over actually trying to kill that man—even though he’d tried to kill her first—she also felt the faintest tinge of…pride.
She’d protected herself.
Sure, Bane had come in and finished the werewolf off after he’d pulled a “bad guy in the horror movie who won’t die” routine, but she—Dr. Ryan St. Cloud, ordinary, unimportant, Reliable Ryan—had stood up to a monster and come out alive and on top, at least for those few, precious minutes.
She stopped and turned to face Bane. “You were right.”
“Always.” He reached out and pushed a strand of hair back behind her ear. “About what this time? And we need to get you home and cleaned up. You still have blood on your face,” he said, his voice darkening.
She shook her head, impatient. “It will keep. Listen. You were right. I am a goddess. I stood up for myself tonight, in a way I never have in my life. Not just—not just the violence. But my sheer refusal to back down. I realize I give in and give up far too often in my life. In my job. Always expecting to get the worst end of the stick. Always willing to accept less, because I feel like I am less.”
“You’re definitely not less,” he said. “You’re absolutely amazing.”
“Thank you. But that’s something I needed to see for myself, you know? And now I do. Not that I’m amazing, exactly, or maybe that I am because everyone is amazing. Nobody, ever, should be willing to accept less. Even though it took something so terrible happening for me to learn this lesson, now that I have, I’ll never back down or give up on myself again.”
“You deserve everything, my warrior goddess,” he murmured, and then he pulled her into his arms and captured her mouth in a kiss.
This time, though, she claimed him.
She kissed him like the warrior goddess he’d named her, proud and strong and wanting to share her strength with this man—this monster.
Her monster.
When they finally broke apart to breathe, both of them were breathing hard.
“If you don’t want me to strip you bare, right here in the middle of the cemetery, we need to leave right now, or else you have to stop kissing me like that,” he growled, and she loved the rasp of hunger in his voice.
“Anticipation adds spice to everything,” she countered. “Let’s walk some more. I need air, and I love the smell of the flowers and the river. The sound of the insects and the owls. Bonaventure at night is like a secret world where you might turn a corner and see fairies at any minute.”
He pulled their joined hands to his mouth and kissed her fingers. “They prefer to be called Fae.”
Ryan’s world turned upside down, for the third or fourth time since she’d first found a vampire in her patient’s hospital room.
“They what?”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Ryan stared at the vampire who had just so casually dropped the existence of fairies into the conversation.
“They prefer to be called Fae. And are you sure you don’t want to get naked right now? We could walk down by the river and find a secluded spot and—”
“Bug bites. On my ass. Just no. And did you really say they prefer to be called Fae? What kind of world do I actually live in?”
“That, my beautiful one, is a conversation for another night.”
They wandered around, up and down the paths, until they came to the tomb of Little Gracie Watson, and Ryan pulled Bane to a stop.
“She was only six when she died,” she said, staring at the beautiful monument, said to be an exact likeness of the child. “My gran told me the story of the famous little girl, so beloved by so many, who was left here all alone, because her parents went back to New England after she died. When I was six, I begged to be allowed to leave my doll here, so Gracie wouldn’t be so lonely.”
Bane’s hand tightened on hers. “You had a kind heart even then. Did you leave it for her?”
Ryan nodded. “I did. It made me feel somehow comforted, and I remembered her in my bedtime prayers for a long time. God Bless Mama, and Grandma, and Little Gracie, and Fred.”
“Fred?”
“My neighbor’s dog. I was never allowed to have a pet; my father forbade it.”
“Ah.” He smiled, but only a little. “Gracie would have liked little Ryan very much, I think. She was a lovely, cheerful child.”
Ryan dropped his hand. “You knew her?”
She didn’t know why she