A breath I didn’t realize I was holding slid out of me. “My blood was gone; they had to replace it with something, didn’t they?”

“So Doran offered?”

Doran laughed softly. “She owed me a kiss.”

Liam seemed to be thinking it through, and for a moment, I thought he was listening to Faris. That maybe that brassy vampire wasn’t gone. “You only owed him one, right?” He slid his arms around me and pulled me to him once more. I smiled up at him.

“Yeah, only one.”

“Good, because I’m staking my claim on these lips for the rest of forever.”

I grimaced. “Maybe staking isn’t the word you should use.”

Laughing, he pressed his lips to mine and I fell into the kiss, peace rolling through me.

We’d done it. We’d defeated Orion.

It was time to go home.

But first, we had two little people to pick up.

My heart skipped a beat and I grabbed Liam’s hand. “Marcella and Zane.”

“I left them with John and Mary, at the hotel. And you are not going to believe what I found out,” he said and laughed again. “Seriously, Rylee. You aren’t going to fucking well believe it.”

“As long as it’s a good surprise, I don’t care.”

I grabbed him and pulled him toward the barn door with me. He looked around, his eyes sweeping those who were left.

“No.” The word whispered out of him and his feet stopped moving. “Tell me he’s off scrounging for rabbits.”

My heart clenched and I closed my eyes. “He gave his life for me. So that I could have a second chance.”

Liam dropped his head until his chin touched his chest. Tears slipped down his cheeks and I wrapped my arms around him. So many tears, too many. The barn door opened and Lark stepped inside.

“We have visitors.” Her voice was dull. I wasn’t the only one who had been pushed to their limit. All of us had been forced to face things we’d been afraid of.

“Tell me they’re good visitors.”

She nodded. “They are.”

Liam turned and tipped his head. “Sounds like your Jeep.”

My Jeep? How the hell could that be.

I walked out of the barn and stared as a Jeep bounced down the driveway, coming to a stop near the remainder of the house. John stepped out first, then went to the back and opened the door. “Finding car seats was a bit of a pain with the black out, you know.”

I jogged to his side and reached past him to my girl. Marcella saw me and squealed, wriggling in her seat like mad as she lifted her hands to me. I had the buckles off and pulled her into my arms in a flash, the new speed I’d acquired like having a bite constantly invoked.

I breathed her smell in, held her out, and stared at her beautiful face. She laughed and touched my face, running her hands over my wet cheeks.

John laughed. “Don’t forget this little man.” He handed me Zane and I kissed the little boy who’d so deftly stolen my heart. Doran once said I would love another . . . that had been Marcella he’d spoken of, I was sure. Yet as I held Zane, I knew I loved him as much as I loved her.

Then there was Faris.

I fought the tears as I thought of him, telling me he loved me, and he was leaving. He’d died protecting me; because of love.

Zane clung to me. “Mama.”

Liam held out his hands and Marcella went to him, snuggling herself into his neck. He didn’t look anywhere near the FBI agent I’d met eleven years ago. He’d changed in every way someone could.

And yet . . . he was everything I needed to forge this new life ahead of us.

John touched my arm. “Ry.” I turned to see him smiling, his eyes watering. “You look a great deal like our Elena. I’ve wanted to tell you that since we met.”

Elena that was my mother’s . . . “Elle?”

Mary stepped out from around the Jeep and smiled at me. I’d only seen glimpses of her in the past when I’d gone to the hotel.

Now I knew why. She was an older version of my mother, down to the dark hair and slim build, the angle of her jaw and shape of her nose.

I swallowed hard at what was being offered to me. Family. “Why didn’t you ever say anything?”

John shrugged. “I’m not your real grandfather, Ry. He passed on not long after your mother was conceived.”

Lark moved up beside me. “He was my uncle. He was killed because he was a Spirit Elemental.”

Mary nodded slowly. “That he was. John found me after the accident and helped me heal. I’m sorry we never told you, Rylee, who we were. We were afraid you wouldn’t believe us. So many times people didn’t believe us.” Her eyes went to his, and I suspected a story there, an explanation for doing things the way they did. Perhaps another time they would tell me.

Lark touched my arm and then tipped her head to the side. “Rylee, I have to go. There are other problems waiting on me.” Right behind her Jonathan fidgeted, his eyes still as screwball as ever.

“She’s right, she has to go. So do I. I have to go with her.” Jonathan’s hands twitched as though he were holding a pencil, writing in the air. I wasn’t going to be sad to see him go.

I shifted Zane on my hip. The little boy wrapped his arms and legs tightly around me. “What can I do to help?”

She shook her head. “This is not your fight, my friend. Though, I thank you for the offer. Perhaps we will meet again.”