Epilogue
Dae-Jung
I'd seen a lot of weird shit in my two hundred years as a vampire. Watched empires rise and fall, seen plagues sweep through cities, witnessed humans invent technologies that would have been considered witchcraft in my human days.
But I'd never seen a vampire turn human again.
Yet there was Elias, sitting at the bar of The Purple Fang.
Which he'd walked to in the sunlight. Actual fucking sunlight from the setting sun.
His skin wasn't smoking or burning. He just sat there, drinking coffee like some basic tourist, while Talin leaned against him, her fingers intertwined with his.
"Stop staring, Dae," Elias said without turning around. "It's creepy."
"Says the ex-vampire." I cocked my head, listening to his new heartbeat. "How's mortality treating you? Enjoying solid food?"
Elias gave me a withering look. "Gods, I'd forgotten how much you talk."
I grinned, unrepentant. It was easier to tease than to process how fundamentally wrong it felt to see Elias—meticulous, controlled, immortal Elias—as something close to human.
The rapid thump of his heart echoed in my ears, too fast compared to our usual slow vampire rhythms. And his blood smelled strangely…
Delicious.
"Your aura's still weird," I told him, studying the silvery-blue light surrounding him. "Different. Not vampire. Not human. Kind of like Talin's, but with something extra."
Talin perked up. "You can see auras?"
I gave her a little shrug. "Always could, even as a human. Useful talent in my line of work." I winked at her. "Helps me know which customers are trouble."
The door opened, sending a long shaft of weak sunlight across the floor. Flashing my fangs, I hissed at the intruder. But I didn't need to look to know who'd just arrived. I'd felt her approach like a storm front moving over the ocean, electric and inevitable.
Alice.
For years, I'd known Alice Moss as Judy's niece, a sweet-faced witch with gentle magic and fierce loyalty to her coven. We'd exchanged pleasantries at coven meetings, said hello, and not much else. At least until recently. I'd always found her beautiful in a serene, untouchable way.
But something had changed these past weeks. Maybe it started that night she came looking for Talin, when she'd trembled in my arms and confessed her fear of the darkness inside her. Or maybe later, when we'd walked the boundary between vampire and witch territory, almost kissing under the stars.
Whatever it was, I found I couldn't look away from her now.
"Dae-Jung," she greeted me with a timid smile, her voice soft but steady. The honey-blonde hair I'd always admired fell in loose waves past her shoulders, and she wore one of those flowing rainbow dresses that should have looked ridiculous but somehow made her even more ethereal.
"Yeobo," I replied, the endearment slipping out before I could stop it.
A slight blush colored her cheeks. "How's your brother doing, Alice?" Talin asked her.
"Better every day," she answered. "He's recovering faster than we expected. Probably thanks to his djinn blood," Alice said quietly, and I caught the flash of worry in her eyes before she masked it.
"Probably," Talin agreed, apparently missing the darkness that had briefly shadowed Alice's expression.
But I saw it. I always saw Alice, even when she was trying to hide.
"Speaking of Alex," Elias said, finishing his coffee, "we should head over to Killian's." Elias had been staying with Talin in her apartment the last few nights while he healed. "He wanted to talk to me."
Talin nodded, sliding off her stool. "Were you looking for me, Alice?"
Alice's fingers twisted together nervously. "Actually, I came here looking for Dae."
My heart skipped a beat, and I covered that section of my chest with my hand like I was trying to keep anyone else from hearing it. But that wasn't necessary. The only one here with that kind of hearing was me.
After Talin and Elias left, Alice took the seat Talin had vacated, close enough that I could catch the scent of her soap clinging to her skin.
"You look tired," I observed.
"I haven't been sleeping well," she admitted. "I've been having dreams."
"About Marcus?"
She tensed, but nodded.
It didn't surprise me. I'd seen the haunted look in her eyes, the same look her brother had carried when he'd returned from his little side trip to Marcus's pocket dimension. "Want to talk about it?"
"Not really." She lowered her voice despite the empty room.
"Wanna tell me anyway?"
Getting up from her stool, she walked over to the door, and for a second I thought she was just gonna leave.
But she didn't. Locking the door, she turned to face me, and I realized how close we were standing. Close enough that I could count each freckle across the bridge of her nose, close enough to see the flecks of gold in her brown eyes.
I didn't remember moving from behind the bar.
"I found something," she whispered. "In the book. The one I told you about."
The spell book that had appeared to her after Marcus's defeat. The one she'd hidden from her coven.
"Something about Marcus?"
She nodded, biting her lower lip. "I think he knew he might lose. And I think he created... contingencies."
That wasn't good news. "What kind of contingencies?"
Instead of answering, Alice reached into her flowing sleeve and withdrew a folded piece of paper. She handed it to me, her fingers trembling slightly.
I unfolded it to find a page torn from an ancient text, covered in symbols I didn't recognize and a language I couldn't read. But in the center was a drawing that made even my immortal blood run cold.
It was a perfect rendition of Alice, suspended in a circle of power, with darkness pouring from her hands and eyes.
"What is this?" I demanded, my voice sharper than intended.
"A prophecy," Alice whispered. "I think. About me. About what I might become if Marcus succeeds."
"Succeeds at what? He's gone. Talin and Elias destroyed him."
She shook her head, eyes filling with tears. "No one destroys a djinn, Dae. They just... change forms." Her voice dropped even lower. "He's coming back. And this time, I think he's coming for me. Maybe he finally realizes that I'm the weaker of the twins."
I moved without thinking, pulling her against me as if I could physically shield her from this threat. Her body felt small and warm against mine, her heart racing like mad against my chest.
"I won't let him touch you," I growled, the possessive instinct surprising even me.
She pulled back just enough to look up at me, confusion and something else—something heated—in her gaze. "Why do you even care so much?"
The question hung between us, demanding an answer I wasn't sure I had.
Why did I care? Why had I always watched Alice from across crowded rooms, always found excuses to be near her when the covens met?
Why did her scent make my fangs ache and her smile make me want to start picking flowers out of people's gardens for her?
Before I could answer, her hand came up to touch my face. The moment her skin met mine, a jolt of electricity shot through me—literally—that went straight to my groin.
"Dae…" My name was little more than a whisper on her lips.
But before I could speak, Alice suddenly stiffened. Her eyes rolled back, showing only whites, and she collapsed against me.
"Alice!" I caught her, lowering her gently to the floor. "Alice, wake up!"
Her body convulsed once, twice, then went terrifyingly still.
Terror surged through me, and for a few seconds I couldn't move at all. Then her name tore from my throat, "ALICE!" I shook her gently, then harder, and she began to stir.
"Oh, thank the gods…thank you." I nearly collapsed over her as all the fight suddenly whooshed out of me. Lifting my head, I searched her face. "Alice?"
She moaned. And when her eyes opened again, they weren't brown…
They were solid gold, glowing with power that was nothing like the gentle witch magic I'd always sensed in her.
"He's here," she whispered in a voice that wasn't entirely her own.
My head whipped up and I scanned every corner of the club, but I saw nothing but tables, chairs and an empty stage.
"He's… in me…"
Her hand suddenly shot out, grabbing my wrist with inhuman strength, and I felt something dark and ancient surge through the air around us. Something that hungered and destroyed and consumed…
Something that smiled with Alice's mouth and said, "We've been waiting for you, Dae Jung. For fifty years, we've been waiting for you to find her."
Thank you so much for reading!!
The Final Book of The Deathless Night-Into the Dark series is coming in 2026!