Jetty pointed at Vesper’s body and said, “I’m not carrying that,” with so much disgust in his voice that we all started laughing, including Lysandro and Ego.
“How do you feel?” I whispered when we had a moment alone.
“Exhausted. Relieved. Hopeful.” He stared at me from beneath his half-lidded eyes and continued with, “In love.”
I felt my cheeks flush, but I didn’t shy away from the truth. “Glad we’re on the same page.”
“Yeah?” he asked.
“Oh yeah.” I leaned in, kissing him gently. “I am so in love with you, baby vamp.”
Lysandro let out an exaggerated sigh. “Thank goodness you both finally realized it. I really wasn’t sure how to handle telling you that you’re fated mates when I couldn’t quite tell if you even knew that you liked each other.”
Both our mouths dropped open as we stared at him. “Fated mates?” I asked weakly.
“Well, of course. It’s part of the vampire-anchor bond.”
Sky cackled with laughter, and I…well, I was just glad I’d finally found a home. Not a house. Not a town. But an extremely interesting, extraordinary, sound witch vampire man.
“We should do the official ceremony as soon as possible,” Lysandro continued.
A ceremony? Excitement jolted through me. That was so cool.
Ego’s head tilted as he regarded me skeptically. “I heard your pulse spike. You actually want that? Something to make this official?”
I bit my lip, trying to downplay how cool I thought it was, but Ego winked, smiling knowingly. “Tomorrow night?” he asked.
“Sure, whatever,” I said as casually as possible.
“You could do it now,” Lysandro said.
“Absolutely not,” Sky snapped, inserting himself into the conversation. “Look around. We arenotdoing it surrounded by all this blood.”
I looked around at all the blood and gore. He had a point, but…this was it. This was my life with Ego, and I was here for it.
The ceremony was happening as soonas everyone arrived. Lysandro had informed us that it was our choice who came, but we needed at least two witnesses. He wouldn’t be one of them since he’d perform it. If he’d told us about this from the beginning, we’d have one hundred percent known that this was a fated mates thing.
“I hope they get here soon,” Ego growled. My poor baby vamp was a little cranky. Drinking the goblet of Lysandro’s blood and feeding on me yesterday meant he hadn’t woken up quite so hunger-starved, but the longer he was awake, the more I felt like he was looking at me like a juicy piece of steak.
Lysandro breezed through the door at the same time the sounds of tires sounded outside. “Sorry we’re late. Harry and Rosie insisted that we have a reception afterward, so there was a lot of last-minute scrambling to get everything together.”
He hadn’t been kidding. As our family walked in with big smiles on their faces, they all carried trays of food. Sucked to be Ego and his aversion to spitting out ash because I was going to enjoy every bit of this. The worst thing about not living at the manor was missing out on Harry’s and Buck’s food. I didn’t mind cooking, but it wasn’t as much fun preparing meals for one.
Ego slipped his hand in mine, and I side-eyed him. Yeah, who cared about any of that? This vampire-witch was mine, and he was worth any mild inconveniences that might crop up. He was worth everything. As everyone bustled around us, getting everything set up, I felt Ego’s rising impatience. He needed blood.
Stepping forward, I clapped my hands together once—loudly. “You can finish the rest of that up later. We need to get this show on the road.”
Lysandro’s gaze moved to Ego, and his face pinched. “Yes, yes. Let’s not forget why we’re here. All of this can wait. Everyone, gather round.”
Ego and I followed him to the center of the room, and all assembled, including our ghost family, gathered in a half-moon behind us.
“Ambiance, please,” Lysandro said.
Rosie, Elyse, Sky, Chance, and Booker raised their hands and the lights dimmed, the room taking on an ethereal feel and a hum of energy vibrated around the room.
“We’re sealed off in our own bubble,” Delaney said.
When I looked over to smile at her, I noticed Benji hovering behind the fae. He grinned, giving me a little wave, and I couldn’t help but smile back. I was glad he and Booker had come. They were new faces, but welcome all the same.
