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“I am now that I am here with you,” he said, taking me into his arms and kissing me.

We went into the room and he collapsed on the bed.

He told me the latest news and I wondered how much of the south had been destroyed, if there was anything left of Buzzard Creek. Then I wondered if I cared.

“What would you like to do now?” he asked. “I mean, after this?” he pointed around the room.

I shrugged. “It feels like I’m on holiday now. I think I’d like to get my mom settled into a hospital here but then, really, anything.”

He smiled at me. “How would you feel about visiting the North?”

I sat up, excited. “Sounds wonderful! I’ve never been there!”

“It’s cold,” he warned me. “Not like here and definitely not like in the South! It rains and many mornings, there is a wet fog that clings to you until mid-afternoon.”

It sounded like another world I wanted to explore.

“Don’t you need to stay here, to help with the peace process and so on?”

He shook his head. “I need a break from all of this.” He paused. “I found out who killed Matteo.”

“Who?”

“It was the queen. Taheera. She’d been having an affair with him but she was using him and then he became a liability.”

“You did say she was a bitch,” I said.

He laughed. “She is a bitch, but Matteo liked strong women and she is probably the strongest woman I’ve ever met, or had ever met.”

“What do you mean?” He told me how Vlas had summoned up the last of his energy to kill her. I was shocked to hear that both the king and queen were dead.

“I thought you loved the king.”

“Well, love is a strong word but I was fond of him, I thought he was a good king.”

“Who will be king now?” I asked and he pulled up his shoulders.

“I don’t really care.”

“What?!” I had to laugh. He had been so single-mindedly purposeful ever since I met him. It was hard to believe he could walk away from it now.

“I only care about you. About us.”

His voice was so serious, his eyes a luminous blue.

“Me too,” I said and I meant it.

“We can finally be together,” I said and crawled over to him, snuggling in next to him.

“Nothing would make me happier,” he said, kissing my forehead. “Except for maybe one thing…”

I laughed as I felt his hand slide down my neck and over my breast.

“And what would that one thing be, I wonder?”

We made love and afterwards, we lay in bed, talking.

I asked him what it was like to be a vampire, what the life was like and he was thoughtful, slow in answering.