They may have saved Joleena and defeated the shadow man, but Antonia and the rest of the Tenebrosi Sanction had escaped. Most of them were too injured to move very far but when Nathan made a quick scour of the castle he found that absolutely everything had been cleared out.

And after Fina came came back from flying around the island, she found that they had even cleared out the mountain where the mass grave had been.

But as far as Joe was concerned someone else could deal with all that crap. Nathan wasn't happy about him just leaving, but he didn't care. All that mattered to Joe was keeping his friends and family safe.

About a week later Joe pulled up to Joleena's place. He cringed when he saw a gold Rolls-Royce already parked in the driveway. He had never seen it before but he already knew that the car belonged to Mr. Beauchene. Great. That meant more of his accusatory looks and snide remarks.

"Whatever," Joe mumbled. "He's just going to have to deal with me."

The maid let him in and upstairs he could hear Mr. Beauchene's thunderous voice and Joleena's sharp quick voice. Both were raised in a heated argument. The stairs then trembled as he stomped down the stairs and when he spotted Joe he immediately stormed over.

"What?" Joe asked standing his ground. "Going to yell at me again? Maybe spin me around the room?"

Mr. Beauchene glared down at him and pulled out his wallet. "No, I'm going to bribe you."

"Um, excuse me?" Joe raised an eye brow. "Bribe me to do what exactly?"

"Break up with my daughter." Mr. Beauchene pulled out a thick wad of bills and held them out to him. "If you want to wait for her injuries to heal, fine. But I will pay you eight hundred dollars to break off your relationship with Joleena."

Joe clenched his fists to resist the urge to knock the money out of his hands. "I'm sorry, I must have misheard you because there's no way that you just said what I think you just said."

"Three of my daughter's ribs are broken," Mr. Beauchene said in a low voice. "and there is a gash in her abdomen that could have easily been fatal. Next time she might not be so lucky."

"You don't think I know that!?" Joe snapped. "You don't think I have to live with that for the rest of my life!?"

"Then do the right thing, Joseph!"

"I am doing the right thing!" Joe forced himself to take a breath and lowered his voice. "Look, Mr. Beauchene whether you like it or not, I'm in Joleena's life and I plan to be with her for a very, very long time. So deal with it!"

And with that Joe brushed past him and headed up the stairs. He heard the front door slam and breathed a sigh of relief. That actually went a lot better than he was expecting. He opened the door to Joleena's room and found her laying on her chaise lounge.

"Daddy, I told you-" She stopped and smiled when she saw it was him. "Oh its, you."

"Yep, just your loving and devoted boyfriend." Joe knelt down next to her and kissed her forehead. "How do you feel?"

"Horrible of course." Joleena winced as she sat up. "And I keep having nightmares. Or memories. I don't know which anymore."

"Yeah, I'm not doing so great either." Joe sighed and sat on the floor.

Joleena echoed his sigh. She then manifested a pack of cigarettes, lit one up, and starting smoking. Joe started to get up to open the window but without even moving, Joleena used her magic to open it. Joe settled back down and took one of her hands. He slowly kissed her fingers one by one.

"Daddy tried to convince me to come back home. He doesn't think I should live alone anymore." Joleena paused and took a long drag. "And I agree. So I've asked Anna if she would like to move in with me."

"Anna?" Joe stopped and looked at her. "Why her? I wouldn't mind moving in with you."

A ghost of a smile flitted across her face. "Joseph, you know very well that I don't plan on moving with any man until I am married."

Joe forced himself to smile."Okay, your lost."

Joleena chuckled and continued to smoke. Joe cast a worried look at her. He knew that she only smoked when she was really stressed out which was completely expected considering all that she had been through. Her eyes still had a hazy, far off look to them and under her concealer he could see bruises.

"So," Joleena said after a long silence. "What do we plan on doing, Joseph?"

Joe smiled against her palm. "Well, I was thinking that once you were a little less sore, we could look ourselves in you room and-"

"I'm serious, Joseph." Joleena cut him off with a small laugh. "Have you forgotten that Antonia and the Tenebrosi have an entire undead army out there somewhere?"

"Have you forgotten that you were almost killed?" Joe's voice raised ever so slightly. "I'm not risking anything right now! At least not until we get some decent training in. And that's only so we can defend ourselves."

"Then we'll train!" Joleena's voice rose as well. "Come! We will start immediately!"

Joleena started to get up but Joe gently pressed against her heavily bandaged sternum where her wound was. She let out a soft hiss of pain and sat down again.

"Rest." Joe gave her a serious look. "None of us are doing anything until we are fully recovered. And I mean it Joleena. You need to rest."

"Fine." Joleena evaporated her current cigarette in purple flames and lit another one. "But I refuse to let you leave me out of this. When you train, I train too."

Joe heaved a weary sigh and nodded. "Alright."

His phone began to ran and when he checked the caller ID he saw that it was San-Li. He told Joleena that he'd be right back and he stepped out into the hall to answer it.

"Hey," He said. "What did you find?"

"Well, it took me almost twelve hours, but I think I deciphered the texts correctly." San-Li said. "Lucky for us, I happened to take pictures of the most important stuff."

Joe felt his breath hitch. "You found a way to defeat them?"

"Yes Joe, I actually found the exact instructions on how to defeat an entire evil organization." He could practically hear San-Li roll her eyes. "Ow! Kei-Kei, mommy's on the phone. I'll get you juice in a minute."

Joe winced when he heard an indignant shriek on the other end. "San-Li..."

"Okay, okay, the information involved that undead army of theirs." She continued. "Turns out unearthing them was only part one of their plain. There seems to be a few other steps they plan to take before they wage war."

"Do we know how long they plan to wait?" Joe gave a weak chuckle. "I was hoping for at least twenty years."

"Don't we all?" San-Li said dryly. There was a another small shriek on the other end of the phone. "Look, we can talk more in detail later? These kids are about to drive me crazy and Sam keeps nagging me about...you know...you."

Joe sighed. "So I guess it's safe to say he still hates me huh?"

"He'll get over it." San-Li said quickly. "Laters."

"Later."

Joe hung up and went back into Joleena's room.

"What was that about?" She asked.

"Nothing much." Joe sat down and pulled her feet into his lap to massage them. "San-Li's just doing me a favor that's all."

"Hmm." Joleena closed her eyes and tilted her head back. "War huh?"

Joe stopped massaging then started again. "So I guess you heard my conversation then."

"Your voice isn't loud but its kind of deep, so yes, I could hear you."

"All I want to do is keep you safe." Joe muttered. "That's all I care about right now."

"My magic is now stronger than its ever been." Joleena smiled at him, but her eyes were dark with pain. "So I believe I can handle myself, now."

Joe pressed his lips together and looked away. "Let's just hope that it never comes to that then."

A/N- Hope you guys enjoyed Fallen Light! Up next you'll see everyone getting a little older and their lives start taking the next steps into adulthood. Don't forget to review!