At their nods, she gave them more vials.
When she gave Ruby hers, she asked, “You’ll speak to Teona?”
“Yup,” Ruby answered.
Barb gave her a second vial.
In their thoughts, preparing for what was to come, they all went to the blessed instruments sitting on Barb’s bed, chose one, and moved toward the door.
“See you in your dreams,” Barb called to their departing backs.
Ruby, the last one out, caught her gaze.
“See you in your dreams, my beloved sister,” she whispered.
Then she closed the door.
The minute she did, Barb went to the bed, made her choice and slipped the blade under her pillow. She would sleep with her hand around the handle.
Then she did what she very much as a mother did not want to do but had to.
She left her room to find her daughter.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Pray with Me
Leah
Lucien moved his lips and tongue at my neck where I knew the wounds he’d given me but moments before were gone.
He lay atop me, one arm curved around my back, the fingers of his other hand laced in mine and pressed to the bed at our sides.
He was still buried deep inside me, unmoving, keeping us connected, giving me much of his weight, his warmth. His fingers tangled in mine, holding so fast that the rings he’d given me as a symbol of everything that was us dug into the base of my fingers.
He’d also marked me so our hearts were beating as one.
Beauty.
As for me, with the one arm I had free and both my legs, I held him tight to me.
“We’re going to be okay,” I whispered in his ear.
He lifted his head to look down at me.
He was troubled.
I hated to see his face that way. In fact, I wasn’t certain, even with all that had happened, that I’d ever actually seen his face that way.
The Mighty Vampire Lucien, who was the strongest, fastest, and smartest of his kind, didn’t get troubled.
I knew he was worried about the fate of humanity.
I knew he was more worried about the fate of me.
“We’re going to be okay, darling,” I repeated.
“I’m almost a millennium old and I’ve only known true happiness since the moment I laid eyes on you at your Selection, doing it knowing you would finally be mine.”
I felt my eyes start burning and swallowed.
He dipped his face closer. “I cannot lose you, sweetling.”
“You won’t lose me,” I promised.
He pulled his arm from around me to lift his hand to my face. Using his thumb, he traced around my temple, my cheekbone, along the side of my nose, across my lips, his eyes watching, his other hand continuing to hold mine tight.
Then his gaze caught mine, and at the fire in his, I held my breath.
“If you are lost to me, I vow to you, I will go down fighting.”
“Darling,” I breathed.
“But I will go down,” he continued. “I cannot live without you, Leah. And I will not.”
“Don’t say that,” I urged quietly but fiercely. “Your children. Isobel. Julian. Your mother—”
“They’ll understand.”
I lifted my free hand to his face too, cupping the side, digging the pads of my fingers in.
“And if I lose you, do you think I shouldn’t go on?”
“You won’t,” he stated. “Eventually, this world will be deprived of your beauty. Your spirit. Your humor. It’s natural for you to find your end. So you will carry on until that time comes. But I would be sentenced to an eternity without any of that. And I know in my soul I cannot face it.”
That was beautiful (most of it).
I still hated it.
“You made a vow to me,” I reminded him. “Until the sun falls from the sky.”
“Leah—” he groaned, my name sounding torn from him.
“You are vampire,” I hissed. “You cannot break your vow.”
“You’re right, I cannot,” he agreed. Then he devastated me. “Unless I’m forced to do so.”
Suddenly, I couldn’t abide this conversation.
“It’s a waste of time to talk about this,” I declared. “We’ll survive. We’ll prevail. We’ll have a family and we’ll live happily ever after.”
“I do hope you’re correct, sweetheart.”
I lifted my head off the pillow. “Hope hard, Lucien darling, because that’s what we have. And hope is beautiful. It’s also strong. It will guide us to victory.”
His eyes burned into mine before he bent his head and took my mouth in a searing kiss.
When he was done making both our hearts beat faster, he gently slid out. He rolled me to rest on top of him as he reached to turn out the light. Then he moved us to our sides, facing each other, and gathered me close.
“Sleep, my pet,” he murmured.
“Only if you do too,” I replied.
There was a smile in his voice when he said, “I will.”
I cuddled closer, wrapping my arms tight around him. “Good.”
“I love you, Leah.”
I closed my eyes and pressed a kiss to his chest.
Then I whispered, “I love you too, Mighty Vampire Lucien.”
It would turn out to be a boon from the fates that the last thing I heard before I fell asleep was my mate chuckling.
* * * * *
Sonia
After they’d finished making love, Sonia sat astride her handsome wolf, his cock still planted inside her, his knees angled, cocooning her, his torso up, his arms around her, big hands moving soothingly along the skin of her back, his face buried in her chest, his chin resting at the vee of her breasts.