United

Epilogue: Endless Love

Harry's POV

All night long I watched her sleeping fitfully on the narrow canvas cot. A single army-green lantern hanging from one of the low wooden beams in the log cabin illuminated her frame. Its soft glow highlighted her glossy black hair splayed out on the pillow, her cheeks smooth and rosy from her bath.

Every time the sea roared up against the desolate beach outside, she tossed onto one side. Her tank top hugged her body so that when the thin blanket bunched up around her, I could just make out that tiny dimple marking her soft left shoulder. I had kissed it so many times before.

By turns she sighed in her sleep, then breathed evenly, then moaned from someplace deep inside a dream. But whether it was in pleasure or pain, I couldn't tell. Twice, she called out my name. I wanted to float down to her. To leave my perch atop the sandy old boxes of ammunition high in the raftered loft of the beachfront cabin. But I didn't want to wake her up. Not yet.

Behind me, in the salt-stained storm window, I glimpsed a passing shadow from the corner of my eye. Then the faintest tapping on the glass pane. Wresting my eyes from her body, I moved toward the window, released the lock. A torrent of rain poured down outside, reuniting with the sea. A black cloud hid the moon and shone no light on the face of his visitor.

"May I come in?"

Jasper was late.

Though he possessed the power to have simply appeared out of thin air at my side, I pushed open the window further to allow him to climb through. So much was pomp and circumstance these days. It was important for us both to be clear that I had welcomed Jasper in. His face was still cast in shadow, but he showed no sign of having traveled thousands of miles in the rain. His dark hair and his skin were dry. His auric wings, compact and solid now, were the only part of him that gleamed. As if they were made of twenty-four-karat gold. Though he tucked them neatly behind him, when he sat down next to me on a splintering wooden box, Jasper's wings gravitated toward my iridescent silver ones. It was the natural state of things, an inexplicable reliance. I couldn't inch away without giving up my unobstructed view of Elena.

"She is so lovely when she sleeps," Jasper said softly.

"Is that why you wanted her to sleep for all eternity?"

"Me? Never. That's why I killed Belinda. Don't you remember? I was manipulated by her too." Jaspe leaned forward, resting his elbows on the railing of the loft. Down below, Elena tightened the covers around her neck. "I just want her. Belinda used that against me."

"Then I pity you. She already made a choice."

Jasper held my eyes and rubbed his jaw, chuckling cruelly under his breath. "Oh, Harry. I didn't come to fight." He stole another long glance at Elena. "I already accepted the truth. Not need to rub it on my face."

My wings pulled taut against my shoulder blades, but the tips were reaching forward. Closer to Jasper's. I couldn't stop it.

"What will you do when she's gone?" Jasper asked. "We always knew she was human but we had the reincarnation factor. Now, when she dies... She's not going to come back. She will be gone forever."

We faced each other, each still weary from the battle. In the end, we both loved and cared about Elena.

"Harry." I heard Elena calling my name. I looked over at Jasper, he nodded and disappear in the darkness. I rushed to where Elena was.

She was sitting on her bed, half awake. I hugged her and laid down with her. "What's wrong?"

"I'm scared."

"Scared?" I asked worried. "Scared about what, love? It's over now. You don't have to worry about anything. We can finally be together."

"But I'm only human, I'll grow old and die. Meanwhile you..." She paused. "You're an angel, who's going to live forever."

"Sssh." I hushed her. "Don't worry about that. I don't care about such things and you shouldn't either. The important thing is that we're going to be together-"

"Until I die." Elena cut me off. "Belinda was right, Harry. At the end, I'm still going to leave you and break you hear again. But this time forever. What happens when I'm gone? What are you going to-"

"When that day comes." I started saying, looking straight into her brown eyes. "When the day in which your heart stops beating, when your last breath leave your lungs, when the last sparkle in your beautiful eyes fades away, when we share our last terrenal kiss. When that day comes, my heart will stop beating too, my last breath will leave my lungs too, the last sparke in my eyes will fade away too, your last terrenal kiss will be my last one too. I can't leave without you Elena, you're my life. And when you go, I'll be right by your side."

Tears started streaming down her face. I cupped her cheek with my hand and place tender kisses all over her beautiful face. I always hated seeing her crying, and knowing what was the reason of her sorrow torn me apart.

"I promised you that we'll always be together. Not matter what." I reasured her. "And death won't be what will get on my way."

"Always together until the end of times. Neither death nor God can come between us." She added.

"We're united. Nothing can set us apart."

"United."

A kiss sealed our vows and that night we gave ourselves to each other. We consumed our love, letting ourselves finally cut loose of the changes that held us back. All the love, all the kisses, all the words, everything we couldn't say or do all these centuries of forbidden love because we were abruptly taken away from each other. Because she was abruptly taken away from me. I didn't need Heaven being with Elena. Elena couldn't be compared to Heaven. She was millions times better than that.

She was my Heaven.

The End.