"What are you doing here?" Eva asked Liam they both arrived at the place where they believed Edele was hiding out. "I'm going to kill Edele! She kidnapped Sean and I don't like that!"

"Well, okay, but you can't kill her yet," Liam said.

"And why not?" Eva asked, eyes narrowed.

"Cause I found out a possible way to get the spell off Mary and I won't know how to get it all the way off for sure if Edele is dead!" Liam snapped. "Do you understand? Please don't ruin this for me."

"Oh, all right," Eva sighed and lowered the sword she was holding to her side. "I suppose I can't wait. But I'm not gonna wait forever!"

"Where the hell did you get that sword?" Liam wanted to know.

"I zapped it up!" Eva replied and stroked it lovingly. "Isn't it shiny and sharp?"

"It sure is," Liam said. "Just don't poke your eye out."

"Why would I waste this on myself?" Eva wanted to know. "It has a much better purpose."

"But like I said," Liam repeated, "No using it to kill Edele until after I get out of her what I need to know."

"And can I ask what is that you need to know?" Eva prodded.

"No," Liam said firmly. "You may not."

Eva stuck her tongue out at him and they made their way into the manor where surprisingly, no one tried to stop them from getting where they wanted to go. "Can I guess this is a little underwhelming for you?" Liam asked as he gazed upon Eva's face. "I bet you were really hoping to be able to use that sword, huh?"

"Yeah," Eva grunted and shifted the sword's position. "I was." She began to call out Sean's name until, after several minutes, and going down many a long and winding hallway that Liam wasn't sure they'd be able to find again, they found Sean in a locked room. He wasn't even restrained, but sitting in a chair and waiting. Eva ran up to him and gave him a hug and a kiss after letting the sword fall to the ground with a clanging noise. "Have they hurt you?" She asked as she kissed his face. "Tell me!"

"I would if you'd just step away for a second and give me a chance to talk," Sean replied. Eva stepped away, and then Sean said, "I haven't been hurt, but you might want to get out of here."

"Why?" Eva asked. "I'm not going anywhere!"

"Because I'm bait," Sean replied. "To catch you."

At that moment, Edele appeared and grabbed her, bringing the sword to herself and stabbing Eva with it again.

"Are you an idiot?" Eva asked Edele and elbowed her away. "We've been through this! Swords don't kill me. They just hurt a hell of a lot, and that makes me really, really angry! Now, what do you say you let Sean go? I'm sorry he killed your friend, but honestly, can you blame him?"

"What the hell sort of person are you that you can't die?" Edele asked, filled with wonder.

"Oh, like I'd tell you," Eva smirked. "And now that we know that you can die and I can't, are you gonna let Sean go by your own choice, or do I have to kill you and then walk out of here with him as we leave your body to rot?"

Edele put her hand up in an attempt to send Eva flying against the wall, but Eva caught her in time and she was the one who hit the wall with a sickening thud.

As she lay there crumpled and unconscious, Liam told Eva to get Sean while he watched over the unconscious Edele and waited for her to awaken so that he could ask her what to do about Mary.

Without hesitation, Eva heeded his command, grabbed Sean's hand, and they both ran out of the house.

"Do you think we should have stayed?" Eva asked when they were a distance away, showing what Sean saw as a surprise demonstration of compassion. "What if he can't handle himself?"

"He's just as indestructible as you are," Sean told her. "It's nice that you're worried about him, though."

"I'm worried about you too," Eva replied, took him in her arms and gave him a kiss. "Did she hurt you?"

"No, she didn't hurt me," Sean said. "Well, not much, anyway. She just put me in that room and told me to wait for when you came. Cause she knew you would. I was bait more than anything else."

"Has she always been so dimwitted?" Eva wanted to know. "Or is it just a recent development? Cause only someone pretty dumb would try and stab me again after they've done it before and know for a fact that it doesn't work. What was this dumb plan of hers trying to accomplish, anyway?"

"I think she was trying to hurt me for killing Sarah by hurting or killing you cause she knew how much that would kill me inside," Sean replied. "But she didn't count on you being as powerful as you are."

"Of course she didn't," Eva smiled. "Not many people do unless they meet someone from our family first hand or do a lot of research or whatever. And most vampires are too afraid of us or too awestruck to do something like that."

"For the record, I'm not afraid of you," Sean said as they continued walking hand in hand.

"Not even a little?" Eva asked, pouting.

"You want me to be scared of you?" Sean asked. "I don't even know why I'm surprised. But I am."

"Well, not scared, exactly," Eva amended. "But I want you to…hold me in awe, and look at me with a sense of wonder and astonishment."

"I already call you 'Princess' don't I?" Sean asked. "Isn't that enough?"

"It'll do for now," Eva replied with a nod. They zapped themselves home, with Eva leading Sean to the bath, where they lingered in the hot water until it wasn't hot anymore, their hands running over each other's sudsy, wet skin as they kissed and kissed, glad to be together again.

Meanwhile, Liam was not having as good a time. It took some time for Edele to finally wake up, and when she did and heard his question, she just burst out laughing. "I'm not gonna tell you how to fix Mary!" She cried, her high-pitched laughter giving him a headache. "How do you know I even made a counter-curse?"

"Because every spell or curse that's created, be it bad or good, has to have a counter-curse or spell in case it's cast accidentally, or used to victimize someone, or something like that," Liam pointed out, trying to be patient as he pushed his blond hair out of his eyes. "You've been around for like a million years, right? You should know that! If you don't make a counter spell, there's a severe penalty!"

"Oh, but you have to remember that I'm a terrible person," Edele reminded him with a wicked grin. "For all you know, I've never created a counter spell for anything in my life."

"I've already got this one partway figured out," Liam replied. "So you might as well tell me the rest. When I was kissing Mary before darkness hit, it delayed her transformation until after I pulled away. So how do I stop the transformation permanently? How do I fix her?"

Edele laughed again. "I can't believe you're asking me. You seem like a handsome, hot-blooded young man. The answer should be pretty obvious to you."

"Just. Tell. Me." Liam repeated. "I'm running out of patience!"

"You have to sleep with her," Edele got out. "Five hundred times. After the five-hundredth time, the curse will be lifted."

"That's the counter-curse?" Liam asked, feeling both excited and underwhelmed. "Of all you could have done to undo the spell, the only thing I have to do is sleep with her? That's not hard."

"Well you're a rare sort of man if you can sleep with her and truly love her (that's the second part of it all) when you know of all the people she's killed and all the pain she's caused," Edele told him.

"It's because I know that the reason she caused so much pain is due to the curse you put on her for something that wasn't even her fault. You cursed her just for being born and that's a wrong I intend to right."

"Good luck, Lancelot," Edele told him with a cheeky wave.

"Thanks," Liam replied. "Oh, and one more thing before I go…" He pinned Edele to the ground, and with a mutter, sent stream of fire flowing out of his finger, onto her, and around the room, and then watched, feeling very detached, as she burned, her screams as sweet as music to his ears.

When he was staring at her charred, contorted, and motionless corpse, he took a deep breath and called Savannah.

"You'll be pleased to know that Edele is dead," he said. "And I have the counter-curse for the curse she put on your daughter."

"Wonderful," Savannah replied. "If I couldn't be the one to kill her, I'm glad it was you. What do her father and I have to do to get the spell off?"

"You can't do anything," Liam told her. "It has to be me, and it will take some time, but after that, I assure you that you will have a daughter who is free of curses."

"Thank you, Liam," Savannah told him. "And…call your mother, would you? Helene is worried sick and always asking me if I know anything."

"Sorry about that," Liam apologized. "I'll get on that right now." He called home and Helene didn't even let it ring completely once before she picked up.

"Where the hell have you been, young man?!" She cried. "Why haven't you called? I've been worried sick about you! I know you've been busy with Mary and all, but that's not an excuse to forget to call your mother every once in a while and let me know you're all right."

"I know," Liam replied. "Savannah told me that, so that's why I'm calling. I'm sorry we didn't talk sooner. But the good news is, I found out the way to save Mary."

"Really?" His mother asked. "What is it?"

"It's not the sort of thing a guy blurts out to his mom," Liam replied, feeling his cheeks heat up, even though he wasn't looking his mother in the eye. "But I'll get it done, I promise. And Astrid promised me a lot of paid time off after this, so I'll be able to come home and stay for a bit."

"You better," Helene told him firmly. "I'll be waiting for you."

"Helene would you just relax and let up?" He could hear his father say in the background. "I'm sure Liam's sufficiently full of shame and guilt by now."

"I'm not trying to make him feel guilty," Helene said. "I'm just trying to tell him how much I missed him."

"Coming from you, those are the same things," Adrian replied. "Give me the phone."

"Oh, all right," Helene huffed. "Here you go."

"How are you doing, Liam?" His father Adrian asked. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm good," Liam replied. "I found a way to save Mary. I can't wait to tell her."

"What is it?" Adrian asked. "The kiss of true love, or something?"

"It's gonna take more than a kiss," Liam replied. "Much more. Luckily for me, I like Mary, so that shouldn't be a problem."

"Well, good luck," Adrian told him. "Take care of yourself. And when you come home, bring Mary with you."

"Sure," Liam replied. "I'll see what she says. Goodbye."

"Bye," Adrian replied.

The obligatory call to his parents ended, he headed to Mary's latest hotel room to give her the news, with a picture of Edele's charred and contorted corpse in his hand for proof.

"Oh, my god." Mary said as she stared at the picture. "It's really her and she's really dead. I can't believe you did it."

"You can't?" Liam asked. "I would have thought it would be obvious why I would. And I found out the cure for your curse, too."

"It better not take long," Mary replied. "Cause I don't have much time until it gets dark."

"We need to have sex," Liam blurted out. "Five hundred times, and after the five-hundredth time, the curse will be lifted."

"I can't ask you to do that," Mary replied, blushing furiously. "You don't feel that way about me, and it's asking way too much of you."

"Who says I don't feel that way about you?" Liam asked. "I do. You can be sure of that. You think I would have chased you around all this time if I didn't?"

"You followed me because Astrid paid you to," Mary said, her denim-clad legs crossed on the bed. "This was just a job."

"No, the fact that I got paid to basically spend a lot of time with someone I love very much and save from a horrible injustice was just an added bonus," Liam corrected. "Now, can I kiss you? Please? And it'll probably evolve into more than that."

"All right," Mary replied. "But I will apologize right now for making this not as fun as it should be."

"Stop apologizing," Liam told her. "Please."

She nodded, eyes wide, as he removed his clothes and climbed back on the bed, pulling her to him and kissing her as he ran his fingers through her curly red hair. Then, their lips still coming together in quick little kissed, Liam helped her off with her shirt and freed her from her bra before laying her down on the mattress.

"I'm not naked, you know," she said. "Don't I have to be naked for us to do this?"

"Not exactly," Liam replied and massaged her stomach, his warm hands giving her shivers as he moved up to cup her breasts and gently squeeze her taut nipples before encircling them with his lips and gently sucking on them, one and then the other.

Mary panted and shut her eyes as she felt herself relax, the vague realization that her panties were damp even though she was still clothed below the waist obvious in her mind.

Eventually, she felt Liam peel off her jeans and slide her panties down her legs, He was panting too now, and casting quick glances at the approaching darkness out the window. He didn't have much time. This amount of foreplay would have to do for now. He rubbed her a little longer and then loomed over her for a moment before leaning down to kiss her as she reached up to cup his face with her hands and bring it down, their lips meeting as he went inside her with a gentle thrust. Her reaction was a gasp rather than a scream, and then, still buried inside her, he paused. "Are you okay?" He asked.

"Yeah," Mary nodded. "I thought…I thought it would be more than that. Women usually scream in the movies."

Liam had to chuckle at that. "You want me to make you scream?" He asked.

And, giving him her most innocent smile, she said, "Yes, please."

Although he was still a bit doubtful, he heeded her words, and when they both finally dozed off at sunup, it was after her first full night as a human since her eighteenth birthday.