Epilogue
Blake
Pulling up the short drive, I sat back in the driver’s seat and threw the car into park.
The lights on the porch were on, along with a very festive set of Christmas lights, still strung up along the porch from last year that had yet to be taken down despite it being well past the season by a long shot.
Next to me, my companion shifted in his seat, still deathly quiet from our trip over here.
Which... wasn’t at all helping with my damn nerves. If anything, I would’ve preferred the mindless chatter to keep me distracted from the rolling nerves in my stomach.
“Cute place,” Marlow observed.
“Thanks.” Though why I was taking credit for it was beyond me. I supposed that’s what you kind of did when it was the place you grew up in all your life and regarded as a safe landing pad in times of trouble.
Beyond the porch light was another one coming in from the front door’s window. The small chandelier my mother had inherited from my grandma before she passed just out of view. Thankfully, no one was rushing out of the house to come drag us inside yet.
Though, it was only a matter of time before that happened.
“How’s your leg?” I asked, turning my attention away from my childhood home.
Marlow slowly looked down, slapping his hands around his thigh and drawing it up from where it was tucked under the dash. He rotated his ankle a few times, finally free from the cast that had been confining it for the past three and a half months.
In the grand scheme of things, that was a blink of an eye compared to the years that were left down the road. But for someone as active as Marlow, it might as well have been torture.
“Oh my god,” he murmured. “It’s... alive!”
The joke cracked through the anxious cloud hovering over me. “Oh no. What does it hunger for?”
A horrified look crossed his face. “It... it’s... hungry for blood!”
He jerked it around the small leg space, noises that sounded close to cats being strangled tumbling past his lips. Amused, I patted his shoulder a few times before popping my door open, letting the fresh autumn air hit me.
I never minded the changing seasons.
Going from spending all day under a hot sun to a nice, crisp fall evening gave me the kind of reset I was looking for after the busy summer months that felt never-ending at points. Things slowed down this time of year, giving us all a much-needed reprieve.
The passenger door popped open, Marlow’s familiar figure coming into view. He ducked behind to the back seat to grab what he had deemed his ‘humble offerings’, gathering the very expensive bottles of wine along with the large king-size boxes of candy into his arms.
“Want help?”
“Nope.” He hip checked the door closed behind him. “You just get that pretty little butt of yours up the front steps and open the door for me.”
“Yes, sir.”
Even in the dark, I could tell his eyes instantly flashed with interest. “Careful, Austin. There’s still time to drag you into that back seat.”
A shiver rolled up my spine. “Don’t tempt me.”
Fucking in my parent’s driveway. Now that would certainly be a first for me.
If this wasn’t Marlow’s first time meeting my entire family, I’d take him up on the offer. If only to check it off on our bucket list.
Keeping close to him and a wary eye on his newly free leg, we headed up to the front door. It was already unlocked when I tried the handle, a good sign that everyone was already here ahead of us.
While my two younger brothers were still teenagers and lived at home, my two older sisters had long since moved on to greener pastures, coming around for the festivities whenever the option was presented in the family group chat.
Loud voices hit my ear immediately. The familiar sounds of a game night going very poorly telling me all I needed to know about what the hell we were walking into.
Oh, boy.
“Rowdy bunch,” Marlow said, amusement dripping from his tone.
“You have no idea.” Toeing off my shoes, I took both wine bottles from him while he squatted to unlace his. “Remember how much you said you loved being an only child because it was nice and quiet and you got all the undivided attention from both parents?”
“Look, that was the old me. The new me loves big, loud, obnoxious family gatherings.”
“Famous last words.”
He grinned, standing up to snatch the wine bottles from me. “Are we making a bet? Please say yes, I’m dying for the dopamine hit.”
“You literally just closed a giant portfolio last week.”
He pecked me on my lips. “Old me, babe. This week is the new me. New leg, new screws and plates, new everything.”
“Right,” I drawled, not being able to help the smile crawling across my face.
“Do I hear my favorite at the door?” My mother’s voice cut through the arguing.
Marlow nudged my side. “She’s talking about me.”
Her stomps moved from the living room and down the hall toward us. Her wild and curly dark hair was pushed back with one of those plastic headbands found at the dollar store, her glasses tucked up on top of it.
She was in a matching set of clothes, plum colored corduroy pants and a satin blouse with a bow tied at the neck. Her beaded jewelry was in the form of earrings today, hanging down and just brushing her shoulders as she walked.
She lit up the moment she spotted me, her arms jutting out to pull me into a tight hug. “Blake!”
I hugged her back just as firmly. “It’s nice to see you. I missed you a lot.”
“Oh, stop it.” She ripped me back from her. “You’re going to make me cry.”
She glanced next to me, her eyes going wide the second she remembered who was behind me.
“You must be Marlow.”
“Guilty.”
She laughed. “Come on in! We’ve got Jenga set up in the family room. What’s all that you brought with you? Oh, Blake. I told you we didn’t need anything.”
Shrugging, I replied, “He insisted.”
Marlow leaned into me from behind, holding up a wine-filled hand as he stage-whispered at my mom. “It’s my way of trying to butter you up so that you like me enough to not turn me down when I ask you for your permission to marry your son.”
I choked. “What?!”
Her face lit up immediately, taking one of the wine bottles offered to her. “How exciting! Blake, you didn’t tell me you two were getting so serious!”
My face was on fire, tongue too tied-up with disbelief to answer her.
Was he kidding?
He had to be. We’d only been dating three months. That was way too soon for him to want to get hitched, right?
He...
Did he really...
When has he ever lied?
“Of course.” With his hand now free, he wrapped it around me to pull me against his chest, a soft kiss finding its way to my forehead. “I love him with all my heart.”
My jaw dropped.
Love.
Marlow loved me.
“You do?” I choked out.
“Till my last dying breath... and probably a little bit after that, too.” His eyes twinkled with mischief. “Let’s be honest, I’ll definitely be haunting you in the afterlife.”
“I’m flattered to be haunted by my dead boyfriend for all eternity.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll chase off any prospects that try and make a move on you.”
I let out a small laugh. “Poltergeist style, huh.”
“Complete with the spooky notes on a foggy mirror after a hot shower and everything.”
Oh, how I loved this man.
Really, really loved him.
“You can’t go first. That’s not fair. You already tried that, remember?”
“Too true.” He cupped my jaw. “What a poor choice in trying to get your attention.”
“Seriously.”
My mom clapped a hand over her mouth, a small sob nearly escaping. “Oh, you two!”
Slipping the other bottle from Marlow’s grasp, I passed it over to her before the water works could start. Not that I minded them, but once she started, she was going to get me going, too. This sudden and profound love confession was already making me dizzy with emotions as it was.
“Want to go pop those open? I’m sure Cassie and Carly will be happy to snag a glass.”
She quickly nodded her head, holding both to her chest like precious cargo. “Yes, absolutely. Oh, I’m so happy. Marlow, please come on in. We don’t bite.”
“Can’t say the same for myself,” he teased.
She let out a delighted sound. “You’re funny. I like you. You’re going to fit right in.” Pivoting on her heel, she stomped down the hall, toward the kitchen, calling out for my father. “Mark! Blake’s here!”
The moment she disappeared around the corner, I turned back to Marlow. “You meant what you said?”
“Every damn word,” came his easy reply.
I couldn’t help but sag into him, letting my arms wrap around his waist. “Me too.”
He gasped. “You bite? Since when?”
The moment he cupped my face to tilt it up toward his again, I smiled. “I love you, too, Marlow.”
His smile was incandescent, deepening his dimples in the most charming way, sending my heart fluttering. He slotted his mouth over mine, kissing me until my entire body tingled.
“I love you, Blake... forever.”
Not being able to help myself, I replied, “I hope you remember that when we’re five rounds deep into Jenga.”
“That’s what the wine’s for.”
Touché.
“Come on,” snagging his hand, I tugged him down the hall. “My family awaits your anticipated presence.”
He squeezed my hand in return. “Can’t wait.”
Terran
A knife thunked into the side of the wall right by my shoulder, missing me by a mere two inches. Attached to the handle was a white-knuckled hand that strained to pull it out, the soft grunting of someone close to me sending chills racing down my spine.
Holy shit—
I brought my arm up to block the fist thrown at me, surprisingly with a good amount of force behind the swing. The knife was dislodged a single second later and swiped at my face, a breeze ghosting over my cheek and narrowly missed me for a second time.
Less than twelve fucking steps from the door and this jackass decided to attack us now.
Another tone chimed in my ear, muffled by my heart hammering in my chest, a familiar voice coming over the radio—dispatch? Another unit arriving? I couldn’t tell. Not with my focus pinpointing directly on the man trying to stab me.
I caught him by the shoulder before he could swing back around again, shoving him hard in the opposite direction and toward the wall on the other side of the hallway.
His body snapped back the second he hit it, his head slamming hard enough to force a wince out of me.
To my surprise, he didn’t crumble to the ground like I was expecting, keeping himself upright with one hand splayed out next to him and the other with the knife still clutched tight between his fingers.
His long hair obscured his features, stringy from sweat and slightly curling at the ends. He swayed slightly on his feet.
I reached for my gun again. “Don’t.”
If this fucker even thought about—
He lunged forward, slamming his entire body weight into me and taking us both down to the floor.
My shoulder connected with the ground first, radiating pain up my entire spine and shooting right to the base of my skull from the force, leaving me with little room to breathe through the pain while his weight shifted on top of me.
Pinned at an awkward angle like this made it fucking impossible to reach for my gun strapped to my right hip. Mere seconds into this fight and I was already losing, getting my ass handed to me by a goddamn junkie.
One of his hands fisted in my hair and held me down while the other rose above us, metal glinting out of the corner of my eye.
Oh, fuck.
The snap decision to ram my fist into his side and knock him sideways was the only thing that saved that knife from connecting directly with my skull at the last second.
His pained grunt telling me when to twist and flip us both over, upending things in my favor for once.
The moment his head thumped against the floor, I reached for my handcuffs, fisting my free hand against his shirt to pin him down.
“You’re under arrest.”
The one thing I neglected to remember, was securing the weapon above anything else. A training module from my first weeks at the academy flashing in my mind mere milliseconds before I felt the dull sensation of something colliding with my stomach.
There were a million things to remember on this job, ranging from reading off rights to making sure a crime scene was properly taped off in the event of a crisis.
So many, in fact, that they often had me waking up in cold sweats at night, the recited words from those practice exams still lingering on my tongue.
How ironic that of all times, this is when I forgot the most important step.
My body froze out of sheer shock, my eyes glancing down to where the man’s fist was pressed up against my stomach, the knife buried deep enough into my body that only the hilt was still visible.
Gruesome and yet impressive. The kind of strength it took to actually force your way through clothing and skin like that was actually a lot harder than many people knew. Our bodies were made to survive the worst conditions, sharp knives included.
“Terran!”
My vision swam the second I registered TJ’s voice.
Blood coated the perp’s hand, thick trickles that grew worse the second he twisted the handle and then forced it out of me, taking my entire lung capacity with him.
There wasn’t much that scared me these days when I was constantly putting myself into dangerous situations for a job. Dealing with people that could suddenly turn on you in an instant was always a risk and one I’d whole-heartedly signed up for the moment I graduated from the academy.
Plenty of times in the past, I’d come face to face with a situation that had the potential to result in death, but somehow with my luck, it’d never seemed to come to pass.
Until now, apparently.
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