“Yeah,” she answered, her voice slow and faint, and she reached across herself, fingers curling around the hand still holding her elbow protectively. “Yeah, I think everything’s good.”
*
It was a little surreal after that. The angelic threat had been the biggest thing on everyone’s mind for weeks. For it to just suddenly be a non-issue left everyone reeling. Gradually, though, they all found their feet again and life began to return to normal. Or at least as normal as it could get for vampires and a ragtag gaggle of semi-homeless archangels.
For the time being, at least, all five Vampire Lords would be staying awake. They would give leading by committee a try and see how that worked. None of them especially wanted to go back into hibernation, and Regina had gotten too used to having the company to insist on it. If it proved problematic later on, well, it could be dealt with later on.
Gradually, the temporary residents of the manor began to leave until, once again, only a handful of people lived there, other than the Lords. The archangels, too, began to leave. Raphael took his leave first, surprising no one, followed only a day and a half later by Samael. Gabriel and Anael lingered a few days longer, but they too took their leave eventually, with a promise to Siobhan that she would see them again shortly. She waved a finger in Gabriel’s face and informed him that she would hold him to that, though she wasn’t sure how she was going to go about doing that. She supposed the actual details were less important than the intent, given the circumstances.
The end result was a manor that felt far too large and far too empty, with only a handful of people and a dog wandering through the rooms. Siobhan was convinced that if she shouted, her voice would echo, though she suspected the Lords would object if she actually tried it, and Alistair would probably throw mop water on her again.
*
“You could leave,” Gabriel pointed out on his first return visit, sitting on a tree branch as Siobhan dangled upside down from a neighboring branch. “If the manor isn’t comfortable anymore, I don’t think anyone would object to you leaving. Considering everything you’ve done for them.” He shrugged. “It’s not as if you couldn’t decide to come back later.”
Siobhan snorted and let her arms dangle loosely towards the ground. “I guess, but the prospect of asking any of the Lords for something as selfish as ‘I’m bored, can I go?’ doesn’t really seem that appealing.” She stretched, fingers spreading and reaching towards the patchy grass for a moment, before she drew them closer to cross her arms. “I feel like they might object. And just doing it without asking also seems like a really bad idea.”
Gabriel offered her a look that seemed faintly unimpressed, though it was a bit hard to tell while hanging upside down by her knees. “I find your reasoning lacking,” he informed her blandly, and he offered approximately no reaction when she flipped him off, which was a little anticlimactic.
With a groan, she threw her arms… up? down? towards the ground, as she exclaimed with exasperation, “Yeah, alright, I’ll think about it for a while. Okay? Are you happy now?”
“I’m never happy,” he informed her, his tone a deadpan.
Rolling her eyes, Siobhan folded her arms once again. “That is such a crock of shit, and you know it,” she returned, scowling at him. “Who taught you to tell such filthy lies?” she demanded. “It’s rude. Scandalous. Inappropriate.”
Before she could add any other adjectives, Gabriel flapped his wings once, launching dust, fallen leaves, and twigs at her. A moment later, he lifted a hand to cover his mouth as he snorted out a laugh, and with a mighty pout, Siobhan began trying to pluck the twigs and leaves and blades of grass out of her hair, all without toppling down from her upside down perch.
“I don’t like you,” she informed him primly, though she was fighting a smile herself.
“I’m sure I’ll muddle onwards,” he assured her dryly, folding his wings to his back once again.
Their initial conversation seemed to have been largely forgotten after that, and that was alright with Siobhan for the moment.
*
Siobhan was familiar with the route from the manor to her old cabin in the woods. She had only been back to her cabin once since becoming a vampire, but it was a very recognizable route for various reasons, not the least of all being how close to her heart it was.
So Siobhan was expecting it when Jack turned his truck down the long driveway that led to the cabin. It didn’t come as a surprise, but she found herself grinning all the same. She loved her cabin.
“Are we on vacation?” she wondered wryly as the truck pulled to a halt beside her old car. It hadn’t been used in a few months and was starting to rust slightly in a few spots from inattention, but she felt a sudden urge to try to fix it up again.
“Sort of,” Jack answered evasively as he let Barton out of the truck. The mutt immediately bounded towards the cabin door, barking. Before he could forget himself and his own strength, Jack jogged to catch up with him and opened the door without even needing to use a key.
Bemused, Siobhan followed after them, and found Sinead and Sean standing in her cabin. Sinead was gesturing broadly to Sean and speaking hurried, only to come to an abrupt halt as Jack strolled in with both Barton and Siobhan on his heels.
“You were supposed to be a bit later,” Sinead observed flatly. “We aren’t done cleaning yet.” Even so, the layer of dust had that built up in Siobhan’s absence was gone, everything had been cleaned in the kitchen portion of the room, and everything in the living room portion of the room was perfectly in order.
Siobhan blinked slowly, looking from Sinead to Sean to Jack, before she wondered, “What’s going on?”
Jack cleared his throat. “Regina agreed that we deserve some space to ourselves, after everything we’ve done.” He lifted a hand and gestured around at the cabin. “So… welcome home.”
Siobhan stared at him for a moment. “You mean to stay?” she clarified slowly. “Both of us?”
Jack nodded once. “That’s the general idea, yeah,” he confirmed. He didn’t get a chance to say anything else, as Siobhan threw herself at him. Her arms wound around his neck, and she crushed their lips together. The kiss was clumsy at first, as Jack laughed against her lips before he could help it, while Sinead and Sean hooted encouragingly from the kitchen.
Siobhan had had enough excitement for one lifetime. Even a lifetime as long as hers was likely to be. The mess with the angels was over and finally she could stop fighting. She knew Gabriel would visit. She wasn’t worried about that. She had her forest and her cabin, and she had her boyfriend and her dog and her siblings. Be it ever so humble, there was no place like home, and she was glad to be back.
THANKS FOR READING!
***
Dear Reader,
Thank you so much for reading all the way to the end.
If you enjoyed the final book then it then it would mean so much to me if you could leave a review on Amazon. Even just a sentence would be amazing!
This would be a review of the whole series and it would be a big help if it was left on the amazon page for book 1 so others can discover the series too :)
YES, I WILL RATE THE BONDED SERIES!
Thanks in advance and if you want to see more of my work, just head over to my author page (link below)
SAMANTHA SNOW AMAZON PAGE
Thanks for reading and making “the bonded series” a bestselling series on Amazon.com!
See you in the next book
Samantha x x
And if you want more books like this, you can see all the LATEST books from myself and the Simply Shifters team at the below link. This takes you to our full Amazon.com author page :)
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