Once he was handcuffed, Willem faced the man who had brutalized him. There was a strained look in the killer’s eyes, his gaze sliding away from Willem’s then back. “So you finally caught up with me, but I don’t know how since I paid a fortune for the charms.”
Willem had been right all along; a spell had been in place. “Take him away.”
He paid no more attention to the killer. In this moment, he meant nothing.
Instead, Willem turned his attention to the boy. Emergency techs were already with him.
Charlotte squeezed his arm. “I think I can help.”
When Willem nodded to her, she ignored the blood on the floor and went straight to the boy, speaking quietly to the EMTs. She then put her hand on the boy’s head and closed her eyes.
She’d been in his world long enough to know that healing was often part of the fae gift. He joined her in support and wasn’t surprised to find that she was delivering a strong steady flow of fae healing power. Vojalie had been right: Charlotte had tremendous potential.
He watched in stages as the boy began to relax, though he remained unconscious. Even his wounds began to recede, if slowly. She sustained her effort, until a well-known fae healer arrived and took over for Charlotte.
The forensic crew had already moved in and started setting up their equipment. It would be a long time before the basement as well as the house above would be released.
With a heavy heart, Willem recognized the room and yes, he’d been here a long time ago.
He decided then and there that he’d buy the house, have it demolished, the basement removed, and the land filled in. Eventually, he would have the ground blessed by the local Fae Guild and once some of the horror of the location diminished, he would build an altar of remembrance laid in place for those children who had died at the hands of the monster.
For now, he stood side-by-side with Charlotte, staring at the table that was as familiar to him as the odd, motor oil smell of the place. He could never have done this without Charlotte, without being bonded to her, or without Davido’s hard push to release what had held him captive for so long. For all of that, he was grateful beyond words.
“This is where it happened, isn’t it?” Charlotte’s quiet and deeply respectful voice, pierced his thoughts.
“Yes, but the room is much smaller than I remembered. Of course, I’d been only ten at the time.”
She glanced at him. “You okay?”
He slid his arm around her waist and squeezed. “I am now.” And he was, not just because he’d finally exorcised the demon, but because Charlotte was with him.
* * * * * * * * *
Hours later, as dawn began to creep over the ocean, spreading a soft pink light on a sea that extended for hundreds of miles to the west, Charlotte lay in bed beside Willem.
His arm was around her shoulder and he’d laced his fingers through hers. He had a remote in hand, one that would lower the security shades, an important factor for sun-sensitive vampire types. But even she winced as the sky lightened a little more, another sign that she was becoming part fae.
The fae of the Nine Realms were also light sensitive, unlike shifters and trolls but not quite as bad as vampires.
When he clicked, she actually breathed a sigh of relief.
The shutters came down a full foot away from the house so that the ocean breeze continued to flow through Willem’s bedroom.
Releasing his hand, she turned into him, then settled her arm over his muscled chest. He’d made love to her and fed from her again and her heart was still singing as well as their joined mating vibrations.
“I love you,” she whispered.
“You have my heart, Charlotte, every last piece of it. You always will. You changed everything for me.”
She lifted up slightly to meet his gaze. “And you did the same for me. From the time I was a child and learned about the Nine Realms, I knew I wanted to explore your world. But until you asked me out, and we had this incredible experience together, it never occurred to me that I could build a life here.
“Now I’ve embraced what must have always lived inside me.” She reached up and kissed him, which caused his arms to tighten around her. “I’m happier than I’ve ever been.”
He drew back enough to meet her gaze, running a finger down her cheek. He’d done that on the beach below when he’d first brought her to Maris Sol what felt like a lifetime ago, when she wondered if he was seducing her.
But Willem hadn’t seduced her at all. Instead, the seduction belonged to the Nine Realms, to the magical forces at work that had played on her heart for as long as she could remember, calling to her to grab hold of all that she was, all that she could be in either the human or realm worlds.
Now she was bonded to an extraordinary man, who happened to be a vampire and who worked for the RIU.