I remember that morning in the annexe, and a sharp lance of pain slices into my ribcage. ‘He asked me to leave,’ I say quietly. ‘He wanted me to go.’
‘Yeah,’ Elias replies, a look of exhaustion on his face. ‘But only one of those things is actually true. He’s a mess.’
The tension of the last couple of days rushes out of me in a sigh, frustration mixing with something else in my guts. Something that feels dangerously like hope. ‘He freaked out because I said I wanted a family, and I do, but I don’t think thathas to mean marriage, then babies, then grow old, then die.’ I shrug. ‘There are lots of ways to be a family. I tried to tell him that, but he didn’t listen.’
Elias nods, one hand reaching up to scratch his stubbled cheek. ‘Then you need to make him listen. For his sake and for yours.’ His eyebrows pinch together. ‘And mine.Especiallymine.’
Can I do that? I think back to his face that morning, and I’m gripped by a sudden wave of doubt. ‘He asked me to leave. I don’t want him to think I wasn’t listening?—’
‘Stop trying to please everyone except yourself, Lou,’ Mina interrupts. It’s the first time she’s spoken for a while, and it makes me jump, even though her tone is gentle. ‘What doyouwant?’
I don’t even have to think about it. I know.
‘Bram,’ I say.
When I look back up, they’re both staring at me. Mina cracks first, grinning like a proud aunt, before Elias’s face begins to change too– the smallest twitch of his mouth first, which soon becomes a wide, genuine smile.
‘Then what the hell are we still doing here?’ he asks, and all of a sudden I know he’s right.
If I feel like this after one weekend, then there’s every chance that this is the start of something really special. And unlike Bram, I don’t have unlimited time to sit around and think about it. I’m not spending ten years looking for The One when my heart is telling me I’ve already met him.
‘I have to go back,’ I say, and then I fly into a panic, grabbing a few essentials and stuffing them into a bag.
‘Mina,’ I yell over my shoulder as I ram in some clean underwear, ‘look up the train times!’
‘Train?’ I hear her scoff behind me. ‘Come on Elias, can’t you fly her back to Whitby or something?’
I can’t see him roll his eyes this time, but from the rumble of his groan behind me, I’m going to assume that’s what he did.
‘Please stop reading that vampire fan fiction,’ he mutters, and I turn just in time to see Mina trying to hide her grin.
‘Never,’ she says, which is met with a deep sigh.
‘I can give you a lift back there right now,’ Elias says. ‘Unfortunately my supernatural skill set doesn’t currently include flying’—he shoots a loaded glance at Mina, who smirks—‘so we’ll have to go in the car I borrowed. I hope that’s acceptable.’
My laugh is louder than I intend. I’m nervous, or excited, or maybe both. ‘Car is fine,’ I reply. ‘Meens, you want to come?’
This time I definitely see Elias roll his eyes.
‘You know, normally I’d be all over a trip to Whitby,’ she says, then gestures to her lower belly, ‘but given recent events, I think I’m going to give it a miss.’
‘Ok.’ I hold out my arms. ‘You look after yourself.’
‘I will,’ she says, stepping into my embrace, and then I feel the movement of her chin on my shoulder as she speaks over it. ‘Elias, take care of my girl.’
Elias mutters something that I don’t catch, but Mina chuckles to herself as she tightens the hug. Then she whispers her last words of encouragement before Elias and I head out of the door.
‘Go get him, Lou.’
Chapter Thirty-Two
LUCY
If I didn’t already know that Elias Moreno was immortal, I would have guessed it from the way he drives. By the time we get back to the coast, my knuckles are aching from my overly tight grip on the edge of the seat. I don’t know whose car this is, but either they have bulletproof insurance, or they don’t know Elias very well.
At least we’re back in Whitby now. The volume of traffic in town has forced him to calm it down, and I can actually speak to him without fearing for my life. He’s a different character away from Mina, much more relaxed, and that surprises me because she usually has the opposite effect on people. I’ll have to remember to ask Mina about it the next time we speak.
We pull up at a red light, and I’m startled by a knock on the window. When I look up, a middle-aged man is grinning at Elias and gesturing wildly to the worn Dawn Breaks Black T-shirt he’s wearing. Elias smiles back and gives the man a thumbs up before the lights change and we pull away.