Good.
Lina gasps when she sees her brother in my hands, and Simon draped across his chest, crying.
She rushes over, kneeling to the ground. “No,” she whispers. “What happened?”
I shake my head, tears streaming down my face. No words form on my lips. Because if I don’t speak it, maybe it isn’t true.
Arthur and Viggo assess the bodies, and I hold Draven in my arms, rocking him back and forth, begging him not to leave me.
Viggo grabs Simon as he cries his apologies. Arthur takes care of disposing of Bogdan’s body and the bodies of his men.
I stare at Lina, her eyes filled with tears like mine. I’m not sure how to reveal Simon’s betrayal of her brother. Not wanting to tell her any of it.
This can’t be the end of us.
It just can’t be.
I rock Draven in my arms, my tears dripping onto him.
I can’t lose him.
I can’t lose this.
I just can’t.
Epilogue
3 Months Later
* * *
“Allison, will you stay after class?” Professor Huggins calls out, just after she dismisses everyone.
I sigh, but nod, shoving my textbook into my bookbag. She smiles as I stalk to her desk, my hair shadowing my face.
“I loved your paper on vampires,” she starts. “Great work.”
“Thank you for letting me make up the course.”
She shoos away my gratitude. “Your paper was top-notch. I especially love the part where you mention if vampires were real, they’d be just like mortals. They’d seek privacy and want order.”
I nod, knowing I can’t tell her I have firsthand knowledge on the subject. “It seems plausible,” I say, like it’s a theory, not a fact.
“I found the last lines particularly moving.” She holds the paper and reads the words aloud. “If vampires were among us, I think they’d crave true love, just like mortals. And if they ever found it, their cold-dead heart would beat once more.”
“I’m glad you liked it.”
She hands me the paper, and returns to her desk. “See you tomorrow.”
I stuff the A paper into my backpack and head out the door into warm sunshine and fall colors.
Campus at this time of year is a beautiful thing.
A gold leaf falls from a tree, and I crunch it under my foot, listening to the crackle of it dying. There was a time when I never noticed little things like the leaves changing on the trees. How blue the sky is against the puffy white clouds. How the crisp air feels on my cheeks.
I pass the library where I used to spend my nights hidden away, instead of living. I still study now, don’t get me wrong, but the trip to Romania opened my eyes to the fact life is quick. It’s short, and you have to enjoy every trivial thing.
Spending time with friends.