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35.
The
debriefing seemed to last forever for Drew, she was tired, but more
than that she wanted to go to her room. The one she shared
with Seth, she wanted to curl up in his arms and revel in the fact
that he loved her. It was still surreal to her, almost as
if it had been a happy dream.
When
they told Gabriel how the demons and vampires had turned to dust, he
hadn’t seemed surprised.
He’d
nodded and said. “I suspected something like that might happen,
this is the first nexus, a prophecy meant to fight evil. So
the full bonding of this specific nexus was bound to create some
spectacular results. I’m just happy you took Sandamar
out with it. One less bad guy to worry about.”
“Maybe, but whoever
Sandamar was working for is still out there Gabriel. Somewhere,
just waiting to cause more problems for us.” Ross
cautioned.
“Yes
he is, but for today, our work is done. If we worry about
every bad guy that might crawl out of hell’s sewerage pipe, we’ll
never stay sane Ross.”
Gabriel
stood up and stretched, ever since Namara had pored that power into
him he’s been feeling as if he had insects crawling under his skin
and it was making him jumpy.
“For
now, the debriefing is complete. Drew you can go see if
Brynn would like to stay the night or if she’d like me to arrange
someone to take her home.”
The
others filled out the room.
“Seth,
Drew.” Gabriel called them before they left. “I’m
glad you two finally got round to it. The nexus was in
danger there for a while.”
“What
do you mean?” Seth asked frowning.
“I
mean, while you two were taking your time to admit your feeling for
each other you had massive targets on your backs. If
either one of you had died it would have been the end of any future
nexuses.”
Drew
was shocked to silence. Seth wasn’t so quiet.
“Why the hell didn’t you
tell me that? My own damn stubbornness put Drew in danger,
and not just Drew but every hope for a future nexus.” Seth
was irate, he pulled Drew closer to him unconsciously afraid that she
could still be taken from him.
“If
you’d taken much longer Seth, I would have stepped in, I knew how
both of you felt. But you needed time to figure it
out.” Gabriel smiled taking the reprimand in his
stride.
“Now get
out of here, both of you, go and relax a bit, you deserve the
rest. You fought well tonight.”
Seth
swallowed the retort that spilled to his lips and led Drew out the
debriefing room.
Drew
found Brynn in the kitchen with Selphie. The women where
chatting and baking. It seemed they had found common
ground and then some. Brynn loved to bake.
Drew
gave Seth a quick kiss at the door of the kitchen and told
him. “I’ll be up in about ten minutes. Wait
up for me?”
He
grinned wickedly, his mind obviously on what he was planning.
“Always.”
She
laughed after him as he disappeared up the stairs.
“Hey
Brynn, Selphie.” Drew smiled a greeting.
“Hey
Drew.” Brynn answered.
“Hi
Drew. Want a cookie?” Selphie offered her a
plate filled with cookies.
“Thanks.”
Drew took a cookie off the plate.
“So
Bry, Gabe wants to know if you’d like him to organize you a ride
home?”
“Nope.”
Selphie answered for Brynn. “Your sister and I are going to be
baking all night, she’s got some great recipes I want to try
out.”
Drew
rolled her eyes.
“So
your cool hanging with Selph?”
“Are
you kidding, I feel like I died and went to culinary heaven.” Brynn
laughed.
“As long as you’re
having fun. You’ll find Bry a room for the
night?”
“Oh
she’s already got a room permanently assigned to her, she can come
stay when ever she wants to.”
“Okay,
well then if you’ll let Gabe know, I’m off to
bed.”
“Sure.”
“Drew.” Brynn
called her sister back.
“Yeah?”
“I told you he loves
you.”
“Gods,
how do you know what happened?”
Selphie
laughed and answered. “Marcus came and told us
everything. Sounds like it was pretty
spectacular.”
Drew
couldn’t help the grin that lit up her face. “Yeah, it was.”
She turned and headed up to
the room.
When she
opened the door the room was empty except for Khettah who sat by the
connecting door to Seth’s room.
“Hey
Khettah, did you miss me?”
I
don’t miss you because I am always part of you Drew.
Drew
laughed. “Where is Seth?”
He’s
in your shower, he asked me to tell you to hurry up and get in there
before the water gets cold. Then I’m supposed to - ‘get
my ass to the other room’.
The
sentin sniffed as if Seth had greatly offended her, but Drew knew
Khettah wasn’t offended. Drew chuckled.
“Okay,
message delivered, you can go join Khan now.”
Khettah
said nothing else, she turned and went into Seth’s
room.
Drew waited
for the sentin to leave then laughed and ran for the bathroom door
pulling her clothes off as she ran.
The
bathroom was permeated with steam. It was almost too thick
to see through.
“Seth,
are you in here?” Drew asked as she waved clouds of the
evaporated liquid out of her way.
“In
the shower, hurry up. The water won’t stay hot
forever.”
Drew
pulled open the shower door and stepped through into the large
stall. She squealed and spluttered when Seth grabbed her
and pulled her close against him, right under the shower
head.
“What
took you so long Beautiful?”
“That
wasn’t long.” Drew slipped her arms up around Seth’s
neck.
He dipped
his head to kiss her. “It was an eternity.”
She
laughed when he released her lips. “Ha! Do you really
think a sweet poetic turn of phrase is going to get you laid mister?”
“I don’t know, maybe,
maybe not, but I know three words that will guarantee you get
lucky.” He grinned wickedly.
“Oh
and what would those be?”
“Why
don’t you try and guess.”
“Hmmm,
could they be… I love you.”
He
growled and kissed her again, putting all his love for her into the
meeting of their lips.
“Say
it again.” He requested.
“No,”
she smiled impishly. “It’s your turn now.”
“I
love you, and I will love you forever. You are mine Drew,
its something I knew from the moment I first saw you, I just didn’t
realize it at the time.”
His
words made her stomach flip and her heart beat faster, Drew reached
up and pulled his head down for another kiss.
The
water was freezing by the time they finally got out the shower. It
didn’t matter to either of them, they found interesting ways to
warm up again.
A
week later Drew sat on the stone steps at the back of the main house
watching Khettah and Khan romp across the grass in the twilight. In
the time since the nexus that Seth and Drew shared had fully bonded,
it had become Drew’s habit to come sit on the stone steps at
dusk. She’d listen to Ross play the guitar
and contemplate the day’s events.
This
week had been the happiest in Drew’s life. Her days
seemed to fly and her nights were spent in Seth’s arms, either
filled with passion or just lying talking until the early hours of
the morning.
She
couldn’t have asked for more happiness, but there was one thing
that would make it her life perfect.
Drew
had never been the white wedding type, but she’d admitted to
herself that she would love to wear a ring Seth put on her
finger. The nexus meant - in effect, they were married,
but it just wasn’t the same thing for Drew. She wanted a
real wedding.
She
would never mention it to Seth and She hadn’t even told Brynn or
Selphie about this secret desire of hers.
She
was pondering this when she heard someone behind her.
“It’s
about time you got here Ross, I’ve been waiting for the music to
start.”
“So
this is something that happens regularly, you stealing out here to
meet Ross.” Seth’s mock growl made Drew turn with a
smile on her face.
“Oh,
every day.” She said with wide-eyed
naughtiness.
“Watch
it woman, I might just lock you up in our room.”
“Only
if you promise to lock yourself in there with me.”
Seth
groaned. “Don’t get me side-tracked now.” He sat
down behind Drew on the step above her and pulled her close. “I
came out here for a reason.”
“And
that reason would be?”
“Well,”
he teased her, “if I want to keep Ross from stealing you away from
me. I’d better give you this.” He opened
his hand in front of her.
Drew
went very still.
“Is
that…”
“An
engagement ring? It depends.”
“Depends
on what?” Drew could barely breath, her chest was constricted with
a wild hope.
“On
whether your you say yes or no.”
Drew
didn’t give him a chance to say any more, the spun around and threw
her arms around Seth’s neck. “Yes, yes, yes. I love
you so much. Yes!” She laughed. “Was that a clear enough
answer?”
“I
think so.” He grinned at her then reached for her right hand
slipping the beautiful ruby ring on her finger, before taking her
face in his hands.
“I love
you.”
Seth kissed Drew for
a long, long time, as twilight faded, and crickets sang in the warm
blue darkness of a summer night.
THE
END
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