The Love Bite [boyxboy]

Epilogue

Epilogue (Storm)

The days that followed were dark and dreary.

News of Nicholas' death traveled all throughout the town for the next couple weeks until his funeral arrived. His funeral fell on the day of Samhain. Alexander's parents refused to leave the house as they prepared for the evening rituals and Alexander said nothing to them. Alexander, Amber, Mark, and I prepared to attend Nicholas' funeral.

Even my father joined us as he dressed in black suits identical to ours. Amber wore an all black Lolita style dress with a veil falling down the side of her face off a small top hat. She drove us, surprisingly well, to the graveyard.

Despite the colorful leaves that danced in the occasional shimmers of sunlight trying to peer past the clouds, the day was dark. There was hardly anything new and worthy of celebrating now. We just rode to the graveyard in silence before arriving just as everyone else came.

No one said a world the whole way.

I took Mark's hand and he squeezed my hand, looking up at me as we stood around the sleek black casket that sat in the bright green grass; orange, red, and brown leaves twirled on by in the cold wind as women sniffled and men just stared as if they were still in shock.

My eyes drifted to the side where Nicholas' mother stood, sobbing into her gloved palm as her husband held her to him tightly, shameless tears streaking down his face. I grimaced and my eyes shifted to see Nicholas' friend, Oscar, standing by the casket, staring at it with puffy eyes that drifted up to meet mine.

I felt like he was accusing me for a moment before his eyes shifted to Alexander, who stood there staring at the closed casket as if he was trying to will it to disappear, but nothing worked. Just that simple glance from Oscar, however, told me who he really blamed for Nicholas' death and that sent a bolt of irritation through me.

I squeezed Mark's hand and he glanced up at me, then followed my glare to Oscar, who immediately diverted his gaze to the casket as the father finished his farewell speech before signalling two men to come forward and lower the casket. They began to shovel the dirt over top while people began to depart. My father was waiting at the car; he didn't do well around corpses apparently. He surprised me by lighting up a cigarette, blowing the smoke into the cold air to join his breath.

I opened my mouth to speak to him when I heard a woman cry out. I whirled around to see Nicholas' mother backing away as Oscar stood in front of Alexander, who was looking away from him in a manner that alarmed me.

Oscar had smacked him. Even from here, I could see the red handprint on Alexander's face.

He reached up tentatively to his cheek, touching the bruise. Anger shot through me and I ignored my father say my name. I let go of Mark and stalked over, getting between them before Oscar could say anything else.

"This is your fault," Oscar barked at him, making me wince as Nicholas' mother choked on a sob of confusion, "It's your fault and you know it! You promised you wouldn't let anything happen to him! You promised me!"

"Shut up," I ordered, my voice as cold as the air around us, making Oscar glare at me, "Shut your filthy mouth. None of this is Alexander's fault. It was whoever attacked him. Why don't you blame the real killer instead of Alexander, who tried his best to find Nicholas? At least it was better than cowering in fear, like the rest of you were!"

I was surprised at how cruel I sounded. It actually made me blink in surprise.

Oscar glared at me, then spat a curse before whirling around and storming off. Nicholas' mother whimpered as her husband held onto her, pulling her toward their SUV. Several other people murmured amongst themselves as they slowly departed. I turned to Alexander, who was rolling his tongue around inside his mouth before lowering his hand from his red cheek.

"He's strong for a human." Alexander murmured. I frowned.

"Alexander, what he said--"

"It doesn't matter," Alexander cut me off, making me look at him in confusion, "I don't want to talk about it."

"Alex--"

"I want to go home." Alexander cut me off. I stared at him for a moment longer, but chose not to argue any further as I merely nodded and led him back to the car. I was about to get in behind Mark and Alexander, but my father slammed the car door shut and leaned in front of it, looking at me as he tapped the end of his cigarette so the ash fell to the sidewalk.

"What you did was stupid." He stated calmly, making me frown.

"He was blaming--"

"He was coping. When you lose someone, the best thing to do is blame someone, anyone, as long as it's not yourself." My father informed me calmly. I glared at him, clenching my fists.

"He cannot blame Alexander. He's the one who was hurt the most by this. I would think you'd feel something after all the flirting you did." I muttered. My father smiled faintly, but it was a forced, sad smile as he placed the cigarette between his lips, inhaling the smoke into his lungs before breathing it out into the sky. I frowned as he finished the cigarette and dropped it to the sidewalk, pressing the heel of his shoe into it to put it out.

"Oh, don't get me wrong. I adore Alexander and I always will. Such a pity that my schedule won't permit dating. Seeing him in pain is enough to drive one mad... But I'm selfish," He stated, his attempt at a smile vanishing as he gave me a hard stare, "I would rather a petty human die than my own son. You're the only thing I have left, Storm, and if you were to die. There'd be no more empire."

"What--"

"I would kill myself." I felt like an ice cube was sliding down my spine as I stared at my father, my eyes flickering as he stared at me intensely. Goose bumps sailed over my skin as my father pushed off the car, stepping forward and putting his arms around me tightly. He ran his hand up my back, touching my hair as he sighed against my shoulder.

"Things will get better. Everyone loses someone in their life. It hurts. For eternity, but the pain is eased by those who are still left behind." He breathed, then slowly let go of me, stepping back to open the door to the car. I stared at my father for a moment, then nodded slowly before getting inside.

Inside, the car was silent as my father refused to get inside with us this time. He stayed behind as Amber drove us back to the Grey House. She pulled into the driveway and we got out of the car and just as we stepped out, something white fell in front of me.

I frowned and stopped outside the car, looking up at the sky as the sky began to flake with white bits of snow. The flakes twirled and danced to the ground below, resting in the grass and on the car before slowly melting.

"Snow in October?" Mark asked tiredly, standing beside me as he stared up at the sky. I narrowed my eyes for a moment, then gave a nod as I took his hand, glancing back up at the sky.

I had a strange feeling in the pit of my gut.

I couldn't tell if it was good or bad.

Maybe part of it was good, maybe part of it was bad.

Who knows?

All I knew was that my father was right. The pain would last, but lessen. And it seemed that it would only become so if you had those to ease it. I had Mark. And Alexander had Amber... But was that enough? I glanced over at Alexander, who stared at the snow on the ground.

He didn't look the way he did when I first showed up in Wolf Creek.

The light seemed to have died in his eyes. His skin looked paler, probably meaning that he skipped his morning blood drink. Amber came beside him and touched his shoulder gently. Alexander didn't pull away, which invited Amber to put her arms around him tightly, resting her cheek against the back of his head.

He didn't move, though.

Just stared as if he was wondering what many of us were wondering...

What next?

FIN

A/N: No, not really! How could I possibly be so cruel as to end it there? My lovelies... There is a sequel! Yes, that's right. A sequel about our vampiric friends. It shall be called The Love Curse. Because it sounds fancy ;D So, no need to fret! Thank you so very much for reading and have fun in the sequel!