“Fuck—Willan, what’s wrong?” Nikolo grabs my shoulders in his panic, shaking me softly like he can dislodge the emotions from my brain.
“I…” I try to take a breath and realise I can’t. It makes the tears come harder. “I’m never going to have your mum’s tea again.” I wail, collapsing against him, biting my lips in the process with my new fangs.
“Oh, baby.” Nikolo wraps me tightly against him, tucking my head under his chin. I feel like an idiot. A loved idiot, but a loved idiot all the same. “I get it.”
He lets me cry, holding me and making soothing noises until I get it all out.
“It feels really fucking weird to not breathe. Like, I knew that it would but I didn’t understand.” I mumble against his chest, wet with fresh tears.
“Yeah. There’s going to be a lot of that.” He kisses the top of my head, then presses a cheek against the spot. “But I’ll be here to help, no matter what.”
He lets go just enough for me to look at him, and press a kiss to the smear of blood on his jaw. “You’ve got me?”
Nikolo squeezes my ass playfully, hauling me back up higher so we’re face to face.
“Yeah. I’ve got you.” He kisses me softly. “Forever.”
My heart thuds hard enough for him to feel, I think. Inexplicablerightnesswashes over me. No matter what I’ve given up, it’s nothing compared to what is before me.
“Forever and ever.”
The end.
