Epilogue

ZACHARIAH

L ycan territory felt a lot like stepping across a threshold and into a vat of quicksand.

The lycans had allowed my presence on their lands tonight, thanks to Conclave allowing me to go on this mission alone after gathering some information from Mrs. Zorin, but it was no secret that the lycan dogs hated us.

A sentiment I shared. Despite the fact that the king had come leaps and bounds with his alliances with the beasts, I still had not caught up.

Not that they were what I was here for. Mrs. Zorin had told me about a bloodmad vampire trail, and I hoped to find Samuel's scent. I didn't tell Saint because he'd been busy helping calm Aurora after an episode. Dagon had been in hiding, dodging Olivia's requests that he help uncover whether her niece was an elemental like him, and Ajax and Talon had been preoccupied with their mates.

Which was fine, because I didn't need backup.

Not for one bloodmad vampire. Especially not with all the powers I carried inside me. Powers that even the king didn't know about. We had to keep most of them under wraps, me and my brothers, because I could be labeled as a threat. The fact that I absorbed the powers of anyone I killed, or anyone who willingly gave them to me, would be intimidating to even the most trusting of kings, let alone his assassins.

And besides, solitude had been calling for me since we'd awoken. Since I'd had to relive the memory of going into stasis and everything that I'd given up.

Lilac eyes flashed into my memory; crystal clear as if I'd peered into them only yesterday.

I never stopped thinking about her. Never stop smelling her scent in the dead of the day when I slept.

She was my first thought upon awakening, and my last as I went to sleep, a constant source of pain in my heart that grew wider every night.

A branch creaked beneath my boot, and I cursed myself for the sound, for getting distracted enough to not watch my footing as I traipsed through the woods, hot on the trail of this vampire who'd tried to seek refuge in lycan territory.

It didn't smell like Samuel, which left me feeling even more deflated than when I'd come out here.

Either way, I had a duty to dispose of it. The thing had left a string of bodies from vampire to lycan territory, and it was the one thing that I'd been built to do.

A barrage of scents hit me as I cleared a massive outcropping of trees, coming upon a wide-open cave that was set straight into the base of a mountain. I scented at least three, possibly four, vampires. Each of them was tinged with that bloodmadness I'd been trained to hunt and kill.

I'd only taken one step toward the cave before they were on me—not four, but eight—eight vampires all with red eyes, bearing down on me in an instant.

Instinct took over, and I drew my blades, slicing the necks of the two closest to me before dodging the hands of three more. My evasion tactics led me deeper into the cave, something I knew wasn't smart, but couldn't avoid.

I dispatched another, taking the number down to five, but these things were relentless, attacking me with a mindless sense of malice that was signature of a newly turned bloodmad vampire. There were slight hints of Samuel's scent on them, and guilt filled my veins at the fact that my brother had done this. Was creating these creatures in an attempt to throw us off his trail and to kill us at the same time.

And he might succeed. Because I'd never taken on this many by myself. Damn, I really shouldn't have come alone.

Two of the vampires leaped on me, taking me to the ground, baring their fangs and snapping them at my neck as I held them off. I hated how strong newly turned vampires were, and reached into my well of power, filling my hands with electricity and giving them both a shock that propelled them across the cave.

Just as quickly, another two jumped on me, and I turned my electric hands into fire, burning the two to ash as I found my footing.

A new smell slashed into the cave, as did the sounds of the screams of vampires as someone danced away from their clawed hands and stabbed two chests with one sword. The female wore the clothes of a huntress, something I hadn't seen in centuries. Black leather and a bright purple emblem emblazed across the back, which was all I could see of her.

"You take that one in the back," she called over her shoulder, and something about her voice jarred me to my very core. "I'll handle these two."

Before I could even think to argue or identify the familiarity in her tone, the vampire behind me wrestled me to the ground, and I struggled against its strength. I managed to throw it off, but in seconds it had its fangs at my throat and I braced myself for the impact?—

The creature went limp above me, a silver blade sticking through his back and out of his chest.

I shoved the thing off. "Thanks—" My words died in my throat as I set eyes on my savior. "Talia?"

Indigo eyes locked with mine, shock radiating from them.

Instinct took over, and I gently grabbed her wrist, hauling her in my arms as I wended us back to the safety of the king's residence.

Talia shoved out of my embrace the second her feet hit the ground, taking stock of her surroundings before glaring at me accusingly.

"It's been five hundred years, Zachariah," she snapped. "You have no right to take me like that!"

"Talia," I said, my mind still reeling, battling every primal instinct shouting at me to reclaim, re-bite, re...everything. "You're alive?"

She raised her arms out to the side, looking at me incredulously. "Apparently so the fuck are you."

The happiness and relief inside of me was so strong it almost brought me to my knees.

My mate was still alive.

THE END