His eyes closed and I broke down, sobbing on his chest.

He can't be gone, he just can't. He's Christian.

Christian: selfish, arrogant, irritating, seemingly bulletproof. He was dead.

"What happened? Why didn't it work?" I heard Mason yell at Daniel.

"I…I don't know. I told you it was a trial. There were never any guarantees."

"C'mon Christian, you got to come back," I pleaded to the lifeless body.

I felt sick, just looking at him. I wrapped my arms around my stomach, desperately trying to squash the ill feeling.

"Alex…Alex, he's…gone."

"No, no," I struggled against Mason as he tried to pull me away from Christian. I looked at my hands which were now stained red. It took me a while to register that it wasn't Christian's blood on my hands. It was my own.

Mason lifted my arm up and on my side was a gash through my shirt, blood clearly visible.

"Alex, you're hurt," he said with concern.

"It's nothing," I said, waving him away.

"Let me get you help," he insisted.

"No!"

I pulled away from him and crumpled into a heap on the floor. I laced my fingers with Christian's and squeezed. "He's going to wake up Mason, He will."

Mason looked resigned as he sat down next to me.

"Okay Alex, he's going to wake up."

I don't know why I was doing this. I was kind of humoring her which wasn't very nice but I didn't know what else to do. She seemed to be taking it very hard. Like it was her fault, but it wasn't.

I ripped away the last shreds of my shirt and mopped up Christian's blood. My hand brushed his chest and I swore I felt his heart beat.

"What the hell?" I muttered.

I grabbed his free hand, putting my thumb against his wrist and there was definitely a pulse now.

We both stared at him as the hair on his body practically melted away and his face returned to its handsome normal self.

"Uh, Alex?"

She turned to me but I didn't have time to form another sentence because Christian had flung himself up, breathing heavily, eyes wide open.

I grinned. Who else but Christian to make a miraculous recovery?

Alex flung her arms around him and he winced. "Owww!"

"Oh, I'm so sorry," she apologized hurriedly as he lay back down.

The wounds that I had cleaned on him started to bleed again. Justin stepped in, waved his wand and muttered a few words. The flow of bleed slowed as they closed up.

"He still needs to see a doctor. I didn't do that great of a job."

Alex hugged Justin tight. "It doesn't matter. Thank you. For everything."

"I think it's time we resolve this."

We turned to see a man resembling Daniel emerge from the crowd; I assumed it was his father. He stepped up to face the leader of the werewolves, Tomas, and offered his hand. "If young wizards and werewolves can get along then I'm sure we can work something out."

Tomas looked over at us. I didn't know him very well but I knew he wasn't stupid. He didn't let his emotions get in the way of his duty. He was cold, well-educated and he knew that it was better to let it be this time. He'd lost one of his strongest werewolves in Christian and I could tell that the virus the wizards held perhaps frightened him.

"We will work something out," he answered, taking his foe's hand.

I cheered inwardly, unable to muster enough effort to talk. I was tired, so very tired. Mason bent down next to me.

"You okay?" he asked, checking my wound.

"I feel dizzy," I answered and with that, he scooped me up into his arms. I nestled into his chest. It was really quite comfortable.

"Go to sleep. We'll be at the hospital soon."

Justin lifted Christian to his feet and supported him just as I closed my eyes. They were walking close by judging by the noise of their footsteps.

It might have been a dream or just a delusion but I could have sworn I heard Christian say, "You better be careful now Mase. Now that I'm recovered, I get to have another crack at Alex."

I could almost hear the grin in his voice as he said it.

I flicked my eyes open and saw Mason smiling; a good sign so I closed them again just as he replied, "You wouldn't dare."

I woke up some time later lying in an unfamiliar bed. I tried to move but I was taped up around my stomach making it impossible.

"Hey sleepy head," Mason greeted me, leaning in to kiss my forehead.

"Where are we?" I asked groggily.

"Wizard Hospital. You've been sleeping for hours."

I sat up. "Really?"

He nodded. "You needed the rest," he said.

I noticed he was in his human form and dressed in clean clothes. He must have ducked out while I was asleep.

"How's Christian?" I asked.

Mason smiled. "Fine, perfectly fine. He's a full human now."

"Do you think he'll be okay?"

"It'll be a tough adjustment but he'll get over it."

We smiled at each other for a moment before I sidled over in the bed and patted the empty space I'd made for him. He climbed into bed next to me and wrapped his left arm around my shoulder. I snuggled into his chest and intertwined our fingers.

"Oops, am I interrupting?"

My head popped up to see Daniel standing in my doorway. It was obvious he'd cleaned up too since the last time I had seen him.

"What are you doing here?" I asked him, slightly miffed at having my alone time with Mason cut short.

"Just thought I'd pop in to let you know that everything's been resolved. They've signed a treaty to say they're going to stop feasting on humans."

"Do you think they'll keep their promise?" I asked, more to Mason than Daniel.

"Most of them will," Mason answered. "They're pretty scared of the virus the wizards have now so that'll keep most of them on their toes. They actually happen to like being werewolves." He made a face as he finished the sentence.

Daniel nodded. "We can only hope." He turned to Mason. "You ready?"

Mason nodded and slid off the bed to stand up. I wanted to protest at the loss of his warm skin but I was distracted by him taking off his jacket and shirt. I took in his muscled body and stared for a moment before shaking out of my reverie.

"Uh, what's going on?" I asked as Mason moved over to me.

He kissed me with more force than usual and I reciprocated, running my fingers greedily down his bare chest.

He pulled away, flushed. "I'm doing this for us."

He lay down on the carpet with Daniel bent over him. Then Daniel drew back and plunged a syringe straight into Mason's heart.