We're going to take it night by night and not look back. We look forward, you and I. We look forward.
She laughed in a quiet burst. "I think that's it for revelations, by the way. You know everything I do about myself. "
Right. . . how to put this, he wondered.
John lifted his hands and slowly signed, Listen, I don't know whether you'd be up for this, but there's a female in this house, Rhage's shellan ? She's a therapist and I know that some of the Brothers have used her to sort things out. I could introduce you to her? And maybe you could talk with her? She's very cool and very discreet. . . and maybe it will help you with the past as well as the future.
Xhex took a deep breath. "You know. . . I've been living with buried shit for so long--and look where it's gotten me. I'm a meathead, but I'm not a moron. Yeah. . . I'd like to meet with her. "
John leaned in and pressed his lips to hers; then he stretched out beside her. His body was exhausted, but his heart was alive with a joy so pure it was like the sunlight he didn't get to see anymore: He was a mute-ass motherfucker with a nasty past and a night job that involved fighting evil and slaughtering the undead. And in spite of all that. . . he'd gotten the girl.
He'd gotten his girl, his true love, his pyrocant.
Of course, he wasn't fooling himself. Life with Xhex wasn't going to be normal on so many levels--good thing he was down with the wild side.
"John?"
He whistled an ascending note.
"I want to get mated to you. Properly mated. Like in front of the king and everyone. I want this to be official. "
Well. . . didn't that just make his heart stop.
As he sat up and looked at her, she smiled. "Jesus, the expression on your face. What? You didn't think I'd want to be your shellan?"
Not in a million years.
She recoiled a little in surprise. "And you were okay with that?"
It was hard to explain. But what was between them went further than a mating ceremony or a back carving or a witnessed exchange of commitment. He couldn't put his finger on the why of it. . . but she was his missing puzzle piece, the twelfth in his dozen, the first and the last pages of his book. And at some level that was all he needed.
All I want is you. However that comes.
She nodded. "Well, I want the whole deal. "
He kissed her again, softly, because he didn't want to hurt her. Then he pulled back and mouthed, I love you. And I'd love to be your hellren .
She blushed. She actually blushed. And didn't that make him feel like he was the size of a mountain.
"Good, then it's settled. " She put her hand to his face. "We're going to be mated now. "
Now? As in. . . now ? Xhex. . . you're having trouble standing.
She looked him straight in the eye, and when she spoke, her voice ached--God. . . how it ached. "Then you would hold me up, wouldn't you. "
He traced over her features with his fingertips. And as he did, for some strange reason, he felt the arms of infinity wrapping around them both, holding them close. . . linking them forever.
Yes, he mouthed. I would hold you up. I will ever hold you up and hold you dear, lover mine.
As he fused their mouths, he thought that was his vow to her. Mating ceremony or not. . . that was his vow to his female.
Chapter Seventy
Tragedy struck during a brutal winter storm, and verily, it was not at all like the long labor of the female on her birthing bed. The ruination took naught but the blink of an eye. . . and yet the ramifications changed the course of lives.
"No!"
The sound of Tohrment's shout snapped Darius's head up from the steaming, slippery newborn in his bare hands. At first, there was no telling what had occurred to cause such alarm. Indeed, there had been much blood during the birthing, but the female had survived the delivery of her offspring unto this world. In fact, Darius was just cutting the cord and going to wrap the young for presentation--