Epilogue

They gathered in the main salon at Sept-Tours. Nearly all of the de Clermonts were there, including the two witches who had recently married into the family. A few members of the ancient Ò Conghalaigh line of witches were there too.

The only missing principal was Baldwin de Clermont.

"Where is he?" Matthew asked as he and Diana returned from getting their twins down for a nap. They had only arrived from les Revenants a few minutes earlier but as usual, the thirty minute trip lulled the two-and-a-half year olds to sleep.

"He should be home any minute. He and the boys went on 'an adventure' this morning," Ysabeau said.

As if on cue, the head of the family appeared, a four-year-old boy dangling from each arm. Brendan and Caelin were giggling like loons.

Caitlin sighed at the state of their twins. "Did you walk through every mud puddle within a half-mile?"

"Of course," Baldwin said, dropping each of his sons on his own feet. "We're men."

"Yeah, mama," Caelin said, "we're men!"

"We peed in the woods!" Brendan said. "Two times!"

Baldwin's color rose slightly and he shook a finger at his son. "That part was a secret, remember?"

Brendan looked stricken and he turned back to his mother. "Shh. It's a secret," he said, ignoring the roomful of other people who clearly heard it all.

Cait bit back a laugh and gave her husband a side-glance.

"Indoor plumbing is a very recent invention," he said, only slightly defensively.

"Right," she agreed, laying a hand on her belly. "If this next one's a girl, I don't want to hear anything about—"

"Got it," he said with a laugh and kissed her before she said more.

Maggie appeared at the door, and Baldwin suggested she might give the boys a bath.

"Jaysus, Mary and Joseph," the housekeeper said, eying them. "I'll just take them out back and hose them off." The two boys thought that sounded so good, they took her hands and began pulling her toward the kitchen.

"What have you been up to?" Baldwin asked Caitlin to distract her from the condition of their sons.

"I've been working on designs for Montluçon. I plan to shop up a storm in Paris tomorrow. On your credit card." She looked at the women in the room. "Anyone up for a shopping spree, just let me know!"

"You are redecorating?" Ysabeau asked. "It is about time."

"Yes. I tend to favor a casual contemporary style. Baldwin's décor is more… medieval minimalist."

Her husband stared at her with no expression, until he could not hold back the chuckle. "Shop, redecorate, whatever makes you happy, wife."

"Right answer," she said, giving him a kiss on the cheek.

Baldwin looked at his brother, Marcus, Miriam and Chris. "Who wants to begin?"

The team had asked everyone whose DNA they analyzed if they wanted a private meeting to discuss their results but every one of them had thought it better to hear everyone's information at once.

"Well, this turned out to be a treasure trove of data," Chris started. "Truly astounding."

"In a good way, I hope," the O'Connelly witches' matriarch Brigid said.

"Yes," Matthew said. "Starting with all of you as a group. We told you that we had identified four clans that all the witches we've studied belong to. All except Sarah and Diana, who come from another, the most ancient Clan we call heh."

"Five?" Baldwin asked.

"Yes because it was the fifth we identified. But it's by far the oldest, well more than thirty thousand years. The first witch may have been your ancestor, or her sister or daughter. We call her mtLilith. Until now, only Diana and Sarah have been identified as descendants of that Clan. But the O'Connelly witches descend from the same line."

Caitlin looked at Diana. "Cousin!" she said and Diana laughed.

"Wow," Ciara said. "I see a whole new branch of history to study here. The possibilities are… endless."

Gallowglass smiled at her, "I can help," he said. "I'm not thirty thousand years old but—"

"I'm counting on that, Eric," she said, smiling at him.

Matthew continued. "You are all weavers, as you said. I had thought you might be wrong about that but, no. All weavers. All with multiple elements and markers for the witch powers we've identified. And some we've not seen before."

"The large amount of daemon DNA in your results is likely the reason you have such strong powers," Miriam said. "You have much more daemon DNA than Diana but that makes sense since you have a very recent daemon ancestor, the McCormac. And daemons throughout your line going back in time."

"Never accepting the Covenant saved your family from the dimunition of powers that almost every other witch in the world has experienced. Or even extinction, given that your ancestors were weavers," Matthew said. "And- you also have something we did not expect to find," he said, looking up and around at the Ò Conghalaigh witches. "All of you have some vampire DNA."

"We do?" Caitlin said. "How could that be—"

"I'm not surprised," Ciara said, looking at Gallowglass. "I told Eric but I wanted to do more research first. When Maeve Ò Conghalaigh talks in her diary about her husband, she sometimes refers to him as 'an siorai.' The eternal one. It could be an endearment but… it may be more."

Everyone was hanging on her words now. "They met when he sought her out in London because she was known as a great healer. There was a problem with his blood that made him fear he would be killed by other vampires. She never gave it a name, but I wondered if it was blood rage."

The vampires in the room looked stunned by her revelation. "I can guarantee it was blood rage," Marcus said quietly.

"What was his name?" Baldwin asked. "There are pedigrees at the Congregation headquarters in Venice. We may be able to identify his family."

"I think he took a new name when he married her. Finbar Martin, he was."

A sharp intake of breath from Ysabeau caught everyone's attention. "My sire called himself and his family 'Martin.' He liked the fact it honored the god of War, Mars." She pronounced it in the French way as Marton.

Matthew went to her side. "Are you all right, Maman?"

"Yes, I'm fine," she replied, her voice strong as she patted his hand on her shoulder.

"It's not important now. We can research that later," Baldwin said gently, to put her mind at ease. "Your sire predated that vampire by many centuries, Ysabeau. And there are many Martins in the world." He turned back to Ciara. "Did your ancestor find a way to cure her husband's blood rage, Ciara?"

"I don't know. He lived with her for a long time and stayed in Ireland for another few decades after she died, with their children. Then he died."

"Or faked a death and moved on, because he was a vampire," Gallowglass said.

"They had children?" Diana asked. She looked at Matthew. "If he was a blood-raged vampire, they would have been Bright Born, like Becca and Philip."

"She didn't mention anything about that," Ciara said. "But they all lived a very long time unless the records are wrong for that era, which they could be. In some cases, two hundred years."

"Definitely Bright Born," Diana and Matthew said in unison.

"To continue, we also studied your individual DNA, all of the O'Connelly witches. It's amazing," Marcus said. "Among you, you have every marker we've identified in witches to date. And some we didn't recognize."

"You can all fly—"

"We knew that," Nora said. "We generally use the transport spell instead. It garners less notice."

"Witch fire, witch wind, witch water, all powers at least some of you possess," Matthew continued. "Ciara has shape-shifting off the charts, but Caitlin has virtually none. Áine and Brigid have more earth element than anyone we've ever seen except Diana and Sarah. And Áine's empathy marker literally was beyond our capability to measure. Nora and Caitlin have mind-reading at the highest level we've measured-"

"Uh-oh," Gallowglass said, looking at Baldwin.

His uncle glowered at him, and Gallowglass laughed.

"Caitlin has almost as many markers as Diana. Fire, Air and Water elements. And some Earth. You all have markers for prophecy, talking with the dead, charms, curses…"

"And your sons, Caitlin—", "Miriam said.

"You took blood from the boys?" Baldwin exploded. "I said no—"

"But after that, I said yes," Caitlin said calmly, looking him in the eyes. For a moment everyone in the room was silent while Baldwin wrestled back his fury. Finally he exhaled forcefully and told his wife, "We'll talk about it later."

"Sure. Talk all you want," she said. "Or we could do something a little more interesting later…."

Baldwin smiled despite himself.

"Now, tell us about the boys, Matthew," Caitlin said. "They're witches, aren't they?"

"Yes. Likely powerful ones. They are definitely weavers like all of the witches in the family-."

"Interesting, that," Nora said thoughtfully. "We haven't had a male witch in the O'Connelly line for quite a few centuries."

"We don't know exactly how to tell if they are Bright Born," Matthew continued. "But if your ancestor was indeed a blood-raged vampire, they may be. They may have enough blood-raged vampire DNA for that to be possible."

"They show no vampire tendency at this point," Baldwin said. "Not like Becca."

"It could still develop. Or another child you two make could be," Matthew said.

"I'll check the Book of Life. It seems to… tell us what we need to know, when we need to know it," Diana added.

"They have most of the same markers you have, Caitlin. So… no shape-shifting," Marcus added.

"Thank God for that," Baldwin muttered, and everyone laughed.

"It can be a challenge," Brigid laughed. "As a toddler, Ciara always wanted to be a butterfly. Or a bunny rabbit. Once she brought a bunch of rabbit friends to the castle. We were frantic trying to figure out which one was her and get her to change back before some neighbor decided to make a rabbit stew."

"I don't remember that," Ciara said. "But that probably explains why I've never had a taste for rabbit…"

Gallowglass crushed her to his chest. "That's frightenin', lass. I may never feed on rabbit again." Then he hurriedly pushed her back to arm's length. "I didn't hurt ya, did I?" he asked, looking to her still flat tummy.

"No," she laughed and looked around the room. "I guess that's our official announcement that we're expecting too! In about seven months."

A round of congratulations from everyone followed, Gallowglass blushing furiously at the fact he'd let the cat out of the bag long before he and Ciara had planned.

"If you're finished," Baldwin said to Matthew and the others, "I for one need a drink." He opened several bottles of wine and passed the good whiskey to anyone who preferred it.

Once everyone had their drink of choice, Matthew lifted his glass and toasted the newest members of the family, and their relatives. "These last three years have been tumultuous. And sometimes challenging beyond words. We feared what the Congregation would do if they found Diana. And thought she was the last of her kind. Meeting all of you, we already feels less alone in the world," he told the other witches, and the daemons and humans in the group.

"A toast, especially to the witches who captured our hearts," Gallowglass said, giving Ciara a secret smile.

Baldwin added, "And at least in my case, a toast to the witch who will always hold my soul in her hands."

They shared the dinner Marthe, Alain and Victoire had prepared for the mix of vampires, witches, daemons and humans and the companionable gathering continued long into the night. Their neighbors in the old town outside their gates saw the many windows of Sept-Tours lit again as they had not been in many decades, and lifted a glass of wine to the family who had held a place in their lives and hearts for many centuries.

Changes were coming, and the world would slowly get to know the creatures that had been hiding in plain sight among them for so long. But tonight at Sept-Tours, they knit the bonds of their united front deeper and stronger, to be ready when it happened.

THE END