A Grave Hunger (25 page)

Chapter 42

I smiled, watching Leah frown admonishingly when I entered the room, the skin between her eyebrows puckering as she did so.

"What are you doing out of bed? You are still weak," she scolded lightly.

It had been two weeks since I had left the hospital, and I felt better than I ever did. My body was slowly becoming stronger; I was beginning to gain back the weight I had lost, and I almost felt like myself again. The events of the last few months didn't seem real, almost as though the horrors had been imagined, or had been a bad dream. Strangely, my body held no trace that I had ever been a hybrid. There was no residual strength or speed lingering in my body, no overwhelming sense of smell, and the constant roaring of noise in my head had stopped. I was ordinarily mediocre, a run of the mill human, and I loved every minute of it.

I had spent a lot of time recently analysing my life and thinking about what I wanted now that I was free of my dark curse. My life had been driven by revenge, anger, pain and loss, mindlessly slaughtering one vampire after another to try and fill the void I felt inside. I willingly believed, as all hunters did, that our job demanded a sacrifice. To sacrifice our happiness, maybe even our lives. I had accepted that, never expecting to live past the age of 40, or to experience a normal life. That had all changed when I met Leah. For the first time in my life, I had envisaged a long, happy life with her. And almost losing her had made me re-evaluate what was important, what I wanted from life.

I joined her on the couch, wrapping my arms around her tightly and smothering her with kisses. She giggled and snuggled into my chest, head lying comfortably under my chin.

"I feel great. Never better. And anyway, I've spent enough time in bed over the last few months. Unless being in bed involves you being with me, I'm not interested."

"You're definitely feeling better." She traced an invisible pattern on my chest with her fingertips, the action sending shivers up my spine. We both sat in contented silence for a few moments before something on her lap caught my eye.

"What's this?" I asked, dropping my arms to pick up a travel brochure. The front cover had a picture of Edinburgh castle and the words
Visit Scotland
on the front. "You planning a trip? I hope I'm invited."

"Maybe, it's been a while since I was home. I miss it.” She pushed herself away from me, her cheeks colouring. “After everything that has happened, I feel like I should seize the moment. You know, face my fears, even if going home will remind me of my family. Life's short.”

"I think that sounds like a good idea." I thought it was a damn good idea. Get away from here, away from the bad memories, the horrors of what we had experienced, of what we had lost. I wasn't naive to believe that getting away from here would completely eradicate those bad memories, but it was a start.

"So what do you think? When you feel up to it, do you fancy a visit to Scotland?"

I smiled and took her face in my hands, cupping her chin gently. "What about making it longer than a short trip? We could move over permanently.” I paused for a moment, letting what I had said sink in. She looked at me blankly. Obviously this thought hadn't occurred to her. “What's keeping us here? Robert is gone, there's nothing left for us here but bad memories. Let's start fresh, have a normal life, get normal jobs. We can do whatever we want, go wherever we want. I've had a lot of time to think when I was in that hospital bed. I’ve been thinking about life and what I want from it, and hunting isn't it. I want a proper life with you.”  I searched her face for any sign that I had gotten through to her. The blank expression was firmly fixed in place.

“What do you say, Scotland? You in?" I subconsciously held my breath, awaiting her response.

"Can you give up hunting? It's been your whole life," Leah asked. It didn't escape my attention that she hadn't answered my question.

"Exactly. Hunting has been my
whole
life. I've put my life on hold for so long, it's time I start living. But the question is, will you join me? There's no point in starting a new life without you."

"Looks like you had an epiphany. Who would have thought you could be so deep?" She leaned over and kissed me gently. I momentarily forgot my objective, losing myself in the kiss, enjoying being able to touch her without fear of hurting her. It was Leah that broke away first. "You're not the only one that did some re-evaluating during your time away. I've thought a lot about it over the last three months too.  I'm not saying that it will be easy giving up hunting, especially with everything we know is out there, but I'm willing to give it a try. We've both lost so much. Maybe it is time we start living.”

I smiled, visualising our future together. A normal life. There were so many things I hadn't done, hadn't seen. I felt buoyant at the possibilities of our life together. I leaned over and traced the shape of her full lips with my fingertip. "Well in that case, let's start our new tomorrow."

The End

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