Luka looked over at me sleepily. Vampire sleep time was in the day, and he had probably stayed awake for me. Seeing him now, I felt the weight of sleep pull at my limbs. Thank God vampires still slept. I wasn’t sure I could handle being awake 24/7 forever on top of having to drink blood.
“Tired?” he asked.
I nodded. “And feeling better.”
Everyone looked relieved at that. No more crazy lady breaking furniture. “But I should probably go talk to House of Thorns, they are most likely freaking out—”
“Liv is on it. You can see them tomorrow, rest with me.” He held out his hand and I nodded. Turning back to look down at Sage’s wolf form, I bent to one knee and scratched her behind the ears. “Thank you, friend,” I whispered. “I won’t forget that.”
She nuzzled my palm and Demi stepped over to me, wishing Luka a good night. When she opened her arms to me, I fell into them and gave her a hug. “Say the word and we hunt that Morgana bitch down,” she growled softly in my ear.
“I canhearyou,” Luka added, and I grinned.
Pulling back from Demi, I met her gaze. “I’ll let you know.”
She gave me a curt nod, pulling her long braid over one shoulder, and I noticed her t-shirt today saidMILF.
I chuckled.
I’d lucked out making these new friends, especially since it looked like I was going to be living hereforever.
“Oh shit. Am I … gonna become the vampire queen?” My mouth popped open with the sudden realization, and Demi looked to Luka expectantly.
“Yes … I mean, if you want to,” he hedged, probably scared I would pick up the stone bench and chuck it across the garden.
“I mean, I want to be your wife, so…” I threw my arms up in confusion. Former vampire hunter nowqueenof the vampires? I’m not sure how beloved I would be to my people.
He smiled. “Then you will be queen. Package deal.”
“Glad to hear you will be staying king,” Demi said as she and Sage started to walk out of the garden. “Sawyer and my plan for Morgana as queen was not pretty and involved a lot of explosives.”
I chuckled.
“Night,” Luka told her.
“Night,” she said.
When they were gone, it was just us. Two people with no heartbeats who didn’t poop.
“So no more bacon cheeseburgers?”
Luka chuckled. “I mean … you can, but it’s not pretty when it tries to come out undigested.”
Gross.
With a small grin, he reached out and scooped me into his arms, cradling me against his chest.
“I know it wasn’t a choice you made with excitement, but now that we have forever together, I promise to give you the most amazing life, Aspen Rose.”
Well, if that wasn’t swoon worthy, I didn’t know what was.
* * *
I’d slept,which was weird, because I was a freaking vampire now! When I’d woken up next to Luka, I went to the bathroom and sat on the toilet like I always did, and when no pee came out I’d burst into tears for a second before laughing maniacally. Okay, maybe some of my crazy emotions were still processing. But not peeing anymore? It was just weird.
Now we sat across from each other holding our warm bottled breakfast. “Cheers!” I tapped my bottle of blood to Luka’s and he chuckled. “You’re surprisingly okay with this.”
I shrugged. “I’m definitely going to be hiring a full-time shrink. Do we have those here?”
