Epilogue

ALEXANDER

^HALF A CENTURY LATER^

The night was sweltering. The sun had just dipped below the horizon, but its scorching touch still clung to the earth around us.

For the first time in fifty years, the mansion’s front doors were wide open, creaking eerily as they swayed in the night breeze.

Caroline and Jessica were right behind me, their bodies subtly shifting with the wind.

I inhaled deeply, the salty tang of the ocean mingling with the lingering scent of the Mcnoxnoctis henchmen who had guarded our home for the past five decades.

Their footprints were permanently etched into the soft stone where they had patrolled. Over the years, there had been no chance to turn any vampires into servants.

Even on the nights when we dared to venture onto our balconies, the henchmen made their presence known.

We were kept under lock and key, isolated from the world and its happenings.

We hadn’t seen or heard from another vampire in fifty years. No letters, no official business.

Our supplies were delivered in a box once a week, with no accompanying correspondence. We all kept track of the days.

Tiny marks were carved into our room walls. I had claimed the room Aya had once occupied, her scent lingering for months before it finally faded.

The walls were covered in small lines, tallying the days, weeks, decades…

“Alex.” Jessica’s voice broke the silence.

She moved around me, sniffing the air. We were all on high alert for the scent of any purebloods, Shahalias, or even members of the royal family.

Anyone who might seize the opportunity to attack, to sentence me to death once more. But the night was still, the air pure.

I reached out, ruffling Jessica’s hair in a way I knew she hated.

She hissed at me, pulling away.

“It’s quiet,” Caroline murmured. Her hair, now cut to her shoulders, fluttered in the breeze as she scanned the horizon.

“Too quiet; it’s unsettling.”

“That’s just because we’re used to the henchmen’s noise,” I replied. “They’re gone now.”

“But what if…” She trailed off, her gaze fixed on a dark rock formation. “What if they come after us?”

“They won’t,” I assured her. “Our banishment is over. It’s a crime to kill a pureblood. They can’t touch us now.”

“But they didn’t come for you,” she retorted. “And you killed a pureblood.”

“Caroline, it’s over. We made it through. And we’re never going back to that. We’re strongest together,” I insisted.

She looked up at me, nodding uncertainly.

“I know.”

I rubbed my hands together. “We can stay here a few more days if you want,” I suggested.

“No!” both my sisters protested in unison, and I couldn’t help but smile.

“All right, then. Someone go wake our mother. We’re heading south. How does Argentina sound?”

Jessica flashed me a grin, her fangs glinting in the moonlight, before rushing off to wake our mother, who had been sleeping for the past few weeks.

Caroline shifted beside me. I could almost hear her thoughts.

“Do you think she’d be here?” she asked.

I had been trying to avoid that thought. From the moment I heard the doors swing open and the henchmen leave, my heart had been pounding.

Fifty years since I last held her, fifty years since I last saw her face or heard her voice.

I clung to the memory of how she felt in my arms during the fight, of her expression when they dragged me away.

I thought of her every day and night for fifty years. I imagined what our life could have been if I hadn’t been banished, if my grandfather hadn’t caught us.

On my darkest nights, I imagined her life without me.

She had had plenty of time to move on over the decades—the whole world to explore.

Gradually, I accepted the likelihood that she wouldn’t be waiting for me upon my release. And I realized that was for the best.

If she had waited, I would never have been able to let her go. I had caused her enough pain, and she was better off without me.

I knew she would come to that realization, just as I had.

When I first stepped outside, my muscles tensed. Despite myself, I searched for any sign of her.

But there was none.

My heart froze in an instant, and for a fleeting moment, I yearned for the sun to blaze down on me—to reduce me to nothing but ashes.

A sharp, searing pain coursed through me.

I never wanted her to put her life on hold for me, but I had dared to hope.

I whispered, “It’s better this way.”

Caroline didn’t buy it, and honestly, neither did I. The pain was still pulsating within me.

“Still—”

“Drop it,” I snapped, my voice harsher than I intended.

Caroline shifted uncomfortably next to me.

“I thought she would be here,” she persisted, disregarding my growl. “I really did. I didn’t anticipate Anthony showing up. Honestly, he’s a brute and unbearable. I can do so much better. But I did think she’d be here.”

“We’re stronger as a family,” I echoed.

She nodded in agreement. “We will regain our power. I believe it.”

I smiled at her unwavering faith. I was sure she would shake up the pureblood world as much as she could.

Behind us, I heard Jessica guiding Mother toward us. Mother’s eyes were wide but vacant. She hadn’t spoken a word in years.

“We’re heading to Argentina,” Caroline informed her. “Then I’ll probably jet off to Milan for the season, and Paris in spring.”

Mother’s gaze hardened at her eldest daughter’s words, and she nodded silently.

“And you?” she croaked at me.

We all deliberately ignored her first words, but Jessica’s eyes flicked toward us quickly.

“I’ll keep heading south, Ushuaia—maybe even Antarctica.”

Caroline scoffed while Jessica grimaced.

“You should stay in the house in Buenos Aires with Jessica.”

Mother nodded.

“I’ll be four hundred in a few decades. I can go where I want,” Jessica asserted.

“No,” Caroline and I both disagreed.

Caroline chuckled at Jessica’s expression.

“You’ll stay with Mother, and we’ll check in on you. Many pureblood families reside in South America, some of whom we were once close with. Let’s steer clear of the European families for a while,” I suggested.

Jessica nodded, her lips pursed.

She’d matured over the last fifty years, but a hundred of her teenage years were spent in isolation—cut off from pureblood society.

It would take time for her to reintegrate, though I had no doubt she would.

“All right, let’s get moving,” Caroline declared, striding down the path—dragging her battered suitcase from its last journey.

She didn’t wait for us to keep up.

I took my mother’s arm and led her down the hill. Jessica marched ahead of us, occasionally tilting her head back to gaze at the moon.

I didn’t glance back at the house we’d been confined to for the last few decades. It would be a long while before I chose to return to Corfu.

At the shore, the moonlight danced on the water as it gently kissed the warm sandstone. Across from the island, I could see the lights from the human dwellings. I could hear the voices, the sporadic cars and motorbikes winding along the roads.

The sudden sound of life was startling after so much silence. And the scent, so faint, of fresh blood. Our diet had consisted of human blood for the latter half of our confinement, but it hadn’t been warm or fresh.

I felt my throat parching and tightening. Caroline, ahead, flashed her crimson gaze toward the lights on the horizon.

“Control it,” I urged my sisters. “We’ll cross underwater. That should help.”

Caroline nodded in agreement, while Jessica hissed slightly.

“Or we could just go and satisfy our thirst,” Mother suggested.

“We wouldn’t be able to control ourselves,” I argued. “We’d slaughter the entire town.”

Mother just shrugged in response. “We were the most powerful pureblood family of vampires for centuries. It’s not as if it would be the first time we wiped out a town.”

“It would be in modern times,” I retorted.

“I refuse to be a ripper,” Caroline sniffed. “I want to relish a hunt.”

“I’m thirsty,” Jessica whined.

“We go to the mainland, we find a family to hunt there—no wiping out entire towns,” I commanded, my own thirst flaring at the thought of the fresh, warm blood nearby.

Mother scoffed as I began to guide her into the water.

A flicker on the distant horizon caught my attention, followed by the sharp, metallic scent of fresh human blood—spilled blood. My muscles tightened reflexively, my eyes turning a deep crimson as I zeroed in on the small boat speeding toward us.

The drone of its engine grew louder, and the figures on board became clearer. As it neared, the scent of blood intensified—almost drowning out my other senses.

“Mine,” Jessica declared, diving into the water and swimming toward the boat.

The moonlight revealed a figure standing on the boat, tossing a body overboard—a figure I’d been dreaming about for fifty years.

Jessica clung to the body in the water, her feeding sounds muffled by the boat’s roaring engine.

Another body was thrown overboard, and my mother immediately went after it. The water turned red with blood as the boat came to a sudden, noisy halt—water splashing against me.

Despite the thirst burning in my throat, I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her. Aya leapt from the boat, landing waist-deep in the surf. I watched her wade toward me, her short black dress trailing behind her.

My heart pounded. My mind whirled as I stared at her. When she stood before me, her large brown eyes sparkling as she held my gaze, she gently placed her hand over my heart. Her touch was soft, cool.

“Alex?” Her voice was filled with uncertainty, her concern mirrored in her expression, and I could feel it inside me.

“You’re here,” I managed to say, my voice barely recognizable.

“Of course I am,” she whispered back.

My hands trembled as I reached out, gripping her waist. I dug my fingers into her back. She leaned into me willingly as I pulled her into my arms.

“You’re really here,” I voiced my thoughts, struggling to reconcile reality with my dreams.

“I am,” she whispered, her arms winding around my neck, her lips against my throat. I felt her body pressing against mine. “Of course I’m here.”

My heart pounded in my chest. I pulled back just enough to cup her face, to bring it up to mine. I captured her lips, not even attempting to be gentle. My thirst for her was overwhelming, my emotions uncontrollable.

She met my kiss with equal fervor, her tongue dueling with mine, leaning into me, her fingers clutching my shoulders. My fangs pierced her plush lip, and I tasted her. The rich flow of her blood in my mouth had me groaning for more.

I held her tight against me, one hand in her hair while the other slid down her smooth back. She felt perfect in my arms. She tasted perfect.

The sound of a body hitting the sandstone and a splash of water startled me. I looked up, licking my lips, and saw Jessica had drained her human and was moving toward Mother’s.

In their hunger, they didn’t seem to notice Aya was also bleeding, albeit slightly. She was sucking on her bottom lip just a bit. When our eyes met, she gave me a grin.

“I didn’t think you were coming,” I confessed, brushing my thumb against her soft lips, my eyes scanning her face. She was unchanged, of course, but there was a light in her eyes—a joy I hadn’t seen in over a century.

“I told you I’d wait for you,” she reminded me. “I am your fiancée. I hope you haven’t forgotten.”

“Of course not,” I replied, a bit sheepishly.

“I wanted to meet you at the doors. We got on the boat as soon as the sun set, but we couldn’t stay on the island. It had been completely closed off to all vampires since they locked the doors. We also figured you’d want a snack, so we had some quick hunting to do. Sorry, we’re late.” Her eyes twinkled with amusement.

“We?”

Aya glanced back at the boat quickly, as if the answer were obvious. I hadn’t even noticed another vampire was in the boat. Anthony, impeccably dressed, stood knee-deep in the water, eyeing my sister with a hungry expression. Caroline was glaring back at him.

“They’re going to eat each other alive,” Aya mused.

I grunted in agreement, tucking her against my side and pressing my lips to the top of her head.

“We were heading to Argentina,” I confessed. “We have a manor there.”

“Sounds good.” Aya’s arm wrapped around my waist. “Anthony and I have made some investments these years. I have plenty to get us our own place if we like.”

I blinked at her. “Our own place?”

“I’m totally cool with hanging out with your family, Alex, but I do want us to have a place of our own,” she said, raising her eyebrows in a meaningful way.

I couldn’t help but smile down at her. “Absolutely,” I agreed, gently caressing her cheek. She leaned into my touch. “But how free are we really? Are we going to be constantly looking over our shoulders?”

She turned her face to plant a kiss on my hand, then looked up at me with a smile.

“Anthony and I took the Ravn and Mcnoxnoctis guys to the Shahalia hideouts that Anthony knew about. It was enough to get the royals to check them out. The Shahalias have been outcasts for years, but they’ve accepted their punishment for what they did to turned vampires.

“And they’re also banned from seeking revenge on you. You’re free, Alex. All of you are. It’s finally over.”

Her words washed over me like a cool breeze. I hadn’t realized how heavy the burden I’d been carrying was until it was lifted.

I felt lighter, happier.

“We can go wherever we want,” she added.

“Then let’s go find our new home,” I whispered, pulling her close.

She grinned and tilted her head back, inviting another kiss.

End of Book 2