Heart in her throat, she shook her
head. Tried to smile. “You’re rambling, love.”
He inhaled, and then grabbed her hand.
Talon stared into her eyes as he visibly built up his courage.
“Marry me. Be mine. Mate me. Anything...just be mine...”
She threw herself into his
chest, taking them both to the ground. “Yes!” she screeched,
clutching herself to him. “Yes yes
yes!
”
He chuckled, but even she could hear
how nervous he was. “Maybe we could try out that date
again...”
If Jamie had it her way, there would
be more than just “dates”. Smiling with her heart in her eyes, she
pressed her lips to his, sealing the deal.
She wasn’t going anywhere without him
anytime soon.
Epilogue
A few months
later...
Jamie looked up at the knock on the
door. She was sitting with the kitten Talon had gotten her as an
engagement present in the large greeting room, waiting for him to
return with their lunch. After two months of being with him, he
still didn’t let her leave much, and when he did, Talon was always
with her.
“
Yes?” she asked, picking
up the black ball of fur. The small bundle stared up at her with
bright blue eyes and mewed softly, pawing her in the face. She
laughed and answered the door, shocked to see Zyn.
“
Hey,” he greeted, standing
there awkwardly. His shoulders were down, nervous.
“
Hi. Come in.” Jamie
stepped back from the door to their house, swallowing as his
hulking frame fit through the door.
“
I just wanted to come say
hi, and talk to you about wedding plans. Your mother has been on my
ass -- er, butt, about it and I figured I’d come to the main
lady.”
Her mother had flown in from Texas
several weeks ago. It had been awkward, watching her cool eyes land
on the man that she had conceived Jamie with. She had expected to
see tears, love, or something, but there had been nothing.
Evidently, Jamie hadn’t been made out of love.
It hadn’t bothered her. Jamie was
planning on matchmaking for the solemn man that kept his distance.
As soon as he had found out they were actually getting married,
he’d backed off to the point where he only said two words to
her.
Insecurities warred in her as she
watched him look around. Talon had said it’d been a present from a
friend of theirs, but she had yet to find out who it was. Whoever
had given it to them, though, was amazing. It was all she had ever
imagined and was big enough to host parties and had the most
amazing kitchen.
Which, fortunately, was full of lucky
charms.
“
Ah. She gets a little
uptight about party planning, I guess. She’s trying to make this
the wedding of the century,” Jamie said drolly, rolling her eyes.
The kitten in her arms purred, rubbing its head against her
shoulder.
She handed the ball of fluff to Zyn,
and walked to the kitchen. “Let’s go into the kitchen. I can get
you something to eat.” Jamie didn’t look behind her to see if he
was going to follow her, just went to the kitchen, grabbed two
bowls and two spoons, and then a box of lucky charms.
She heard the fridge open behind her,
and then a jug of milk appeared in her face. She smiled at him and
poured the cereal, stomach already growling. Jamie was just
bringing him the bowl of cereal when he blurted out, “You’ve grown
to mature. And pretty.”
Her lip kicked up in a smile, and she
set it down, handing him the spoon. “You haven’t grown at all...
Well, except more hairy. But that’s fixable,” she laughed, trying
to play off her nerves.
“
Thanks... I
think.”
She nodded, taking a bite of the
cereal. He set down the kitten, and it ran off through the large
house. All of the windows were open, the sun was pouring in and
illuminating the lights in his eyes.
They stared at each other till the
urge became so great, she couldn’t stop herself. “What did you do
with me? After I...died.”
He choked. She reached over and pat
his back, watching him with wide eyes. “I gave you to your mother
-- Did you have to ask that while I was in the middle of
swallowing?” he asked, grimacing and rubbing his neck.
“
I’m sorry about that. Can
you just tell me...what you were doing that night? What you
thought?” She prayed he didn’t ask why. The thoughts that ran
through her head were embarrassing, and would only make her seem
weak in front of him.
He didn’t ask. Instead, he stared off
into the distance with haunted eyes, struggling to talk. “I was...
horrified. It was the second time that I was too late to save
someone I loved, so it was all a bunch of deja vu for me. It was
worse, though, because you were my daughter. I was growing to love
you even more than I had loved...
“
I saw that
fryst
when I was on my
way to find you.” He turned solemn eyes to hers. “I never thought
you would actually leave the house at night, but I should have told
you sooner why you shouldn’t. I should have introduced you to your
world... As an heir, you’re meant to know everything there is about
it. If anything happened to me, you would take immediate place as
queen.”
She tensed, inhaling. “Go
on.”
“
I hadn’t thought he had
actually done anything, but when I found you... it was too late.
Your body was already splitting apart and your powers, which had
been latent, were starting to burst. I wanted to kill myself -- and
you, to end the pain that I knew you were... feeling.
“
But I couldn’t. So I sat
there, watching you die. I couldn’t touch you, I couldn’t do
anything at all. It was the second time in my life that I cried. I
didn’t cry when I watched my parents burn to death at the stake. I
didn’t cry when I saw my brother die. But Jamie...
“
I know I never knew you,
and I know that I didn’t have any real right to love you like I
did. I have lost everyone that’s
ever
mattered to me. I was so
attached to you -- to the
idea
of you. When you actually started to open up to
me, I realized that there were a lot of things... different between
us. I never understood why you didn’t want to go to school -- well,
I did a little. But things were happening quickly, I wanted you to
have an education and I wanted you to be social again.”
“
So,” she said slowly,
trying not to notice the crack in her voice. “You gave my...
what
to my mother?” He’d
said she’d split apart, and Jamie really had no clue what that
meant.
He swallowed. “As soon as your
skin...split apart, it was replaced. The power in you, the
strength, gave you a new body. But then it also wiped you of
anything you had before.”
“
I didn’t remember...until
I saw it, I didn’t know it had happened,” she said, dropping her
gaze. “So you thought I was dead then?”
“
No,” he said, voice thick.
“I knew you were dead. I saw it happen, just as quickly as you
turned into a long-haired Snow White. I sent you to your mother and
she must have taken you to a hospital. Am I right?”
Jamie nodded. “Yeah, it was
really...fast. I mean, I woke up and she was crying. And I hadn’t
even known they sent me to live with you until I talked to Mike
about it.”
“
Mike?” he asked, staring
at her. Jamie nodded, but didn’t explain. She couldn’t expect Zyn
to know who she was talking about when the purple guy was
practically a god. Actually, one of the Four Creators.
“
Did you ever think that I
might...not be?” she asked, twirling her fingers together. The
kitten, named Sky, came racing into the room and slid into the
wall. He shook his head, mewed, then went off again. She watched
his tail leave the room and had to wonder what Zyn was
thinking.
“
No one has ever survived
a
fryst
before.
It’s virtually impossible. One touch from them and you’re screwed
more than a nail.” He paused, and she thought they were done. That
is, until he asked, “Why did you want to know?”
Jamie stared at him, and then looked
away. At that second, Sky ran into the room and clawed at the
chair, catching nothing. She reached down, picking him up and
holding him to her chest.
“
Jamie? Answer
me.”
She flicked her eyes over him, raising
a brow. “Ordering me around, are you?” Even though, a warmth came
over her and suddenly, with her heart in her throat, she blurted,
“I thought you didn’t want me. When I was told you just gave me
back to my mother, I thought... yeah.”
“
But now that I know you
are, I’m here, aren’t I?” he asked, gesturing around them. Jamie
nodded, closing her eyes against the tears. Sky, mewling in her
arms, batted at a random strand of hair that swung down from her
face. She pushed it back, scratching his neck before setting him
down.
“
Yeah, you are... But it
doesn’t feel like it. Even Lucian has said more to me than you
have, and he practically hates me.”
“
I just never know what to
say when I see you. I think about what I did to you, about how
being your father has given you the most...fucked up fate anyone
could have. I felt so guilty, like this shroud of... fog came over
me.”
“
Why do I feel as if you’re
softer with me than you are with other people?” she asked drolly,
trying to break the ice after he fell silent.
“
You are my daughter. I
can’t treat you like I’m going to rip your face off, nor can I
treat you as if you are lesser than me, like I’m accustomed to.
This whole entire thing with me... you,
us
, is just... overwhelming. Maybe
later on, we can... start over?”
A car pulled up in the driveway, and
he looked at the door before back at her. “I can hear his car. I
better get going.”
She frowned. “You’re my father, not my
lover. It’s okay if you stay for a bit, you know...”
Zyn did the first thing she had ever
seen from him -- smiled. “I still have this fatherly feeling in me
that’s telling me to rip Talon apart, no matter how much he’s done
for me. Naturally, I’m supposed to hate my son-in-law till we bond
over some football.”
Jamie burst into laughter, pushing the
forgotten bowl of cereal away from her. “Alright, I’ll see you
later.”
In less than a second, he was gone.
She shivered, pushing herself back from the chair as Talon came
through the door, shopping bags on his arms and a welcoming smile
on his darkly handsome face.
“
Zyn was here?” he asked,
running his eyes over her.
She nodded, smiling at him.
“
You guys had a good talk,
then?”
Again, she nodded. It wasn’t like she
could talk when he spoke to her, or when he looked at her like
that. Jamie savored every bit of him, couldn’t even help
herself.
She stepped into his chest, laying her
head on his chest. “I missed you,” she said quietly, feeling his
arms come around her. She felt his breath at her ear, knew that he
was enjoying the moment just as she was.
“
I missed you too, angel...
We still have to put that pocket watch that Mike gave us to use.
Tonight?” he asked, waving his brows. Jamie still remembered how
much it had hurt to touch the thing the first time, and had even
looking at it caused arguments between them that she
hated.
Talon understood, though. So he let
her chose the time and date, and she had yet to give him the
answer.
She bit her lip. “We could just...save
it. For when it’s really important that we need it...”
He glowered. “What do you expect to
happen? I’m never letting you out of my site again, so any threat
to you becomes null void.”
Jamie rolled her eyes. His
eyes had darkened to a stark black again, not their normal silver.
She touched his jaw, bringing his face down to hers. She threaded
her hands in his hair and said, “On our wedding night. That’s when
we’ll use it. Until then, all I need to live is
you
and nothing else.”
He stared into her eyes, desire
swirling in his own depths.
“
Kiss me,” she said,
blushing sweetly.
Talon did just that for the rest of
the night.