I'm horrible and suck majorly at updating.

THIS IS THE LAST CHAPTER! THANK YOU ALL FOR ALL THE AMAZING FEEDBACK THESE LAST COUPLE YEARS. I LOVE YOU ALL!!

Thank you to Joa for beta-ing and teaching me how to write without making people want to bash their heads against the wall. I love you, bb!

Depending on feedback, I may write some sort of epilogue... but I am really sucked into another fandom at the moment, so that'll only happen if you guys actually want one!

MUCH LOVE AND THANK YOU!

this is also short because it was supposed to be connected with chapter 16. sorry about that.

LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE

Hours later, just as the sun was finally starting to drift above the horizon, Alik stood frozen in front of a door with a faint dragon carved just above it. He glanced over his shoulder at the two demons standing behind him, his eyes determined and angry as he waited for one of them to give him the go ahead.

Finding the place was the hard part and with that out of the way, Alik just had to keep himself from rushing inside too early. The three of them had discussed the plan earlier: Melphas was to block any present demon's thoughts from recognizing them, Alik would find Elizabeth while Derek and Melphas took out anyone in the way.

Easy and simple, and the only thing they had to worry about was being found out too early. With Melphas on their side, however, that was highly unlikely, and after the small display of what Melphas was actually capable of… Alik was incredibly grateful to have him on his side.

"Actually finding them will take the longest," Melphas whispered, his bright eyes never straying from the house. "I'll be able to incapacitate every demon in our way, so all you two will have to do is make sure they aren't breathing as we move further into the house."

Easy and simple.

"Let's go."

Everything was black, fuzzy, and just beyond her grasp. The harder Elizabeth tried to focus on something outside of the dark corners of her mind, the sharper the pain at the bottom of her skull became. So after a few minutes of fighting against the darkness lurking so closely, she gave in – her body becoming completely limp, her eyes lightly closed, and her mind quickly started to slip once more.

It was then that she again heard the sound that had woken her from her painless sleep in the first place. Sudden and loud bangs were going off all around her, and the heavy sound of bodies landing hard on solid surfaces, cracking and breaking – the bodies or the surface, she wasn't sure – and it was nearly making her sick.

So much death. So much pain. So much horror surrounding her.

She felt the gentle brush of a hand sliding against her arm and before she even put any thought into it, she jolted, cringing away from the touch because the memory of Jesse and Doc standing over her was still fresh in her mind and it was terrifying. Another hand was pressed gently against her cheek, and she was sure she would have screamed in fright if she had actually had enough energy to move. As it was, she had no choice but to let those hands touch what they wanted, move where they pleased, and mark where…

Everything is okay.

Thoughts frozen and her mind finally free from the terrified state it had been lingering in, Elizabeth opened her eyes and stared into the brightest blue that she'd ever seen.

"Everything is okay," the man above her repeated softly, his voice barely more than a breath of air.

The hand that had been cupping her cheek was shaking, and Elizabeth's eyes trailed up the long, strong arm until she was staring into Alik's deep eyes.

She wasn't sure, as her sight was turning blurry as her eyes started to flutter close, but she could see the outline of a large, relieved smile on the man's face, and his eyes were shining with a wetness that she had never expected to see from him.

"I'm here," his voice floated to her ears, and she smiled back at him. She tried to answer him, she tried to tell him how happy she was to see him standing over her instead of the insane men that had been torturing her, but she was fell asleep before the words came.

Elizabeth woke again with only a mere headache. She stared blankly across her bedroom for a few seconds, her mind slowly catching up with the rest of her well rested body. Her thoughts were sluggish, some even hard to think about without making her head hurt worse.

"You're awake!"

She looked towards the door, her lips tilting up at the sight of her little sister smiling brightly at her from the doorway.

"How are you feeling?" Aubrey asked as she walked quietly to the bed, sitting gingerly on the edge to make sure not to jostle Elizabeth too much. "That Melphas guy said that you'd have a headache for a little bit. He couldn't block out everything… or something like that."

"He was right," Elizabeth mumbled, her throat too raw from screaming for her to speak properly. "I'm still tired."

Aubrey laid a soft, cool hand against her sister's cheek, her smile slowly softening as they sat in silence. "I'm so happy you're okay." She lost her smile completely and lowered herself onto the mattress, lying on her side with her head resting on the pillow next to Elizabeth's. "You've been asleep for three days, and Alik has been here –"

"How is he?" she asked, but Aubrey ignored her.

"- and he's been so fidgety, so worried over you, that he doesn't sleep, eat, or drink anything. Derek had to stay with him all day yesterday to keep him from having some sort of meltdown." She paused, losing herself in her thoughts for a moment. "It was sad to see such a strong man be turned into such a mess like that."

Elizabeth ignored the feeling of guilt that sprung up in her stomach and let her sister talk.

"He sat in here all day and night with you. He was crying when he first brought you back, you know." She smiled softly at the memory. "I think after seeing him, after knowing how hard he fought to get you back and what he has gone through waiting to see if you were going to be okay… I think he loves you, and I'm…"

Elizabeth smiled and laid a heavy hand on top of Aubrey's, grateful that her sister was actually telling her everything.

"I'm happy for you. I-I think he's good for you." She shrugged with an awkward smile, and Elizabeth loved her even more for it.

"Thanks," Elizabeth rasped. "That means a lot."

Aubrey tightened her fingers in Elizabeth's grasp for a moment before pulling away. "Alik is sleeping on the couch. Derek got him to calm down enough to finally stop pacing." She climbed off the bed and walked to the door. "I'll go get him; he'll be happy to know that you're awake and alright."

Elizabeth closed her eyes for a moment, her energy already zapped even after three days of sleep. Her body was heavy, every limb feeling as if it had large weights holding it down.

"Liz?"

She smiled softly at the nickname, keeping her eyes closed until she felt the mattress dip next to her and a pair of hands cupping her face.

"I'm so, so happy you're okay."

Her smile widened. "Who would have thought you'd grow to think that way about a human?"

"Yeah," he said with a quiet chuckle, his hands moving from Elizabeth's cheeks to skim down the smooth column of her neck. "There were some times that I thought I was done; that I thought you were gone."

She opened her eyes then; the tone Alik had taken on was something she'd never heard from him before.

"I really don't think I'd be able to go through something like that again." He leaned down, pressing his lips softly against her own and keeping his hands against her skin, as if afraid to let her go. "I'm moving in here."

Elizabeth laughed against his mouth.

"I'm serious."

She nodded in agreement, not having any reason to argue against it and not really wanting to.

"I only have one rule." He kissed her again. "Justin isn't allowed over here."

"Why not?"

"He's annoying." Another kiss, longer that time, and Elizabeth sighed when Alik easily climbed onto her sprawled out body. "And you aren't going to be leaving this room for the next few months."

Alik dropped his head onto the pillow next to Elizabeth's, holding her body closely to his own and resting his lips gently against the bite mark on her neck. Slowly, as moving even a little bit drained nearly all of her energy, Elizabeth draped her arms over Alik's shoulder, relaxed and safe in his embrace.

It was as close to heaven as she could get.

fin