Ana squirmed in his arms. "That's not very nice," she said.
"No, it's not. And there was another who thought so as well. You see, all the Nephilim wore their sign colors. Gold and white for Sunrise and dark blue and black for Nightfall. But one Nephilim stood against both groups and declared an end to the fighting. 'People of Sunrise and Nightfall,' he said to the stunned crowds, 'have we not fought enough and spilled enough blood of our brothers and sisters? How long will we continue to destroy other Nephilim before we've had enough?' And as everyone watched, he stripped off his colors and donned gray in a show of neutrality. 'I will no longer align myself with my Sign until this fighting has ended. Who joins me?' And much to the surprise of those leading the revolts, many joined him. And soon, many more, until you couldn't find Sign colors anywhere. He formed the very first Twilight Court, uniting the Sign of Sunrise and the Sign of Nightfall under one rule of peace and prosperity. He was hailed as The Gray Watcher. And over the centuries, as our people have need of one, a Gray Watcher will rise to help the Nephilim bring back that peace. The Gray Watcher isn't one person, and we haven't seen one in a very long time, but the stories remind all Nephilim that we are stronger united rather than divided."
"Like Mommy and Daddy," she said. "They are Sunrise and Nightfall, and they are family. All of us are family."
"Yes, child, that's right. We are family."
TWENTY ONE
My Soul From Heaven
SAM
This look of thine will hurl my soul from heaven
— William Shakespeare, Othello
I COULD FLY.
Really, truly fly.
It was like the dreams I'd had as a child, only so much better. In my dreams flying always felt difficult, like swimming in heavy water, pushing through a boundary forbidden to me. But in real life, in my actual real life, flying felt natural. Freeing. Exhilarating.
Drake taught me, in a much less traumatic way than Beleth had taught him. It had taken a few months of practice, of strengthening my shoulders and back and wings and getting used to the vertigo of being suspended in the sky, but now it was as natural as breathing.
I only wished Luke and Lucy were still here to see this. They'd left with Ocean and the IPI agents shortly after I'd been turned. Once they knew I'd be okay.
The blood took getting used to. Drake and I couldn't feed off each other, now that we were both Nephilim, so we had to hunt. I had no choice. I could no longer live without blood. He had a choice and still struggled with it, but knowing the blood kept him strong and healthy, I insisted he join me in hunting. We still hadn't found the Beast who had killed our friends. We had to be careful—living in a state of constant fear as we struggled to make sense of so much senseless death. But we tried to carve out moments like tonight, moments where we tried to relax, tried to breathe, tried to pretend life was back to normal.
Drake and I walked hand in hand to the clearing, the winter moon shining on us, casting a cold light into the night. The nip in the air would have chilled me before. As Nephilim, the cold no longer bothered me. I still couldn't believe all the changes my body had undergone. The hardest wasn't even the drinking of blood, oddly enough. It was my new aversion to the sun. I could be in the sun without too much problem, I just didn't like it. It weakened me and made me slightly nauseous. A byproduct of being born into the Court of Nightfall. Since Drake was Sunrise, he didn't suffer the same restraints. But in some ways, I was stronger—at least at night. That was a new feeling, to be stronger than Drake of all people. To have powers that were active.
I'd thought—and maybe sort of hoped—that I would lose my mind-reading abilities in the shift. Nope. Those were still as strong as ever, but right now I had my mind protected so I could enjoy this 'date night' with my husband.
"Do you think Ana will be okay?" I asked, not for the first time. I worried every time we left, especially with a lunatic hunting paranormals still at large.
Drake nodded. "She's with Beleth. She couldn't be safer."
I smiled, knowing he was right, and stretched my wings behind me, reveling in the power and beauty. While Drake's wings glowed softly golden, infused with light as if they contained their own sun, mine shone a dark blue, almost black, with a flicker of white light like twinkling stars. Another tell of our different Courts. It bothered me a little that Drake and I were so different now, but in most ways we shared more than ever.
We rose into the night sky together, slowly, holding each other as we kept pace, gazing deeply into each other's eyes.
"I love you, Sam," he said, kissing me deeply.