“Now you know,” I said lightly, and shrugged. “No one’s ever loved anyone as much as I love you.”
“You’re almost right.” He smiled, his eyes still a little wider than usual. “I know of just one exception.”
“Liar.”
He started to kiss me again, but then stopped abruptly.
“Can you do it again?” he wondered.
I grimaced. “It’s very difficult.”
He waited, his expression eager.
“I can’t keep it up if I’m even the slightest bit distracted,” I warned him.
“I’ll be good,” he promised.
I pursed my lips, my eyes narrowing. Then I smiled.
I pressed my hands to his face again, hefted the shield right out of my mind, and then started in where I’d left off—with the crystal-clear memory of the first night of my new life… lingering on the details.
I laughed breathlessly when his urgent kiss interrupted my efforts again.
“Damn it,” he growled, kissing hungrily down the edge of my jaw.
“We have plenty of time to work on it,” I reminded him.
“Forever and forever and forever,” he murmured.
“That sounds exactly right to me.”
And then we continued blissfully into this small but perfect piece of our forever.
VAMPIRE INDEX
Alphabetically by coven
* vampire possesses a quantifiable supernatural talent
— bonded pair (oldest listed first)
struck deceased before beginning of this novel
The Amazon Coven
Kachiri
Senna
Zafrina*
The Denali Coven
Eleazar* — Carmen
Irina — Laurent
Kate*
Sasha
Tanya
Vasilii
The Egyptian Coven
Amun — Kebi
Benjamin* — Tia
The Irish Coven
Maggie*
Siobhan* — Liam
The Olympic Coven
Carlisle — Esme
Edward* — Bella*
Jasper* — Alice*
Renesmee*
Rosalie — Emmett
The Romanian Coven
Stefan
Vladimir
The Volturi Coven
Aro* — Sulpicia
Caius — Athenodora
Marcus* — Didyme*
The Volturi Guard (partial)
Alec*
Chelsea* — Afton*
Corin*
Demetri*
Felix
Heidi*
Jane*
Renata*
Santiago
The American Nomads (Partial)
Garrett
James* — Victoria*
Mary
Peter — Charlotte
Randall
The European Nomads (Partial)
Alistair*
Charles* — Makenna
Acknowledgments
As always, an ocean of thanks to:
My awesome family, for all their incomparable love and support.
My talented and hawt publicist, Elizabeth Eulberg, for creating STEPHENIE MEYER out of the raw clay that was once just a mousy Steph.
The whole team at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers for five years of enthusiasm, faith, support, and incredibly hard work.
All the amazing site creators and administrators in the Twilight Saga online fandom; you people astound me with your coolness.
My brilliant, beautiful fans, with your unparalleled good taste in books, music, and movies, for continuing to love me more than I deserve.
The bookstores who have made this series a hit with their recommendations; all authors are indebted to you for your love of and passion for literature.
The many bands and musicians that keep me motivated; did I mention Muse already? I did? Too bad.
Muse, Muse, Muse…
New gratitude to:
The best band-that-never-was: Nic and the Jens, featuring Shelly C. (Nicole Driggs, Jennifer Hancock,
