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Then, I captured her mouth with mine, kissing her hard as I pounded into her. Raika moaned against my mouth and her nails clamped my shoulders, holding on tight.
“Oh, Shane, keep going …”
I increased my rhythm. “Like this?”
Her eyes closed, she moaned in acknowledgment.
One, two, three thrusts and she cried out, coming around me. And with another one, two, three thrusts, I came too.
Raika’s body went limp over me, her face tucked into my neck, her hot breath tickling my skin. I wrapped my arms around her, enjoying how well we fit together.
“I’m happy like this,” she whispered.
I held her ever tighter. “I know what you mean.”
28
SHANE
Raikaand I didn’t sleep that night. After making love twice, we snuggled in bed until the sun rose. When we left the room, we learned Dot had died soon after Lavinia had drained her blood, and they had burned her body at once to make sure nothing crazy happened—like a bloody witch coming back from the dead.
Then Raika and I went back to the house to have breakfast with my siblings.
When we entered the house, Minsi and Tyren were still in their beds and Rue was organizing the kitchen.
She hugged me tight. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”
The gentleness of her voice and her touch took me by surprise and I found myself leaning into her, welcoming her embrace. We were still so young, and none of us had our parents here anymore. Rue was the oldest, most parent-like figure we had around, and now I realized how much she actually fit those shoes.
It didn’t take long for Minsi and Tyren to hear us and come running.
“So?” Tyren asked from across the room.
I smiled at them. “The curse is gone.”
Relief washed over his features. We called Dom and Lucille to come over for breakfast, and later Killian and Lavinia also showed up. We were having a sort of early breakfast celebration.
The curse was gone.
I couldn’t believe it.
One less thing to worry about.
I glanced around the table. Raika sat to my right, her hand secured in mine. Minsi was beside her, then Rue. Tyren was on my left, followed by Dom, and Lucille. On the other table end, Lavinia and Killian squeezed in with chairs from the kitchen table.
Everyone chatted and ate and laughed. My heart squeezed at the sight. I liked this. Now we needed to be able to hold on to this.
I wished we could stop time and be like this forever. Ignore the rest of the world and live on our own. Create another barrier and hide within to keep us all safe.
But we had tried that before, hadn’t we? Even then, the barrier hadn’t protected us.
We couldn’t hide forever.
There was a war brewing not far from here, against a demon who had messed with us, and from whom I still wanted some kind of justice.
I would allow us a couple of days of respite.
“We should celebrate,” I said. Everyone stopped talking and turned to me. “We haven’t celebrated anything in a long time. I know we've lost too much, we've suffered for too long, but we need to stop and appreciate what we have, who we have, and celebrate even the little things.”
