That just pissed Celestia off even more, and she brushed past him to try to poke at my chest.Tried,that is, because Naomi’s hand flashed out to slap it away, a louder growl issuing from her. Although I could handle the situation, I loved that I could always count on my darling to throw down for me—as she would say.
“I’m going to rip your throat?—”
But in what was hopefully the last surprise of the night, Orthallow let out an extremely pained sigh. “Celestia, be so for real right now,” he said, his Jersey accent coming to the front. “We were shit to Rowan. We used him. We should be apologizing to him and begging him to forgive us for being asshats instead of throwing this tantrum because there was finally a consequence to you being a fuckin’ crumb bum!”
Well.
That was certainly unexpected.
When they’d first stormed in, I’d thought Orthallow had been running reconnaissance for them. But no, his intentions really were pure.
Maybe he wasn’t so bad after all. We all made mistakes, all had capacity for growth. And it seemed like he truly meant what he said.
“Why don’t you just go home? Go home, work on yourself, and fix that shitty attitude so you can actually contribute to the world instead of leeching off others. We’re bloodsuckers, but that’s supposed to be literally, not metaphorically.”
Now it was Celestia’s turn to look at all the faces around her, the ones she wanted to make feel small but weren’t letting her. The rest of her vampires were doing much the same, except the one who had chuckled before. Instead, they stepped a bit to the side, offering their hand to Carolina.
“I apologize for not understanding what this event was all about. If you don’t mind, I’d love that tour. If that’s still an option. Lovely music, by the way.”
Was that still playing? The comment brought me back to reality. The DJ had stopped playing the pop synth and was blasting Queen’s “We Will Rock You”.
I needed to remember to tip him.
“Of course it’s still an option. Here, let me show you where we’re keeping the bloodwine. We have it chilled and warmers too.”
“Wait, I wanna come as well!” another voice popped from the back and a shorter vampire who looked barely old enough to be in college sped around the remainder of Celestia’s posse.
Celestia moved her mouth as if she was going to spit at our feet, but Iko cleared his throat, and she stilled. Instead, she gave me what I was sure she thought was an intense glare, then stormed out, although with a lot lessoomphthan when she’d come in.
And it may have been trite, it may have been petty, but when the doors slammed shut behind them, a cheer came up from everyone that had gathered around.
“Not bad for a bunch of rejects, huh?” Iko asked, all grins once the furor died down.
“Not bad at all,” I agreed before turning to Naomi. “You were perfection, by the way.” She was still glowing, radiant in her strength, her kindness, and her resolve.
“It was a group effort,” she objected slightly, her cheeks flushing with pink as they always did whenever I got sappy.
And sappy didn’t even cover the depth of my feelings. Although it wasn’t a life-or-death situation by a long shot, staring down those who meant to hurt me, whohadhurt me, was transcendent, to put it frankly. As much as I tried to be upon modern slang, I didn’t think there was a single current word that did the feeling justice.
And so finally, because the third time seemed to be the charm, I got the words out that I’d been wanting to say for so long.
“Naomi Bracken, I love you.”
Despite everything that had already happened in the night,thatwas the phrase that seemed to make everything slow down to nothing. Naomi looked at me, those jade eyes of hers going wider than I’d ever seen, which was saying a lot considering all we’d gone through in our time together, and that beautiful blush of hers was back again, stronger than ever.
“I love everything about you. I love the way you think. I love how you treat those around you. I love the sound of your voice being the first thing I hear at the start of my night, and I love it being the last thing I hear when I go to bed just before dawn.
“I love the shimmy you do when you taste something particularly delicious. I love the way your face lights up when you have a new video you want to show me. There isn’t a thing about you that I don’t love, and although it’s very fast, I just had to let you know how I felt.”
Naomi stared at me, mouth open. Everyone around us was watching with bated breath, but they didn’t matter. Time seemed to drag on forever, and Naomi wasn’t even blinking.
If she had stayed frozen any longer, I would have started to be worried that she was caught in some sort of spell. But eventually, she managed to speak, although her first words were not what I expected.
“You think six months before saying I love you isfast?” She wasn’t angry about it, but she did indeed look like she was about to laugh, and I did hear a couple of snickers behind me.
“Is it not?” Perhaps my extended life and lack of casual dating experience might have given me an incorrect view of what a normal timeline was for such things.
“Not at all,” she said before throwing her arms around my shoulders and kissing me again. “I would have waited even longer if you needed. But for the record…” Another kiss, sweet and happy in all the right ways. “I love you too.”
