I opened my eyes to the familiar sight of my bedroom ceiling. I tried to sit up and a stab of pain brought a groan to my lips. My whole body felt like it had gone through a cement-mixer; my head pounded and my tongue was sandpaper.

The bed dipped under someone's weight and I turned my head to see Luke sitting there. His face shone with love and compassion, and if I'd had strength enough I'd have thrown myself into his arms. As it was, the best I could do was fumble for his hand. My fingers were stiff and bruised, white bandages wrapped around the knuckles. I remembered punching Rachel's face to pulp. Another bandage covered my skinned arm and when I lifted a hand to my throat, I could feel yet more gauze.

Luke took my hand in his, holding it as gently as if it was spun glass, careful not to put any pressure on my bruised, swollen fingers and split knuckles.

"I expected to wake up in hospital," I said.

"One of the hunters Marc brought with him was a trained nurse." Luke trailed a finger along my bandaged arm. "He patched you up."

There were shadows of exhaustion under Luke's eyes, but although dried blood crusted his skin in patches, I couldn't see any actual injuries. I must have been out of it long enough for him to have healed already. If only I could heal that quickly.

"What happened?" The dryness in my throat caused my words to come out as a croak.

Luke fetched a glass of water from the nightstand, and guided it to my lips, cupping my head with his other hand so I didn't have to lift it myself. I sipped the water, feeling it slide down my throat and wash through the dust and blood.

"What happened?" I repeated, clearer this time.

"You killed Rachel."

"I mean the fight. What happened to everyone else?"

Luke smiled down at me. Though physically healed, he still looked weary, and that smile brightened his face. "We won."

I managed my own smile, though it hurt. "Hell yeah we did."

My smile faded as I realised Luke was the only one in the room with me. Faces of the people I cared about flashed through my head – Samuel, Elena, Clara, Ethan, Anna, Alice, even Marc. I started to sit up but Luke gently held me down and I didn't have the strength to fight him.

"Is everyone okay?" I asked.

Luke stroked strands of hair off my face, his fingers barely touching my battered skin. "Everyone's fine." Regret flickered across his face. "We lost a lot of vampires in the battle, and some of Marc's hunters, but" – he smiled again – "we won."

I closed my eyes. I didn't mean to cry but tears leaked out anyway, trickling down my cheeks and soaking into the blood-matted nest of my hair.

It was over.

We'd fought and bled and suffered and grieved, and come through on the other side. There had been many threats that had plagued me and Luke, and had tried to keep us from being together, but ultimately we had prevailed. Our future lay on the horizon, a bright, shining thing with nothing standing in its way.

I wanted to fling my arms around Luke, to hold him tightly against me and kiss him, but I was too exhausted.

"Go to sleep," Luke murmured. He kissed his own fingers and pressed them to my lips. "I'll be here when you wake up."

The next time I opened my eyes, I felt stronger. My body still ached, but I could sit up unaided. At some point Luke had climbed onto the bed next to me and fallen asleep, his black hair falling across his eyes. I resisted the urge to brush it away. He needed sleep as much as I did.

I eased myself off the bed, stifling another groan of pain, and tiptoed across the floor to the bathroom. My reflection was both worse than I expected, and at the same time not as bad. Someone – probably Luke while I was unconscious – had cleaned away the worst of the blood from my skin, displaying my bruises in their Technicolor glory. My right eye was puffed-up and purple, matching the swelling on my cheek; a swelling that was centred with a deep scrape. Bruising from my split lip bloomed down my chin. My throat was swathed in white gauze, covering the long gashes from Rachel's claws, and I sighed. Those would scar and I couldn't hide them as well as I could my shoulder.

I stared at them a moment longer, and shrugged. There was nothing I could do about it. And it really didn't matter what other people thought of me. I'd probably get stares on the street, people whispering and pointing and wondering what had happened to me, but I could deal with that. I'd been an outsider for most of my life so a few more stares didn't make a difference. Luke still loved me, regardless of what I looked like, and that was really all that mattered. People could stare all they wanted, but I had the love of a good vampire, and that was worth more than the opinions of all the nameless people in the world.

Luke had changed my clothes as well – it had to have been him because there was no way he'd have let Marc's friend do it, nurse or not – and I lifted the hem of my t-shirt to get a look at the rest of me. My arms were peppered in smaller cuts from Rachel's claws, and my ribs were painted black and blue. At least the bruises would heal with no lasting damage, and it didn't feel like I'd broken anything. I still looked like hell, but I'd got off pretty lightly, considering what could have happened.

My hair was a mess, matted into thick bloody clumps. I wanted to wash all the blood out, but I was afraid that if I got into the shower, the long gouges on my scalp would start bleeding again. They hurt enough without reopening them. In the end I settled for gently washing my hair over the basin, working small puddles of shampoo and conditioner through a bit at a time until the worst of the blood had drained down the plughole.

Then I stared at my reflection again. I'd been beaten up before, but this time it was different. This time I'd been fighting for something I truly believed in. Every cut and bruise, every twinge of pain was a reminder that I had won. It was a reminder that whatever else the world might throw at me in the future, I would not be beaten.

When I emerged from the bathroom, Luke was awake, propped up on one elbow. "How do you feel?" he asked.

A thousand responses flitted through my mind. There was still so much going on inside me: pain from my injuries; grief over the friends I'd lost; elation that we'd won; excitement and nervousness about the future that Luke and I had yet to experience.

"Happy," I said at last. It wasn't a fizzy, jump-for-joy sort of happiness, but a slow steady bloom inside me that overrode everything else.

Luke's face broke into a smile and he held out a hand to me. I crossed the room and took it, but didn't sit down.

"Where are the others?" I asked.

"Downstairs."

Seeing Luke in bed like that, with mussed hair and love in his eyes, made me want to disappear under the covers with him. But I needed to see my friends and family.

I found them all in the living room. The door was ajar, and when I pushed it open, they didn't notice me at first. I stood in the doorway and watched them, my heart aching with love. Ethan sat on the sofa, Riley cuddled in his lap. Both his arms were around her, and she had one arm around his neck. Samuel and Elena stood close by, holding each other, Elena's head resting on her husband's shoulder. Clara sat at the other end of the soda, her bare feet propped up on my coffee-table, a bandage knotted around her left bicep and her gashed cheek patched up with fresh butterfly stitches.

Riley was the first to notice me. She leaped up, almost trampling Ethan in the process, and charged towards me.

I held out both hands and she skidded to a halt, confused. "Gently, Riley," I reminded her. My poor bruised body couldn't take a proper Riley-hug right now.

She put her arms around me with almost comical tenderness, burying her face in my hair. Something wet fell on my shoulder and I realised she was crying.

I patted her shoulder with bruised fingers. "I'm okay, Riley."

She nodded and snuffled into my hair.

When she finally moved away, Ethan promptly took her place, holding me with the same gentleness so he didn't put pressure on my injuries.

"You were awesome," he whispered.

"Still am," I said, with a grin.

The second Ethan let me go, Elena was all but pushing him out of the way so she could put her arms around me. Samuel squeezed my shoulder, tears gleaming in his eyes.

"We're incredibly proud of you, Kiara," he said.

I reached out with my free arm and pulled him into the hug, holding him and Elena the way I'd never held my real parents. Luke wasn't the only thing that I'd been missing in my life. His family had filled the holes in my heart that my real family had never managed to.

Clara got up from the sofa and came to stand behind Elena. Beneath the butterfly stitches was a nasty swelling on the left side of her jaw, but she smiled at me with a warmth that transformed the hard lines of her face. When Elena let me go, Clara didn't move in for a hug, but stood awkwardly in front of me, still smiling but clearly unsure what to do now. I made the decision for her, closing the gap between us and hugging her. She briefly stiffened, her hands coming up to my shoulders as if she was going to push me away, then she relaxed and put her arms around me.

"Where are the others?" I asked once I'd let Clara go.

"Anna and Marc are taking care of the injured over at the team's old house," Clara said. "The other vampires and hunters are taking care of the bodies."

Even if the people of Dalwick hadn't heard the fight, even if they had heard it but weren't foolish enough to investigate, all evidence had to be cleared up. Vampire bodies weren't such a problem as they would burn up the second the sun rose, but the bodies of the humans killed in the fight would be trickier. Burning them was the best option, but it couldn't be done in the meadow, not when police or other curious people might be sniffing around. Marc and his surviving hunters would have to take the bodies and burn them somewhere away from Dalwick. I didn't envy them the task.

I'd felt stronger when I woke up a few minutes ago, but now I was exhausted all over again. A wave of sheer relief rushed through me, leaving me weak-kneed and trembling.

It was really, truly over.

The sofa seemed to welcome me as I sank onto it. A huge weight had lifted from my shoulders, and despite my exhaustion I felt free as a bird. And I was free now, more truly free than I had ever been.

I curled up on the sofa and watched my family as they laughed and joked amongst themselves, their faces full of the same weariness but the same joy that I felt. Through it all, Luke shot me continuous tiny glances, smiling each time as if he was seeing me for the first time all over again.

I rested my head on the arm of the sofa and my eyes drooped shut, falling asleep to the laughter and bustle of the people I loved.