simply, honestly, forever. “You make the idea of forever a journey into adventure rather than a thing to be endured.”
He didn’t raise his head for a long time. When he did, his eyes held joy and pain and echoes of terror. “As long as you live, so will I.”
Holly’s heart smashed against her ribs. “Venom, no,” she whispered. “My life span is unknown.”
“And I’ve lived long enough alone.” No give in his expression. “How can you ask me to go back to it after I’ve known you? Loved you?” A shake of his head. “We take this leap into eternity together.”
Tears rolled down her face. “I’ll badger you every day to change your mind.”
“Nag, nag, that’s what kitties do.”
She scooped up a palmful of water and threw it at his face. He laughed. And he was so incredibly beautiful that she wanted to kiss him and kiss him and kiss him. “Come here.”
He came, sploshing water all over the place, his pants still on. None of that mattered. Because he was kissing her and kissing her and kissing her, and she was home. Always in his arms, she’d be home.
As he would be in hers.
Sitting astride him when she came up for air, Holly said, “What do my eyes mean?” That strange amalgam of who she’d once been and who she’d become with Uram’s energy inside her. “Is he still alive in some way?”
“Keir was at the Tower when we arrived,” Venom told her. “The healer says yes, Uram is alive, but only in the way any father is alive in his child. You are a being all your own now.”
Holly made a face. “I have a father. And it’s not that psycho.”
“Perhaps ‘blood sire’ is the better term to use,” Venom said. “Uram is alive inside you the same way Neha is alive inside me.”
Holly ran her hands over his shoulders. “That doesn’t make me feel better,” she admitted. “I wanted him erased from my body.” She pressed her finger to his lips when he would’ve spoken. “But if he was . . . then I wouldn’t be a vampire, and I wouldn’t be like you just enough that we fit.” And so he no longer felt alone. “I figure the trade is worth it.”
Venom leaned forward to kiss her.
Frowning at a sudden thought, Holly pulled back. “Wait. What powers do I have left?” Scrunching her eyes shut, she tried to go invisible. “Can you see me?”
“Your breasts are lovely.”
She flicked her eyes open to see that he did indeed have his admiring gaze on her tiny chest. But he seemed to like that chest. Who was she to argue? “I’ve lost the ability to create glamour.”
“Unsurprising.” He rubbed a thumb over the wet point of her nipple. “That is an archangelic trait that has never manifested in any other immortal.”
“Can I still move the way I did?” Hating that she might’ve lost that which tied them together, she went to get out, check, but Venom held her in place.
“I love you,” he said, his eyes locked with hers. “From the roots of my hair to the tips of my toes. From yesterday to tomorrow and every tomorrow we will ever see. From this moment to the mystery beyond death. Every part of you, slow or fast, small or big, strong or weak. I love you, Holly.”
Her lower lip quivered.
Throwing her arms around his neck, she held on tight. When he rose, it was with both of them together, water dripping off their bodies. He somehow managed to get his pants off, and then their wet bodies fell onto the bed. There was no foreplay. She didn’t want it. She drew him inside her, held him, and they rocked, their eyes locked to each other’s.
Slow and gentle and forever.
• • •
It was some time later, while she sat on the kitchen counter wearing one of Venom’s shirts and watching him quickly put together a pizza for her, that Holly snapped something out of the air. She stared at the plum in her hand. “Why are you throwing me plums? Though, it does look nice.” She took a bite, hungry for food if not yet for blood.
“I threw it at my speed,” said the vampire who’d be aggravating her forever.
And she’d caught it.
Holly began to smile. She still had the speed, could still dance with him in their unique and inhuman way. Even if she’d lost everything else, that was enough.