EPILOGUE

"And how are you settling in?"

"I hate it."

Helen laughed, "Nikola, you've only been at it a month!"

He sniffed, brushing an invisible speck of dust from his suit and shook his head derisively. "The décor's pretentious, the labs are woefully bare of even the most essential equipment, the mainframe is two years out of date, my assistant's a blithering idiot, my study is too small and the abnormals here smell."

Helen crossed her arms against her chest, unwilling to believe someone could be so sour. "That just means you have a lot of room to leave your touch of genius in improvements, doesn't it?"

"You know, Helen, that glass is half full crap doesn't work on me. I deal with realism."

She sighed. "I can already tell people are terrified of you here, aren't they?"

He merely quirked an eyebrow nonchalantly. Truth being, Helen could tell Nikola was thrilled to have the run of the place. Head of New York Sanctuary. His old playground. A real place of lasting legacy and work that he could leave his own personal touch upon. Especially with Terence Wexford's mishandling and summary dismissal, this particular house had been under many different hands and without enough permanency to regain its rhythm and footing.

She had worried that Nikola would immediately begin to make a nuisance of himself, but his reputation as a scientist seemed to work in his favour at the very least. The other Heads of Houses had welcomed him as a new member of the organization, and the staff at New York were unanimously pleased to have a permanent leadership once again and with a figure so iconic and treasured to that city.

Of course, when she had dropped in for a little visit she could already see the rolling of eyes and private little in-jokes that had already cropped up amongst the staff over their new eccentric Head, but it was a vast improvement from the full-blown mutiny she had secretly feared.

Helen looked down at the floors and groaned. "Oh Nikola don't tell me that's what you spent two-hundred thousand dollars on."

"What?"

She gestured to the tiling. "Patterns of three? You ripped up the old floors so you could have tiles that lay in patterns of three?"

"My Sanctuary. My rules. We're already outstripping you in the quarterly outcomes of practical applications of abnormal research."

"Yes, but you've already gone thirty percent over budget for this quarter!"

Nikola waved a hand dismissively. "Oh, we'll make it back somehow. It was worth it for the pigeon coop anyway."

Helen looked at him curiously, a grin sneaking around the corner of her mouth. "You've put in a pigeon coop?"

"Yeah, on the roof. Right next to the new lightning rod."

"Nikola!"

He laughed and ducked as she swatted him with her handbag. She noticed the small hint of blue and black swirling by his neck, framed by the collar of his shirt. He followed her gaze and gave her a small shrug when their eyes met again. She looked concerned. "Have you come up with anything for that yet?"

"A few prototypes … none that I'm happy with though. Don't worry, Helen, what's the worst that can happen?"

She looked pointedly at it. "That you're stuck with it for the rest of your life."

He held her lightly by the arms. "Exactly. My very long, immortal life. No chance of it ever getting loose or hurting anyone ever again so long as I breathe."

Helen felt her breath hitch in her throat as he smiled down at her, and she thought of all he had gone through and sacrificed to keep that energy beast from ever running loose again. It seemed cruel that he was chained to it now.

She silently decided she wouldn't let that happen. She would find a way where Nikola wouldn't have to keep putting himself last.

"You know what we need?" Nikola asked as he led her down the hallway to take a tour of the new facilities.

"What's that?" She asked as she linked his arm through his.

"A holiday."

"Shirking your duty already?"

Nikola grinned. "Like you said, the Head of House has the privilege of having time to work on their little side projects as it were. And I still own property and vineyards in Chile…"

Helen realized what he was intimating and finished for him. "…and the first bottles of the year are being uncorked now in Chile."

He waggled his eyebrows at her in what he must have assumed was a seductive gesture, and she couldn't help but laugh. Maybe this had been a horrid idea after all. Now he had all the excuses to bother her, demand her time, cause trouble, and give her even more gray hairs all in the name of Sanctuary business. And already here he was disrupting her work and making a nuisance of himself.

"Oh, sod it."

He grinned. "Your plane or mine?"

A/N ..and we come to the end. Oof! This was certainly a journey writing, and I'm absolutely chuffed with the response and reader support. The wonderful, insightful reviews were the best part about this process. I hope you enjoyed!

...yes. Plot bunnies are evil and there WILL be a sequel. The Three series is begging to be a trilogy. So keep an eye out for that in future! Cheers!

Teaser: Nikola, newly instated Head of House for New York, must now figure out how to run a Sanctuary, beat Helen in the quarterly reports, what to do with this pesky elemental, and convince Helen a vacation for the both of them is in order...