Revelation (The Forever Series Book Three) (13 page)

“You are not her family. You are not my family,” CK bellows
at him. “Not after what you did.”

“Constantine, let him go.”

With a howl of frustration he gives one final shove and lets
him go, saying, “Don’t make a move or you will regret it.”

He moves back to me but stays in front of me. “Thank you,
Sister,” Lance says. “I knew we could forget the past after all this time.”

“Forget? Forget what you did to me? Oh no. I will never
forget, I don’t stop him for you dear
Brother
, I do it to save him from
having to kill his own charge. I won’t put him through that pain,” I spit at
him with such a loathing I never even had for Gregor.

“Well, either way I am grateful. Think about my offer. You
know what I can bring to the table and you know that it will be a coup. I look
forward to hearing from you. Soon.” And he blinks out, leaving me shaking and
wanting to puke.

“Brother?” Cole asks. “Is he one of your siblings?”

“I take it that was Lance,” Devon adds and turns on CK.
“What the fuck? Why do you continue to let him live after what he did to her?”

“Because I won’t let him kill his own charge,” I repeat
forcefully. “Don’t turn on him Devon. He does as I ask him.”

“But why?” he looks mournful. “Why would you be so merciful?
If I could kill him myself I would.”

“Neither of you gets to make that decision. Killing your own
bloodline is like killing yourself. I should know. I will not have Constantine
be put through that because of me.”

“You are always trying to protect him. He should be the one
protecting you,” Devon yells at us both.

“And do you not protect me?” I ask him earnestly and he
falters in his anger having no defense. “I will destroy him myself. I assure
you, now that I have the capabilities, he will pay for his actions.”

“How so?” Devon asks as CK just stares at me, unable to comment.

“I don’t know yet but I have a feeling my trusty sword will
make an appearance,” I seethe and he steps back at the hatred emanating from
me.

Cole looking bewildered catches my eyes, “What is going on,
Liv?”

I sigh, “Remember that worse thing you didn’t really want to
know about?”

He nods warily remembering the conversation in my office
after the Gregor revelation.

“Well, that is my worse.”

“What did he do to you?”

“What didn’t he do?” CK suddenly comes back to life.

“What did he do to you?” Cole repeats and I take in a deep
breath.

“Follow me,” I say and leave them to trail in my wake as I
head downstairs.

Pausing briefly to pour a Scotch--who cares it’s early
morning--I stop and stand in front of the stained glass window in my office.
They all look up at it quizzically. It is a rather gory scene as Cole once
pointed out, of a woman lying on an altar in a dungeon, split apart and
bleeding out. Very much the martyr scenario, only in this case it was torture
and the woman on the altar is me.

Castle Black, Transylvania, 1262 – Lucretia

I had long since given up. He told me it has been twelve
years since he took me but it felt like longer. I was starving and in constant
pain. I knew I deserved this for my years of being a savage beast so I took it
with no complaint. Well, as little complaint as I could manage. It was getting
harder every day to endure and every day he broke me just that little bit more.
There was no reprieve, it was the same every day and worse when the bells
chimed. He told me that the villagers were praying for my soul in church but
that I didn’t deserve to be saved. He was right. I didn’t. I tried every day to
call out to my sire to help me. To forgive my actions and rescue me, but he
didn’t come. He never came.

After the carriage ride I woke up in a beautiful room
with lavish surroundings but a locked door that I just could not open however
hard I tried. Pounding on the door in frustration I was left for weeks, growing
weaker and weaker from lack of blood, when he finally came back.

Unable to pick myself up from the bed he carefully sat
down next to me, kindness on his face as he offered me a goblet of blood. I
drank it down quickly and asked for more but he refused. He wanted me weak and
at his mercy. He undressed me slowly, taking great pleasure in my lack of
resistance.

“Oh you are even more beautiful than he said,” he
murmured to me but I didn’t know what or whom he is talking about.

He undressed himself and climbed on top of me. He kissed
me but I didn’t respond. It didn’t deter him from his task and he entered me
slowly, relishing every second. He sped up and finished quickly, moaning into
my mouth as I just lie there starved and in shock.

This treatment carried on for years. I saw the leaves
turn and fall and turn and fall from the tower window. I wasn’t mistreated,
just used every night. After a while he started to look after me better,
sending handmaidens to me to bathe and dress me, brush my hair and do all the
things I wasn’t capable of doing myself.

But eventually he grew tired of me and my unwillingness
to accept him and he had me dragged to the dungeons to be treated as he then
saw fit. The nightly visits continued but I showed neither willingness nor
fear, having been in this position so many times before it was nothing. I
drifted off into my own world as he fucked me harder and harder, causing more
damage each time he came to me. I was slow to heal with not having regular
feedings and often I was left to bleed for days at a time.

He started getting crueller and crueller, getting angrier
with me for not accepting him until he just couldn’t stop himself anymore.
Every time the bells chimed he came to me, dagger in hand and cut me open,
navel to neck, pulling my flesh apart slowly and painfully. He separated my
ribs and fed directly from my heart while I whimpered in agony. I couldn’t stop
myself. He had broken me. I was completely shattered and I knew I would die
here, at his hand. It took me all the time in between to recover from his
torture and then he would return and do it all over again as the bells chimed.

The three of them are staring at me in varying degrees of
horror and disgust as I finish up as much as I am willing to tell right now.
Not even Constantine knew what he really did to me and I know it is killing him
hearing how his own creation could do that to me.

Devon speaks first pointing to the stained glass. “That’s
you? That’s you? What the fuck Lizzie, why? Why?” he asks desperately.

I am not even sure what he is actually asking me so I just
blink at him as Cole stares at me in shock and I daren’t even look at CK,
feeling his fury rolling off him in great big waves.

“And you spared him?” he asks quietly. “Why would you do
that? I was prepared to kill him anyway. You should have let me!” he roars
suddenly, losing his temper in a rare show again, picking up one of the chairs
and throwing it at the window shattering it into a million pieces.

We all step back from the flying glass covering our eyes. Oh
wonderful, CK, that cost a fucking fortune, I think wryly and irrationally.

I cast my eyes to his now in the silence following the
splintering of the glass. “I won’t be the reason you turn on your own. He has
suffered being stuck in the dark, humiliated at being stripped. I was happy to
leave him be if he left me alone, but now that he is back and I have the
strength to do this myself, with your permission I would like to end him,” I
say formally to my sire who just looks at me like I’m a day late and a dollar
short.

“I will hold him down while you do it,” he says shortly
after a very long pause.

“Liv?”

“Yes Cole?” I prompt when he doesn’t continue.

But instead of speaking he crosses over to me and hugs me
tightly, crushing me to him so hard I think my bones will break.

“Why would you let yourself be reminded of it?” he asks,
pulling back and pointing to the now gaping hole in the wall. I study it
closely and realize I can’t even see the chair that CK threw at it, it must
have ended up somewhere near the front gates.

“It wasn’t so much that I was reminding myself of it,” I say
slowly.

Cole looks puzzled but CK’s eyes focus on me in frustration,
“Aefre. I have told you a thousand times, more even, that you were not
responsible for what happened to you.”

“What do you mean not responsible? Why would you think you
are, Liv?”

I look away from him ashamed of my own torturous behavior.

“I behaved in a manner that…”

“Aefre! You do not need to explain yourself.”

“Yes, I do! I behaved in a manner that attracted his
attention. I brought it on myself. I deserved it.” I choke out a sob and CK
roughly pushes Cole out of the way to grab me and shake me. Geez, so much for
the gentle touch.

“Stop this at once,” he orders me. “If anything, this is all
my fault. I told you last week that all of this is my fault. If you are looking
to blame someone, blame me. I won’t let you carry this on yourself. I created
him. I made him. I warned you that day before he turned up but in my anger at
you, I left you. I left you alone to be taken by him and I will never forgive
myself for that.”

“You knew he was coming for her and you left her?” Devon
yells at him and he blinks.

“I didn’t know for sure when or if he would turn up.
Lucretia was making quite a name for herself in the… erm… circles that he
travels in. I knew he would be intrigued by her. More so as they are siblings.
It’s no excuse. I should have dragged you back to Italy.”

“I’d like to have seen you try,” I sniffle, trying to sound
strong but failing miserably. “I was in no mood to go anywhere with you.”

“Mood or not, if I had tried you would have come,” he says
confidently.

I sigh, annoyed that my happy mood from before has been
turned to misery by him showing up and causing all this.

“Why didn’t you go for her?” Devon demands. “Why did you
leave her there?”

“His Romani had her behind wards. I had no idea that she was
there,” CK says sadly.

“I’m going to
Castelul Negru
,” I say, making a
decision. “I’m going to make nice and then kill him. Come, don’t come, I’m not
bothered, but this ends. I have already taken out two of my enemies this week,
might as well make it a third.”

“Aefre, going to him is not the way. And going back there? I
really don’t think that is the best idea you’ve ever had.”

“What, you want to go back to the place where he… kept you?”
Cole asks incredulously.

“I’m going. End of story,” I say, resolute.

“Well you aren’t going alone,” Devon says.

“If you insist on this then, of course we will come with
you. I am not letting you go anywhere near him without me, but let me do this.
Let me avenge you like I should have back then,” CK says quietly.

“No. Absolutely not. This is my fight. I told you before I
can fight my own battles and I will this time.”

He nods, knowing he won’t change my mind.

“What did you mean by make nice?” Cole asks.

“I am going to offer him what he wants. A seat at the
table.”

“No, it is out of the question,” CK barks at me.

“Don’t worry, he won’t get anywhere near it. He was right
about one thing, he can bring a lot. He has powerful magick bearers loyal to
him. I want them on our side.”

“How do you plan on going about getting them to turn?”

“I don’t know yet. But I will think of something,” I say
thoughtfully, chewing my lip. “We will leave tomorrow.”

“I’ll ring Jim,” Devon says, pulling his phone out of his
pocket with a sigh.

“No, we will Astral in. His castle and the surrounding
forest is isolated and protected by a cover of secrecy. We can get in and out
without anyone seeing us.”

“How do you know that?” Cole asks hesitantly.

“I just know,” I say. Sitting down at my desk I say to
Devon, “You can ring to get someone to…” I wave my hand vaguely at the gaping
hole that used to be the window and CK looks slightly chagrined.

“Sorry,” he mumbles and I smile inwardly at his contrite
tone.

“No worries. It’s time for a change, I know exactly what I
want,” I say offhandedly. Changing the subject I say to Devon who has finished
his conversation, “In light of recent events and you are of course the obvious
choice, I offer you the post of Ambassador for the Vampires of North America.”

He looks slightly flustered and then pleased as he says, “I
accept, Your Majesty,” with a low bow and I chuckle.

Straightening he says, “I’m not sure what the job
description is but I will do you proud.”

“I know you will, my love. As for the job description, I
have no idea myself. We will all be having on the job training, it seems. But
for your first assignment, I want a meeting with Dmitri Novikov. Today.”

“Who now?” he queries.

“Dmitri Novikov,” I repeat. “He’s another… sibling. CK will
give you his number,” I say blandly, not looking at my sire who quite clearly
is looking at me in suspicion.

“May I inquire why you want to see Dmitri?” he asks, forcing
me to look at him.

“I am going to offer him the real seat for Eastern Europe. He
can’t stand Lance either so he will be happy to accept the subterfuge and step
in once Lance is gone.”

“Hm,” he says softly. “Keeping it in the family indeed.”

“Indeed. It is time CK. I know it’s not what you want. That
you like us scattered to the four corners of the earth but I think now is as
good a time as any to start meeting and greeting the fam. As long as none of
them try to torture and kill me we should be just fine,” I add.

“I wouldn’t put it past some of them,” he mutters darkly to
which Cole’s eyebrows go up.

“Liv. I don’t think I’m altogether happy about this. What if
they all turned out like Lance?”