Page 106 of Total Eclipse of the Moon
"I love her," Shane said.
"I know. It’s what saved her from getting sucked away by the curse."
"I thought that was the demon giving up his soul to free us."
"Perhaps." She rocked her head back and forth. "I’m sure that angel who watches over you played a pretty big part in the whole mess too."
Something powerful, an accord of sorts, wove between them as they watched Madeline chase the cat. He didn’t want to say anything else out of fear of breaking this blessing. Cora took his hand and placed a small, charred toy car into it, one he remembered as being all Madeline had left of her dead son. She closed his hand around it. "It’s time she take this back. She can visit with his spirit whenever she wants. If she doesn’t remember how to call him from the afterworld, have her phone me. I don’t know why she felt she was limited to seeing him once a year. She just has to believe. She’s that powerful. Besides, Samuel will want to meet his new sister when she arrives. She’ll have many protectors, but none more important than her brother."
"Is she…is Madeline…?" His heart pounded wildly as the memory of the little girl from his vision flashed through his head.
Cora smiled mysteriously. She turned to leave.
"Wait. Does she know you’re here?" he asked.
Cora shook her head. "She’s your responsibility now. Remember, I’m watching. If you get out of line, if you hurt her, I’ll turn you into a toad—or maybe a goat."
"You don’t scare me," he called after her. "I know your weakness is a certain Latin vampire who owes me a lot of favors."
Cora’s laughter followed her. "He’s no more my weakness than I’m his. When he’s ready to feel the burn again, send him my way."
Epilogue
A month later…
"At least this looks like an incarceration facility," Madeline announced when she and the four Lanzo brothers stalked into the abandoned warehouse in Warwick, England. Half the windows were shattered. Winter wind whistled from the north to south side of the dark place. She picked up her foot and shook it to dislodge a vagrant piece of dirty duct tape sticking to her boot.
Ky had a gun drawn.
Flynn rotated his baseball cap to a backward position. He unwrapped a red Tootsie-pop. "Smells like a dead rat rolled in a lion turd in here. I don’t pick up any lycans."
"That’s why we’re here." Shane pointed to the other side where the archangel, Zadkiel, stalked in. His long leather coat and distressed jeans didn’t look nearly warm enough for the frigid outdoor temperature, but perhaps angels weren’t affected by weather.
"Are you going to be our team liaison, then?" Madeline asked.
The angel grinned in her direction. "I’m surprised they let you come."
She put her hands on her hips. "I don’t need their permission to be here. Shane knows I would’ve followed."
Zadkiel’s eyebrows rose. "You didn’t tell them?"
"Tell me what?" Shane asked.
She squinty-eyed the angel. "Stop being an asshole and tell us why we’re here."
"Shit," Roman blew out a long sigh and dropped his head. "Chill out. Everyone."
"What aren’t you telling me?" Shane demanded of her.
"I’m not keeping anything from you." Madeline held up her hands. "I swear. I would never lie to you."
"I don’t do secrets," Shane said.
Roman looked heavenward. "Seriously, Shane? She’s been moody as hell, nauseated in the morning, and you guys spend more days in bed than you do out of it."
Madeline pointed at Roman. "You’re being an ass too. I am not nauseated and I’m not pregnant that I’m aware of, not that Shane hasn’t done his damndest to get me that way." She wrapped her arms around Shane and pressed into his stiff side. "I love you. I’ll have your child in a heartbeat when it happens. I’m not keeping anything secret. What is important to me is what God expects you to do for him. Can you please clarify that, angel?"
The angel kept staring past her.
