Epilogue
She had lost count of the days and though a part of her knew it had been years since that fateful day, the pain was still felt fresh when she awoke that evening to the familiar darkness. The ice melted around her into nothingness, leaving her lying in the stone tomb for several long minutes as she stared blankly up at the ceiling. She couldn't keep living like this, she thought to herself. Although wallowing in her sense of hopelessness had an exquisite kind of beauty to it, she knew this had to stop. The gypsies were talking about her, though part of her wondered why she cared so much.
It wasn't her fault that her last victims had been couples! She hadn't exactly planned it out that way. It had just… happened. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Serves them right for gallivanting off into the woods, she mused, sitting up slowing, her arms resting on the walls of the sarcophagus.
This wasn't the first time she had had the notion to go out and do something with her eternity. Granted, it would have been much easier if she had some friends or even acquaintances, but all of them were dead and the reminder was stark and unforgiving. She was about to give up the idea and sleep for another month or so when she suddenly noticed a faint chanting.
It was a wonder she could hear it at all – it was so faint, as if someone had whispered it on the other side of the castle, but she heard it and she honed in on it with her vampire senses, desperate to make sure that this wasn't some kind of sick trick of the mind or another cruel dream her subconscious had concocted – wouldn't have been the first time.
Yes – it was still there. Faint, but there.
She could also hear the sound of seven distinct heart-beats. Wondering how on earth seven humans managed to find their way into the castle, Afina lifted herself out of the sarcophagus and was about to exit the room when she noticed a large goblet situated on a small table beside the door that had not been there before. The goblet was filled with warm blood, at least twenty ounces worth. Her self-inflicted solitary confinement had made her rather wreckless, so she drank the blood without question before exiting from the room, following the sound of the mysterious chanting.
She was glad she had drunk the blood, not really caring who had left it. It had sated her hunger and sharpened her senses. She could hear the heartbeats more distinctly now. Most of them were racing as the chanting continued and then a glass-shattering scream broke out, echoing through the castle and the chanting stopped, soon followed by several screams of terror and an unearthly roar.
Afina raced through the winding stairs and halls of the castle, suddenly grateful that she had made herself familiar with every square-inch of the place. The only thing that made it difficult to discover the origin of the noise were the echoes that floated down the halls.
She suddenly realized that three of the heartbeats had stopped.
Whatever those seven had awoken, it wasn't friendly.
A fourth heart-beat slowed and Afina ran faster. The fifth soon stopped and then the smell of blood hit her like a wall. The smell was so powerful, so intense, she felt the she-wolf in her awaken – something she hadn't felt in years. It yawned, stretched, and then clawed at her insides, that metallic aroma entangling her senses as she flew up the final flight of stairs just as the sixth heartbeat stopped, leaving one more.
She pushed open a pair of double doors that led to a throne-room of sorts and found six women strewn about the place with very little blood to be seen, though the air reeked of it. In the center of the room was a pentagram which had been drawn with white sand, a black candle on each spire of the star. On the edge of the ritualistic symbol was a velvet pouch which appeared to have held ash or something just as soft and powdery. Either these women had been summoning a creature from beyond this earthly plain or they had just successfully resurrected…
Afina couldn't even finish the thought, for the final heart in the room had ceased to beat, and yet, the sound of slurping could still be heard. Crouched before a stone throne was a man, stark naked with long black hair and he appeared to be feeding off of the neck of last female. In fact, now that Afina had actually taken the time to look around, all of the other women had had their throats torn out.
She couldn't explain why, but she suddenly felt horribly afraid of the man that was drinking the dead woman's blood – not because she feared for her life, but because she was terrified that this was in fact a dream, that her bitch of a subconscious was going to mess with her again.
But it couldn't be a dream, her mind insisted as the man finished drinking. He lifted his head to look at her, his face and the ends of his long, dark hair covered in blood. She knew the eyes immediately and in that moment, it was as if the earth had stopped spinning. He stood slowly before her.
"Vlad?"
The single syllable was uttered with both reverence and disbelief.
He didn't say anything and it unnerved her slightly. Was this a dream? This had to be a dream. Of course, this was the first time she had dreamt of him being resurrected by means of the occult and standing before her stark naked in all his glory with his face covered in blood. Her imagination had left out those particular details in the past. But… it couldn't be!
She watched as he wiped the crimson from his face before licking it off the back of his hand. They stared at each other for several long moments, as if it was taking him several minutes to remember who she was. When the recognition came, she noticed it immediately in his eyes – and in his body – and she was so stunned and so relieved, she didn't know how to react.
He smiled that oh so familiar smile of his, that deliciously wicked grin, and it sent a long-forgotten wave of warmth through her body.
"Hello, my bellator."
So, I'm not going to lie, I almost wrote more to this epilogue – to be more specific, I almost wrote out the official consummation of Afina and Dracula's relationship, but I decided against it as I really don't think I could do it justice. I'll just leave that glorious interlude to everyone's imagination.
But that's it! That's the official end of the story! - well, for now, anyways. Because one must ask, what's next? What year are they living in? Is Dracula entirely himself upon his return? What is the world like without the knights of the Holy Order around? So many questions!
A conversation for another time, I think.
...
I know this is going to be rather sappy and somewhat exploitative of me, but I really wanted to take a moment to thank all of those who favorited and reviewed this story:
Favoriters: ForeverACharmedOne, The Hooded Falcon, The-Dark-Love-Writer, cawo114, FallinAngelGirl, Cosmopolitan Countess, ShadowMemory, ZabuzasGirl, Shopaholic-Pixxie, wolfismyhero, TT012, Shades-Soul, loulouflowerpower, HeavenlyCondemned, Nyx-Arae, ks vamp girl, Kiriari, DeviousGina123, BeautifulCataleya, TheRYU, BannaRamma132, KaiaUchiha1, MissVD, and lorena123.
Reviewers: ForeverACharmedOne, MissVD, invisible reader, Riona Winters, Cosmopolitan Countess, ZabuzasGirl, Danielle, Kalika Barlow, Anna, Trina C, Teddy, FallinAngelGirl, Clary Martin, wolfismyhero, loulouflowerpower, "Guest", Shopaholic-Pixxie, DeviousGina123, BeautifulCataleya, cawo114, and KaiaUchiha1.
Seriously, you guys, you are amazing. You are the reason why this story happened and was completed in the first place. I can't thank you all enough for the positive commentary and attention – and an even bigger thanks is owed to invisible reader and Cosmopolitan Countess for reviewing every single chapter. You two are AMAZING.
...
So the next story that I have planned is still in the early plotting stages. I'm presently fleshing out my major characters and their personalities, and have a general idea of where I want the story to go. I'm hoping to start writing in the next couple of weeks but we'll see how that goes. If you're interested in any updates - story-wise or personal - feel free to follow me on Twitter. Most of my updates right now are Supernatural related - I've been trying to watch all 8 seasons before season 9 starts, but seeing as how I'm a season and a half away from the finish line and season 9 starts tomorrow, I may not catch up until the end of the week. So yeah - that's the extent of my Twitter feed. If you don't want to follow me, feel free to add me to your "Alerts" so if/when I do start posting again, you'll receive an email notification.
Well my lovelies, I wish you all the best! Many thanks again for your support in this endeavor.
Until next time,
T