Page 117 of When Bones Whisper

He groaned into her hair, one hand running down her side, caressing a stroke over her hip, then her thigh. She closed her eyes and rolled herself against his touch, every flicker of touch between them spreading sensations so strong it felt as if the tingles were going to devour her alive.

“What do we do now?” Charlotte asked, smiling against him.

“What do you want to do, my love?”

“Apart from having you explore my new immortal body?” she asked with a teasing bite against his lips. “After everythingthat has happened, I just want to get away from here for a while,” she said, craving more of the novelty that flooded her body.

“I’ll take you anywhere you want to go,” he vowed, fingers sliding up her thigh, head bowed against hers. ”But first,” he said, running his fangs over her neck, leaving a path of tingles scorching down her throat. “I’m taking you home. Toourhome.”

“To Sallow Manor?”

“Everything I have is yours, my love.”

She ran her tongue over the fangs receding in her gums, her stomach lurching when she realized how much he had lost. “I’m sorry I couldn’t break your curse,” she said, hooking her arms around his neck. “But there is always a way out and we’ll find it, so you can be mortal again.”

With a sudden movement, he lifted her up, so she had to wrap her legs around his hips. Holding her up by the curves of her ass, he pressed his forehead against hers and said, “I realize now it was never mortality I was searching for. It was redemption; it waslove. Being a vampire no longer feels like a punishment with you by my side, not when I get to wake up every day without fear of a death that might separate us.”

“I love you, Nathaniel,” she whispered. “In case you did not know.”

“I do now.” He brushed his nose to hers, eyes closing softly. “And I love you too. I am yours. I have been from the moment I tasted your soul when I fed on you that first night and I will be, forever.”

Epilogue

Delanie

There was nothing worse than a happy ending.

Darkness pulsed through every fractured reflection in Lovett Manor as Delanie pressed her fingers to the window, watching through the reflection as the pair finally returned after months of traveling.

Charlotte and Nathaniel had no idea what was coming for them.

Soon, the Lovett men would be just like her. Their desire for revenge intensified daily, and their combined darkness infused into the bones of the house, and the two demons that had escaped lingered close by, awaiting her instruction.

Delanie glared at them as Nathaniel and Charlotte strode outside, hand-in-hand, to watch the sunset, his smile far too wide for her liking. He was just as evil as a demon. Their onlydifference was Delanie accepted who she was, whereas Nathaniel ran from the shadows of his desires, like a coward.

Together, with Delanie as the most powerful witch, and him as the first vampire, they could have had it all.No matter. One day soon, she was going to remind him just how similar they were.

Snorting, Delanie bared her teeth as she watched the relief washing over him as he watched the sunset for the first time in centuries, bathing in the rays that would weaken his abilities. He had become foolish in his infatuation with the girl, his arms wrapped around her, watching the sun with unearned confidence. They really believed they were safe, that their enemies were all vanquished.

Didn’t he know his sacrificial lamb was still bound for the slaughter? Such a soft-hearted creature could never survive him. Kindness was a trait found in the losing side and that girl was making him weak. She’d even persuaded him to turn that dull servant of his into a vampire. He used to choose only the strongest to be blessed with such power, and now he was letting any old thing become one of them.

Anticipation throbbed through her, excitement widening her grin as Delanie sensed the familiar, burning pull of her sigil pulling her toward the next person who had been hexed with the sigil of the Smiling Woman.

She left Lovett Manor, following the path of the hex to an old butcher’s shop in central London to find her victim, fingers diving into her golden curls, tears streaming from her brown eyesas she cried over the corpse of her brother, murdered by Nathaniel Sallow in retaliation of her betraying them.

Charlotte stupidly believed he allowed the witch to leave with no punishment, but Delanie knew his nature better. Nathaniel would never allow a traitor to leave unscathed and now she was primed for revenge.

Finally.Katherine Ellenwood. They were going to have so much fun together.