Night World - Spellbinder Part 23

"You mean we're really safe? You're going to keep your powers?"

"Yes! Yes!"

She had to keep telling him over and over to convince him. But finally he g ot it and his face changed. Was transformed by his lightning-bolt smile. He squeezed her and shook her and finally jumped out of the jeep and yelled "

All right! Way to go, Blaise! All right! Yes!"

"Eric!"

He pounded the jeep.

"Eric, get back in, you idiot! There might be Night People around." Then, st ill laughing uncontrollably with love and grat.i.tude and the relief of tensio n, she said, "Come in here." And she held out her arms.

He jumped back in. They fit together perfectly, his arms around her, his brea th against her hair.

"I'm so happy," he said. "I love you, witch."

Thea was laughing and crying at once. "I love you, too."

He kissed her temple. She kissed his cheek. Then he kissed her mouth and st ayed there for a long while. And Thea forgot about laughing, forgot that th ere was a world outside the two of them.

And then they sat together in the darkness, resting against each other, just breathing. Safe. Connected.

Thea was with someone who knew her, who saw what she saw. Her soulmate.

And they were free to be with each other, without being hunted, without fear.

She was filled with joy and tranquility.

And with quiet sadness, too. It wasn't as if this new beginning came free. She still was an exile, cut off from her family. Gran was lost to her. If she saw Blaise, it would have to be in secret. She'd given up a lot. Almost everythin g.But she didn't regret it. Not with Eric warm and solid in her arms. Not with the Night World saved from civil war, and the threat to the humans here ove r.

And what now? she wondered.

Strangely, even though there was no clear answer, she didn't feel afraid. Sh e could visualize many futures, and they all seemed equally likely.

Now they would go to Eric's house, and Eric's mother would be puzzled but generous, and Roz would be ferocious but delighted. And next week Thea w ould go back to school and transfer into honors zoology.

She would get a scholars.h.i.+p to Davis and become a vet and use her powers t o find out what was wrong with sick animals. Or she would find herself int erested in wolves or elephants and would become a naturalist and visit far away places to study them. Or she and Eric would adopt a puppy like Bud an d write a book together to help people understand their dogs.

Or she would find Circle Daybreak and meet witches who wanted to forget the Burning Times. And they would be the first to reintroduce humans to magic, and Rosamund would grow up fierce and proud, knowing all the lege nds of h.e.l.lewise.

Or she would find her vampire cousins and see if the soulmate principle was really coming back. And their group would be like a magnet, attracting oth er young Night People with radical ideas, starting an underground revolutio n.

Maybe a new generation of Redferns and Harmans were forming alliances wi th humans. Maybe it was time for hatred to stop.

Maybe the old powers were waking and new times were coming. Maybe the world was about to change.

Only one thing was sure.

There were infinite possibilities.

She held Eric and felt his breathing and was at peace with the night.