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I pulled my friend into a hug. “You couldn’t know, Claire. It’s okay.”
She pulled back and offered a smile.
“Can you do something for me?” I asked, my voice breaking. “Can you give Myra a message?”
Claire nodded.
“Can you tell her I’m sorry that I failed her?” I started crying as I said the words.
Claire shook her head, starting to sob. “She says you didn’t fail her. She’s so proud of you and she loves you so much.”
I could hardly see Claire through my tears. “Tell her I love her too.”
“Ellie, she already knows. She never once doubted your love for her.”
I sucked in several deep breaths to regain control and offered her a sad smile. “Thank you.” I cast a long glance toward Collin.
“It’s okay,” she said. “Go to him.”
After I made my way to the back of Collin’s truck, I hopped up on the tailgate next to him. “You were a hero tonight. Who would have thought?” I teased as I wiped my stray tears, leaning my shoulder into his. “You’re just full of surprises.”
“I meant it about finding the demon that killed your mother. I don’t want you to think I purposely let it go.”
“I know you didn’t.” I slipped my hand in his, lacing our fingers together.
He didn’t answer for several seconds, just watching the now smoldering house. “Our connection is different. It changed tonight. I didn’t feel you. Did you really not feel me?”
“No.” And my hormones were under control even though we were sitting next to each other. If this lasted, it would make our lives infinitely easier. “Did you mean it about David being part of us now?”
“There’s no denying that he can find things we can’t. We need him.” He glanced over at the man I loved. “If he’s open to it, of course.”
“He is.”
“And Claire?” he asked, turning back to me and studying my face.
“I guess she’s one of us too. Part of our team.”
A smirk lifted his mouth. “I’ve never been much of a team player.”
My eyebrows lifted and a grin spread across my face. “Why does that not surprise me?”
He turned serious again.
A new thought hit me. “Are you okay with being part of a team?”
He sighed, his gaze on our joined hands. “For the first time, I feel like I belong to something important.” His deep brown eyes lifted to mine. “Do you know what I mean? Like we’re supposed to save the world even though no one realizes it.”
“Yeah, I know exactly what you mean.”
His smart-ass grin spread across his face. “We’ll need shirts. I think they should say ‘Team Collin.’”
I snorted. “Not a chance.”
Several minutes later David joined us, and I sat between the two most important men in my life, the two men who would help me fight the evil that was still growing and waiting to rise up and strike innocents.
We stayed until the fire was completely extinguished, wisps of smoke rising as fireman began to poke around the debris. The rising sun shot streaks of reds and pinks along the horizon. A new day was about to begin.
The first day of my new life.
