Page 89 of Protecting His Vampire Mate

Oh, I said. It was such a small word, considering that it held months of fear and shame, those emotions abruptly rewriting themselves into something else entirely in the span of a single moment.

The man who did this to us saw you as nothing more than a tool. You have proven him wrong a dozen times over. She paused. I don’t say this for me, but I know you must hear it, so I will say it, nonetheless. I forgive you.

Something snapped inside of me at her words. Some last piece of darkness and hurt and terror and pain dissolved. And I collapsed to my knees, doubled over with the sudden emotion. I sucked in a gasp, trying to keep myself together.

Tobias fell to his knees beside me, and I know he felt the tidal wave of overwhelming emotions through the bond. My walls were totally down, after all. He drew me into his arms as sobs tore through my body, one after the other, the poison inside of me finally finding its release in his arms.

You must live, Teresa told me, after a very long time had passed. She crouched down beside me and cupped my face in the palm of her hand. She gave me a soft smile. If for nothing else, you must live as best you can to spite the bastard who did this to us.

I couldn’t help but laugh through my tears at that.

Yes, I did want to spite Giles very, very much.

A golden-white light gradually began flowing into the space all around us. It didn’t seem to be coming from anywhere in particular, but from everywhere all at once. It grew brighter with each passing moment.

I’ve said what I have remained behind to say, Teresa said, sounding more distant than before despite standing right in front of me. It’s now time for me to move on.

Where will you go? I asked, my voice strangled with emotion. It was too soon. I hadn’t had a chance to thank her. I hadn’t had a chance to—

I’m a witch, darling, Teresa told me, the light suddenly growing so bright that I could hardly see her at all. But I thought that maybe she was smiling. I’ll go wherever I damn well please.

Then the light blotted everything else out and I had to close my eyes against it, because it was so bright that it was blinding to look at.

When I opened my eyes again, she was gone.

Tobias and I were alone.

CHAPTER THIRTY || TOBIAS

“Holy shit,” Bryan whispered, the moment we had reoriented to being back in our bodies. “She was never haunting me. She was just trying to tell me to stop being a dumbass and go live my life.”

“I know,” I said, smiling a little. “She manifested herself when you were fighting the hunters. She released the binding circle that was stopping me from doing magic. It’s how I was able to prevent Michael from hurting you. I turned his stake into ash in his hands. She saved your life.”

“I saw her before I left the motel room to come for you,” he said, stiffening a little, regret flashing across his face. “She tried to tell me not to go. But I didn’t even care what she was trying to say. I was so angry. That level of anger…” He shuddered. “I don’t want to be that person ever again.”

“You don’t need to be. You can be whoever you need or want to be and that will be okay with me. I’ll help you be whoever you want, and I’ll love any and every version of you. I promise.”

“I’ll love you, too,” Bryan told me solemnly. “Always. I promise.”

He paused for a very long time, then added, “And I don’t think I want to hunt the supernatural. Or hurt anyone at all—including monsters—unless I really, really don’t have any other choice. I think I just want—” He broke off, then nestled his head against my shoulder. He hummed a bit, some of the tension leaving his body when I wrapped my arms around him. “Tobias, I want us to heal people. Together. Like we did with Annie. That’s what I want to spend our eternity doing. Or, at least, some of our eternity.”

“Done,” I told him. “I can use magic to get pretty much whatever we need. We can drive around the country and find people who would never otherwise recover, then we can work together to put them right.”

“You wouldn’t mind that?”

“Mind it?” I laughed, joy welling up inside of me. “You might not have noticed this about me, but I sort of have the burning desire to fix everything, all the time.”

“You know, now that you mention it, I think I might’ve noticed that,” Bryan said, smiling against my shoulder.

“Well, this would be letting me do some good with that, right? We could put some real good into the world. Together.” I paused, grinning. “And this is total superhero-level shit we’re talking about. We can be like the dynamic duo.”

“Holy shit.” He shook his head, smiling. When he pulled back, his eyes were shining again. “You’re such a nerd.”

“The wonder twins?”

“Still no.”

“Costumes?”

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