Other Aefre wants me, I say she goes to get me.”

Cole looks back at Liv who is looking relieved. She was clearly worried about what they would have to say about it. He looks back at Devon and sighs. “Fine,” he says. “Who am I to argue?”

The realization of what Devon just said hits him then. “She found me? And turned me? Err, Other me.”

“Yes,” Liv says with a smile. “I don’t really know the ins and outs, but yes she went to find you.”

“I don’t know if that creeps me out, or what,” he mutters and she laughs.

“I know exactly how you feel, but I was there without you both so I want to do this for her. Any consequences are up to her to deal with.” Cole feels there is more to this story that she isn’t saying, but he has no idea what so he leaves it.

Devon is staring at Liv and asks, “How come she asked you to go?”

“She said she hadn’t mastered the art of past time travel,” Liv says with a shrug. “But, even if she had, if she hadn’t come to me to tell me,
Other you wouldn’t have gone with her.”

“How so?” he asks.

“I am certain that she doesn’t know that I Shifted and looked like Elizabeth. If she had gone for you looking like this,” she indicates her Liv self, “you would have dismissed her.”

Devon snorts in agreement and it upsets Cole. His wife is beautiful, perfect
even, he doesn’t like it when Devon is less than complimentary about her natural looks. He is about to say something when Devon asks, “How will you do it? Go to the brothel as Elizabeth the way it happened with us?”

Cole does have something to say about that and he stands up to make his point loud and clear, “No!” he shouts. “You are not going there to reenact yours and Devon’s meeting.”

“Cole,” Liv says soothingly. “You don’t have to worry. I am not going back there to play it out as my past self did.”

He feels marginally better about that. He doesn’t think he could bear it if she slept with an Other World version of any of them. That is just too much for him.
He thinks it might possibly be his breaking point, so he is determined that she keeps her word.

“Then what?” he asks, still with the angry tone. “What exactly is your plan to lure him into the future?”

She sighs and sits heavily on the sofa seat he vacated. He sees Devon turn towards her and he wants to forcibly remove her from his close proximity.

“I don’t know. That’s why I said I would go tomorrow, so I have time to come up with a plan.” She turns to Devon and asks, “What do you think I should do? He must think like you, sort of. What would you accept?”

“Well, I accepted you as a Vampire straight away,” he says and Liv beams at him, exacerbating Cole’s anger. “Not so sure I would have accepted time travel though.” He frowns. “Can I think about it and let you know?”

“Of course,” she says, taking his hand. He brings it to his lips to kiss and now Cole has had enough. He has no idea why he is being so possessive all of sudden with her around Devon. Maybe because he believes that Devon is still in love with her and wants her back. But it isn’t even Liv he loves, it is Elizabeth. If she ever went back to him, she would Shift and Cole would lose her in every way. Devon wonders why he could never agree to a three-way marriage between them, and that is why.

She smiles up at him and he holds out his hand for her. She stands and takes it and he is pleased she chose him. He leans down to kiss her and has the satisfaction of seeing Devon look away grimly.