Epilogue

 

 

Ever since Lyric had told him about her vision of Griffin and Storm, Jade had been unable to shake the image completely from his mind. He had no way of really knowing what it meant and so he’d made the decision to keep it from Griffin for now. Since Storm had been somehow afflicted in the vision, they intended to keep a close watch over her. Just in case.

In the weeks since Lyric had first risen as a vampire, she had quickly immersed herself fully in her new world. It had been both a relief and a joy to Jade. Of course, it hadn’t all been fun and games. More than once, he’d had to restrain her physically when the bloodlust took over.

Jade knew what it was like to live with regret after a kill. In the beginning, the bloodlust was so powerful and all consuming. It was almost like donning an entirely different personality, a rabid, irrational one. He couldn’t allow Lyric to exist with the same kind of guilt that had wracked him for so many years.

Tonight was the first night that she had returned to the stage. Dancing was part of who she was, he knew that. Still, it did concern him a little. If she lost control in a crowded building filled with hundreds of living, breathing human bodies, it would be a total disaster. Surprisingly, Lyric had far better control than most newborn vampires. Jade attributed this to her psychic abilities and her exceptional will.

As much as he hated to admit it to himself, Jade kept waiting for her breakdown. But, it never came. At least, it hadn’t so far. Lyric had walked away from her human life without a look back.

Jade likely mourned the death of her human mortality far more than she did. A part of him questioned the right and wrong of it. He felt responsible for the choice that Lyric was faced with as she lay dying in Griffin’s arms.

He should have been there instead. If anyone had to bring her over, it should have been him. But, would he have been able to go through with it in time? He’d told Griffin himself that he couldn’t turn her. Perhaps it had been better this way.

The lights dimmed, and the audience reacted with sudden expectation. Tension filled him as he waited to see her step into the spotlight. It was something he could watch forever and never tire of. The hum of the crowd’s energy fueled his excitement, stimulating his senses. He was keenly aware of everything going on around him, but his main focus was all on her.

When she appeared seemingly out of nowhere before them, a collective hush fell over the audience. From the moment they laid eyes on Lyric, she held them enthralled. Mildly surprised, Jade watched as she began to move to the music. Every pair of eyes in the building was trained on her, and the entire mass of people seemed to breathe as one.

There was no doubt that Lyric had always been beautiful, but now she was ethereal and majestic, a goddess in her own right. When the rest of her dance troupe joined her, very few were able to take their eyes off the raven-haired lady with the sparkling eyes and pale as whipped cream skin. Jade didn’t blame a single one of them. He hadn’t been human for many lifetimes, and he too was held captive by the allure of his true love.

He could watch Lyric perform her seductive striptease until the end of time, and it would never lose the effect it had over him. It wasn’t long before he began to grow impatient. He wanted to take her home where he could hungrily devour her. The desire quickly became an undying need.

It came as no surprise to Jade when, after the show, Lyric announced her desire to hunt. The energy of the crowd and their steadily beating hearts had sapped the remainder of her control while feeding her hunger.

“Do you have any idea how spellbinding you are?” he asked, reaching for her hand as they strolled down a dark and seedy downtown side street.

They’d been frequenting areas of the city much like this. Jade had been careful to ensure that nobody they killed could be considered an innocent. He couldn’t allow Lyric to start off as he had. She was better than that.

Killing recklessly without question or consideration was the way Jade had always survived. He had little reason to care about his victims and thought nothing of them once finished with them. Lyric’s entry into his life had started to change that. He’d never had a reason to care before.

Truth be told, part of him still didn’t care. He’d spent centuries living that way, and he was more than happy to continue. Lyric made him stop and think about it. It was her that he cared for. Blood and death dominated the life of a vampire, but that didn’t mean that she had to be as cold and hard as he had become. She was simply too warm for that. Too genuine.

“Do you know how insanely handsome, sweet and charming you are?” She countered, giving his hand a squeeze.

Jade beamed a smile at her, enjoying the way she caused his heart to flutter. He hoped that he never got used to it. As they drew closer to a man in the shadows up ahead, her attention became riveted. The man spoke on a cell phone, low but clearly audible. Drug deal.

“Meth dealer, my love.” Jade whispered low in Lyric’s ear. “He’s all yours.” Her scent was intoxicating, and he breathed it deep into his lungs, knowing in time her human smell would fade.

In a flash, she was gone from his side. He hung back, watching with morbid fascination as Lyric approached the unsuspecting man. Her victim glanced up at her; his phone call, forgotten when he laid eyes on her. Jade loved the way everyone reacted to her. She completely embodied the hypnotic allure of the vampire.

Jade was almost disappointed when the drug dealer didn’t even try to resist Lyric’s advances. Instead, he was transfixed, staring into her with a strange combination of wonder and fear. He didn’t try to run until she reached for him, baring her fangs. And, by then it was much too late.

There wasn’t even time for Lyric’s drug peddling victim to cry out. Blood spilled, and Jade grew hard as he lost himself in the sensuality of his lover’s kill. It moved him, watching her feed. It touched the core of what made him a vampire, and as sinful as it might be, he loved it.

For the first time since Jade had left his own mortal life behind, he found new meaning, not to what he was but who he was. And, it was all because of her. After walking alone through death and darkness for centuries, only now was he truly living.

Time might bring many things their way in the future, as time always does. But, with her at his side, there was nothing that Jade couldn’t handle. Lyric’s gift to him ran deeper than the earth beneath their feet, far beyond the stars in the sky. She had freed him from himself, whether she knew it or not. Spending the rest of his existence with this woman was nothing less than a dream come true.

Jade wasn’t delusional. He wasn’t fool enough to believe that they would never face challenge or adversity in the future. Yet, he knew that whatever came their way would be nothing they couldn’t overcome.

With a low, satisfied chuckle, Jade admired his vampire beauty as she drank down the life of her victim. When she turned to him, licking the blood from her fangs, he held his arms out to her. As he beckoned her, she glided toward him as if her feet never touched the ground. Like a dark angel, she came to him, and he awaited her, yearning for her touch.

As Jade pulled Lyric into his embrace, she gazed up at him with a fire burning in her dark blue eyes. Overwhelmed by the power of their connection, he held her to him tightly, burying his face in her thick tresses.

Death would never part them. Illness would never touch them. If he could go back to the beginning and do it all again, he wouldn’t have changed a thing.