The Survivors: Point of Origin (book 2)

The End

I took off, sprinting faster than any of them could catch me. When I broke free of the mountain range, many miles west of the family's city, they were nowhere near. My solitude told me they hadn't come after me.

I sought refuge. In mortality. In humanity. In New York.

My heart was in the right place. I wasn't running from Everett. I wasn't even running toward Cole. I just needed someone, someone who could understand why what I had seen would make me want to run away from it all. I needed a refuge, and I had only ever had one.

The doorman had gone home for the night, so I entered the code I'd seen him enter on the keypad at his door and in the elevator in his building. When I arrived at his door, my tote bag and traveling pack were in front of it with the plastic wand from Salem sitting on top of them. Mark had projected and brought them here, his way of saying he understood.

I counted to three before I knocked on the door.

When he saw me there, he melted. Thick waves of love surrounded me.

"Sadie," he said, breathless. Thank God, he thought.

"Hi." I wasn't sure what I expected to happen. I kept running off on him, kept running out on him, and last time, I had done it in such a way that I threw his offer to give me happiness—to give himself to me—back in his face. So, he could slam the door on me, and I would understand. I knew he would not, but I would understand it if he did.

But he was Cole Hardwick, and so he said, "Come in."

"Thank you," I stood awkwardly in the middle of his living room for a few moments, my arms folded nervously across my body as Cole set my bags aside. The darkness of all I had seen began to consume me.

He stood only inches behind me. Please tell me you have chosen me. Please tell me you've come here to tell me it's me you've wanted all along instead of that animal.

I felt guilty. The pang of withdrawal from Everett was real now. It pressed in on me, weighed heavy in my stomach. I had chosen Cole, hadn't I? Had chosen to run from Everett. Had chosen to run toward Cole. I believed Raven when he said there was human in me, even though I tried not to. Believed him that there would be a way out. And so if part of me, the supernatural part of me, could love Everett Winter, then it seemed only fair—fine, maybe it seemed inevitable—that the human part of me could love Cole. Some part of me wanted Everett, sure. The supernatural part I couldn't escape.

All of me wanted to be human.

"No questions?" I asked. "No 'What are you doing here?' or 'You can't keep coming back here like this!' or anything?"

He thought it over. "One question," he said. "Do you want to dance?"

I didn't respond. I didn't know what to say. How could he just accept me in this way? "Come on. You were so calm that time we danced. It will help clear your mind," he said.

He seemed unfazed by my silence, and so he walked to his stereo and put on a song. "We've equally made mistakes this time," he said. "I had no right to give you an ultimatum like that. I once told you I'd listen to absolutely anything you ever had to say, and from the look on your face, you've got a lot to say. You'll tell me when you're ready to. Or you won't," he said. He didn't mean this in any bad way. Instead, he just accepted me. It was the strangest thing about him. He could stand in front of me, love me irrationally, and be completely content with how little he knew about me because he believed—in his beating heart, in his living soul—that he and I would get our chance, that we were meant to be. And so, he would wait for me, just like he'd always said he would. "So," he said, again, "do you want to dance?"

The funny thing was, I did.

I nodded and stepped toward him. He put his hand on my waist and took my hand in his. I felt that electricity again, saw murky colors hit on the tips of my vision, but after a few moments of dancing, all I saw differently were Cole's baby blue eyes glowing brighter in my mind. And in my heart.

We danced for a bit with space between us, just looking at one another.

"I do have one question," he amended.

"Okay," I said cautiously.

"Does that angry boyfriend of yours know you're here?" he asked.

"No," I admitted. "But he could probably guess." I took a step closer to rested my head on his shoulder. He pulled me tightly into him.

I listened to his beating heart, felt the warmth radiating from him, and I had to admit how lovely it all felt. Cole Hardwick was exactly what I wanted.

Just not who.

He bent his head toward mine and inhaled my hair. I had my eyes closed, and I knew he did, too. I love you, Sadie Matthau.

I could love someone for what they were, couldn't I?

"Cole?" I said softly.

"Hmm?" he said.

"I'm ready to answer your questions now."