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When they arrived, the entire group were standing outside, trying to look nonchalant and failing.

“This is… all of them?”

Hunter nodded. “Yeah, this is our family. They mean well, but if you feel overwhelmed, let me know and I’ll take you back home. This is Kai and Liv’s place, they are vampires. Hand me your cell and I’ll put all the numbers and addresses in your phone.”

Thalia nodded, passing the phone to him, as she opened the back door and stepped out. As they had done with Neri, Liv was the first to welcome Thalia and invite her into the house before the rest followed. Hunter exited the driver’s side and rushed to open the door for Neri, leaning down and pressing a kiss to her lips.

Neri sighed, yet when she pulled away, she had a smile on her face. She needed to talk, so he waited next to her as she leaned back against the hood of the SUV. His smile grew when Neri burrowed herself against his side and wrapped her arms around his waist.

“I found my mother again, and she doesn’t hate me.” Neri’s voice filled with wonder.

“Angel, I’m sure no one can hate you.”

Neri lifted her head to protest, but Hunter cut her off. “Okay, scratch that, any sane person, because Zahava isnotsane.”

“But I hurt her.”

Hunter pulled Neri close and lifted her chin until she looked him in the eye.

“Pain reminds us of what we have to lose and makes us stronger when we make it through. You’re alive and healthy and Thalia’s thrilled. The past four years couldn’t matter less to her. She didn’t blink an eye when you told her you’re an immortal because that doesn’t matter to her. I doubt it will ever matter to her,” Hunter said.

Neri nodded and Hunter smiled, receiving a smile back. They walked into the house hand-in-hand and stopped inside the entrance to see the assassins gathered around the living room, all staring at Thalia, who was bouncing Silas up and down on her leg as he laughed in delight.

“When Neri was twelve, she decided she was old enough to run away because she didn’t trust the fact she had a home, a forever home with me. The year she stayed with me, we had so many silent face-off’s. They came whenever I asked her to do something for me like set the table for dinner, or make her bed, or pick the towels up from the bathroom floor. I believed she thought if she was too quiet, or stubborn, or contradictory I would give up on her. But Neri was the first child I wanted to keep from the moment I saw her.

“So when she walked out the front door, I grabbed my purse and my coat and followed her. About a mile away from the house, she turned in a huff and stomped her foot down and asked me why I was following her. I knew she struggled with her past. Every kid in the system faces abuse. Sometimes it’s emotional, other times physical. But there was such determination in her brown eyes I knew she would be okay even if she didn’t live with me. But I fell in love with her and already saw her as my daughter, so I told her we were family. So that meant where ever she goes, I go,” Thalia said.

Hunter noticed the rapt attention of the group of assassins in the room as Thalia told the story, but he realized why she stopped when both Liv and Jade wiped the tears from their eyes.

Thalia held Silas up in front of her and blew raspberries on his stomach, laughing with delight when he squealed and wriggled in her arms. When she brought him close and tucked him against her side after he gasped for breath. Silas then leaned forward and kissed her cheek.

“Thank you. That was fun,” Silas said.

Neri gasped, never having heard Silas speak aloud before, but Thalia laughed and kissed him back.

“You are perfect, moró, just perfect.”

“What does… that mean?” Silas asked.

“Moró?”

Silas nodded.

“It means baby in Greek. I call my Neri moró korítsi or baby girl.”

Hunter spoke up, wanting her to finish her story. “Did Neri go back home with you?”

Thalia laughed and pressed another kiss to Silas’s cheek.

“She did not. She stood there as the sun sank down in the horizon and the crickets chirped as night descended, thinking. I knew logic wouldn’t convince her because her emotions were so raw, even after a year of living with me. So I told her—”

“Trust comes in time and I would have to stick around long enough to earn yours,” Neri finished.

“And you did, Neri. Each day after that, you took nothing for granted. You even stayed with me after I got sick. After that day, your strength and thoughts of you pushed me through the rest of chemo. It also helped when I badgered Detective Cortez about your case. Which reminds me, should I tell him I found you?”

“Do you trust him?” Kai asked.

“Kai, right?”