This is... oh god I can't...
The last chapter, you guys.
It's all over. It's finally over.
Today marks two years of my being an ARMY, BTS' interview with James Corden - apparently they weren't too mad about the PTD comment, eat your heart out, Instagram – and the closing date of the first book I ever completed in my life. So yeah – I'm fucking elated.
“I’m not going to ask again. A father has a right to see his own son.”
Uncle Vlad just grinned at Alex. “I assure you, no son of yours is here.” He tucked his hands behind his back, a mock courteousness in his air.
Alex advanced, ready to spring his bone dagger from the hidden forearm sheath beneath his long-sleeved shirt.
He’d waited five long years for this—no, he might have just waited his whole life for this, to murder this murderous son of a bitch—
“Grandpa!”
Alex froze as a little girl dressed in a bright yellow sun dress bounced into the courtyard, skipping over to them, a huge grin on her face.
Vladislav froze.
Alex had never seen anyone or anything stop Vladislav in his tracks like that.
Especially when she skipped all the way to Vladislav’s side, raised her little arms in the air and demanded, “Up, Grandpa. Hold me. I wanna play the spinny game.”
What….the fuck…..was going on?
Who was this little kid and how did she have such a hold on Vladislav?
But then, almost like she could hear his thoughts, she looked Alex’s direction.
And it was like looking into a mirror of himself as a child.
Alex fell to his knees.
She’d called Vlad grandpa.
This little miracle was his daughter.
“Baby girl,” Alex croaked out.
“Hi Daddy,” she chirped, then looked back at Vladislav and demanded again, her little brow furrowing, “Up.”
“Not right now, honey,” Vladislav said uneasily. “This man and I have some things to talk over.”
This answer did not please Alex’s daughter.
She let out a small growl.
And then she sprang onto Vlad’s back like a little monkey. He started to stumble backwards but then she’d let him go and dropped to the ground.
But she hadn’t come away empty handed.
She was holding an elaborate golden knife with a small, sharpened bone affixed as a blade.
Alex’s eyes flew up to Vlad. A bone knife? It both made all the sense in the world and none at all. Vlad had been killing the family off with a a bone knife for all these years, terrorizing them with his instrument of power and dominion.
But…how the hell did he get it? And who the hell’s bone was it?
Before his brain could race any further though, as he looked down upon the knife in his adorable daughter’s little hand…
…under the bright morning sun, it simply disintegrated.
One moment there, another moment gone.
Dust to dust.
His daughter looked up at Vladislav even as his eyes went wide as saucers.
And then, like the wise old weasel he was, he fucking ran for his life.
They were all in the open courtyard. The “cousins” had surely seen. Vladislav had no more power over them anymore. They were all vampires now, all equally powerful.
Well…that wasn’t exactly true.
Alex still had a true killing blade.
But if he brought it out now and started trying to take over—even if he intended it for good…well, maybe he meant it a little bit for vengeance—anyway, he wasn’t sure his miracle daughter wouldn’t dissolve his bone dagger just like she had Vladislav’s.
So instead, Alex held out his arms wide to his daughter and grinned so, so wide. “You want up? I’d love to learn the spinny game.”
She flew to his legs and hugged him so hard. But only for as long until he could peel her away and grab her into his arms, squeezing her as tight as he could so she could still breathe.
And as he held her little body in his arms—his daughter! his daughter!!!—over his shoulder at the edge of the courtyard, he saw her running towards them.
River.
Oh god she was still alive. She was alive and healthy and running with the wind whipping her gorgeous hair in the wind. She’d cut it and it was shorter now but it was fucking glorious—she was so fucking glorious, he never thought he’d see her again, he was so afraid he’d lost her like his father had lost his mother, that Vlad would kill her the second she’d had the baby, he’d been so sure, so sure, so sure, so sure, so sure—
The only thing that kept him from
falling to his knees again was the fact that he was carrying their daughter.
He expected River to collide with them and hug them and to be able to wrap his arms around her too.
But River, she never did the expected, did she?
And she’d always been so much wiser than him.
“We have to get the hell out of here,” she said when she got to them. “Hold Phoenix and fucking run. The cousins have already started brawling about who takes over now.”
Alex nodded. “Go go go, you lead, I’ll follow.”
River nodded and streaked for the giant gate—which Vladislav had done them the favor of leaving open upon his own speedy exit.
Alex was right on her heels, his precious daughter—Phoenix! her name was Phoenix, what a perfect name for a perfect kid!—clutched to his chest.
They fled to safety.
They made it to his car.
They made it to the highway.
They made it out of the country—which was a backwoods compound estate in Ukraine, it turned out—and back to the States.
And as Alex lay in bed after tucking in his daughter, he caressed the face of the woman he loved and would soon make his wife.
“I love you. I don’t ever think I said it out loud. I was such an idiot back then. So many things I never said, and so many stupid things I accused you of because I didn’t know how to trust.”
River smiled. Her smile was blinding. It hit him down to his belly. And yeah, down to his groin, but that was for later.
“Fuck, you’re beautiful,” he whispered, caressing her face again. He was unable to keep his hands off her since he’d gotten her back.
She rolled her eyes and he kissed her because he couldn’t not.
She was grinning when he pulled back. “You and me got forever baby,” she whispered, even though Phoenix was already in bed and there was no one else to hear them.
“Say it again.”
She grinned wider. “You, Alex Țepeș, are stuck with me and our beautiful daughter, for fucking ever. And I will chase you down next time if we ever get separated again.”
She pounced on him and pinned him down, her hair tumbling over her shoulders as her bright smile was lit up from within. “You ain’t getting rid of me ever.”
He laughed and flipped her, so that he was on top. “Well good, cause you’d have to chase me off with a hose and I’d still just come crawling back.”
Then they wrestled and giggled and talked and made love all night.
The shortest happily ever after in the history of Disney, coming to you today on your personal PC, Android or iOS edition of the Wattpad application.
Thank you for reading this.
January 31, 2022 -Suga promised Grammys part 2. Hope it happens. I might probably definitely lose my mind if it does.
Bonus chapter? Tell me if you want one!
💘💜💘💜💘💜