Epilogue Francois
Epilogue
Francois
Several months later
“There’s no one here.” Maeve peered farther into the gloom of my old home.
So many memories rushed at me. My old life all felt so long ago. It was as though I’d lived many lifetimes here. I’d been a child, hiding in my mother’s skirts. I’d been mad, hopped up on dead man’s blood, I’d been a lowly spare instead of a true heir, I’d been regent in Father’s stead.
Father.
Regret tinged all of my memories of him. Regret for what might have been rather than what I’d lost.
An Ancient. But what had he left, and why? He’d been ruthless all my life. And unfeeling, but now I’d never know what he thought set him apart from the others like him, but it was unlikely to have been a desire to be better. To be better at being bad, perhaps.
He never did like being told what to do.
I pushed thoughts of my father from my mind. He was truly the past.
Then I laughed at Maeve’s confusion. “Of course they’re here.” I could see my ghosts more clearly now that I was healing—now that Maeve was healing me.
They walked around as though they owned the place and they spoke to me in clear voices.
“You look well.” Ah, there she was. The one who’d always been with me.
I nodded. “I am.”
“Then you’ve found your future?”
I nodded again. Her words inspired guilt. I’d found my future, but I’d denied the ghost her future when I was still searching for mine.
But she smiled as she spoke. “It’s about time.”
“And what about you?” I worried about them. All of them. Earthbound and trapped.
“Oh, I don’t know. There’s something very gothic about being an inhabitant of a decaying mansion in the bayou. And I’m not alone.” She indicated the others, still moving about their business as though they’d forgotten they were dead.
“You’re not going to the light, ma petite?” I’d called them all ma petite, never distinguishing between women as I tore through them in search of my mate and my cure, and using the habitual term of endearment now sent a cringe through me.
But she didn’t appear to notice. Instead she shook her head, a sweet smile on her face. “What light, Francois? Do you see a light? I think this might be as good as it gets.”
Maeve gripped my hand. “What are they saying?”
I turned to her. “I think I have a renovation to do. We’re the lucky owners of a haunted bayou mansion.”
Her eyes grew sad. “We can’t help them?”
“We can modernize. Make their surroundings more pleasant?” I didn’t have much to offer beyond that. I’d made some awful mistakes that I couldn’t undo, but I could hopefully make things a little more bearable. “Maybe we can even move back here so they aren’t alone.”
Maeve nodded. “I can see a time when that would be okay.”
Nicolas knew some very good tradesmen if the refurbishment of the nightclub was any indication. I’d need to speak to him.
“Bon. C’est décidé.” It was decided. “We’ll be back soon,” I promised the ghost.
Maeve turned slowly like she was inspecting the room. “I still can’t see them. Bye,” she called anyway.
The ghost laughed. “We’ll see you all soon.”
I took Maeve’s hand and led her from the house.
“We need to get back to the Regent’s house,” she said.
Nic and Leia had moved there when travel between Baton Rouge and New Orleans became more arduous for Leia.
“I promised I’d be around for her delivery. And it feels like…” She paused and touched her heart then her head. “It feels like now would be a good time to be around.”
I nodded. Over the past few months, I’d learned never to doubt Maeve’s instinct when it came to reading vampires. The girls enjoyed her newfound abilities, but the guys were less impressed, with Kyle in particular preferring to keep his distance.
We drove back to the house and joined the cluster of people outside the master suite of rooms.
Every time Leia shouted out, Maeve rested her hand on her own belly, like she could protect the small life inside her from knowing about what was to come.
We hadn’t told anyone yet. It seemed too soon, and I could barely believe it. My own heir. When I considered being a father and a family with Maeve and my child, happiness filled me to such a degree that there was almost no room for any other emotion.
Eventually, everything in the room fell quiet but the plaintive cry of someone much smaller than any of us filtered through the closed door.
My heart squeezed. Another born vampire. Nicolas Dupont was continuing the Dupont legacy, just as I was continuing the Ricard one. Perhaps our children would be better friends than we had ever managed.
Nicolas pushed through the bedroom door. “It’s a boy!” he declared, and Sebastian pulled him into a fierce hug.
Kayla produced a bottle of champagne and some glasses.
“I know this isn’t traditional in vampire circles,” she said, “although perhaps not all of us are drinking—” She glanced meaningfully at Maeve.
“But it feels right to wet the baby’s head in a human custom because we’re all evidence of what happens when vampires and human join. ”
The women nodded as they accepted their glasses.
“To many more,” Ciara stated as she leaned against Jason and looked up at him.
He chuckled. “Might take some practice.”
She shrugged. “I’m not averse to that.” Then she grinned. “Not averse at all.”
Sebastian released Nicolas. “Any ideas on names?”
Nicolas shook his head and turned to reenter the bedroom but I stepped forward and touched his arm. He glanced at me.
“May I see Leia for a moment?”
His eyes narrowed, but the expression was brief and quickly gone. “Okay,” he conceded. “But she needs rest.”
I nodded. “Absolutely.”
He stood back and allowed me to pass him. I pushed the door behind me, but didn’t close it fully. I was no danger to Leia now, and everyone knew it, so taking a little privacy wasn’t too much to ask.
Leia was sitting in her bed, a tiny bundle in her arms, and I peered at the small face peeking out of the soft blanket swaddle as I approached. “He’s beautiful. Très, très beau.”
She smiled in response, but I still hung back. Perhaps Leia’s and my relationship would never be an easy one, and I couldn’t blame her for remaining wary of me, but I had to try. There were some things I needed to say.
“Leia?”
At the sound of her name, she shifted her focus from her newborn. “I just want to show him to everyone and let them see what I’ve done. Is that wrong?”
I laughed softly. “It sounds entirely reasonable.” Then I cleared my throat. “Can I just have a moment of your time before you do?”
“Are you okay?” Her immediate concern tightened my throat. I didn’t deserve concern. Especially not from her.
I nodded. “I am. I’m just…just…sorry.” The last word came out cracked and broken. “I’m so sorry, Leia. I’m sorry for taking you from Nicolas. You were never meant to be mine, and I’m sorry I couldn’t see that. I understand so much more now. Maeve…”
She shook her head in the smallest of movements, and my heart dropped. I’d come seeking some sort of forgiveness, to make amends, and there was none of that here.
But then she spoke. “We have no need of sorrow here, Francois. We’re both well, aren’t we?”
“But your father…” I’d done the most appalling thing.
Tears shone in her eyes. “I know. But he had his demons just as you did.” She looked down at the baby in her arms. “We’re not going to repeat the mistakes of the past, are we?
Jean doesn’t seem like quite the right name for him—my father was never a very honorable man, so honoring him now seems odd.
But maybe Nic will have an idea.” She glanced back at me.
“You don’t need to seek forgiveness from me, Francois. You’ve proven you’re a changed man.”
I blinked back at her, and tears pricked my eyes, too. I’d never dreamed that I could be forgiven for the things I’d done.
I hadn’t deserved to find my mate or secure my future, either, but somehow all of those things were true now.
I was doing my best to fix the mistakes of my past and I finally had a future.
And my soulmate.
Continue reading for a sneak peek of Taken by the Vampire King, Book 1 of Baton Rouge Vampire - the original Vampire of Baton Rouge and his happily ever after.