Epilogue

Six Months Later

Genevieve

A showdown.

That ' s what it was.

I was returning home just as the sun was about to set, elongated shadows spread long and dark from the tombstones in the graveyard. A long dark carpet of darkness cast by the spire above welcomed in. I pushed open the heavy oak door to the sprawling gothic house I now called home.

I sensed him long, long before I saw him. I felt his presence, his simmering energy, before I even reached the driveway. When I focused on him, I could sense him from much greater distances, but when we were close it was not just a vague sense, it was overwhelming. We fully enveloped each other in blankets of our mystical power, weaving them together, uniting our energies.

But this night, Nero did not greet me with red roses, nor black ones. The air was not filled with the heady aroma of perfectly-seasoned steak and roasting vegetables. It was the atmosphere that sizzled, not the meat.

My magical guard strengthened immediately. I was much stronger, much more powerful now than I had been even a couple of months earlier. I could now wield a mighty strength I never knew existed until Nero first came to claim me.

Now, perhaps, I was nearly his match.

When we met he wanted to take everything from me, suck it out until I was an empty husk to be discarded like hundreds before me. But then, he fell for me. Or so I thought.

He stepped from the shadows, grim determination on his face. He was barefoot, wore black jeans, and was shirtless. The last crimson light of the day shone through a window high above, bathing him red with sun-blood.

A chill shimmied down my back as I took in the sight of him. His perfectly sculpted torso in the glowing red light made him look deadly-beautiful.

And he was.

In his hand he grasped a knife, an ancient artifact he picked up in Europe centuries before I was born. I knew this weapon, it was a magical blade, and unlike the ones in the kitchen, this one could seriously hurt me. It could kill me, drain me, destroy me.

" Welcome home, my love." His onyx eyes danced and his voice was thick with an other-worldly timbre.

The last rays of the sun disappeared, his body was shadowed, and we became wraiths in the twilight. I boosted my magical shield until it was thick as molasses as his welcome became a vicious assault.

Nero flew across the floor far faster than any natural being could, knife raised, eyes focused on his target: me .

Was this it? Was he finally going to drain me as he had once planned to do? Would he carve through my shields, knife me in the heart, suck my lifeforce away, and make him the most powerful he ' d ever been? The most powerful being on the planet, perhaps?

He was fast. So, so fast. A flashing blur.

But I was even faster. While he flew at me, I darted to the side so quick that to any mortal observer my movement would have appeared a mere flicker, a teleportation.

He knew my speed and anticipated my move. Even as his body reached my former position, his knife hand had swung out wide, the blade carving through my magical shield, and slicing through the black t-shirt I was wearing. I danced to the side, shrugging off the shirt which had been cut neatly from neck to bottom.

We were both topless now and his eyes feasted on my form. His attack exposed my body and left him distracted enough that I could whip my own hand out, magical tendrils exploding from my fingers and driving into his wrist, forcing his fingers to spread wide open. His grip on the knife was released and the magical weapon dropped gently into my waiting palm.

I danced behind him, far quicker than he could even comprehend. I wrapped one arm tight around his neck and with my other hand I pressed the magic blade against his exposed carotid artery. I breathed in his ear as I slowly drew a line across his neck, releasing blood.

He gasped, and so did I as my breasts pushed into his gorgeous back, my nipples hard.

" Fuck, you ' re good," he said in a whisper. If he spoke any louder, perhaps the knife would cut deeper.

" That ' s why you love me," I whispered back into his ear.

I threw the knife away into the shadows and licked the tiny cut I ' d just sliced into his neck. Strong arms grasped me and swung me around, pulling me in tight. My legs wrapped around him, feeling his hardness pressing against the crotch of my jeans.

Our mouths, our lips, our tongues, met in an explosion of senses as we devoured and consumed each other. Our clothes slipped off, our bodies fell to the floor, and we fucked until it was slick with sweat and we lay back satiated—for the moment—under the moonlight that now bathed us.

He turned his head, whispered in my ear, " I love you so fucking much."

I turned my face to his and we breathed each other ' s breaths. " I know." My lips flickered in a quick smile after a pause just long enough for his eyes to flash with concern. " I love you too."

Our mouths met again as I rolled on top of him.

I ' d never known love until I met Nero, and no one else on the planet could ever have a love like ours. A love forged in magic and violence, running so deep our very energies merged into a combined stormy torrent.

We were beautiful together, in bodily form and magical spirit.

I sucked his tongue and swam in his black eyes.

We would have a thousand, ten thousand nights like this.

Our bright-dark future stretched into infinity.

Bound in magic, blood, and love.

He was mine. I was his.

We were forever.

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