Though the words were meant to soothe, they didn’t lessen Declan’s rigid stance as he stepped out of her way. He remained staring at the wall while Willow strode toward the demon. When she stopped in front of the creature, Declan finally turned away from the wall to face her.
Willow and the demon stared at each other for a long moment. Hatred blazed from the creature’s eyes while Willow kept the tip of the sword pointed at the ground. Her head bowed over the blade as she inhaled a deep breath.
Then she lifted the sword and, with a skilled lunge, plunged it into the demon’s belly. The blow typically wasn’t a mortal one for any vampire, but the sword had changed the rules.
The demon’s jaw clenched, and white fire burned from its eyes. Red fissures raced out from where the sword’s blade embedded inside it. Those fissures spread across its pale skin and raced up to its throat and face.
The jewel in the hilt glowed so brightly that Lucien turned his head away from it. He lifted a hand to shield his eyes and blinked against its brilliance while he watched the demon.
Red and orange flames erupting from its eye sockets replaced the white fire in its eyes. The fire licked toward the demon’s skull before more flames erupted from its mouth. Declan lurched forward and grasped Willow’s arm, but she didn’t step away.
Its body exploded into ashes that sprayed the room. The fine coating of its remains plastered the walls, and them, like blood spraying from a severed artery.
Lucien wiped the ashes from his eyes as he spit away the fine bits clinging to his lips. When he cleared his eyes, he discovered his friends were all coated in the gray substance. Their eyes were the only color emanating from them as they blinked away the remains of the demon, and tried to register what happened.
The squeak of the door sliding open drew his attention to it a second before he spotted Callie and the other mates standing there with their mouths hanging ajar. The glow of the jewel must have drawn them back to the room.
Still standing in front of the chair, and more coated in remains than the rest of them, Willow clasped the hilt in both hands and lowered the sword tip to rest it against the ground. She wiped ash away from her mouth before speaking.
“Next time, I’ll know to duck,” she said.
“Fuck next time,” Declan snarled.
But they all knew there would be a next time. The sword was far too powerful not to wield it as a weapon against their enemies.
No one spoke as the demon’s remains floated through the air and settled on the ground.
Chapter Fifty
Lucien pulledCallie into his arms and nestled her against his chest. Though she was immortal now, she still seemed so small and fragile to him. The Savages and demons could rip her away from him, and their numbers were growing.
However, he didn’t want to think about them as he cradled his mate. It had taken him so long to find her, and he’d never believed it would happen to him. He’d considered himself incapable of love since Coralie’s death, but Callie had taught him that he wasn’t.
He cared for and loved his fellow Defenders. Those emotions had spread to some of the hunters once they forged the Alliance. It was impossible not to care about those he fought beside day in and day out.
He’d never considered his feelings for them to be ones of love before Callie entered his life, but he saw the truth of it now. For centuries, he’d considered himself dead inside, but if he was as dead as he tried to believe, he would have become a Savage years ago.
Callie had made him love more than he ever would have believed possible, and every day, his love for her grew.
No matter what the demons and Savages planned, no matter what the future held for them, he would be eternally grateful he found her.
Resting her head on his chest, Callie listened to the reassuring thump of Lucien’s heart as she gazed at the horse her dad carved for her sitting on the nightstand. She smiled as a sense of peace settled over her. She’d never dreamed of finding a love like this, but then, she never could have suspected the hidden world existing alongside hers all these many years.
Now she realized her world was far more complex and layered than she’d ever known. It had been a frightening revelation, but she would never trade her newfound knowledge for the blissful ignorance of her life before she was kidnapped.
She never could have seen her life going this way, but though the dreams she’d harbored for years were gone, she had many new dreams she looked forward to living out with Lucien at her side. She was terrified of what their future held, but she planned to cherish every second of their time together.
Soon, he would return to the field, and she would start her more intense training to fight the Savages so she could one day join him. She was not looking forward to fighting and killing, but she was excited to make a difference in this battle, and she was determined to do so.
“I love you,” Lucien murmured as he ran his fingers up and down her spine.
Callie shivered in response to his tender touch. “I love you too.”
And she would spend an eternity loving him and fighting for him. She lifted her face, and their lips met in a tender kiss that soon turned into something more.
Epilogue
One year later
