“Okay.” He leaned down, and his lips lovingly moved over mine. “Have I told you how much I love you today, Davina?”
I laughed and then relished as he proceeded to, over and over again. We were still showing our love for each other as the sun dipped down, the moon came out, and still when the early morning started to peek out again.
When it was morning, I fell asleep, but there were no more worries anymore. I was in Roane’s arms again and I knew if I stayed there, all could be handled. When we woke, we packed up. The rest of our group was waiting for us. The goodbyes were spoken. Lily hugged me tightly and I barely managed to hold back tears. She was such a little girl, but I was reassured that she was protected by an entire village. Tracey and Wren said goodbye. Wren decided to stay with the Mori. She would help protect the newest thread-holder and she wouldn’t have to leave her lover again. There was a special goodbye between Lucas and Wren. She had been one of his best warriors for centuries. She would be missed, but it was a good goodbye, not a sad one. He was holding back some of his own tears as he stepped next to me and took my hand. After the last goodbye, the Mori headed for the center of their village. The bells began to toll. Lucan’s execution was near. As the Mori headed past us, we walked the other way.
We left.
We were outside of the village, and the bells had almost faded when a sudden cheer filled the air.
We all stopped. Gavin, Bastion, and Brown. Gregory found his daughter, so she came with us. We glanced back, and then to Lucas.
His brother was dead.
We traveled another mile when we heard a bush rustling. Both Gavin and Bastion drew their swords, but then we heard, “Hey, man. Shit. What’s with the swords? I thought we were all friends.”
“Yeah,” a second voice crawled out. “You told us to stay put and we did. We’ve been chilling for a week and holy cripes,” a pair of eyes found me and widened, “the psycho bitch is back.”
It was Cal and Spencer.
Gavin’s mouth fell open. He groaned, hitting his hand to his forehead. “We completely forgot about these guys.”
Lucas frowned. “Who are these guys?”
All eyes came to me and I laughed, nervously. “Uh . . . so, it’s a long story, you see . . .”
And, as we continued home, I held his hand and told him everything that happened, and it was a long story indeed, but it was a good story. In fact, it was a great story and while Spencer and Cal were finally sent home, I knew this was a story that I would tell our child. The one thing I never told anyone since the beginning was that I was pregnant, and even though I was a vampire now, with Mori magic in me, I was able to give birth to a healthy little girl.
We named her Saren.
Lucas said the wedding could be in his restaurant or the new hotel he bought, but the idea of being indoors hadn’t sat right with me. It hadn’t sat right with me ever since we returned to Benshire. Being captured by Lucan and then again by The Immortal, I’d been yearning more and more to remain outside. It was wintertime, but I still did. The winter didn’t touch me, which was one of the nicer qualities about being a vampire. Still. I was transitioning to my new state in life. I was free. I was a vampire. I was going to be a wife, and feeling my hair getting tugged, I looked down at the best transition in my life. I was a mother.
Saren waved her plump hands in the air and started to tip back, laughing. She didn’t go far. I had her tucked in my arm so her head hit my arm lightly, but she loved it. Peals of more laughter filled the air.
“Is she hungry?”
Pippa asked the question, eager, but Brown was right next to her. Since we got back, Brown had been wonderful. She’d been by my side the entire time, making sure I was okay. Pippa came for Saren’s birth, and she stuck around. She was going to try college again. So was Brown. Both had dropped out because of my captivity. I knew that was the elephant in the room. They wanted me to go with them, but neither asked yet. Vampires could go. It’s where I met Lucas. We could walk in the light. We could do almost everything a human did, but it was different.
I had to mourn not being a human. Going to college—it would be in my face every day. I would never grow old, weak, diseased . . . and I was an idiot. I was grieving not being fat? I was a vampire. They were always gorgeous and since my transformation, I’d gotten the gloss over too. It wasn’t that my looks were totally changed, but my skin was clearer. My eyes darker. My hair was shinier. I was already slender, but I became more toned.
Saren started kicking her legs and gurgling.
This one, my hold on her tightened, she was worth it. Everything. If I hadn’t spent so much time with the Mori, Lucas’s sperm in me wouldn’t have taken root. I was human, but he wasn’t. It was their magic, just being in their lands, that helped make Saren possible.