Epilogue
ONE YEAR LATER
“Should I wear the gold or the silver?” I asked Andrew.
I held up my two necklace options and gave them a jiggle. The chains were nearly indistinguishable, barring their metallic tone. Both were identical in length, with a teeny, tiny round diamond pendant to add sparkle.
But not too much sparkle. I preferred simple jewelry at work to avoid stressing my patients.
New vampires could be easily distracted, which I knew firsthand.
I’d had the attention span of a gnat for a few months after I’d changed over.
Thankfully, once I’d gotten into the full swing of things my old human mind came back, sharp as ever.
The vampires at Andrew’s party who’d brought me back to life—or to be more accurate, gave me eternal death—came to think of me as their daughter.
In truth, it had been Luther’s blood only that had finally gotten the job done.
It was something scientists in the VGO’s lab had later uncovered, that Luther was likely the only vampire on earth capable of turning me vampire.
Joseph, who’d told me the news directly, was the only vamp beyond Robert and Liz who knew the truth.
I’d asked my husband and friends to keep the news quiet from my squad of self-proclaimed parents, who’d been operating under the proud belief that it was their enchanted mixture of blood and teamwork that had allowed me to become immortal.
I figured even vampires could use more magic in their lives.
I also enjoyed having such a big family, though we were constantly hosting visitors in our home.
I was working at Dignitary again and positively loving it. My duties were entirely different this time around. Obviously, I could no longer serve as a human decoy, so Marlena had created a position exclusively for me: Vampire Transformation Specialist.
Fancy, right?
As a therapist to vampires, I was finally getting to put my psychology degree to good use.
The transformation from alive to dead could be emotionally traumatic for many new vampires, so it helped having someone to talk to.
It was my job to assist them in adjusting to immortality.
My clients seemed to like and trust me, too, since I was a fairly new vampire myself.
Andrew reached for the necklaces dangling in my jewelry box. “Pearls!”
“You don’t like the chains?” I asked with an exaggerated sad face.
“Pearls,” he repeated, giggling.
“But I like the chains!”
I pretended to cry. It was our thing, teasing each other. My son was playful, and we joked around a lot. He was my little buddy, and I loved him so very much times infinity.
I put my hands on my hips. “Oh, all right.” I clasped the pearls around my neck and showed them to Andrew for approval. “Better?”
“Pretty, Mommy.”
Did I mention my son was also generous with compliments?
He’d taken after his father in that regard.
The other day, Jerry and Tim, who made sure Andrew got all the sunshine and fresh air a growing boy could need, told me Andrew was prone to picking daisies and presenting them to girls as gifts.
Only two and already a hit with the playground ladies.
Whatever was I going to do when he was a teenager?
About six months ago, Jerry and Tim had finally got their adoption wish.
They named their daughter Grace, after the late Princess of Monaco.
She and Andrew were thick as thieves. Joseph and Liz, outrageously in love and now married, didn’t want children of their own.
They split their time between Edinburgh and San Francisco, and they spoiled Grace and Andrew silly whenever they were in town.
So did Sebastian, who was the greatest teenaged grandfather a girl could ever hope for.
Jerry, Tim, Grace, Liz, Joseph, Sebastian, Robert, Andrew, and I had become one big, happy family. We were a motley bunch, and I wouldn’t change a thing. All we needed was love, and there was plenty of it to go around.
“You’d better get a move on, my sweet,” Robert said as he came into the bedroom.
We were headed to the theatre, and Liz and Joseph were on their way to babysit.
He scooped Andrew up off the bed and then blew a raspberry on his tummy, much to our son’s delight.
Robert placed Andrew on his shoulders and smiled up at him. “Isn’t your mother gorgeous?”
“Yes!” Andrew cheered, clapping his hands.
Robert kissed my lips. Mimicking his father, Andrew bent down and kissed the top of my head. I love you, each of us said.
Never had I been so content. It was something I often thought at the end of each night, but then the next would roll around and surpass the previous. Sometimes, I had to pinch myself.
It was hard to believe that only a few years ago I was broken and lonely. Hopeless. I was a completely different woman back then, physically and emotionally. Had I been told that this was how my life would turn out, I never would have believed it.
Yet there I was, one blissful vampire.