Fear and Blood

Epilogue

Epilogue

Four Years Later

Ly lay on the lounge in his private sitting room, head resting on Rome's lap as she read through a thick, and boring looking, psychology book. Occasionally she would absent-mindedly run her fingers through his hair.

The sky could be seen through the doors that lead out onto the balcony. It was getting lighter now, though the sun hadn't yet risen. It was surprising how fast Rome had adapted to a vampires sleep pattern.

It was strange, Ly thought as he looked up at her. She had stuck by him through the mess he had made of his life. She had been with him when Inspector Milo Perters covered over the fight in Marcus Taylor's study, clearing his name in the process, and had defended him when suspicions were cast on members of the vampire community. She had openly admitted that she was dating a vampire and had taken all the outrage and ridicule from her peers without once complaining. She never complained and she never once mentioned her parents or the rest of her family.

It wasn't a secret that she missed them. They had barely spoken since she disobeyed them to go looking for Ly. Rome had tried to call them on a few occasions afterwords, but no-one ever answered her calls. She assured Ly, over and over again, that they were just hiding and they would contact her one day soon. For a while hatred for vampires had increased dramatically and her fathers old hunters club had been after him again.

Ly knew, however, that if they had wanted to get in contact with Rome they would have done it. It was strange to him that it wasn't the fact that he was a vampire that made them ignore their daughter, it was simply that she had chosen him over them. Humans were strange creatures.

“Do you regret it?” Ly said suddenly, breaking the comfortable silence in the room.

“What are you talking about?” Rome asked, not looking up from her book. She was still going to university, and working towards a doctorate in psychology. Almost all the other students who recognised her and most of the lecturers were terrified of her now.

“Do you regret choosing me?” This time Rome actually looked at Ly. His face was hard to read, but she could feel that he was worried. She closed the book and put it aside.

“Why would you ask me that?” She said, smiling. “You already know the answer.”

“I asked because you have to have thought about it,” the vampire said seriously. “What would have happened if you stayed with your family that night instead of coming after me? Or better yet if you had never met me. You have to have though about how your life would have turned out.”

Rome sighed. “I miss my family Ly,” she said after a short pause. “You already know that. It's been hard for me, with everything that happened after Cassian and Taylor, and I do sometimes think about how my life would have turned out if I hadn't of chosen you, but nothing I think of could compare to the life I have now. Even without my family.”

Ly was looking so grave that Rome couldn't help but laugh. He was still worried and she knew why. Their pledging period was coming to an end and if she decided to stay human he would never see her again. It was unlikely that, after everything that they had been through together, she would choose to break off their engagement, but it was widely known that the leader of the vampire community was pledged to a human. If her family decided to make one last plea to her, he was worried that she wouldn't be able to resist the chance of a reconciliation.

Truthfully she didn't even have to chose them over him. Maybe she would resent him for cutting her off from her family forever. Pledges had been broken over less then that.