Epilogue – 45 Years Later.

We hid in the shadows and watched as her body was lowered into the ground. I held Dimitri's hand tightly in one hand as tears poured down his face. We knew this day was coming for weeks, after Karolina called us late one night after Olena took a spill down the stairs. Dimitri took it exceptionally hard when Karolina called us three days ago to tell us of their mother's passing.

Dimitri turned his body towards me, wrapping his arms around the two of us and buried his face in my hair. I wrapped my arm around his waist.

"Papa, it's ok. Babushka is at rest now," Olga whispered softly as she leaned back into me. I stroked her hair softly as she sniffled because she was trying to hold back her tears.

When we had Olga, we were overjoyed beyond belief. Olga took after my height with Dimitri's chocolate brown eyes and my hair, but as fiery as Janine's hair. She was patient and headstrong, with Dimitri's wisdom. But if she was mad enough, my temper shone through.

We stayed at the cottage for as long as we could, but Olga grew quickly, and we moved into a quiet subdivision. We became well known as a kind and loving couple with their bubbling daughter in the neighbourhood. We stayed there until Olga was ten before we changed states. Dimitri and I got married too, not in a church, but we did get married when Olga turned five.

Olga was more Moroi than Strigoi, and we were so relieved that she was born with humanity. Our fear of Olga growing old before our eyes was crimpling, but we felt waves of relief when her growth slowed down by the time she was fourteen. She stopped ageing completely at seventeen and could easily pass as a twenty-year-old.

Returning to the moment in front of us, Olga turned in our arms and pressed against her father in a hug. My heart ached for my husband and daughter, but a part of me was happy that Olena was at rest finally. I saw her a year ago and she confided in me that she had brain cancer and was given six months to live. It killed me to keep it from Dimitri, but Olena made me promise not to tell any of her children.

We have been fortunate that Olga could have her family in her life. She got to meet her Aunts and her Grandparents. We didn't see them often, but we kept in contact and it was enough. Abe passed two years ago, and I cried for days. He had been killed by Strigoi under Eddie's control. When Eddie found out, he went ballistic and tortured him because Eddie had made it clear that Abe Mazur was not to be harmed.

We have lost many people we cared about over the years. When Olga was twenty-five, she was out with Ivan one night and was ambushed by Guardians. Ivan was able to fight them off along with Olga's fire magic, but it wasn't enough. Ivan protected her with his dying breath as a Guardian staked him when Ivan took them down.

Dimitri was never aware, but Ivan and Olga were in love. Dimitri had assumed that Olga's grief-stricken behaviour was because she felt that it was her fault, but that was only a part of it. Olga didn't tell me until months later when I found her in a drunken stupor.

The three of us waited in the shadows for the congregation to leave the gravesite before we moved towards it to pay our respects. Approaching Dimitri's sisters, they turned to us with their sombre expressions and Olga flew into the arms of Sonya, letting her tears roll down her plump cheeks.

We each embraced each other, and I gave Dimitri a moment alone at Olena's gave once his sisters left. As promised, we buried her next to Yeva. Olena has to be one of the hardest people to say goodbye to, but she filled everyone's lives with sunshine, and I'm glad I had the pleasure of knowing her.

After taking a moment for myself at her grave, the three of us left the cemetery in Baia and returned to the states.

Fifteen Years Later

My lungs burned as I sobbed in Dimitri's arms as we both leaned over our daughter's lifeless body, her blank eyes looking up at us with her neck bent at an awkward angle. I thought I had felt the worst pain possible, but nothing measures to the pain of losing a child. The pain I felt when I miscarried a year after having Olga was nowhere near as bad as this.

Dimitri and I tried repeatedly for another baby after that, but four years in and we realized that we would never be able to have another child. But Olga was enough, she filled our lives with joy of such magnitude that our hearts were full.

And looking down at her now, all I felt was cold. Dimitri held me in a bone-breaking hold as I screamed in agony, gasping for air that couldn't fill my greedy lungs. It is clear that this was done by a Strigoi by the puncture marks on her neck.

"Roza, we have to go," Dimitri whispered brokenly into my neck, and I shook my head. If she was going leave, I wouldn't go on without her. "A 'Moroi' has died, Guardians and Alchemists are going to swarm soon. Baby, we have to go."

"I can't. I can't leave her," I moaned as I pulled against his arms, and crawling around to hold her limply in my arms. Her head lulled over my arm and I pulled her up to my chest, sobbing into her hair. I lifted my head to look into Dimitri's eyes that were as red as can be, tears rolling down his face as he moved to wrap his arms around the two of us. We stayed crouched there for a few more moments, sobbing into each other's arms over the guilt we felt over living when she didn't.

Dimitri shifted his arms into mine and lifted Olga's body from my arms and stood up. "We have to leave, Roza."

I stood unsteadily and followed as we slipped down the alley to our car, and he laid her body into the backseat. I climbed into the front seat numbly and stared out the windshield as we drove to the property we had on the outskirts of town. We would bury her on our property by the cliffs she loved to free-climb all the time. We would put her to rest where she loved to be most.

Three Years Later.

Everyone we knew has died. My mother died a week after Olena did, and Eddie was over taken by other Strigoi a week after Olga's death. The last three years Dimitri and I have walked this Earth like zombies. Losing Olga was like losing ever happy emotion we had left in our souls, and the only time we felt solace was when Dimitri and I held each other.

Lissa went insane about ten years after we parted, and I watched the insanity kill her slowly. Christian surprisingly enough turned Strigoi after losing her. It was like life came to full circle. The Dragomir line was dead, and the Ozera clan's tarnished reputation was reinforced.

I stoked Dimitri's face, committing the lines and features I have loved for so long to memory. Starring deeply into his eyes I could see the age in them and leaned forward to kiss him tenderly. "I love you, so much," I whispered, tucking his hair behind his ear. Dimitri looked down at me with sad eyes, cupping my face with a gentleness that could rival any human.

"I love you too. You are my life, Roza."

I nodded with a quivering lip and kissed him again, pouring every emotion, every moment, every memory into this kiss. We had done so much in our lives, we lived freely for sixty years and were free to love each other. But after Olga, we didn't see any reason to stay now.

We had moved all our money into the bank accounts of our nieces and nephews – and into some of their children's accounts. We sold our houses and vehicles, our stocks and shares of the companies we invested in. We made sure that everything was taken care of so that when this moment came, the only thing left would be our tragic love story of the two Dhampirs who fell in love.

We embraced each other tightly before pulling away and moving into position. "Promise me you'll find me again," I whimpered, running my thumb over his lips. Dimitri grasped my wrist gently and pulled my hand up to kiss my palm.

"I will always find you," he promised and leaned down to kiss me passionately one last time.

The longer we lived as Strigoi on this Earth, the harder we became to kill. But the one surefire was to kill us was a silver stake to the chest. I griped my stake in my hand and raised it into place to drive it home as Dimitri did the same.

Dimitri's free hand rested on my waist gently. "One."

I took a shaky breath. "Two."

Dimitri smiled at me with his breathtaking smile one last time.

"Three," we whispered together as we brought the stakes down at the same time, piercing each other's hearts simultaneously.

The first person who greeted me in death was not who I expected it to be. Lissa stood before at the pristine age of eighteen.

"I've waited a long time for you," Lissa said tentatively. I looked at her and felt longing fill my chest, but I looked around in the park for the two people I wanted to be greeted by most.

"They're here too, but I wanted a moment with you first," Lissa said quickly, understanding who I was searching for. I locked eyes with her, and she took a deep breath, twirling her platinum locks over her fingers. "I don't blame you for anything. In the cold light of day, I wasn't the best person to you, I used you for my own gain our last year at the academy, and I forgive you for everything that happened after. I deserved what was dealt to me," Lissa explains quickly, nibbling on her lip as she waited for my response.

I took a shaky breath before launching myself into her arms, hugging her tightly. This was who I should have had. The girl who was my best friend – not the Moroi Princess.

I pulled out of her arms and looked over her shoulder to see the love of my life standing with his arm wrapped around our daughter, and I looked at Lissa before letting go of her hands and running towards my family.

"Mama!" Olga yelled and met me halfway, wrapping her arms around me and hugged me tightly. I cupped the back of her head and pressed my face into her hair, breathing in her sweet smell and choking on a sob that worked its way up from my throat. I felt a pair of larger arms, and the smell of pine enveloped us, and at that moment – I was home.

I lifted my head up to look into the brown eyes I knew so well. "I promised I would find you," he whispered, and I smiled.

Even in death, I had everything I ever wanted.

The End.

That's it, folks! I have to admit, I cried writing this last chapter.

If you are looking for anything else to read, check out my other stories that can be found on my profile.