Trials (The Forever Series, Book 6) (18 page)

He comes suddenly as he pulls back and I kiss him deeply.

We both fall asleep sometime after that for a couple of
hours, wrapped around each other and I dream. I know this time I am dreaming.
Each time this has happened I seem to become more aware that it is in fact a
dream. Or at least that something is off and it’s not quite real. This I know
is a dream. I know because he tells me.

I am lying on a bed, which one? It takes me a minute to
figure out I am in the tower room at Lance’s Castle.

“It may be just a dream,” he says idly, “but I can still
sense your fear and it is intoxicating.”

I try to move but I can’t. I am pinned in place by forces
I don’t even know about.

He comes to sit next to me and peers down at me. “If you
hadn’t tried to discover more about these dreams. If you had kept them to
yourself and left it alone, we could have played a bit longer. You liked it at
the beginning. You loved it when we made love. I do wish our sire hadn’t
interrupted us when you were Emily. So pretty and I wanted to take you that
way,” he sulks.

I try to speak, to tell him to fuck off and he will never
have me again, but I can’t. Nothing comes out and I am helpless. At his mercy
once again. No, he isn’t Lance. He isn’t Lance. He isn’t Lance. I start my
mantra and he just sighs at me. “So strong. But not strong enough.” He extends
his claws as his fangs drop and he runs just one down in between my breasts,
drawing blood, all the way down to my stomach. “I wish you didn’t heal,” he
muses to himself. “I wish I could brand you and not have it heal.” He draws a
big “L” around my belly button and I cringe in desperation at this act that he
used on me in the past. I struggle to get free of the bonds holding me but I
just can’t move an inch. He smiles cruelly at me and declares, “You won’t heal,
not from this. You will have this on you all the time. For you to see every day
for eternity. For all your lovers to see that I made you mine in ways they
cannot.” He runs his fingers around the letter and wipes the blood away and
licks his finger. I feel the blood well up again and trickle down my side. I am
not healing. This is just a dream. I will wake up and it won’t be there. Oh
Constantine, please help me. Please get me to wake up.

“He won’t come for you,” Lance says confidently. “He
can’t hear you calling to him. Just like he couldn’t hear you last time.” He
trails his claws down lower and I try to push my legs closer together as I know
what he is going to do. He chuckles at me and pushes my legs open. “I have been
trying to help you, my dear,” he says as he flicks his claws over me and I
wince. “I have been trying to show you what our sire is really like. What he is
doing to you. For some reason you don’t seem to remember the visions.” He
frowns. “Do you not remember what he did to Vivienne?” he asks before he
plunges his fist full of claws forcefully into me, ripping me apart and
breaking my pelvic bone in the process of such a violent assault to me. I
scream out loud now. I scream at the top of my voice, “Constantine, please help
me! Please, please help me!”

I am pulled into a sitting position by my sire with
Lincoln’s hand at my back, “Aefre!” he says to me desperately. “What is it?”

I blink at him and quickly look down, bringing my hand first
to my, thank the old gods, unscathed stomach and then in between my legs where
I am also unharmed.

“What did he do to you?” he says quietly as he watches my
hand cup myself protectively and I magick up a blanket to wrap around myself.
This action in itself has them both overly concerned and they both shuffle
back, giving me a bit of space.

“Nothing,” I say shortly, not wanting to relive the horror.

“Aefre…” Constantine starts but Lincoln shushes him.

“Leave her be.” He risks putting his hand on my shoulder in
a comforting gesture and I reach up to pat his hand.

“I’m fine. Just give me a minute.”

They both nod and head out to the sitting room and I curl up
in a ball on the bed and cry. I try to muffle my sobs with the soft blanket but
they both have super hearing and know what I am doing. I can sense them both
hovering at the doorway and I Astral myself into the shower, and still with the
blanket wrapped around me turn on the jets. I turn the hot tap all the way up
and even though the steam is coming thick and fast from the scalding water I
can barely feel the warmth. I sit and just let the water pound down onto me.
Xane. I need Xane. I can feel his heat and right now my soul is completely
shattered and I need healing. Within seconds he is at my side, hissing at the
heat from the water but pulling me to him anyway and wrapping his arms around
me. I relax. I can feel the heat seeping into me now. It is searing as he is
burning under the boiling water and I flick my hand up to turn it down to
midway. “Sorry,” I mumble.

“Don’t be. What is going on?”

“I just needed to feel you.”

“Oh?” he says with a sly look that in spite of myself makes
me smile.

“Your heat. You are the only one I can feel heat from. I
needed to feel that.”

“Hm, well, happy to help.”

“How did you know I wanted you?”

“Our bond, my love. I sensed your desperation. Is it The
Thirteen? Have they been messing with you again?”

I nod. “It was bad,” I whisper and he pulls me to him again
but doesn’t question me further.

After a few moments, the bathroom door opens and CK and
Lincoln peek in and then rush through the door as they see me sat in the shower
with Xane holding me.

“Where did you come from?” CK asks rudely.

“She needed me, I came,” he says just as rudely.

Lincoln reaches into the shower and turns the taps off. “She
was cold,” Lincoln says to CK. “She can feel the heat from him.”

I blink up at him as he holds his hand out for me to stand.
I take it, careful to keep the soggy blanket around me, and ask, “How do you
know?”

He traces my face with his hand. “You don’t have your blocks
up,” he says softly, looking at me with such sorrow that I know he knows what I
dreamt.

Chapter 9

I tear my eyes away from Lincoln and CK is looking at me
sadly. He can see the bond I have with Lincoln and now he knows I have a
seemingly special one with Xane as well. He thinks he is going to lose me but
he won’t. I open my mouth to reassure him but he shakes his head at me, “You
should get changed, my love.” He glares at Xane, “So should you.”

Xane clicks his fingers and instantly he is changed and dry
and puts his hand on my shoulder and changes me into… I look down and roll my
eyes. “Really?” I gesture at myself, regaining some of my composure. He has
dressed me in loose black sweats, a tight vest top, and an oversized black
hoodie.

He shrugs and says, “Casual is a good look on you. You may
pick your own shoes.”

“Bare feet is fine, thank you,” I say. Again I am bewildered
that I prefer my bare feet. If I go anywhere near a kitchen, future me is in
for a world of hurt.

“I think you should go now,” Lincoln says to both of them.
“Liv needs to rest.”

“I think that is the last thing she needs,” Xane says
cautiously, unsure how much authority he has over this situation.

“I said rest, not sleep. I can assure you she is not going
back to sleep on my watch,” Lincoln growls at him and they both go on edge.

“Aefre, this is serious. We should talk about it,” CK says,
taking my hand.

“We will. Later. I am here with Lincoln and we need to spend
some time together. Please. I will catch up with you later. I promise,” I say
to him with a smile to take the sting out of my words.

He nods and pulls me to him, “Are you okay?”

“Yes, I am fine. Honestly. It was just a dream,” I say
brightly. Too brightly, and I am not fooling him.

He nods anyway and Teleports out, face impassive. Xane, not
too bothered now that our connection is cementing itself somewhat, gives me a
bone-crushing hug. “You know I will be here in a heartbeat if you need me,” he
says.

“Thank you,” I say, stepping back, and he Astraports himself
away.

“Liv?”

“Yes, Linc.”

He hesitates. I know he wants to ask about Xane but changes
his mind and takes my hand, “Come, sit with me for a bit.” He leads me out to
the sitting room and pulls me onto his lap, circling me with his big strong
arms and I sigh, content.

“I won’t tell anyone,” he says quietly, stroking my hair.

I look up at him and smile gratefully. “Thank you. You know
what they are like.”

He chuckles, “I do. There will be lots of posturing and
bristling going on. Duels to the death and all that.”

I frown at him, “Oh, I thought you meant about the dream.”

He narrows his eyes at me, “That goes without saying, V.A.
You know I will keep that to myself. You don’t even have to ask.”

“I love you, Linc. You are so easy to be around. I can tell
you anything and you don’t judge or over react or make demands.” I sigh. “I am
glad that I can talk to you.”

“I am glad too. Everything you tell me is our secret. I love
our conversations,” he says and I smile, remembering when we first got back to
L.A. we used to spend hours talking, learning about each other. I have told him
things that I haven’t been able to tell anyone else and he will never tell.
“You can tell me anything. If you want to talk about the dream, I will listen.”

I shake my head, “No, I don’t want to.”

“Fair enough, but if you do. And with regard to the other
matter, I won’t interfere but do be careful. The intensity of what I felt
between you two is staggering. It is going to cause you problems with the
others.”

“I don’t love him,” I state. “I am not involved with him.”

“Maybe, not yet. But he loves you and you are connected by a
blood bond.”

“I am trying to break it,” I insist.

“I told you I’m not going to interfere. I just want to you to
be careful. Your sire will most likely rip his head off if he ever found out
just how strong your bond is.”

I relax against him again now and we sit in silence for a
few moments. “It won’t work,” he says.

“What won’t work?” I ask.

“Between you and me, it won’t work.”

I sit upright and spin to face him. “You are breaking it off
with me?” I ask incredulously, a wave of fury rising up in me.

“What?” he asks, confused. “No, Liv. Christ no! I mean the
baby thing. It won’t work. You don’t have to worry about it.”

“What?” I say, now shaking my head.

“You still haven’t put your blocks up. I am trying not to
pry but your thoughts pull me in,” he says apologetically.

“Humph, sure. I bet you are having a field day digging
around in my brain,” I grump as I throw my blocks up, pulling my face at him.

He chuckles, “Hardly. I told you that first day that your
thoughts move at super speed. No wonder you are exhausted half the time.
Seriously though, if that is something you are planning with him, be sure that
you want him in the everlasting sense.”

“I do.”

He nods. “As I said, you don’t have to worry about us.”

“I’m not worried, just concerned. We had kids in the
alternate universe,” I say with a slight smile.

“Yes, you also had kids with Xane and Cade as well as
someone called ‘Finn.’ I didn’t get who that was. Someone you obviously haven’t
met yet,” he says wryly.

“What?” I squeak in horror. “Finn? She said that? No, no,
no.” I shudder. That woman is a devil.

“No, I read it off her. You know someone called Finn?
Obviously her blocks don’t work in this universe. Horrible creature. I thank
god you are nothing like her.”

I chew my lip and murmur, “Hm.” I ignore his question about
Finn, still wanting to keep my Dragon buddy to myself. “I worry that I will
turn into her. She has been Queen for over five hundred years. What if in five
hundred years I’m like that?”

“You won’t be, my love. There is no way any of us will allow
you to turn into that,” he says in disgust.

God, I hope you are right.

“What if she is the real me and we are in the alternate
universe?” I voice this awful thought.

“Not a chance. You are the real you and I am the real me.”

“Mm, I want to feel the real you,” I say suddenly, pushing
my hand in between us and stroking him. He is rock hard within seconds but pushes
me away.

“No, Liv. After what you experienced before…”

“Yes, Linc. I need to get rid of that image. I need you to
get rid of it for me. Please.” I look up at him from lowered lashes and he
can’t resist me.

“Take your clothes off. The regular way. I want to watch
you,” he says gruffly.

Mm, a striptease. Too bad my outfit is the least sexiest
thing ever. But a girl has to work with what she’s got. I slowly and
seductively get rid of the clothes and his eyes are burning into mine by the
time I am naked. He slowly strips off his t-shirt and my eyes rake over his
abs, so fine I want to drool all over him. He shuffles out of his sweats and I
move closer to him. He kisses my stomach softly, trailing his tongue over the
spot where Dream Lance had branded me. I turn around and lower myself onto his
lap and he groans in delight at this position. He grabs my hips and lowers me
gently onto him and then grabs my tits, roughly tweaking my nipples until I
gasp. I move over him and he brings his hand around to play with me. He takes
the opportunity to bite me again and I clap my hand to his as I come and we
both feel me against our hands.

“Show me how much you love me,” I whisper to him and he
does. Again and again until night falls and I have somewhere else to be.

I am reluctant to leave him. I want to stay but I know I
can’t. I have to get back to Cole.

“I contacted the Shifters,” he says suddenly, grabbing my
hand to stop me from leaving.