Forever Night (Darkness Falls Book 3)

Chapter Thirty-Four

My words seemed to plunge the room into silence. In hindsight this was a conversation that Luke and I should have had in private, not in front of our friends and family, but it was too late to change it now. The words were out there, and now we had to deal with them.

More tears spilled down my cheeks and I swiped them away, irritated with myself. Crying didn't help anything. But nor did yelling and getting hysterical.

I took a deep breath and struggled to control my churning emotions. "Luke," I said, placing my hand on his chest and feeling each precious thump of his heartbeat. "Rachel isn't doing this to save me. She's doing it to destroy me."

He frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Do you remember what she asked me back when I first gave her this challenge? She wanted to know if I truly loved you. I thought it was weird at the time, but now I think I get it. She knows that what we have is real, and she knows that we'd do anything for each other. So she knows that you would lay down your life for me."

"Without even hesitating," Luke said.

"And she knows that losing you is the worst possible thing that could happen to me. Don't you get it? This is her ultimate revenge. Killing me is easy, but letting me live in agony for the rest of my life, without you, is the cruellest thing she could possibly do."

In that moment, I truly understood what Luke meant to me. There'd never been any doubt in my mind that I loved him, but this was different. It was the beautiful, blinding realisation that Luke truly was the other half of my heart and soul. He completed me in a way that made me think I'd only ever been half a person until I met him, and if I lost him, I'd only be half a person again. I'd wander the rest of my life, knowing that I could never again be complete.

I could live without Luke in that I'd still be breathing and my heart would still be beating, but it would never beat for any other boy. Luke was my one and only, my present and my future.

There was so much that Rachel could take from me, but she could not take Luke. I would rip her head off, poke out her eyes, and drive a dagger through her heart before I let that happen. The savagery of my own thoughts should have frightened me, but it didn't. I felt like a wild animal defending its mate, lashing out at the threat that had dared invade our territory.

I clasped Luke's face in my hands, feeling the softness of his skin, the hard edge of his jaw-line, and gazing deep into his storm-grey eyes. I would love this boy for the rest of my life, through whatever else the world wanted to throw at us, through all the ups and downs that came with any relationship, through all the years as we slowly grew old together.

He was all I wanted, and I would not lose him.

"I love you," I whispered, and another tear slid down my cheek. "Promise me, Luke – promise me that you're not going to do something stupid. We are going to face Rachel together and we are going to beat her. She is not taking you away from me." I moved my hands up his face until his eyelashes tickled the tips of my thumbs. "She is not tearing us apart."

"I love you, too," he said, clasping my wrists with both hands.

"Then don't leave me."

He touched his forehead to mine, our faces so close that it really was like we were the only people in the world. His breath was gentle and warm. "I won't."

Luke pulled me into his arms and I buried my face in his shoulder, fiercely hugging him. We were linked in a way that many people couldn't hope to understand, and if Rachel honestly thought she had a chance of separating us then she was far more stupid than I'd ever thought.

Luke and I were forever.

"We're going to get through this," I whispered. "And we are going to spend the rest of our lives together."

I set an alarm for just before dusk, but it turned out I didn't need it. I woke up almost exactly as the sun was setting, painting the sky rose-pink and muted gold. Since moving in with Luke, my body-clock had struggled to adjust to living with a vampire, but now, sitting in bed with the boy I loved sleeping beside me, I realised that if my life was to be forever lived in the night then I was okay with that. If daylight was the sacrifice I had to make to be with Luke, then I'd gladly make it.

Leaning over, I kissed his bare shoulder, snuggling against the warmth of his body.

"Are you watching me sleep again?" His voice was muffled where his face was pressed against the pillow.

I smiled and kissed his shoulder again. "Maybe."

He rolled over, looking up at me with mussed hair and sleepy eyes. I didn't think I'd ever grow tired of the gentle intimacy of simply waking up with him like this.

"When we first met, did you ever imagine this was where we'd end up?" I asked.

He propped himself up on one elbow so our faces were level with each other, and reached up with his other hand to toy with a strand of my hair. "Depends on what you count as our first meeting. If it was when we ran into each other in Greylark and you kicked me in the face –"

"God, you're never going to let me forget that, are you?" I groaned, covering my face with my hands.

"Nope," Luke said, and I could practically hear him grinning. "It makes for a great meeting story. Other couples meet at school or college or at parties, that sort of thing. We met in an asylum at night and promptly attacked each other."

Strictly speaking, I had attacked him, but he didn't hold that against me. Luckily. The relationship would have been really awkward otherwise.

"Anyway," Luke said, running his fingers up and down my arm. "Do you count our first meeting as when we fought in Greylark, or when we were both checking each other out through the bonfire?"

"I wasn't checking you out," I protested.

A smile teased his lips. "Liar. I could see you getting all hot and bothered."

"I was standing next to a bonfire!"

"Excuses, excuses."

I mock-swatted his chest until he caught my hand and kissed my fingertips.

"Either way," he said, "the answer's yes. The first time I saw you, I was sure this was how we were going to end up."

"Even though I kicked you in the face?" I trailed butterfly kisses along his jaw.

"Especially then. It was your fire I fell in love with, Kiara. When I saw you that night, it was like a light went on in my head and I was seeing everything for the first time. I'll admit the attacking me part did take me by surprise, but" – he shrugged – "I don't get put off that easily." He poked me in the ribs. "Lucky for you, huh?"

I tried to affect a stern expression but my lips betrayed me, curving into a smile. "Cocky."

"Mmm-hmm."

I gazed at him and he gazed right back, a curious intimacy in the way our eyes met, like we were both seeing into each other's souls.

"Tonight," I whispered, trailing a hand down his chest. "After we've won this battle, we're finally going to take that last step."

Fire flashed in Luke's eyes as he ran his hand up my leg. "I can't wait."

I wished we could take that final step now, but war was waiting for us at Greylark. We didn't have any more time to spare.

One way or another, this thing ended tonight.