Secrets (The Forever series, Book 8)
Read Secrets (The Forever series, Book 8) Online
Authors: Eve Newton
Secrets
The Forever Series Book Eight
By Eve Newton
Edited, Produced, and Published by Writer’s Edge
Publishing 2014
All rights reserved.
© 2014 by Eve Newton.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be
reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system in any form or by any means without
the prior written permission of the publisher.
All characters in this book are fictitious, and any
resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Other Books by Eve Newton
Forever
(The Forever Series Book One)
The Power
of One (The Forever Series Book Two)
Revelation
(The Forever Series Book Three)
Choices
(The Forever Series Book Four)
The Ties
That Bind (The Forever Series Book Five)
Trials (The
Forever Series Book Six)
Switch (The
Forever Series Book Seven)
The Other
Switch (The Forever Series Book Seven and a half)
Secrets (The Forever Series Book Eight)
Table of Contents
A Note from the Author
The first seven books of the Forever Series are seen
through the perspective of Liv. However, as the title of this book
Secrets
suggests, a whole bunch of them are about to
come out! This means getting into the heads of all the main characters.
Please note that the character changes are done by chapter,
so be sure to note at the beginning of the chapter whose perspective you are reading
“A
wise man is he who keeps his own secrets.” – William Scott Downey
Los Angeles, USA, August 2012 – Jess
Jess had long since stopped listening to her friend
speak. All she was capable of doing was staring at the gorgeous man sitting in
the sun reading a newspaper and drinking a cup of coffee.
“Earth to Jess,” Feenyx said to her, snapping her fingers
in Jess’s face.
Jess pushed her hand away with a frown. Feenyx dropped
her hand and followed where she was looking. “Wow,” she said. “With a capital
‘W’. He is hot.”
“Yeah, no kidding,” Jess mumbled. She scanned her eyes
over him. He was tall, she could tell that even though he was sitting down. His
dark brown hair flopped over his forehead in a really cute way. His face was
worthy of gracing every magazine cover and his hot bod was rocking his
expensive suit in a way that practically made Jess drool. She turned to her
friend. “How do I look?” She smoothed down her tight-fitting top over her
double-D breasts and inched her tiny skirt up her longs legs to make it even
shorter.
“Gorgeous, as usual,” Feenyx said. “But you can’t go over
there. He is way too old for you.”
“Oh please,” Jess scoffed. “He is like twenty-six tops.”
“And you are seventeen,” Feenyx reminded her.
“An experienced seventeen,” Jess said and preened her
long dark hair, proud of her lack of innocence.
“Well then he is pervert if he takes an interest,” Feenyx
insisted, but Jess ignored her. She squared her shoulders and sauntered over to
the table where the man was sitting. She stopped and he looked up at her. His
eyebrow rose over his dark sunglasses and he pulled them down his nose to get a
better look at her. His eyes nearly took her breath away, the clearest blue she
had ever seen. “Hi,” she said softly. “I’m Jess.”
“Devon,” he said as he placed his newspaper on the table
and pushed his sunglasses back up his nose. “What can I do for you, Jess?”
“I was about to ask you the same question,” she said as
she licked her lips and cocked her hip slightly.
He laughed gently at her and she narrowed her eyes at
him. How dare he laugh at her? Guys begged to be with her. Okay, so this guy
was definitely something so far beyond her normal scope, but still. It made her
want him even more now.
“Brazen, aren’t you?” he said as he leaned back in his
chair and crossed his arms. “How do you know I won’t take you back to my lair
and kill you?” He flashed her a toe-curling smile and she faltered a tiny bit,
but her confidence returned when he gave her a top-to-toe appraisal and
obviously liked what he saw. She sat down and crossed her legs, flashing a
large amount of thigh at him, which he definitely appreciated. “You don’t look
the type to have a lair and you definitely don’t look like a killer,” she said
and he laughed again.
“Looks can be deceiving,” he said and his tone sent a
chill down her spine, but at the same time excited her. She did love a bad boy.
“I’ll take my chances,” she said seductively.
“Daring as well as beautiful and brazen,” he said
admiringly and she glowed at the compliment. She had him hooked, now all she
had to do was reel him in.
“And so much more,” she said. “Care to buy me a cup of
coffee and find out?”
He frowned over her shoulder and his demeanor changed
rapidly. He stiffened and shifted his eyes back to hers quickly and said,
“Actually, yes I would like to find out. Give me your number.”
Jess was slightly taken aback. She had expected a bit
more flirting and maybe that cup of coffee before she handed her number over to
him under her own terms. He had demanded it of her and she wondered if perhaps
Feenyx had been right. She hesitated, but then when she thought about all the
things she wanted him to do to her, she handed it over. She was either stupid
or crazy. Probably a bit of both.
“Thanks,” Devon said. “I’ll call you.” He stood hastily
and dismissed her as he practically ran off. Jess watched him go with a frown.
He met up with a beautiful, small, blonde woman in expensive killer heels and a
suit that probably cost more than Jess’s mom’s house. He kissed her on the cheek
and she smiled up at him and took his arm through hers.
“Probably his wife,” Feenyx said, sitting down in the
seat he had vacated.
“Yeah, maybe,” Jess said, but then smiled at her friend.
“But who cares? He said he was interested and that he’d call.”
“Jess!” Feenyx admonished her. “You can’t go after him if
he is married.”
“He wasn’t wearing a ring,” Jess said and shrugged. At
least not a wedding ring. He did have a very pretty silver ring on his thumb.
“And
he
asked for my number, so he wants me too.”
“You gave him your number?” Feenyx yelled at her. “Are
you crazy?”
Jess shrugged again. Maybe she was, crazy for him. Devon.
What a perfect name, for a perfect guy. Jess was going to make it happen for
them, she didn’t care if he was a married psycho killer. She wanted him and she
was going to get him. She didn’t care how, she didn’t care what it took or what
she had to do. She was going to get Devon and god help anyone who got in her
way.
Seven months later
Jess stared at Devon sleeping in their bed halfway across
the world from where she met him. She loved him more than she ever thought
possible. She wasn’t stupid, she knew a lot of her feelings were the bond she
had with him, but she had loved him before he had saved her. She frowned as she
remembered that feeling of utter desperation before she had taken the razor to
her wrists. She had gone to find Devon, she knew he had gone to see that bitch
he called his sire. How Jess had hated her. She hated everything about her,
most especially the hold she had on Devon. She had lingered at the door to the
hotel suite she knew he was in, doing god knows what. He had only told her the
very basics of Vampire life. He had told her enough that she knew she wanted to
be one, but not enough that she really knew how hard it would be. Jess had
pressed her ear against the door and heard him say the words that had driven
her over the edge. They still swirl around in her head now all these months
later: “Oh Christ, Liz. I have missed fucking you.” The thought that he was in
there fucking her was too much to bear and she had run. She had never had an
easy life, and it had made her strong and resilient, but the absolute
desolation had swept over her, overwhelmed her, and she knew without a doubt
what she had to do. It was almost like the thought had been there all along,
worming its way closer to the surface, needing a trigger to set it off. She
swallowed loudly, not wanting to think of that moment. It was the worst moment
of her life, followed closely by the time she had found out that she was almost
identical to Elizabeth. It had coiled around her gut like a snake, squeezing so
tight. She had never hated anyone so much in her entire life as she did in that
moment when she saw them together in Devon’s bed. She clenched her fist and forced
herself to relax. She knew he didn’t want her to be Elizabeth. He had told her
he wasn’t into Substitutes, and she had believed him. Maybe only because he
didn’t want a Substitute, he wanted the real thing, but she accepted it anyway.
She got it now, the sire bond. And besides, not once, even when she was human
and they had got up to all sorts in the bedroom, had he asked to call her by
that name. Tall, big-breasted, dark-haired, blue-eyed women were just his
thing, and she was grateful for that. She was also grateful that Elizabeth was
just a Shift. If Liv looked like that every day, she wouldn’t be able to bear
it.
Devon opened his eyes and smiled at her and she smiled
back. “Hey,” she whispered.
“Hey, what time is it?” he asked.
“Still early. I couldn’t sleep.”
“Everything okay?” he asked her in concern.
She nodded, not wanting to burden him with her dark
thoughts. His eyes searched hers to see if she was telling the truth and it
warmed her that he cared. Oh, he had said the words, but actions spoke louder.
She smiled again to cover up the secrets she was holding onto. Secrets that
would make him look at her twice and not in the loving way he was looking at
her now. Secrets she held that he would consider huge betrayals. But she did it
for him. Everything she did, she did it for him. He was her life and she did it
so they could be together, just the two of them. He kissed her and she
responded eagerly, completely unaware that he was holding onto secrets of his
own: that when his lips touched hers and his tongue brushed against hers and
when he entered her gently, there was only one name that went through his mind,
and it wasn’t hers.
Tuscany, Italy, March 2013 – Liv
“Liv? Liv? Livvie? Fuck, where is she?”
I hear my name being called, I think. It might just be a
dream. I open my eyes to find myself in semi darkness. They adjust quickly to
the gloom and it all comes crashing back to me: The fight with CK, him hurling
me out of the windows, the tower collapsing, and him leaving me here. He left
me here. Alone and broken. The tears prick my eyes and I bring my hand up to
wipe them away. I can move. At least I have healed now. I rearrange myself so
that I am lying flat on my back instead of in a crumpled heap and breathe in
deeply. Dust and bits of stone, blood, and rain. I can smell it all.
“Liv?”
“Livvie?”
I can hear the shouts again. Two voices. Neither one of them
my sire.
I sit up suddenly, pushing the debris from me. At least it
has stopped raining, even though the clouds are still dark and menacing
overhead. I put my hand to my now healed stomach, remembering what he did to
me, and I whimper in spite of myself. I have never seen such violence or hate
on him directed at me. I know that I hurt him over this whole Fae/Sebastian
business, but he just flipped. It was probably--no, definitely--one of the
scariest things I have ever seen. Because I never thought that I would see it.
“There!” I hear Sebastian shout, as I force myself to my
feet. “Liv? What the fuck happened?” He grabs my hand as he clambers over the
chunks of stone and shards of glass. I grip it tightly to steady myself. I meet
his eyes and then wish I hadn’t. The horror shown there, no doubt at my ghastly
appearance, makes me cringe. I try to Shift, to change, but I can’t. I am too
weak, or disorientated, or something. “Livvie, say something. Are you okay?”
Xane appears at my other side, grabbing my elbow as my knees
buckle.
“I’m alive. That’s about it right now. Can you get me out of
this mess?”
Xane picks me up, cradling me in his arms, and carries me
away from the destruction to sit propped up against the low wall leading to the
main gardens. “What the fuck happened here, Liv? And where the Hell is
Constantine?”
“Good question,” Sebastian says as he sits on my other side.
“Where did he go?”
“Beats the shit out of me,” I mumble and then add, “Ironic,
really, seeing as he did beat the shit out of me.”
“What?” Xane and Sebastian ask in unison.
“He did this to you?” Xane gestures at my shredded and bloody
clothes and then at the fallen tower.
“No,” Sebastian says. “He would never do that. Not to you.
Liv?” He questions me, now unsure.
“You know how mad he was at us. After you left, I went to
find him. I know I shouldn’t have,” I say before he can yell at me. “Believe
me, next time I will leave well enough alone. I found him in the tower and he
was so angry. The things he said…” I trail off, the tears threatening to flow
again. “It was worse than what he did,” I whisper and Sebastian pulls me to him
to comfort me.