Page 71 of Sleeping With the Vampire

“Do it,” she said, her voice serious, determined. “Do it now.”

I lay down next to her and took her in my arms. I was shocked to feel her bones and see how much weight she’d lost over the past few days. Her frame was almost skeletal. She did not have much life left in her. The poison was eating away at her. I could feel my anger at Layrr rising again and had to push it away. There was no place for anger now.

This was Izzy’s gift to me. Love and forgiveness, a way to move forward and not live in the past anymore.

I had to feed her quite a lot of my blood. Then, we had to wait and see how strong Layrr’s poison was and if my blood could fight off the dark magic. Her body would die but her spirit would live. This could bring on more fever and illness. I hoped she was strong enough.

It was a long night.

Elisha sat at Izzy’s bedside with me.

She told me how happy she was at the castle, how grateful she was to be given this chance at a new life with Robbie. She had started a school for some of the refugee children. I thought that when we rebuilt Ginnerlong, there would be a place for her there. The city had been flattened by a nuclear strike in an attempt to kill the Servant and his demons. A fair amount of vampires and some mortals were killed as well. There were no guarantees that the Servant had perished though. A part of me feared that he had slipped into the spirit world to survive and would surface again another day.

In the darkest part of the night, I wondered about Layrr and where I had gone wrong with him, I blamed myself for not seeing his unhappiness. I had been a bad father and I had been a bad husband to Tanata, not being there when she was attacked.

How could I counsel others when I couldn’t even look after my own family? All that grandstanding about family and legacy? It had been about show and pride. I got up, needing to get someair. I saw that Elisha had fallen asleep and thought how innocent she looked.

As I was about to leave the room, Izzy opened her eyes. “Lucca?”

I turned and saw her looking at me, her eyes clear, the fever gone.

I went to her, asked anxiously. “How do you feel?”

She smiled. “Wonderful, I feel wonderful.”

She looked much better, there was a glow to her that showed she had beaten the poison. She pushed down the bedsheets and we saw that the bleeding had stopped. She lifted the bandages and exclaimed, “Look! The wound is healing!”

I could see that this was indeed the case.

“You have saved me, again!” She threw her arms around me and I marveled at the strength in them.

“No,” I said. “It may sound cheesy but it was you who saved me. With you, I see hope for the future.”

She smiled tenderly at me, “Then, we have saved each other.”

I kissed her sweet lips and she kissed me back, passionately. Our kiss deepened and I found myself holding her tightly, never wanting to let her go. There was fire in the kiss and it stirred emotions in me that I didn’t realize I had. We made love tenderly, consummating our love. She moaned and I stopped moving.

“You okay?” I asked, worried that I was hurting her.

“Oh, God, don’t stop, please don’t stop,” she said, laughingly pulling me deeper into her and crying out as she climaxed. For us, time would never be an issue again, we would be bound together for all time now. It was time to make an honest queen of her.

I faced her and said, “Izzy Bonnici, bounty hunter and former vampire hater, will you do me the honor of marrying me, becoming my wife?”

She blinked and smiled. “Yes, Lucca Fallon D’Valleira, vampire king and closet romantic, I will. But first, I think, you will have to close that window, it feels like daylight is coming.”

She wasn’t strong enough for daylight yet.

I got up to close the shutters and saw the sun rise in the east, sending bright light into the valley.

A new day was breaking for us and I went towards it, happily.

Epilogue

I felt different and yet not different at all.

It was hard to explain.

On the day of my wedding and crowning I rose late in the day as the light was fading and Elisha brought me the special gown I would be wearing.

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