it happens all the time. You are still young; you haven’t lived as long as I have. You just have to trust me that things like this happen. Jameson knows full well, better than anyone. He had a similar experience with his ex-girlfriend, Amani, in the 1940s. She was in love with him and a Dark One at the same time. It ended badly, but he got over it. He’s just upset right now but he will get over this too.”
“The difference here is I fell in love with YOU, his maker. You are his friend and someone he considers a brother,” I shook my head as I wiped the wetness off my cheeks. “You aren’t some random guy. To hell with him forgiving me; I know that’s never going to happen now, but I don’t know if I can forgive myself. Don’t get me wrong, Archer… I love you and would never take back what we have; I’m glad I have you in my life, but I did a horrible thing to someone and it’s killing me. I want to be the person everyone thinks I am, but the reality is so far from it. I’m irrevocably flawed and I have issues that you know nothing abou-.”
“I know absolutely everything about you, Skye Everleigh Morrison,” Archer growled as he grabbed my shoulders and leaned over me, cutting me off. “You seem to forget I’ve been inside your head. I’ve read you, Hunter has read you. When he saw your whole life, I saw it too. I know how tough you had it as a teenager; I know you tried to find the love you never had in all the wrong ways. I know absolutely everything about your past and I love you that much more for it.” He sighed and put his forehead to mine. “Forgive yourself, baby. You have to Skye or the mistakes you made in the past will haunt you the rest of your immortal life. The human part of you died so you need to put the human mistakes to rest with it. Start your new life… with me. I will give you the love you’ve spent a lifetime looking for. I will be everything you need from me, I promise. You have to trust me, baby.”
“I don’t know how to let go,” I whispered, desperate to be free from the pain I’d carried all my life.
“Yes you do. You just close the door and you never look back,” he explained gently as he sat back and took my hand again. “That part of you, the life you lived, those mistakes you made… those are the past. Right here, right now… this is your future and those mistakes mean absolutely nothing here.”
I closed my eyes and sighed. I was willing to try anything for Archer.
“Close the door, love. Just close the door in your mind and when you open your eyes, you will have entered a new one here with me.”
I did as he suggested, as silly as it seemed, and envisioned a door closing off all the painful parts of my past. I locked it in my mind for good measure and took a deep, cleansing breath before I opened my eyes again.
Archer leaned into me with a smile and delivered one of those devastatingly good kisses he was famous for. This was one of those rare times I was glad for the Empath power I absorbed from Trey’s blood. I felt the overwhelming love Archer had for me and the strength of his love took my breath away. I had never felt or experienced a love as complete as his before and it made me weep with joy. Maybe my life would feel complete now that I had him in it; only time would tell, but I was already feeling better about things.
Archer pulled back with a smile and gently caressed my face. “I’ve got some news I think you’ll want to hear.”
“News?” I asked, my forehead crinkling in confusion as I dabbed my eyes. “Good or bad?”
“Good, of course,” he smiled excitedly.
“What’s the news?”
“Cardinal Flannigan, our cardinal bishop in Massachusetts who happens to be the only one in the United States that is a Day Walker, wants to personally preside over your sacred vow ceremony.”
“Sacred vow ceremony? Uh… I hate to burst your bubble here, Archer, but I’m not Catholic. I don’t even know what a sacred vow ceremony is.”
“You don’t have to be Catholic,” Archer chuckled as he took my hand