Epilogue
Reyna wrapped her arms around Beckham’s torso and hugged him tight.
The motorcycle hummed noisily between her thighs.
Wind whipped her hair in her face as they zipped out of the city and into the countryside.
They traveled through clear blue skies with the sun shining and birds singing.
Travel into the city had improved markedly.
Only six months post-Harrington and already the world was looking up.
Beckham had taken control of Visage in what he called a temporary capacity. She’d been by his side every step of the way. And while every single step was harder than the next, she never wanted to be anywhere else.
Not when they released the remaining prisoners of Visage and discovered that Everett’s brother, Edmond, had been killed quickly after Everett had stopped giving them information.
Or when Beckham offered actual free housing to those in need.
Using those rooms for good instead of the horrors that had been committed down there.
Or when Meghan and Gabe had spearheaded a conversion of the yard into a memorial for the fallen soldiers.
Their names chiseled into stone and wrapped into a semicircle as a reminder and a remembrance.
Miraculously Zoya had pieced together Washington’s research on the cure from a backup server, and a genius task force of scientists had replicated it. Now it was being offered free of charge at any Visage hospital. A surprising number of vampires had come forward for it.
Within those notes had also been the research on Jodie’s blood, which Jodie had decided to destroy rather than give to the scientists.
The experiments had done enough damage. They had enough information on the antidote from within Visage.
They didn’t need the information on Jodie.
When Reyna and Jodie had gone to Visage to liberate the people who had been experimented on, they’d discovered that June had gone into Visage to find Jodie and it had been her blood that had been the ultimate reason the antidote was made.
But once Visage was overthrown, all the vampires had killed the human subjects on their way out.
Reyna and Jodie had spent a long time crying over the deaths of their fellow imprisoned humans. They’d insisted on holding a funeral service for them, and while putting June to rest had been difficult, having Reyna and Katarina at her side the entire time had made it bearable.
Thanks to a rather large cash infusion into the economy, courtesy of William Harrington, it finally looked as if the country was coming out of the recession that had held it in its clutches for so long.
Which meant that Brian and Laura could buy a real house in the suburbs to raise their baby boy.
Drew had decided to stay in the city and had a new boyfriend—Philippé—much to everyone’s chagrin.
But Reyna liked to see her family happy.
Even if Visage saw it as another triumph for vampire and human equality.
Reyna felt at ease for the first time in years.
There was always more to do. But not today.
Today, their cares were more singular. And she could finally breathe in the crisp summer air and actually enjoy it.
They were nearly to their destination, when Beckham suddenly pulled off of the road.
“What are we doing?” Reyna called over the sound of the motor.
Beckham didn’t reply. His silences were just as weighted as they had always been. She could have reached into his emotions, but she could read him without it. And sometimes it was fun to guess.
He came to a stop and stepped off of his motorcycle. “Your turn.”
Reyna’s eyes widened in horror. “What?”
“I’ve been teaching you to drive for months, Little One. You can handle her.”
“Um, your motorcycle? You think I can handle your precious beautiful motorcycle? I nearly crashed the car. I thought Gerard was going to kill me.”
Beckham’s lips lifted at the corners at the memory. “Are you suggesting that you don’t want to drive my motorcycle?”
“Are you out of your mind? Of course I want to. Give me anything that goes fast and I’m in.”
“Oh, I know,” he said with a feral look in his eyes.
Reyna blushed. “That too.”
Beckham immediately launched into an everything-you-need-to-know-about-a-motorcycle speech.
It was probably the most he’d ever said at once.
And by the time he was done, her eyes were a little glazed over.
She’d always wanted to learn to drive, but she had needed a car to do that.
Now that the worst was over, she was finally getting that opportunity, and she really wasn’t that bad.
Hopefully the motorcycle would be okay too.
It took her a few tries to get the basics down. She only landed in the gravel once and she was pretty proud of that. Beckham had actually rolled his eyes at her. Priceless.
“Aren’t you worried we’re going to miss our appointment?” Reyna asked.
“It was moved back. I thought it a prudent opportunity.”
She laughed. Of course he had.
“You’re ready,” Beckham finally said an infinite amount of time later.
“Yeah?” she gasped.
He nodded and then kicked his leg over the back of the bike. His thighs pressed against hers, his hands sliding up her waist and over her arms.
“Easy does it.”
She started the motorcycle as he’d instructed and then eased it back onto the open highway.
Beckham was close enough to take control if he had to but gave her enough room to breathe.
It was a perfect example of their relationship.
The only time she didn’t argue with him taking control was in the bedroom. And even then…
His lips pressed into her neck. “You’re doing great.”
Reyna tilted her head back and laughed into the summer air. This was bliss. Beckham pressing into her back, the open road before her, and no cares in the world.
When they reached their destination, Beckham helped her bring the bike to a stop. She jumped off, feeling alive and wild from the adrenaline. She handed her helmet to Beckham and offered him a kiss. He obliged.
“Are you ready?” he asked.
“Are you?” she countered, suddenly sobering.
This was the hardest part of their week. Every week.
It didn’t matter what else they had to face at work, with Visage, with the cure. Worse even than the fact that they never found Roland despite their best efforts. Nothing was as troublesome as standing outside of the mental facility that Bronwyn had been placed into almost six months earlier.
Beckham nodded and took her hand. They walked into the cozy home that was the best place in the state.
It didn’t look like a hospital, which Reyna appreciated after all her time in Visage’s sterile rooms. There was wicker furniture on the porch.
The interior was soft and feminine, painted in calming colors.
The same woman, Martha, who was always there, checked them in. “Beckham, Reyna, we’re so glad to see you today.”
“How’s she doing?” Reyna asked.
“It’s not a good day. But hopefully your presence will calm her down.”
Reyna clutched Beckham’s hand. The bad days were the hardest on him. He took full responsibility for what he had done to Bronwyn. And it ate at him that there was nothing he could do to fix what he had broken. Except be there as often as he could and get her the help she’d always needed.
“You want me to show you the way?” Martha asked kindly.
“We can go on our own,” Reyna said. “Thank you.”
Reyna took his hand and guided him through the facility. Bronwyn’s room was at the end of a hallway. There was no lock on her door, a big upgrade from where she’d been before, but all of the exterior doors had them, just in case.
They glanced through the small window and peered in on Bronwyn sitting on a couch. She had a cross-stitch in her lap and was making gorgeous flowers come to life out of needlepoint.
“She used to do that as a kid,” Beckham said.
Reyna nodded. She knew.
After they’d given Bronwyn the cure, she’d reverted to an almost childlike state. No longer a military leader or a powerful vampire, she retreated into herself and became the thing she had been before her mind had been shattered.
“Are you ready?”
“Can I talk to you first?”
She arched an eyebrow but nodded. “Why do you look upset?”
“I’m not sure how you’ll react.”
“Should I be worried?”
He shook his head. “I want to take the cure.”
“You do?” she asked, wide-eyed with surprise. “You want to be a human again?”
“Yes.”
“Why? I thought you wanted to be a vampire.”
He considered. “I wanted it at one time. But I’m no longer the man who wanted it.”
“Are you sure?”
“Reyna, I want to spend this lifetime with you. I want to you and me, married with children and growing old together.”
Reyna’s heart melted. “Really?”
“There is nothing I want more than to be with you.”
“What about the company?”
He shrugged. “We’ll figure it out. I can run it as a human as much as a vampire. You have been doing just as good of a job.”
“Okay,” Reyna said in shock. “I can’t believe this is happening.”
“Say you want this lifetime with me,” he whispered against her lips.
“I want everything with you.”
Beckham kissed her once more and then opened the door to his sister’s room.
The cure was an opportunity.
A new adventure.
Not just for the vampires who had been turned against their will, but the ones who had walked into the darkness willingly. She would be there when he stepped back into the light. And every day after that.
They would weather this as they had done everything else…
Together.
THE END