“It is.” Lucas steps behind me and puts his arms around my waist. “It will be perfect for us once it’s done.”
I spin in his arms and hook mine over his shoulders. “It really will.” Excitement floods through me and a big smile breaks out on my face. “I can’t wait. Being able to wake up with you next to me, to have all our stuff in one place…it’ll be perfect.”
“Only one thing will make it better?”
“And what’s that?” I ask, expecting him to come back with some sort of comment about a sex swing or adding a sex room in the basement.
“We move in together as husband and wife.”
“What?” I heard what he said, but—what?
“I love you, Callie. More than I’ve never loved anyone. For nearly two-thousand years I have lived in darkness. I let it consume me, fill me, until I swore that’s all I could have. And then I met you…I have lived more in the last few months that we have been together than all my time on this earth combined. My heart not be beating, but with you, I’m alive. Marry me.” He steps back and drops down to one knee, pulling a ring from his back pocket. “Be my wife.”
My hands fly to my open mouth and tears pool in my eyes, blurring my vision. My jaw quivers and I can’t get anything intelligible out. Moonlight shines down on the ring, glinting before me.
I nod, happy tears marring my cheeks. “Yes, Lucas,” I finally say and he takes my hand. He slides the ring on my finger, and it fits perfectly. The center stone is a large oval, sandwiched between two circle cut diamonds. The entire band is encrusted with smaller diamonds and it’s so damn sparkly and beautiful. My friends were right about Lucas going all out with an engagement ring.
“I love you so fucking much,” he growls, standing and taking me in his arms.
“I love you too.”
We stand there for a minute, wrapped in each other’s embrace. The bad shit in the world doesn’t disappear, but seems manageable. Because with Lucas, I can get through anything.
“Vampire-human marriage is legal in Michigan,” he tells me, caressing my face with his large hand. He turns my chin up and kisses me. “We’ll have to file paperwork there but as far as the wedding ceremony…we will do whatever you want. Traditional. Vegas. I don’t care as long as I’m with you.”
I pull my hand away and look at the ring again. “I’m engaged,” I say with shock. Happy shock. “And now I get to plan a wedding—and our honeymoon!”
Lucas laughs and pulls me to him again. We kiss once more, and I’m so happy nothing can ruin this moment.
I really need to learn to take my own advice about jinxes.
Lucas snaps his head up, fangs bared, and looks out into the woods with a growl.
“Stay here,” he tells me and zooms forward, jumping over the porch railing and disappearing into the woods. I’m left standing there, still holding my hand in the air to look at my ring.
Heart in my throat, I run down the porch steps. Magic burns around my fingers. “Lucas!” I call. Eyes wide, I start into the woods only to have someone crash into me. It’s Lucas, and he picks me up and carries me onto the porch.
“Unlock the door,” he demands and I wave my hand over it. He slams it shut as soon as we’re in.
“How do you ward off angels?”
“I have no idea.” I shake my head back and forth. “Why?”
Lucas holds out his hand, showing me something I can’t see in the dark. I conjure a string of blue magic and my heart skips a beat. Tossing the energy ball into the air, I take the feather from Lucas’s hand. It’s slightly darker than the last one I found, but has the same feeling.
Divinity.
My stomach bottoms out and it’s like I stepped through thin ice and I’m trapped below the surface.
“Michael warned me that other angels will kill me if they find me.”
Lucas takes the feather back and holds it up to the light. “They found you.”