What Lies Beneath

I put my shaky hands on Landon's shoulders. "Sweetheart, are you okay?"

He turned his head and put his hand on mine. "I am. I'm... good."

I breathed out. "Look at me now," I ordered him.

He turned all the way around and was smiling as he checked me over. "He didn't hurt you too badly, did he?"

I shook my head. "Nothing I can't handle."

Jaxon stood up and looked around the room. "How about you kids have a moment while I raid this place for cash?" He didn't wait for an answer before he stepped out of the room, leaving us alone.

Landon got me on my feet and kissed me, making me forget that there was a dead body in the room and two dozen more in the house. There was a new softness to the kiss, one that let me know just how much weight these people carried in his heart. And that pain was all but gone now. We were all safe, and he was staying with me.

I hugged him after. "Big day, huh?" I laughed.

His hands were on my hips as I dropped back down to my feet. "Little bit. And I think we should celebrate. Preferably naked. I'll even let you be on top."

I smiled. "Yay." I took his hand and we started walking. "I very much like being on top."

"I'm aware."

We chatted about that for a while on our walk back to the van. We stopped when we saw Jaxon loading it up with money and what looked like silverware. When he started loading the paintings, he noticed us. "What?" He looked at us blankly.

I shook my head. "Dork."

He stuck his tongue out at me. "Brat."

After he finished securing his grand theft, we piled in. Jaxon drove us and I napped in the back while we put enough distance between us and Knox's mansion massacre. There was a fun moment where we had to clean off all the blood in a gas-station bathroom before we could get food. Turned out, people freak out when they see three people drenched in blood and guts. But whatever. We threw away the clothes and washed off the blood. We ate, rested, and started driving again. We all thought it was a good idea to get as far away as we could before we found a hotel. We crossed two state lines and then stopped.

"I take it you two wanna share?" Jaxon sighed as we walked up to the counter.

"Um, duh," I said. "Unless you want a real awkward couple hours."

Jaxon narrowed his eyes at my grinning husband. He only held me closer to his side.

When we got up to the room, the door was hardly closed before I shoved Landon against the wall. He smiled at me, and I pulled him down.

****

Landon's bare chest made a very good pillow. I was lazily tracing pictures on it with my fingers while he hummed out an old lullaby that he said his mother used to sing to him.

I kissed his chest when the song was over. "Are you still feeling okay? I can't imagine what's going through your head right now."

He smiled, but he wasn't looking at me. "Mostly just wondering if I can convince you to go for round three."

"Always, but first I'd like it if you'd talk to me."

He pulled me onto him and I lay flat with my chin on my hand. He spoke freely. "Well, I'm still processing. I spent two-hundred years thinking that I would let myself die today. Now, nothing is as it was. I have a future, and I want it. I really want it." I kissed him again. "I'm glad."

He petted my hair and went on. "I'm about to start this life that I haven't wanted since I was human. It's strange, wanting things again."

I smiled softly at him. "What is it that you want, love?"

His hand traveled up and down my bare back. "Everything. I want peace now. Permanence. To settle." He had a look of joy on his face. "I want to make a bunch of little blond vampire babies with you, get a house, a dog. I want any life, just as long as it's with you."

"We get to start that now, don't we?" The excitement overshadowed the little twinge of fear at getting everything I wanted out of life. It was a lot at once.

"We do. It might take a while to get you pregnant. We'll have to try pretty hard."

"Hmm, getting to do my favorite thing in the world all the time... sounds perfect."

So there it was. My whole life was right there for me to do with what I wanted. I was strong; I was immortal. I had my brother, my mate. I could do anything in the world that I wanted. But I didn't want the world. I just wanted this little piece of happiness that I seemed to find in the darkness.

Everything. I saw everything when I looked at him. He was offering me the whole world, and I would take it gladly.

****

"How do we do this?" Jaxon asked as we ate breakfast in a dirty diner. He was shoving eggs in his face, and I was leaning on Landon.

"We want you with us," Landon told him. "We just need to get some money for a house. Something to live on."

Jaxon shrugged. "Not so hard. Shouldn't take you long."

I spoke up. "What about you? Are you up for settling down? Maybe you can find some girl who can handle all your antics."

He snorted. "Yeah, right. Nothin' is tying all this down," he said with a full mouth.

I rolled my eyes. "Not an answer."

"I don't know, La. You're talking forever here. I'm not sure I can stay in one place forever. And I kinda had another idea." He sounded nervous to say it.

"Being?"

"Well..." He straightened up. "... Landon here says that Knox and his family were just one in a long list of bastards who sell people, who hurt people. And who's fighting for them? No one. That ain't fair. So I thought that maybe I could try and do something."

I blinked. "You want to set the demons free?"

"Yeah." He grinned happily. "It might be kinda cool tearing down these places."

Landon smiled back at him. "Not a bad life to lead."

"No, it ain't."

That still didn't quite answer my question. "This is what you're going to do then?"

He nodded.

"Okay. So I guess that means you'll be traveling around a lot. We can go with you while we're trying to get up the cash we need, if you don't mind the company."

"I'd never mind the company, honey."

And then we started planning out our lives. It was wonderful, having a plan that didn't involve running from something. We had goals, and they were noble. We didn't have to be the people we used to be. Landon didn't have to be numb. Jaxon didn't have to carry everything all on his own. I didn't have to wish I were anyone but myself. We might actually be good people one day, to other people than just each other. No need to be selfish and cold. We could be so much more.