He would never admit it to her, not in a million years, but Delos rather liked watching Maggie sleep. She looked so calm and innocent, not at all troubled by the world she was now a part of and would forever be stuck in.

Because of him.

No, not because of him, he told himself fiercely. Not solely because of him, anyway. Because of him, yes, but also because of her fierce belief in what's right and her overwhelming desire to do what was right no matter what the cost might be to her. Her freeing the slaves had been the most risky, crazy, insane thing anybody could have ever attempted and yet she'd launched herself into it with barely a thought as to what it would mean for herself. She had told him later, during one of their moments of quiet cuddling, that she had been terrified pretty much every single minute of the entire experience. She hadn't needed to tell him that, of course; it'd been easy enough for him to figure out. Any even marginally sane human would be terrified when dealing with the Night World for any prolonged period of time.

But she had also told him something else. She'd told him that no matter how terrified she had been, there had never been one single real moment of doubt that she was doing the right thing. The slaves were humans, she'd said. Humans who were being treated like cattle. Worse than cattle. How could she not have done something to help them?

His Maggie's inner fire amazed him. She was so simple, so plain, so... human. Attractive enough, yes. (Though to him she was one of the most beautiful girls he had ever known.) But so very average human, with nothing special in the mix. To many people it would be shocking if not downright inconceivable that someone so vanilla human could bring down an empire, which was essentially what she'd done. Delos would laugh at them. Anybody who'd say something like that had obviously never known a girl like Maggie.

The girl in question stirred, opening her eyes and looking at him sleepily. "Delos?" she murmured groggily.

"Yes," he said, reaching out to tuck her hair back behind one ear. "Go back to sleep."

"Is something wrong?" She'd been woken up before by any variety of Circle Daybreak members bringing her bad news. She waas used to it by now.

"No, nothing's fine," he soothed. "Just go back to sleep."

"Why are you sitting here?" she asked, blinking at him. "Suddenly develop a fondness for watching sleeping girls? Because really, that's kind of creepy."

"No, just one sleeping girl," he said with a smile, leaning down to kiss her. "Just you."

"Well, good." Maggie returned the kiss. "Because if you were sneaking into other girls' bedrooms and watching them sleep, I'm afraid I'd have to hurt you. And not the fun kind of hurt, either."

"If I'd developed a fondness for that, I'd let you," he said solemnly, but with a hint of a smile as he kissed her again. "Because I'm yours, Maggie. Now and forever."

"I like the sound of that," Maggie admitted, wrapping an arm around his neck. "Being yours forever. It sounds... nice. Right."

"That's a good thing, then, considering that you are."

Delos had never expected to find his soulmate at all, much less find her in a human, but now that he had he certainly wasn't going to argue with that fact -- or with her. She'd accepted it well before he had, and he knew that it brought her some kind of inner peace that he couldn't for the life of him understand. But he wasn't going to argue that fact, because he loved her more than he could find words to explain. He never tried to explain, though. Every time he was reminded of the overwhelming love he had for her, he did what he always did. He did what he did now.

He kissed her again, cupping her face with one hand and drawing the kiss out as long as they could both handle. It was almost sheer desperation, really. He was a vampire and she was a human and there were times he wondered if they would ever make it as long as he wanted them, too. That desperation always came coupled with the reminder of how much he felt about her. How much he felt for her.

"I should go," he said when he finally pulled away. "You need your sleep."

"I don't want you to go, though," she said, pouting at him.

"You need to sleep, though," he said with a faint smile as he started to pull back. "I shouldn't have interrupted you."

"You didn't," she said, still pouting. "You were just watching me."

"But now you're awake," he pointed out. "Are you going to be able to get back to sleep with me here?"

"As long as you don't keep talking," she said, making a face at him. "I don't mind if you sit in here and watch me, Delos. You don't have to sneak in after I've fallen asleep."

"Oh, don't tell me that," he said with a laugh. "Or I may never stop coming in here to watch you."

"You say that like it's a bad thing," she countered, snuggling back down under the covers. "You can watch me any time you want. Don't sneak in."

"Okay, okay," he said, holding up his hands in mock surrender as he moved back to sit in the chair he'd been occupying before she woke up. "I get it. No more sneaking and subterfuge, I promise. Just don't get surprised when you wake up in the middle of the night and I'm sitting here."

"I promise," Maggie replied. "If I wake up in the middle of the night and find you sitting there, I'll be what I am every time I see you -- the happiest girl in the world."

All he could do was smile.

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DISCLAIMER: Night World belongs to L. J. Smith. I am not profiting.