Page 74 of Hitched to the Vampire King

“Hmm. I don’t know,” I teased, tapping my mouth with my index finger. “Do you have a ring? Isn’t that required in these sorts of situations?”

“I actually do have a ring,” Gabriel said, surprising me yet again.

“You do?”

The tips of his fangs flashed at me when he grinned. “I do. It’s just nothere. It’s in England, with the rest of my valuable possessions.”

“Oh.” I burst out laughing. For a moment there, I’d thought he’d actually had one on his person, which would have raised so many questions. Like where he’d gotten one and when he’d found the time amidst all the chaos and kidnappings to go shopping.

“So, Ms. Madison Smith? Will you do me the honor of becoming Mrs. Madison Smith? Or Roche, if you so prefer.”

I definitely preferred the idea of taking his name. It gave me a sense of belonging. To this day, I had no idea who’d named me. I just knew Smith had never felt right. It was nothing more than a simple name for an unloved baby.

“Definitely Roche,” I told Gabriel, grinning.

“Is that a yes, then?” he asked.

“Yes,” I breathed out, the word a vow in itself. “It’s one thousand percent a yes.”

Whooping with joy, Gabriel lifted me off my feet and spun me around, the bedroom blurring before my eyes. His excitement had me laughing as I clung to him. But that excitement soon blossomed into passion when his mouth met mine and his hands slid beneath my clothes.

We weren’t in New Orleans anymore, nor confined inside a small safehouse, so I saw no reason to stop him.

* * *

The next afternoon,while myfiancéslept away the daylight hours, Jaden, Josh, Ginny, and I stood outside the Academy. I leaned against a nearby cop car, my phone out as we waited for the moment the police dragged the council out in cuffs.

A heartbeat later, the front doors flew open, and I lifted my phone and pressed record. One by one, the police escorted the council members out. Damien came first, followed by Lorraine, then Sylvia, Elaine, and lastly, Harold. Oh, it was a beautiful sight; the sun catching off their metal bracelets and illuminating the looks of utter horror on their faces.

Seeing them arrested didn’t feelquiteas great as I imagined killing them would have felt, but I had to play by the rules here. They were human, and the Academy fell under human jurisdiction. If I’d killed them—no matter how badly I wanted to—it would have made me a hypocrite and a murderer. I had to let human law handle this, much to my dismay.

Zooming in on Damien’s face, I chuckled and shouted, “Say cheese!” just so he’d know we were here. His eyes widened at the sight of us, but it was the utter devastation on Lorraine’s face when she saw Ginny standing next to me that broke my heart.

“Thank you,” I said, bumping her shoulder with mine.

She threw me a quick glance, then returned to staring at her aunt. “Don’t thank me. I did what was right. My aunt brought this on herself.”

Before I could reply, Sergeant Brady, who we met when we first arrived, marched over to us. He caught sight of my phone and offered a dry smirk. “Making a home video?”

“Just documenting the fall of the Academy’s so-called finest,” I replied, slipping the phone into my pocket. “For posterity.”

He nodded, his expression turning serious. “This is just the beginning. The Academy is being thoroughly investigated. We’ve got a long road ahead to root out everyone involved in these…transactions.”

Jaden crossed her arms, her gaze sharp. “How deep does it go?”

“We’re still unraveling that,” Brady admitted. “But make no mistake, anyone who had a hand in or turned a blind eye to these contracts is going down. The Academy’s been playing fast and loose with lives, and that ends now.”

Josh stepped forward, his voice low. “What about all the innocent vampires affected by this?”

Brady’s jaw tightened. “We’re compiling a list, cross-referencing missing persons’ reports, and any unsolved cases that might fit the pattern. It’s going to take time, but we’re committed to making it right.”

I leaned back against the cop car, the weight of the situation settling over me.

Brady appraised each of us. “You’ve done good work. Unofficially, you’ve saved lives. Officially,” he paused, choosing his words, “let’s just say the Academy’s days of unchecked power are over.”

As he walked away to oversee the detainment of the council members, I turned back to my friends, a mix of emotions swirling within me. Relief, certainly, at the sight of justice being served. But there was also a profound sense of gravity, a realization of how close we’d come to losing so much more.

“What’ll happen to the Academy now?” Ginny asked.

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