After Dawn, What Came Next

Carter had been able to protect Megan where he had failed Yessette. Maybe, saving one life in exchange for losing another balanced out the universe. He didn’t know. Eric was dead, but his fingerprint on the lives unfortunate enough brush across him, still lingered on and on. Megan might be living in that house, painting the walls, and rearranging the furniture, if not for Eric. Yessette might have lived and died a normal human life. There were too many things to count as possible outcomes for so many lives, if Eric had never been. But, Eric O’Sullivan had been and the bits and pieces he had left behind, people or once people, like Carter and Bianca, still were.

There was one last task to perform before they returned to the city. A life lived and a death died deserved honoring. Out of all of them, every vampire Carter had ever met, a human had been the bravest of them all. Alexander could have chosen a very different outcome for his life. He could have had eternity at his disposal. But, he had chosen to face old age and death rather than hide from it. Maybe, vampires were the cowards. Oh, they liked to think they were brave, but they weren’t. They didn’t have to face death quite so soon as humans and in that was the evidence of their true character.

Eventually, death would come for Carter and Drew. Maybe, it would be sudden, in a flash of steel and flood of crimson. Maybe, it would be the passing of centuries that finally did them in. One couldn’t live unchanging and stagnant in a world that kept changing in a blink of an eye.

Carter reached down and unclipped the barrette holding Megan’s bun in place. Her hair fell in a waterfall of pale platinum down to the small of her back. He ran his fingers through the sleek tangle and watched the play of moonlight over the strands. He sighed at the idea of it. This, Alexander’s pyre, wouldn’t be the only pyre or the only life he would mourn the loss of when the time came. Wolves were long lived, but they didn’t quite hold the market on immortality that their vampire cousins did. Maybe, Shayla would be different, but he didn’t think so. She would die and he would mourn her loss. Maybe, she had chosen Tracker over him for that fact alone. He didn’t really believe that either though. She wasn’t sparing him from the inevitable. She had simply chosen love and life over the shallow version he could have given her. Death would always be an impenetrable gulf between them and she knew he would never be brave enough to breech that inescapable distance.

Megan tilted her head and smiled to herself as Carter ran his fingers through her hair. He clicked her barrette open and closed with the thumb of his free hand. Tonight, Carter was a swarm of thoughts and conflicting emotions. Perhaps, he didn’t realize the intimacy of his touch. The way his cool fingertips caressed the back of her neck or the heat in his stare boring through her flesh to the core of her very soul. The two of them were so much alike it frightened her. They had spent a lifetime running away from their pasts only to end up confronting them and it had been a very, very lonely lifetime.

She had hoped for Carter’s sake, Shayla would come to him. Carter had used Shayla and his love for her as a barrier from the real world for far too long. He had operated under the mistaken belief that he couldn’t love another because he was still waiting for her. Shayla had been lost to him for a very long time. Megan hoped he was finally letting Shayla go and that he had come to realize the future wasn’t behind him but rather ahead of him. Sitting, maybe, on the peak of this roof, right beside him.

Carter so loved his guilt. Megan had hoped he would finally get over himself and learn to live. So far, he hadn’t. He saw her, relied on her, but he didn’t grasp the fullness of what she truly had to offer or of what she wanted. She didn’t stick around for his sparkling personality. He was amazingly handsome, but beauty in one form or another seemed to be a prerequisite for the paranormal world. She couldn’t say what it really was that bound her to this brooding man who had been alive longer than she could ever imagine, but really didn’t know how to live. Maybe, it was that Carter was so beautifully and tragically damaged that drew her to him. He was safe and utterly unattainable. Carter was the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Something she could dream about and never have.

Megan would love to say she had killed Eric for Carter’s sake, but she hadn’t. She had killed Eric for Eric’s sake. Eric had died for the sakes of his children, for Carter and Bianca and Megan had simply delivered him into his salvation. If only, she could deliver Carter into his. He had the respect of the vampire world. Hoards of adoring groupies more than willing to spend a few hours in his bed. But, he didn’t have the one thing he needed more than anything else. Love. Not Shayla’s particular brand of love, which represented the forbidden fruit Carter had tasted and longed for, but real love.

Real love was a dangerous thing. Real love was an imperfect life in an imperfect world of unattainable dreams and endless hunger for more. Bed partners were a dime a dozen, but eventually the thrill of such encounters wore thin. Carter wasn’t chaste because of lack of, but because of the feast he had dined on for centuries. The truth, the sad unfortunate truth was, Carter and she were cut from the same cloth. Always wanting what they couldn’t have simply because of the fear of it.

To Carter, she was a child. For the occasional unintentional intimacy he sometimes showed her, there was a distance between them. Megan settled, resting her back against Carter’s bony shins. She took the barrette from his hand and slid it into her pocket. His fingers were long and cool in her grip. He had the hands of an artist, smooth and so capable of creating beautiful things. Without thinking, she lifted his fingertips to her lips and placed a kiss on each one of them.

Carter fanned Megan’s hair over her shoulders. Somewhere along the way, the child she had been had grown up. She wasn’t Yessette and she wasn’t Shayla. She was her own brand of woman. Tragedy had marked her, but she hadn’t let her past mold her. She wanted things for herself. Perhaps, she wanted him. Her lips were warm and soft against his fingertips. The kisses she placed on the tips were chaste, but so certain. He had become so accustomed to having her at his side over the years and shame on him for not looking beyond into the depths of the reasons why.

Her eyes were wide open when it came to him. She knew him perhaps better than he knew himself. Megan had chosen this world long before she offered her throat in sacrifice to prove her place in it. How could he not have noticed the intricate details of the woman so comfortable in his arms? The way the moonlight played in the silvery strands of her hair. The traces of shadow across the apples of her cheeks or the fullness of her lips were things he had never bothered to contemplate before. How could he have ignored the way he reached for her and she gravitated toward him? That he did so willingly and without the slightest hint of reservation?

Once upon a time, he had been lost in delusion and confused her for Yessette. That mistake had almost killed her and brought the wrath of the brotherhood on his head. Megan did resemble Yessette in her fragile pale beauty. But, Megan had a strength to her Yessette could have never possessed. He had dismissed Megan too easily based on the physical, because of her youth and pallor. It was like now he was seeing Megan for the first time beyond her exterior. His fingers stilled in her hair as he contemplated the thought. Not all was lost. Perhaps, it was finally found.

Chapter 95

Cat smiled and winked at Christian. Together they tore up the signs they had planned to flash at the rally. There would be no protest. Her dad was letting the twins decide their own fates. As to what the twins would decide? Nobody, primarily them, was certain of yet. But, she beamed triumphantly anyway. Democracy and understanding had won over centuries of tradition yet again. Christian was a little wobbly on his new vampire legs, but he was adapting. Maybe, there was more of her in him than she thought. He had fangs and was decidedly a vampire, but he hadn’t suffered the raging hunger of a newborn and had too quickly learned the ropes.

Christian thought she was giving up too much to be with him. Cat had explained the origins of her birth and how it had happened. For now, his body needed time to adjust to its sudden circumstances, but in the future, when he was ready, she would return what he had lost. They could have tons of children, if they wanted them. They were going to have a future together. Maybe, it wasn’t fair to restrict this gift to a select few. Maybe, the pack should share the possibilities and the secrets contained in their blood. But, that was a fight for another time.

She owed Carter a great debt and perhaps, owed Christian even more. There would be a time for repayment. Carter was never one to call in favors. But, she never forgot to whom she owed what. She watched Christian. Dazzled by particles of dust dancing in a stray beam of moonlight, he stood at the mouth of the cave. Perhaps, now he understood her a little better. This life and the gifts that came along with it were sometimes so distracting. The mundane could become something beautiful when seen through a fresh pair of eyes.

She still felt a little guilty for forgetting him like she had. Thankfully, she had a whole lifetime and a dozen more to make up to him. For now, the two of them danced around certain topics of conversation such as his fangs and what he was going to do with them. Her dad still didn’t like him, but at least he was getting used to the idea of him. Her mom…well, her mom knew her too well. They hadn’t spoken of the wedding or of the baby, but Cat could see the yearning for both in her mother’s eyes.

It was going to break her heart to leave this place and her friends behind. Of course, anyone who wanted to was welcome to make the journey with her. But, she doubted anyone would. Christian was the constant by her side. Together they would blaze the trail ahead for all to follow. There would be opposition. Strong opposition. Change always brought challenge riding in on its heels. Not everybody was ready to come out of the shadows in which they had hidden for so very long. Her ideas were dangerous. They might even cost her, her life. But, she had to try.

Christian forced his eyes away from the particles of dust dancing in the beam of moonlight and lifted them to Cat. If he thought she was beautiful before, she was absolutely spellbinding now. Maybe, it was his enhanced vision that allowed him to see everything he’d been missing. What he had mistook in her as confidence and self-bravado was shy uncertainty hiding beneath a courageous façade. Cat was desperate to make her mark on the world and to earn her place in it. Maybe, it was his influence on her that had finally shown her exactly how to do just that.

Before him, she had simply thought too small. She hadn’t known a world outside of the miles of woods she called home. Cat had felt the longing to know what was out there, but she hadn’t realized how big the world truly was or all the possibilities it contained, until she met him. It was odd. Christian had never considered himself a worldly man or one of great knowledge. But, in so many ways when it came to what existed beyond these woods, he was the teacher.

She said they had one last thing to do before they left. Obviously, she hadn’t told her parents or anyone else what she had planned to do. Christian couldn’t see her father letting her out of his sight. And if the truth were to be plainly known, she was a little scared to go. He was too new to her world to know if her plan would work. But, he knew a lot about the world he had come from. Vampires and werewolves were the stuff of legends. What would the general public do when they realized the legends were real? Humans were unpredictable. They lived by no specific code of ethics. But, he had hope. After all, Cat had won him over and turned him from a lifetime of hate and fear. And if there were anything he had realized about Cat it was that she could change the world.

He was hungry. Damn hungry. At first the idea of blood had sickened him. But, he was kind of getting used to his liquid diet. Cat’s blood had a flavor he craved. He couldn’t take every drop she offered. Her friends had reluctantly offered their wrists for the cause and he had drunk heavily from them. She promised him a better way to live and after listening to her secrets he understood that the fangs were always going to be a part of him, but so was she.

Christian was ready to fast forward the hands of time. Skip all the struggles and get to the good part where it was just the two of them enjoying the life they were going to work so hard to build. The sweet center of that life was too many years away to contemplate. Perhaps, his impatience was a character flaw. Maybe, it was his worst. He always had been the kind of guy to stand at the counter of a fast food restaurant and shout ‘hurry up’ at the cook. Well, there didn’t seem to be any particular need to be in a rush anymore. Not when he had all the time in the world in the palm of his hand.

He marveled at the speed. One second he was standing at the mouth of the cave and the next, she was wound up nice and tight and so cozily in his arms. He nipped playfully at her lips with his elongated canines loving the way she shivered in response. There were some things in this new life that took a little getting used to. Her in his arms wasn’t one of them.

Chapter 96

Paul blinked at Phoenix in disbelief. She stood at the door to the cell, leaning casually against the thick steel jamb blinking back at him as if she couldn’t believe he was still sitting there and hadn’t made a run for it. Really, where was there for him to go? He and his twin were orphans without a home or family other than themselves. They were free though. There was that. Carter had extended his welcome to them. They could return to the city and find a place within the Guardians where they could be of some use. They could stay here and earn a place within the brotherhood. They could go…somewhere and start over. And then, there was another alternative neither one of them had discussed with the other. They could go their separate ways.

Steven had changed into the clothing provided by the brotherhood and lounged on a cot in the open cell. His brother was the king of indecision. Perhaps, it was that neither one of them had ever had to make a decision in their lives before that had him so on edge. The both of them knew of the world, but had never truly been a part of it. Their mother had seen to that. Neither one of them had made a move to leave the cell for the simple reason that they truly had no place else to go. Paul couldn’t foresee the Guardians truly accepting them. The brotherhood for its offer of a home wouldn’t exactly make them welcome either. And the world, living out in it alone, he doubted it was even possible for the two of them to survive out in it.

Everything had always been provided for them. They had never had to think beyond their next whim before. Naturally, Paul was hesitant to move beyond the threshold and Steven agreed. Steven curled his knees up to his chest and rested his chin on the bony surface. Watching Phoenix contemplate Paul as he contemplated her. Danni hadn’t come to give him a send off. Steven hadn’t heard a thing from her and after what he had done, that was exactly what he had expected. Phoenix though was a different breed. Tough as nails. Hard as steel. And obviously, she felt more for his brother than perhaps, even she realized.

“I forgive you. The both of you. What happened, it wasn’t your fault.” Phoenix said. For some reason forgiving the twins for their part in her abduction was paramount to her. If she didn’t forgive, she wasn’t certain she could move beyond this point in her life. Danni didn’t agree. The two of them had worked together to form a backup plan to save the twin’s lives. But, for Danni that was as far as her ability to forgive had gone.

There seemed to be a shortage of forgiveness in Danni’s family. Maybe, she had come by her capacity to hold a grudge honestly. Her uncle had been weighted down by the burden of his self-condemnation for decades. Daniel was never going to move beyond his past. It wasn’t totally his fault. He had learned the trait from the masters of self-damnation, first from his father and then, from Carter. Phoenix just wanted some peace in her life. She didn’t want the heavy load of hatred pressing down on her shoulders. She wanted to go forward and never look back. If she couldn’t forgive the twins, that was never going to happen. “Where will you go?”

Paul thought about how to answer Phoenix’s question. Their little sister had finally found peace. He was grateful for that. Carter had more courage than anyone he had ever known. The man had understood that there were some things worse than death and being condemned to live a virtual eternity as a little girl was one of them. Maybe, his brother and he should be executed, if for no other reason than to find the peace that came afterwards. Phoenix seemed genuinely concerned for their welfare. He wished he had a better answer for her than the truth. That he honestly didn’t know.

His life had to serve some purpose. There had to be some cosmic rationale as to why he was still alive. Steven had overheard talk. The paranormal world had lived by no law but its own since the time the first vampire sprouted its fangs and the first wolf howled at the moon. It seemed reasonable to him that perhaps, he and his brother should join Cat in her journey. Laws meant consequences. For the both of them and countless others, it was too late to change what had happened. But, maybe, for someone else, it wouldn’t be. “Maybe, we’ll tag along with Cat.”

Steven lifted a brow at his brother’s announcement. This was the first he had heard any mention of joining Cat. He had no clue of how the world worked, but Cat didn’t seem to have any inkling either. The talk whispered in dark corridors was secretive and very hushed. Did he think she stood a chance of changing the world? Maybe. Steven understood what his brother thought their purpose was. What had been done to them and their little sister should never happen to anyone. Once the deed was done. There was no undoing it, except to die. There was no law to protect the innocent. To protect their lives, yes, but not a law to protect their very souls from being stolen in the first place.

People took their children for granted. Too often they didn’t lock their doors and bar their windows against the true threat lurking in the shadows. His parents hadn’t. Angelica’s hadn’t either. Perhaps, they were the lucky ones, or maybe, the most unfortunate. Death would never come unless they sought it out. If the humans knew, maybe they’d hold their lives and those dear to them as just a little bit more sacred. It was a worthy cause, certainly one worth trying and perhaps, dying for.

Cat would need protectors. From what Paul had overheard. She had a tendency to get herself into trouble. Their father had taught them to fight and when the two of them worked together they were lethal. It was a good plan. Since there was no place for them, perhaps, they could make their own.

Phoenix nodded. There were some things those that chose or were born the way they were could not attest to. Steven and Paul hadn’t asked to be what they were. Unfortunately, they made a very good case against vampires rather than for them. The humans might grab onto the negative truths about the paranormal and the paranoia might run rampant. But, perhaps, Steven and Paul were made the best case for vampires that could possibly be made. How many others were out there that were exactly like them? How many missing people could be found if they no longer had to fear coming out of the shadows?