Page 108 of Fangs with Benefits

‘Why is your neck so warm?’ she asks instead of acknowledging my words. Maybe she didn’t even hear them. ‘Is it the sun?’

I laugh again and she looks at me like I might be insane, or a doppelgänger of her Elijah, because the one she knows certainly wouldn’t be laughing at nothing, cheeks rosy, standing in the sun in the middle of Utah.

‘I took a plane here from London, and I was so afraid that it would go down. I was so relieved when it landed and then I was so nervous in the car from the airport because I thought it might crash before I could see you. I feared catastrophe because I knew you were on the other side.’

‘What are you saying right now?’

‘I’m human, Molly. I’m real and alive and–here, feel.’ I pull her hand down to the top of my chest, and press her fingertips to the base of my neck where after a few silent moments, both of us holding our breath, she feels it.

A heartbeat.

Molly gasps and seals her ear to my chest–my warm chest with a fucking beating heart inside.

‘How is this possible?’ she whispers.

‘Evangeline, she’s brilliant. She and a witch named Samara figured out a way to unmake vampires and I was–well, it worked.’ I decide to leave out the part where we had no clue if it would work or not until, syringe still plunged into my heart, it started to beat.

Molly’s too sharp, though. She recoils and looks up at me. ‘Was there a chance it wouldn’t?’

‘Well, it wasn’t exactly tested,’ I admit.

‘Elijah! You could have died!’ She pushes my shoulder, not hard, and she’s very serious, but I can’t help laughing again, holding her hand to my chest, to the organ working beneath. ‘I could throttle you.’

‘Please don’t try to kill me, Molly. I’m especially fragile today and you just might succeed.’

‘Is it… forever?’ Molly asks. There’s a thread of hope in her voice, and it makes me feel like I just might have a chance here. ‘Tell me what it means.’

‘It means I’m alive until I’m not, same as you. And for as long as I can live, I’ll live by your side. If you’ll have me.’

Please, please, please have me.

Molly’s eyes well with tears, and I know that mine match.

My tears aren’t tinged with blood any more, just salt water. ‘If I’ll have you?’ she asks, voice wobbling. I nod, and Molly surprises me, jumping into my arms, her legs wrapped around my waist, forcing a soft huff from me as I catch her. ‘I’ll have you. Of course I’ll have you.’

She kisses me, long and deep, still in my arms as fresh snow begins to fall from the bright white sky above us.

‘I love you,’ she says against my lips. ‘You crazy, reckless man, I love you.’

‘Does this mean we’ve graduated from friends with benefits?’ I ask. ‘Because I’ll be anything you want so long as it’s yours.’

She scoffs and kisses me again. ‘How about my boyfriend, to start?’

I hum, the pleased smile perhaps permanently affixed to my face. ‘Deal.’

Molly gasps, realising something with a start. ‘You can eat now,’ she says. ‘You can try cinnamon rolls.’

‘I would love nothing more than to share a meal with you,’ I tell her, and let her down from wrapped around me. I put one more kiss to her mouth, then lower my voice to ask, ‘Now, is it normal for four adults and a small child to be watching us like a film from the front window?’

Molly recoils and turns to the window, the people I can only assume to be her family dispersing immediately, all except for the little girl who is still jumping and pointing at us, our cat on the windowsill next to her.

Molly sighs, an amused smile remaining, and shrugs. ‘Welcome to the family.’

Chapter 39

Molly

Fourteen months later