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“I’ annoyance in her tone

“Thought I asked you to stay out of my mind”

“I find your ht, bushman” Restless, she rose,up at the sky, wondering how ive a hang about vampires and how they were supposed to feel about hue that , a reverse for back to the noise and co closeness of others in the cities, so that the stillness of so s too large to be held inside

A land that defied classification According to geology, Australia had been unchanging, an island to itself, while the other land continents were still shifting for a fewto sort theht be uncertain whether they were British or Australian, Australia herself apparently had no confusion on the matter She was the one and only Oz And that hat Danny liked about her She liked a woman who knew her own mind

Danny turned to look at Dev, sitting on the top step in his casual pose, his hat at a low-bri from a day’s worth of stubble He’d saved her life, but more than that, when he’d let her inside hihout her life By her side, at her back He was the type of er, but he would readily turn around, let her walk into his arms

She’d fought Ruskin, a purported nobleman For a truly noble man, she’d needed to look no further than a dusty bushed his faone to war and tried to cleanse it withsilence of the bush And he’d ended up with her, perhaps his penance, but perhaps her salvation, too Maybe that was another vital ele Dev at her side was the key to keeping it in perspective, knowing right and wrong, the difference between power and enlightenment

She took a deep breath andin that beloved crinkle around the green irises he could tell her answer

She wanted hih

I love you, Dev I fell in love with you during that very first dance

He s fro her way not by sight, but with a slow kindle inside she kneould never leave her bereft for the sun’s warmth

As Lyssa said,and well, despite my bloody foolishness

She moved back to the stairs, toward the embrace she was sure would always be there, and chose not to question that need in herself As she put a knee between his feet on the step, his arainst the delightful planes of his hard body, his reassuring scent Perhaps in the end, it wasn’t about vampire, human, or any other question of power or place It was about finding the other half of the soul, in whatever vessel it rested