He stared at how delicate the bones in her fingers were. At how warm her touch made him. It was a sensation, he never wanted to lose again. "I hope it leaves us together."
"Is that what you want?"
"Absolutely." How could she ever doubt it? "Marry me, Abigail, and I swear this time, curse or no curse, I will make it to that damned altar. Even if I drag the devil with me to be there on time."
She offered him a smile. "I will definitely marry you, Sundown Brady. And this time, I will kill anyone who tries to stop you from making it to that altar."
He leaned in and gave her the sweetest kiss of her life. And when he pulled back, her lips were still burning.
"So tell me..." she whispered. "How do we get you free from Artemis's service?"
A week later
The hardest part of living is making peace with your past. Most of all, it's making peace with yourself. Ash's words hung in Jess's mind as a sober reminder of how hard the journey had been to get to this one perfect moment.
He'd never thought to have that peace, but as he watched Abigail napping on his couch after an entire day of exploring each other, he knew the past no longer mattered to him at all.
Only tomorrow did.
Smiling, he got up to find a blanket for her.
Abigail knew the moment Jess had left the room even though she was sound asleep. She wasn't sure where that power came from. But it was there.
And it let her know that something else was here with her.
Her eyes flew open as she jumped to her feet to find an unknown man in front of her. She started to attack until she saw the double bow and arrow mark of a Dark-Hunter on his cheek. He was one of them and yet ...
The demon in her recognized the demon in him. He was much more than what he appeared and what he appeared to be was a vicious predator. He wore his dark hair swept back from a handsome face that could only be described as pitiless. There was no compassion or even kindness evident in any part of him.
"Nick? What are you doing here?"
She turned to see Jess rejoining them.
That dark, scary gaze left hers to meet Jess's. "I was told you wanted your soul back."
"I thought Ash would be the one to bring it."
Nick curled his lip at the mention of Ash's name, but he didn't say anything about him. He merely reached into his long black coat to pull out a small wooden box. Delicate scroll work decorated the top of it.
Without preamble, he handed it to Abigail. "Make sure you truly love him before you even attempt to restore it. If you fail, you will kill him and there are no second chances."
Before either of them could speak, Nick vanished.
Abigail shivered at the sudden coldness Nick had left in the air. "Is it just me or was that creepy and weird?"
"Yeah, Nick isn't exactly ... right. He's the youngest of our kind and I guess he hasn't settled in yet."
She started to mention the demon inside Nick that she'd sensed, but then thought better of it. If Nick didn't want anyone else knowing about it, he might go to war with her over it. The last thing they needed was another enemy coming for them.
Curious about the contents, she opened the box. There on a nest of black velvet was the glowing red medallion that housed Jess's soul. It was so beautiful that she instinctively wanted to touch it. But Jess had already warned her that it would sear her skin and leave a scar on her hand like the one Talon had.
Jess moved to stand in front of her. "What are you thinking?"
She smiled at the fact that he didn't pry into her thoughts. "How much I love you."
"I love you, too." He peered over the lid to see the medallion. "You'll have to kill me to restore my soul into my body."
"I know, but..."