The Way You Bleed

Epilogue

“And I now present to you, Mr. and Mrs. Cameron Daniels!” The priest announced to the crowd who all stood in applause. I handed Mandy back her bouquet, wiping a tear from my eye as I moved to stand beside Owen. His eyes were also wet and I passed him over a tissue before we followed them back down the aisle and out into the beautiful French spring day.

“You look good sweety” Dad came up behind Owen and I and no matter how long it had been, my heart still broke talking to my parents knowing their love wasn’t the same as what it used to be. The fact he had walked Mandy down the aisle and would never do the same for me was even worse. The whole day had been torture seeing them play happy families and all I wanted to do was go and disappear.

“Thanks Dad, you too” I almost called him Mr.Dames yet there was something more in his eyes now, something that gave me hope I wasn’t just a monster to him.

“Are you being looked after?”

“Yes, Luke and Alek have been wonderful”

“I hope you didn’t leave because of us” My parents had never entered the equation of people I considered the feelings of when I left but since this was the most we’d spoken in three years, I wasn’t going to ruin it.

“Not at all. Its better here, the towns people don’t even know we’re vampires and I’m in a really good place” Mandy’s arm fell over my shoulders, her grin widening seeing Dad and I talking.

“And we have somewhere to go on holidays!”

“You only keep me around for my chateau” I teased and Dad watched us proudly while Mum hadn’t even looked in my direction which was a hard task considering we had to help Mandy get her dress on earlier and I was standing in front of her at the altar.

“Have a good night girls” Then Dad surprised us both even more by hugging me. He was tense, rigid like he was hugging a tiger. Did he expect me to do? Attack him, rip out his throat and wear it as a hat? I bet he could only guess about three of the vampires in this crowd and would never know the chef and wait staff all were too.

Mandy dragged me to the dance floor to dance, the long flowing Grecian style gown made her look like a goddess and catching odd glimpses of Cam as he mingled with his family, I knew Mandy had the perfect man for her. Their love so pure and untainted, seeing them as seniors was going to be hard but we had plenty of time before now and then.

“May I cut in?” Alek asked, standing between us. We weren’t dancing overly formally and Mandy looked at me curiously before nodding and going to find Cam. “I saw you talking to your Father”

“Yes, that was nice” We danced around for a little longer and as the band changed song we left the dance floor back to where Owen was talking with Luke.

“I must say, red really does look lovely on you” Alek flirted, picking up his influence that he was pushing towards me.

“Thank you and you know I can tell what you’re doing now right?” He had to really use a lot of effort in making me listen to him, like Luke and even Dominik had to. It was hit and miss and it really only worked in training. In the beginning it had an affect on me, that night we met was something we now joked about. No one has a nose perfect for their face, unless they had surgery.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about” he joked, kissing my hand and left us to see one his friends that had been invited along.

By the time I got my own little piece of heaven in this picturesque countryside, I was more than ready to get into bed and seeing the figure waiting for me in it; it was good to be home.

“You’re home early” Dominik greeted, putting down his book.

“Did I interrupt something?” I teased, looking at the worn copy of Taming of The Shrew he had put on the bedside table.

“Not at all, how did it go?”

“Perfectly. Can you help?” I turned my back to him, needing the zipper to be undone and he obliged.

“Red looks stunning on you”

“So I’ve been told” My hair had been gathered in a long curly ponytail over my right shoulder and he pulled it back, slowly taking out each pin that held it in place and once free he scooped it all together and left it down my back and the scar from Troy’s feeding attack was once again revealed. It wasn’t as bad as it could have been, Alek fixed the majority of the damage the night it was done but it wasn’t completely unaffected.

Dominik’s lips kissed my shoulder, working their way over the scar and down my back as my bra was removed along with the rest of my clothing.

“That’s better” He turned me around to face him and in seconds I got my wish of going to bed but sleeping was the last thing to happen there. It took him two weeks to track me down and for the eight months that followed, every second had been spent proving to me that I didn’t have to run from him anymore. Only Luke and Alek knew he was here, I was going to tell Mandy but I didn’t want to ruin her wedding and once the honeymoon was over, we’d talk then.

I don’t know what the future holds for anyone of us, war is once again on everyone lips as the humans turn on themselves rather than us and in the city of love that I now called home, vampires and werewolves were barely a blip on the radar with all the other supernatural species that walked the streets here. Being with Alek under his guidenance, i can see where Luke really got his patience from and he has already taught me the most important fact on living this life, as a vampire.

It's not about holding onto your humanity, being human will only get you killed. It's about living, not surviving. To focus on something like the human condition is limiting your potential, there is so much more to this life and I've only just scratched the surface. Thankfully while time stands still for me physically, I had the potential to spend an existance working it all out.

 And beyond that, I have learnt something that Alek could never show or teach me, something that you only gain with your own experience and never be prepared for.

I’ve learnt to enjoy the peace while it lasts, as one thing is for certain – it never does.

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Well I hope this ending isn't disappointing to you all.

I re-did it a bunch of times, and the chapter before this too. One horrible conclusion was Mandy dying  but I couldn't do that to her or Lucy. I hope you've enjoyed this and thank you to every single person who has read it. I've said it before and I'll say it again - it blows my mind to think people out there read and LIKE what I create.

To my fabulous my wonderfully supportive readers/followers, you know who you are and thankyou. I love seeing your comments and reactions to events and my characters decisions. It's the only reason why i've gone from a person with a folder full of half done stories to someone who now has nearly as many completed than not (8 of which are on here) 

So thank you everyone from the bottom of my heart xxxx