Epilog
Epilog 150 years later…
Michael was sitting in the large pavilion inside the royal gardens; it was his favorite place to be lately. He was finally free of the responsibilities of being a King, that job belonged to his son-in-law and daughter, and they were doing a splendid job.
However, it wasn’t all smooth sailing like it is now. When he announced that his daughter and son-in-law were to rule after he retired, there were a lot of angry vampires. They even had an uprising that threatened everything.
It was a tough time, two sides were all that one could choose, and those who decided not to fight were considered fair game by some more radical factions. When the war started to trickle into other communities and shifter packs, it was on the verge of an entire world war.
That was when his wonderful, beautiful daughter did something that no one expected her to do.
She decided to become a vampire, and because of this decision, Noah decided to do so with her; that left the only thing he could do; he turned them both himself. Daisy went through it with flying colors, but Noah had trouble because of being a shifter; things were far more complex, especially for Raja, his tiger.
What would typically take three days and nights to convert into a vampire, it took Noah and Raja two weeks; in the end, though, they stayed together; Noah is now a vampire tiger shifter; Raja was still a tiger through and through with a few added abilities he didn’t have before.
That was Raja's big secret from the Moon goddess she knew that it would come to this point and so gave Raja the ability to live through it and have extra abilities.
After that the war came to an end and all agreed to be more open minded in the furture, there were some that wouldn't change and they decided to leave the continent and go back to the old country to live out the rest of their lives.
As time went on everyone became more and more accepting of different cultures and races. Through that understanding also came respect.
As for his grandchildren, there are many more now than just the triplets, six in total to be exact. Nicholas was the big brother of them all, he was of an earnest mind, but he had a big heart when it came to his siblings.
Blane and Clara were not immortal, and even though Blane was a shifter and could live longer still, this bothered Nicolas to the point he was distracted by it for a long time; he didn’t want to live a life without them. Michael suspected it had to do with the three’s unusual unbreakable bond.
However, he need not have worried so much because fate has her plans. When Clara was eighteen years old, a bomb had gone off in the dining room during the beginning of the uprisings, where she taught some of the children in the community arts and crafts.
Unfortunately, very few made it out alive, and they saved those they could. The bomb was meant for Clara, and she would have taken the brunt of it; the only thing that kept her from dying outright was that she had gone to the other side of the room to help one of the children who had spilled their paint.
Still, she was human, and the damage done to her body was fatal. Without asking or being told how to or asking for his sister’s permission, Nicolas, who had pulled her out of the rubble, started the process of turning his sister into a vampire right there amongst all the chaos.
Clara wasn’t pleased about her brother turning her without even asking her, but after a few years, she started to talk to him again, and now they are as close as they ever were.
On the other hand, Blane was not going to be converted; he wasn’t so sure that he and his tiger Arim would have the same chances that his father and Raja had. That was Blane’s talent; he could look at choices and options. He would always know what the right path would be.
He lives here in the castle now; Blane has had his family and gave Michael three clever and robust shifter great-grandchildren. His children are all off now with their own families and his mate Amy passed two years ago. He is getting old now, and Nicholas keeps bugging him to let him turn him.
Blane, though, wants nothing to do with it; Michael suspects that when it gets closer to Blane and Arim’s time to leave this world, he will leave the area so that Nicholas won’t go against their wishes.
Michael had even agreed to help Blane leave if he could not do so under his power; Michael thinks that it won’t come to that; they will go when Arim feels it is time, and they will leave together under their own will.
His other three grandchildren are still young yet; Alexander, who is now a ten-year-old vampire, is a very mischievous and curious spirit who always finds or gets into all kinds of trouble and adventures.
Timothy, his quiet and very stoic grandson, also a vampire, was, even at an early age, always found with his nose in a book; there were a few times, though, that he was standing next to his brother Alex while getting a lecture from their father a time a two.
His final grandchild was a surprise to all, her name is Daphne, and she was human-like her mother and her older sister before she was turned. She is five years old and has everyone wrapped around her fingers, especially grandpa and grandma.
Garret turned Enid into vampire five years after the first uprising, everyone thought she was perhaps too old to endure the conversion, but she surprised everyone. Not only did she survive when she awakened, but she was also much younger.
They now have three children and eight grandchildren of their own, all of them a bunch of free-spirited crazies that he loved and had a lot of fun being around; all of them live in the castle—one big family.
Then he thought about Danny Miller, who grew up to be a wonderful man; he was fatally wounded and lost amongst the fallen on the battlefield during the wars. By the time Garret had found him, it was too late, or so they thought.
Garret fought long and hard, carried Danny off to a nearby cave, and no one heard anything from him for over a month. When he did hear something, it was Garret knocking on the gate door with Danny close behind him.
Danny is still a loner. He hasn’t found his true mate yet, but he is constantly bombarded with his mother, sisters, and extended family, all trying to set him up with one female or another; it was to the point that Danny asked Michael if he could be a liaison in one of the shifter packs to get away for a while.
Michael sent him out on a three-year assignment; he knew what it was like to be pressured into finding someone. Danny should be coming home within the next year, and Michael had decided to let Danny tell everyone the news that he has found his mate, a tiger shifter; her name is Rowen.
Michael thought of all the things that had happened before, during, and after the wars, and he was genuinely amazed that he could have given it all up long ago and never came to know this reality.
***************
He was lost in thought as the moonlight shined on the water of the pond, it was a lovely night and the memories just kept on comming.
When out of the shadows of the moonlit night he heard the beautiful melody of his mates voice..
“Darling? Why are you out here so long? Come inside. We are all waiting for you. It is, after all, your birthday party.”
He stood up and pulled Arlene into his arms; who would have thought that Vampires got second chance mates, but he sure did; it just happened one day about ten years after the birth of the triplets that he and Arlene had been caught in a bombing she was severely injured from the falling stone. Check out my new book series on iReader/app it is called The Forsaken.
Without even thinking, he pulled Arlene’s broken body out of the rubble as she lay dying in his arms, she could barely speak, but it hit him hard when he looked into her eyes. He knew then that she was his mate.
He didn’t say a word. He bit down hard on her neck, claimed her, and turned her all in one swift moment.
Since then, they have had three beautiful daughters, all vampires, and all adore their older brother Danny.
Michael kissed his beloved wife Arlene as she moaned his name sweetly into the night breeze.