"Carter." I cried as I looked up into his perfect aqua eyes as they glittered with silver specks. "You're home."

"I'm home, baby." He picked me up off the floor and hugged me tightly as I wrapped myself around him. "You have no idea how much I missed you." His voice broke slightly as he buried his face in my neck. "No idea."

"I thought I would never see you again," I whispered as the tears poured from my eyes.

"I will never stop fighting for you, baby. You should know that by now." He looked me in the eye and smiled softly. "I love you so much." He kissed me softly.

"I love you too." I pulled his head towards me and kissed him deeply as he lifted me higher on his body. "I can't believe you're here." I touched his handsome face with my fingers. His eyes looked tired, and I saw scars on his face that hadn't been there before. His black hair was longer, and he had grown a slight beard. He looked like a different vampire, yet he looked the same as his beautiful eyes twinkled at me.

"To be honest, neither can I baby. Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine." I shrugged suddenly reminded of Carter's torture over the past ten years. "Oh my god, Carter, how did you survive all that?" I started crying again and couldn't stop.

"Shhhh, baby. I'm here now with you, and that's all that matters to me." He pulled me close to him. "Let's not talk about it anymore. As long as you are okay, that's all that matters to me." He squeezed me tightly as I tried not to cry on his shoulder.

"Glad to have you back, boss man." I heard Jake's voice and turned around to see him standing in front of Carter.

"Glad to be back, Jacob, my boy." I climbed out of Carter's arms. "Thank you for everything," Carter said, touching Jake's shoulder.

"I just wish I had known earlier about all of this."

"You are here now, and that is all that matters to me." Carter patted Jake on the back. "You're a good man, Jacob."

"Thanks, boss."

"Father," Callan said, approaching Carter.

"Hello, son. It's been a long time."

Callan nodded. "It has. It's good to have you back." Carter walked towards him and hugged his son.

"I'm glad to be back." Carter smiled as he looked at his son. "You look good, kiddo, been working out?"

"I try." Callan shrugged and smiled.

Leon cleared his throat, and the room fell silent as Carter turned to look at his younger brother standing by the window.

"Hello, brother," Leon said, looking nervous.

Carter stared at him, not moving a muscle in his body.

"I don't know how to start my apologies to you..."

"Stop," Carter said as he tensed his body. "For ten years, I have watched in horror as you inflicted pain and suffering on my family. I have watched you hurt them time and time again, and the whole time I was trapped in hell, do you know what I was thinking?"

Leon looked away slightly. "That you wanted to kill me?"

"No," Carter yelled loudly, making me jump. "All I kept thinking the whole time I was in there was why doesn't he just kill them? Why put in so much effort into killing them only to kill them again. I get the joy you feel watching your enemies suffer, but why keep bringing them back for ten years? That must have been exhausting for you. The amount of time and energy it would take to bring them back? It just doesn't make sense, Leon. Does it? I get the whole eternal suffering bit, but if you wanted to do that, then you would have made them suffer in front of me and not die, wouldn't you? I mean, death stops the suffering."

"Carter, I have no words to...."

"I'm not finished," Carter said, cutting him off. "It didn't make sense to me until I saw the way you started looking at Ebony. I saw the guilt and empathy in your eyes every time you killed her, and then I realized that it wasn't actually you hurting her, was it? Pure evil doesn't feel concerned about the things it kills. That's when I realized that the darkness was no longer the driving force behind your actions, and there was a part of my little brother left inside that body. And that is when I knew I had a chance to save not only my boys and my sunshine, but I had a chance to save my brother."

Leon's eyes widened at Carter's words. "I swear to you I had no control over the darkness and its actions upon others. I tried for centuries to stop it, but I never could until I found them. I convinced the darkness to take away their memory so they would not have to relive the horror that was inflicted on them. Then I started to feel remorse and sadness, especially for hurting Ebony, who has endured so much over these last ten years. I just got to the point when I knew I couldn't do it anymore and so I convinced the darkness to stop killing her and make you suffer by watching her fall in love with me. The more times I did this, the more I felt stronger and in control of myself. Then I felt you calling to me for the first time in over 300 years, and I knew it was finally gone. I was free of the darkness inside me, and to be quite honest, brother, it terrifies me to be alone in this world."

"You're not alone, Leon," I said, taking a step towards him. "The darkness has done so much damage and destruction to others, and It horrifies me to think you had to watch that for hundreds of years. You had to watch this evil destroy your family and watch them hate you for no actions of your own. I think you are the bravest vampire I have ever meet because even though it was your body that did all this damage, you still have the courage to face us and try to make things right when others would have just given in to evil. You fought it, Leon and you won. You are remarkable." I smiled at him. "You are not alone anymore."

I saw a single tear fall down his cheek as he stared at me.

"You are family," Callan said, walking beside Carter.

"I missed you, my brother," Carter said, walking towards Leon. "I know you think you owe me something, but trust me when I say, I think we are even now." Carter put his hand on Leon's shoulder. "You owe me nothing."

"Thank you, Carter. I will gain your trust again, and hopefully, one day, I will earn your respect." Leon placed his hand on Carter's shoulder. "I will prove my loyalty to you once again."

"It's good to have you back." Carter smiled, pulling his brother in for a hug.

"It's good to be back," Leon said, patting Carter on the back.

"I think I'm going to cry," Jake said, fanning his face as he pretended to weep.

"Shut it, Jacob," Leon growled as Jake and Callan laughed.

"Now, if you will all excuse me, I must shower and shave this godforsaken thing off my face, and then we all have much to discuss, yes?" Carter said, running his hand over his black beard.

"You must be starving. I'll prepare some blood for you. Boys, will you give me a hand, please." Leon said, walking towards the door.

"But I'm not hungry," Jake whined.

"Now, Jacob," Leon called as he walked out of the door.

"Don't I get a say in something around here? No. It's just go here, Jacob ...Do that, Jacob. Stop touching yourself in public, Jacob. I never get to do any fun stuff anymore...." he walked out of the room behind Callan, grumbling to himself.

"I see some things around here never change." Carter smiled, walking slowly towards me.

"I don't think he's capable of change." I laughed.

"I was talking about how magnificent you are my sunshine." He said inches from my face.

I blushed and bit my lower lip as my heart raced in my chest. "Oh."

"The only thing that has kept me going for all these years is hoping that I would be able to do this at least one more last time." He softly kissed my lips, slowly making my body rush with heat. "I live for your kisses, baby." He kissed me again, but this time there was nothing gentle about it. He kissed me so deeply and with so much passion that he left me breathless as he picked me up off the floor.

"I missed you so much." I gasped as he started kissing down my jaw towards my neck.

He growled softly as he nibbled my neck and squeezed my thighs that were now wrapped around his waist tightly.

"I'll give you a ten-second head start to get upstairs, but if I catch you...You have to do exactly what I tell you to do." He said in my ear. "No excuses."

"Oh god, this is going to hurt a little, isn't it?" I smiled as he placed me back on the ground.

"Pain is pleasure, baby." He kissed me again and slapped my butt really hard.

"Ouch." I smiled.

"You better start running, baby...Don't let me catch you." Carter turned me around to face the door.

"Carter, you need to be gentle."

"Then I suggest you run really fast." He growled.

I didn't ask any more questions and I barely made it to the stairs before he caught me again.

"Brace yourself, baby girl cos daddy's finally home."

Who missed Carter??? I did 💋💋💋
#vampiredaddy