"I love you." The words came easier this time. "I've loved you for longer than I realized. And I am sorry I said what I said." The confession tumbled out. "About you only wanting me because of the bond. I didn't mean it. I was scared and lashing out and?—"
"I know." He pressed a kiss to my forehead. "I know why you said it, and I understand. But Talin, listen to me." He waited until I met his eyes. "I also meant what I said. I wanted you before fate intervened. The bond just made it impossible to deny what was already there."
"I've spent so long hating myself," I whispered. "My body, my scars, my lack of magic. I convinced myself no one could truly want me. That the mate bond was the only reason you'd even look at me."
"Then I'll love you enough for both of us until you learn to see what I see."
Before I could respond, Elias rolled us so I was beneath him. "Let me show you," he said quietly.
Elias's mouth claimed mine, the kiss a gentle storm of tenderness and desperation. He whispered against my lips, "I'm just as scared, little witch. You terrify me, complete me, make me feel human again."
Our bodies moved in slow harmony, no urgency driving us, just the gentle exploration of each other. The world narrowed to the soft caress of his skin, the beat of his heart, the love that flowed between us like a river.
And when he entered me, our bodies moved together like we were always made to be joined this way. Tears pricked my eyes as my emotions overwhelmed me, then slowly rolled down my temples.
Elias paused, his dark eyes locking onto mine, reading every flicker of emotion as if my soul was laid bare. "You're everything," he murmured, his voice breaking ever so slightly, raw with the pain of his own guarded heart finally cracking open. I clutched at him, my fingers digging into his back, pulling him closer as sobs built in my chest, not from sorrow, but from the overwhelming rush of being wanted, truly wanted, for the first time. Each thrust was a promise, a silent vow that my broken pieces didn't make me less, but somehow more, his rhythm slow and deliberate, like he was etching his love into my very bones.
He buried his face in my neck, his breath ragged against my skin. "I've been so empty for so long," he confessed, his words muffled, but laced with a heartache that mirrored my own. "You fill me up, Talin. You quiet the chaos inside of me."
My heart shattered and reformed in that moment, emotions crashing like waves. Fear giving way to fierce joy. Self-doubt dissolving under the heat of his acceptance. I arched into him, whispering his name, tears spilling down my temples to soak into my hair as we climbed together, the bond pulsing between us, raw and unbreakable.
Afterwards, we lay tangled together, his hand tracing lazy patterns on my bare shoulder. My chest heaved with quiet sobs I couldn't quite contain, the release of years of buried pain mingling with the warmth of his body against mine. He held me through it, his own eyes glistening, as if my healing was mending something fractured within him too.
"What happens now?" I asked quietly.
"Now?" Elias pressed a kiss to my hair. "Now we figure out this life together. Now I learn how to be human again, and you learn how to control your threadwalking, and we both learn how to live with this bond without fighting it."
"Sounds complicated."
"Everything worth having is."
I sniffed. "Sleep," I whispered. "You need to heal."
"Stay with me."
"Always."
We drifted off together, wrapped in morning light and the certainty of our bond. Outside my window, New Orleans woke to a new day. Alex was safe. Marcus was gone. And Elias—my impossible, stubborn, perfect mate—was alive.
For the first time since my diagnosis at fourteen, I didn't feel broken.
I felt whole.
Epilogue
Dae-Jung
I'd seen a lot of weird shit in my two hundred years as a vampire. Watched empires rise and fall, seen plagues sweep through cities, witnessed humans invent technologies that would have been considered witchcraft in my human days.
But I'd never seen a vampire turn human again.
Yet there was Elias, sitting at the bar of The Purple Fang. Which he'd walked to in the sunlight. Actual fucking sunlight from the setting sun. His skin wasn't smoking or burning. He just sat there, drinking coffee like some basic tourist, while Talin leaned against him, her fingers intertwined with his.
"Stop staring, Dae," Elias said without turning around. "It's creepy."
"Says the ex-vampire." I cocked my head, listening to his new heartbeat. "How's mortality treating you? Enjoying solid food?"
Elias gave me a withering look. "Gods, I'd forgotten how much you talk."
