20. Epilogue
The Four Horsemen are here, and they are bigger than I remember. Their wings are bigger than mine, and they have oddly stitched skin with bulging muscles. “Did your father say how many facilities there were?” Death asks, picking Storm up by his shirt collar to set him on the ground because the little feral animal is climbing all over him.
“No,” Fitz answers. “He just said there were plenty.” He stressfully runs his fingers through his hair. “I shouldn’t have killed him. I should have talked to him more.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Death sets Storm down again. “I can find his soul in Purgatory. I can get him to talk unless he is already in Hell. Either way, I can talk to him. We will find out where all these facilities are.”
“That makes sense because when I met Holly, she said she was the only one at the facility.”
“Do you think you could take us there?” Abaddon, the leader of the Hell’s Harvesters asks, plucking Storm from Death’s back. “Creed, get control of your kid.”
“This is him under control. Take it or leave it.” Creed taps his nails on the table, clearly bored.
“Demi’s still annoyed with you, huh?” Rhett teases him.
“She’s nesting. She needs her space.”
“Whatever you have to tell yourself, man,” Famine states, kicking up his legs on the coffee table in the living room.
“I can take you there. It isn’t too far away. I’ll be honest, I can’t remember the exact spot. You’ll have to follow me.”
“This is a big problem.” Conquest flips his blade over his fingers.
“No shit,” War huffs. “There could be more of this fucking guy—” he points to Creed. “Out in the world doing who-knows-what.”
“Hopefully killing all the people that annoy them,” I mumble, staring at my nails.
Everyone falls silent and my sweet mate taps me on the shoulder.
“They are all looking at you, Wildflower.”
I glance up from polishing my talons. “What?”
Creed points to me. “See? Someone who sees logic.”
Abaddon stands from the chair. “No one can just kill whoever they want. We have an order for that. Humans can’t know about the paranormal world. You need to be more careful. We can’t keep cleaning up every mess because they are DNA experiments.”
“That’s hardly fair,” Doe Eyes speaks up for me and others like me. “They aren’t the same as a regular paranormal creature—I would think—they have creatures that clash. They are different and how they adjust to the world is different than me, a human, or you, whatever you are? Demons?”
“Close enough.” War waves his hand in the air, uncaring. “He is right, Abaddon.”
“Rhett? You’ve been quiet.” Creed leans forward, crossing his arms on the table.
“I’m tired. I have two newborns at home. I don’t like leaving Mickey alone with all of the responsibility. Can we speed this up? What’s the issue? Death, you find his parents and interrogate them for answers. Any other DNA experiments, we help if we can. It isn’t Fitz’s fault his parents were so terrible.”
Fitz looks down, ashamed. “I should have known,” he whispers.
“You should have.”
“Creed,” Rhett snarls.
“What? He should have.”
I sneer at Creed. “I’ll rip your tongue from your mouth if you ever speak about my mate like that again. He didn’t know. His parents abused him his entire life. You don’t know what they did to him and his sister when they were so young. Don’t ever think Fitz wouldn’t have done something if he had found out about his father spending the family fortune on monster DNA experiments. He is good. Inside and out. He. Is. Good. I’ll fucking kill you the next time you imply that he is not.”
Smoke drifts from Creed’s nostrils, his eyes burning with the color of his dragon.
“Okay, let’s all calm down,” Abaddon tries to interject. “I think the first order of business is going to the facility where you were kept, Holly. Death, you should search for his parents while we do that.”
“That sounds like a plan to me,” Death agrees.
“Great. That settles it. Tomorrow we will meet again to go over the details. I’m hungry and what I want to eat can’t be found in this dimension.” He pats his stomach. “Let’s roll out, guys.”
One by one, The Four Horsemen leave. Creed and I lock eyes, the urge to battle brewing between us.
“Okay, I think you two don’t need to stay in the same room. Ever.” Rhett shoves Creed out the door. “Fitz, I don’t blame you, you know that, right?”
“I blame me,” Fitz whispers. “All this time. Everything done to you, that was my family. How could you not be mad at me?”
“Because you aren’t them. You never were. You’re my best friend and if you need to hear it, then I forgive you.”
Fitz’s shoulders slump and he wipes away a tear, hugging Rhett so tight, the crocodile beast grunts.
“It’s okay, Fitz. It’s okay. Their thoughts and actions aren’t your fault.”
“I’m going to dissolve the company now that they are dead. I’m done with it. I don’t want anything to do with it knowing that money was used to…”
I wipe a tear that falls down his cheek and lick it off my finger.
“I do that to Mickey too,” Rhett says with a smirk. “I can’t get enough.”
“Me either.”
“And congratulations, by the way.” Rhett stops in the doorway. “It couldn’t have happened to a better man.”
“Congratulations on what?” Fitz sniffles, wiping his cheeks with his shirt sleeves.
“Holly’s pregnancy.” Rhett shuts the door, leaving us stunned and frozen in the house.
“You’re pregnant. You’re pregnant!” he shouts, picking me up and spinning me around. “Thank you, thank you, thank you. Holy shit, I’m going to be a dad. When were you going to tell me?” His hand is pressed against my stomach and his bottom lip trembles. “I can’t believe it.”
“I didn’t know. Not yet. I thought maybe, but I wasn’t sure.”
Fitz kneels on the ground, pressing his cheek against my stomach. “I’m going to be the dad I never had. I promise.”
“I know, Doe Eyes. You’re already a better man than he ever was.”
He glances up at me through dark, wet lashes, the moment ruined when his sister’s ringtone blares from his phone.
“I’ll call her back.”
“Answer it,” I demand. “You never know if something happened.”
He digs his phone from his pocket and swipes the screen. “Hey, Sis. Oh, you guys are on your way? You’re almost here?”
Thunder booms followed by the heavy sheet of rain.
I don’t have to worry about morphing into that woman I killed. Not since they will get caught in the storm.
“See you soon, then.” Fitz hangs up the phone, takes my hand, and drags me upstairs.
“Going to bed already?”
“I need to feel you against me, Wildflower.”
“I’ll never say no to that.”
“Oh, and I’m going to plant hollyhocks in the front yard,” he says, opening the bedroom door.
“Why? Flowers die.” I scrunch my nose in distaste. I would rather him find me someone to kill. Maybe he will warm up to the thought of me killing one of his exes someday.
He wraps his arms around my waist and those dimples show when that charming smile is directed towards me. “They do die but eventually, when the season is perfect—” he twists a strand of my hair around his finger “They come back to life and bloom, just like you did. Just like you’d always do. For me.”
“I’d cross the pits of Hell and the unknown of Purgatory for you just to get a glimpse of your face if that’s all I was allowed.”
He gently closes the bedroom door, kissing me in slow tender motions.
“And then when I’m done with you, we are going to go swimming in the lake.”
“Why?” I pout.
“Because you need to start thinking about your siren. You have to take care of her needs. Your fins, your scales, they are dry. If I have to take care of you myself by holding you in the lake for your body to heal, then I will.”
I tease him. “Well, if you care so much, we should do that now.”
He tosses me on the bed and tugs his shirt over his head. “I’m a good man but I’m not that good of a man.”
This life with Fitz is all I have ever wanted.
But I wouldn’t have it any other way since life is how it is because of me. He is my second chance at life and if I somehow die again, I’ll escape Purgatory for a second time.
Nothing will stand between us. Not life. Not death.
And a love like that?
It’s wild.
The End.