Hit List - Complete

Epilogue

Epilogue – 45 Years Later.

We hid in the shadows and watched as her body was lowered into the ground. I held Dimitri's hand tightly in one hand as tears poured down his face. We knew this day was coming for weeks after Karolina called us late one night after Olena took a spill down the stairs. Dimitri took it exceptionally hard when Karolina called us three days ago to tell us of their mother's passing.

Dimitri turned his body towards me, wrapping his arms around the two of us and buried his face in my hair. I wrapped my arm around his waist.

"Papa, it's ok. Babushka is at rest now," Olga whispered softly as she leaned back into me. I stroked her hair softly as she sniffled because she was trying to hold back her tears.

When we had Olga, we were overjoyed beyond belief. Olga took after my height with Dimitri's chocolate brown eyes and my hair, but as fiery as Janine's hair. She was patient and headstrong, with Dimitri's wisdom. But if she was mad enough, my temper shone through.

We stayed at the cottage for as long as we could, but Olga grew quickly, and we moved into a quiet subdivision. We became well known as a kind and loving couple with their bubbling daughter in the neighbourhood. We stayed there until Olga was ten before we changed states. Dimitri and I got married too, not in a church, but we did get married when Olga turned five.

Olga was more Moroi than Strigoi, and we were so relieved that she was born with humanity. Our fear of Olga growing old before our eyes was crimpling, but we felt waves of relief when her growth slowed down by the time she was fourteen. She stopped ageing completely at seventeen and could easily pass as a twenty-year-old.

Returning to the moment in front of us, Olga turned in our arms and pressed against her father in a hug. My heart ached for my husband and daughter, but a part of me was happy that Olena was at rest finally. I saw her a year ago and she confided in me that she had brain cancer and was given six months to live. It killed me to keep it from Dimitri, but Olena made me promise not to tell any of her children.

We have been fortunate that Olga could have her family in her life. She got to meet her Aunts and her Grandparents. We didn't see them often, but we kept in contact and it was enough. Abe passed two years ago, and I cried for days. He had been killed by Strigoi under Eddie's control. When Eddie found out, he went ballistic and tortured him because Eddie had made it clear that Abe Mazur was not to be harmed.

We have lost many people we cared about over the years. When Olga was twenty-five, she was out with Ivan one night and was ambushed by Guardians. Ivan was able to fight them off along with Olga's fire magic, but it wasn't enough. Ivan protected her with his dying breath as a Guardian staked him when Ivan took them down.

Dimitri was never aware, but Ivan and Olga were in love. Dimitri had assumed that Olga's grief-stricken behaviour was because she felt that it was her fault, but that was only a part of it. Olga didn't tell me until months later when I found her in a drunken stupor.

The three of us waited in the shadows for the congregation to leave the gravesite before we moved towards it to pay our respects. Approaching Dimitri's sisters, they turned to us with their sombre expressions and Olga flew into the arms of Sonya, letting her tears roll down her plump cheeks.

We each embraced each other, and I gave Dimitri a moment alone at Olena's gave once his sisters left. As promised, we buried her next to Yeva. Olena has to be one of the hardest people to say goodbye to, but she filled everyone's lives with sunshine, and I'm glad I had the pleasure of knowing her.

After taking a moment for myself at her grave, the three of us left the cemetery in Baia and returned to the states.

Fifteen Years Later