He shared Mason's message with her, and she nodded, thoughtful. “You remember what I said a while ago, that I don't want Kane to have to face the chal enges we have?”

Jacob made an assenting noise. Kane was just mouthing her now, and Jacob reached down, caught a drop of blood and painted it on the smal mouth.

Kane made a satisfied noise, his eyelids heavy and almost closed. “I'm not sure we should remove all the chal enges for vampire-servant relationships,” she said. “If we do, I think it would be a disservice to vampires and servants in the long run. This relationship shouldn't be easy. I think there are some obstacles that exist because they are the purpose, in a sense. The journey we've taken, the things we've learned about each other . . .”

She looked up at him. “If it had been easy, I'm not sure either of us would have understood it the same way. We will have harsher laws to deal with things like what happened to Jessica, but the intention of vampires and servants, the shape of their relationship, I think it essential y needs to stay the same. Do you disagree? Your counsel on this matters to me, Jacob.”

He stroked her hair, thinking for long moments under the weight of her soft gaze. Truth, when this journey had started, he'd almost left her a couple times, not sure if he could handle a vampire's ruthless nature, particularly one a thousand years old and dealing with all the politics she handled. But he couldn't deny the truth of her words. It was in everything he'd seen, not only in himself but in those around him. Jessica, Dev, Vincent . . . even Gideon.

It was like they were part of a train, and once that connection was set, the lock was true, no matter how the train raced toward an unknown destiny.

Vampires and servants, there was a balance there. It needed to be the way it was. The wisdom that had driven the decisions over the century had proven it. Yet he was certain, with her hand at the helm, there would be more room for relationships like theirs to grow. And as Brian had said, that would ultimately save the vampire race, keep it from extinction.

Looking down at his son's smal skul , he laid his own hand over hers upon it. When she tilted her face to his, he gave her his answer in a kiss.

And in that heated, lingering connection, in the energy he felt between them, he was even more certain such relationships wouldn't merely survive—they would thrive, for centuries to come.