Chapter 200: She Healed!
When they broke apart, Olivia was breathing hard, her cheeks flushed and her mind spinning.
"You feel it now," Damon murmured against her forehead, his voice thick with restraint. "Don’t think about it, just let your body Feel."
Tears pricked her eyes, hot, confusing tears. She hated him for the secrets he kept. She needed him because he was the only one who understood the monster clawing at her soul. She loved him because he had stayed, even when it would have been easier to leave.
Her hands moved again, this time without hesitation, pressing flat against his chest. She closed her eyes, letting the storm inside her burst free, love, anger, fear, longing, all tangled in a violent, beautiful chaos.
A soft glow bloomed where her palms met his skin. Damon’s breath hitched, his arms tightening around her instinctively.
Olivia gasped, feeling it, his blood stitching itself, the torn parts mending, the damage she had unknowingly caused retreating under her touch.
It worked. She sobbed in a sharp, broken sound, and Damon caught her face in his hands.
"You did it," he whispered hoarsely. "Olivia! you did it."
He kissed her again, fiercer this time, pouring all the fear and relief and aching tenderness into it.
And this time, Olivia kissed him back with everything she had, knowing that if love could heal, then maybe just maybe it could save them both.
Damon shifted slightly, adjusting so he could look at her better. His hand rose and reached for her cheeks, moving into her hair with slow, calming strokes as if reassuring himself that she was really there, that she hadn’t disappeared like a fever dream.