"I missed you so much," I said in between soft kisses.

"I was worried about you my sunshine, I'm so glad you're here," Carter smiled, and my heart swelled as his eyes turned silver.

"You know I'm Callan's pet, right?" I said, sitting up on his waist.

Carter laughed so hard he almost fell over backwards. "Oh god, I've missed laughing. You always make me laugh."

"It's not funny. He told me to sit," I tried to stop myself from laughing.

"I might have to adopt you," he said, kissing my nose and smiling. "You can sleep in my bed and everything." he winked.

"Hey boss, did Ebony tell you the news?" Jake said, walking towards us. I climbed off Carter as I knew what was coming.

"That she is my son's pet?" Carter chuckled. "We will have to get you a diamond collar my beautiful girl," he touched my face.

"That's not the news Carter," I said, touching his hand on my face.

"What's wrong sweetheart? You look like you've seen a ghost." Carter said, pulling me into his side and holding me tightly. "Are you hurt? Did something happen to you? I'll kill them, who was it?" He yelled.

"Carter, we have some news about Genevieve," I said, holding his big cold hand.

"Genevieve?" He said, looking very confused. "I don't understand?"

I looked over at Jake and Callan; they both just nodded their heads.

"When we were in the woods walking to the portal, we were followed by Leon. The boys say he is now in his wolf form, and I could hear him howling. He chased us through the woods ...."

"He knows you're here?"

"Yes, but that's not what we need to tell you. Carter." I took a deep breath. "Jake saw Genevieve in the woods, and she was with Leon."

Carter's face dropped, and his eyes turned blood red as he slowly turned toward Jake. "Explain, now," he said through gritted teeth.

"I swear boss. It was her. I got cornered at the portal by Leon, and I hid in an old fallen tree. I saw her standing with him, she was yelling at him, and she looked mad."

"Are you telling me that bitch is still fucken alive?" Carter yelled as his hand squeezed me tighter.

"That's what I saw boss," Jake shrugged looking somewhat cautious of a furious-looking Carter.

"Why would she want me dead?" Carter said slowly.

"I don't know, but she is definitely alive boss, I'm telling the truth. You find Leon, you find her." Jake said.

"When I find her, I'm going to going to kill her," Carter growled clenching his fits.

"Um, considering you're looking at the death penalty right now because of her death, it's probably not the best idea to kill her," Callan said calmly. "She lied to me as well father, but we need to do this right."

Carter stared at his son and then looked away. "I apologise, Callan, I shouldn't talk like that in front of you."

"No, it's fine. She's a lying bitch who used me to manipulate you all my life, so it's cool. I just want this done right." Callan said giving a sly smile.

"Then I need to contact the council and give them this information and hope they give me some time to find her. My trial is on Monday and the way things are going, I won't be around much longer," Carter said, kissing the top of my head. "Come inside, all of you. We have a lot to discuss." He pointed towards the castle behind him.

The boys walked inside, talking about how tired they were from running and left me standing on the paved driveway in front of the castle. Carter took my hand in his and smiled at me. "You look beautiful," he said gently.

"No, I don't, but I appreciate you lying." I smiled as he kissed me softly and rested his head on mine.

"You always look beautiful my sunshine," he kissed me again.

"Carter, are we going to make it through this? I'm terrified I'm going to lose you."

"Don't think about that now, just be in the moment and enjoy right now." he kissed my forehead. "I have you, and that's all I care about."

"Why are you so calm about all of this?"

"Trust me, I'm far from calm, but I have waited for this moment for months, and right now I just want to enjoy you." he pushed my hair behind my ear. "My beautiful sunshine."

"How do you do that?" I blushed.

"Do what?"

"You don't even have a heartbeat, and yet you manage to make mine race like no one else can."

"Let me tell you a little secret about me that no one else can ever know." he put his lips to my ear. "I was born with a heartbeat, and I had one until I turned one."

"You were born human?"

"I was born a human," he smiled. "My mother always told me it was because this was my strongest form, and I never really understood what she meant by that, but now, I understand."

"Humans are weaker than vampires and wolves, though."

"Ahh, you see, I always thought that as well. I have more power as a vampire and more hunger as a wolf, but I have recently discovered that I fight with my heart. My heart is the one thing I have over every other creature in this world. It makes me stronger because I care. My human side is what gives me the power to feel love, and that is the one thing in the rotten world worth fighting for. My heart might not beat anymore, but it can feel love, and that makes me a force to be reckoned with." he kissed me deeply, and I swooned.

"You Ebony Summers are my heartbeat, and you are worth fighting for. You make me the strongest creature in this world because you are my heart."

"You just did again," I smiled as my heart raced.

He put his hand over my heart. "Everything has a destiny and you Ebony Summers." he picked me up in his arms and carried me towards the door as I hugged him tightly. "And you are mine," he whispered.

------

"I don't like this, something is wrong," I said, shaking my head. "He should be back by now."

Jake just looked over at me from the bed and nodded his head.

"What if they don't believe him? What if they arrest him again? Oh god, what if they hurt him?"

"Eb, you need to take a chill pill. You knew this was a long shot and that Carter had a huge fight on his hands. The council are known for their stubbornness and to be honest, so is Carter, so this process will probably take a while." Jake shrugged.

"They have been gone for nearly two days, Jake. His trial is in five days. We are wasting time sitting here waiting for a couple of old vampires to make up their minds. We should be looking for that stupid woman and proving his innocence. This is ridiculous," I yelled.

"Welcome to vampire law, we live for eternity, and we take an eternity," Jake said sarcastically. "It takes up some time in between the brooding and feeding."

"This is bullshit" I yelled angrily.

"Always with the cussing," Jake teased as he fell backwards on the bed.

"Fuck you."

"I offered, and you rejected multiple times now," he said, waving his hands in the air.

"Shut up," I threw a pillow at him.

"See, always with the rejection", he threw the pillow back at me so hard I stumbled backwards.

"Damn your vampire strength," I yelled at him as he cackled loudly. We waited for yet another day to end before they returned.

"Oh, my beautiful girl," Carter whispered as I hugged him tightly.

"What's happening?" I said, cupping his face with my hands as he was about to kiss me.

"Well, after much deliberation and argument they have agreed to investigate the allegations made against Genevieve." Carter smiled.

"Really? They agreed to help us find her?"

"Unfortunately, no, if we are going to prove my innocence, it's up to all of us, and we have minimal time I'm afraid."

"How much time?"

"We have until my trial date, which is now in four days."

"Are you serious? They took three days to tell us that we have until the trial to capture a woman who everyone presumes is dead. What the hell, Carter?"

"This is good news, at first they wanted to put me to death for even suggesting that Genevieve was still alive."

"You are kidding right?"

"They had a silver stake to his heart," Callan said, shaking his head.

"What?" I yelled.

"It's fine sweetheart, no harm done," Carter said calmly.

"No harm done. They were seconds from killing you, and all you have to say about it is no harm done?"

"Well, there is a slight burn mark on my chest from the silver on the stake, but overall, I think it went quite well," Carter said, smiling.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" I shook my head.

"It's not my first near-death experience Sunshine. In fact, it happens more often than you might think," he shrugged.

"I don't even want to know." I looked away.

"Once, he was fighting this demon with two heads and it total ripped off his ...."

"Enough Jacob, there is no need to bring up the past," Carter said, cutting off Jake.

"The possession was pretty cool though," Jake smiled nodding his head. "We were so close to staking you, I mean you have no idea how close we were. FUCK" Callan laughed as they both re-enacted Carter being possessed and nearly dying.

"Seriously?" I said, raising my eyebrow at Carter. "Possession?"

"It was like fifty years ago now, and in my defence, I killed that demon so it couldn't hurt anyone else," Carter said. "It was a good deed."

"Unbelievable" I tried not to smile at Jake who was trying to climb a wall while doing his best demon voice.

"That's dead-on man," Callan clapped and laughed.

"We need to get organised so we can catch Genevieve and prove my innocence. Pack your things boys. We're going home." Carter said, picking me up and kissing me.

Here we go again.