It seemed to me like justice had been done, but the Law is not always the same as justice, and we had broken the Law in no uncertain terms.

With this in mind, Gage refused to be taken to a hospital, showing more fight than a man with a bullet hole in him ought to have been able to muster.

Both Milo and Kael were skilled in field medicine and they tended to their friend as I bedded Layla down in one of the rooms of the safe house.

"But your hand. Your face..."

"I'll deal with it in a minute, they've got a spray."

I sat with her until she fell asleep. For all that she wanted to spend time with me, talk to me, thank me over and over, she was too exhausted from her ordeal. I spent another minute just watching her sleep, almost disbelieving that I had her light back in my life, then went to fetch the anti-blessed silver spray, buried my face in a pillow, and applied it to my hand.

The pillow, I shredded with my teeth, but my hand looked better and felt a hundred times better, once the searing pain had died away. The spray on my face to help the wound left by Lafferty's cane was even worse.

Kael emerged from Gage's room.

"How is he?" I asked.

"I think he'll be okay. Milo is with him while he sleeps. How are you?"

"Not anxious to see blessed silver again. Are you going somewhere?"

"Things to do. Now. I'll be back." He looked at me and I turned away, not looking up until I heard him leave the room.

Well, what was I supposed to do? I loved them but they were human, I was a vampire and... Love wasn't me. Fuck what I said to Lafferty, the truth was that there was a darkness in me that love could never conquer and they didn't deserve that. What I wanted - what my body and soul cried out for - didn't matter; they were better off without me. Once Layla was well and safe, I would leave and never see them again.

Milo stuck his head in to see how I was doing and make sure that I was okay, but I was as cold and distant towards him as I had been with Kael, and he withdrew to sit with Gage, to make sure his wounded comrade pulled through.

It was for the best. I was doing them a favor, really.

A few hours later, I was channel-surfing and saw the news starting to come through, breaking on channel after channel, reporters struggling to get their shit together as updates came in faster than they could handle.

"Cosgrove Lafferty: dead..."

"...burned to the ground..."

"Marin Self..."

"...confessed to gross misconduct."

"Lawkeepers in tatters..."

"...massive internal investigation..."

"...systematic and institutional mistreatment of vampires...

So this was what Kael had gone out to do - throw shit at a fan. And he had done one hell of a job. The news spooled on, one revelation after another, development chasing development as what was left of Lawkeeper Central struggled to hold their organization together with both hands. I hoped they succeeded, for all that scandal and dirt into which Self had dragged them, the basic aim was decent and good. They needed a few more people like my guys, and a whole lot less like Marin Self. They were necessary to protect people from vampires, but the last few days had also proved that they were necessary to protect vampires from people. I wondered how many humans were now realizing that for the first time, as the hideous details of Lafferty's activities came out.

"What's going on?"

I had been so caught up in the news that I hadn't heard Layla come in. "Should you be up? You can sleep longer if you want."

She shook her head. "I'm good. Did we make the news?"

"We are the news."

"Does this mean..." She faltered on asking the question.

"That we're safe? Yeah. Yeah, I reckon it does."

We watched the news together for a while, comfortable in silence.

"It's not so bad, is it?" Layla said after awhile.

"What isn't?"

"Being a vampire. It's not so bad."

"No worse than being a human. Depends on the type of vampire you are."

Layla nodded. "It's taken me fifty years to get that."

"Nothing like meeting someone like Cosgrove Lafferty to make you appreciate being a blood-sucking monster."

Layla laughed. "I don't feel like a monster."

"I was kidding..."

"I know, I mean... I mean; for the first time, I don't feel like a monster."

I felt as if a tremendous weight had been lifted from my soul. Perhaps I had done the right thing in turning her all those years ago.

"You're not. Human or vampire, you're the best person I know."

Layla smiled. "Your new friends are pretty cool, too."

"They have their moments."

"I can tell that from your eyes."

I cringed. "Have I gone green again?"

"Who are they?" asked Layla.

"Lawkeepers. Or, were. May still be depending how all this shit works out. Just think of them as guys who wanted to do the right thing."

"That's a rare quality."

"I guess."

Layla looked me in the eyes. "Seems like you like them, Sonja. And more than a bit."

What was I supposed to do? Lie to my friend. "I guess. We had... there was kind of a connection."

"With all three of them?"

"Is that weird?"

"Sounds pretty lucky to me."

I snorted. "Fun while it lasted."

Layla tilted her head to one side. "I gotta say, it sounds like more than fun. 'Connection' sounds like more than fun."

"Depends where you're connected."

"Make all the jokes you want. These guys aren't just another hook up for you. I know you, Sonja."

She did, damn it. "I guess I owe them - they betrayed everything they had sworn to uphold to save you."

Layla shook her head. "No way. They did it to help you. Think about that."

I couldn't think about anything else.

"And now you're pulling away from them?" Layla went on.

"Who says I am?"

"I told you; I know you." She put a hand on my shoulder. "You should let your walls down a bit, Sonja. It sounds like you did that already, and look how well it turned out. Now, you're putting the walls back up? What the hell. Why? Take a chance on people who obviously like you as much as you like them. And from where I'm sitting, you like them a lot."

I put a hand over my face. "Damn green eyes."

"Your eyes aren't green, Sonja," said Layla softly. "They're pink. I've never seen that in you before and, frankly, I’m disappointed in you for being such a chicken shit."

Her uncharacteristically blunt words surprised a laugh out of me, but there was no question they’d hit home.

Pink…for love. I’d already known how I felt about them, but this affirmation from Layla made it so much more real.

My blood surged as a wave of terror mixed with joy washed over me.

We’d done it. We’d rescued the sister of my heart and, somehow, I’d managed to find three men I was wild about in the process.

No fucking way I was going to just throw it away.