Epilogue
Through some miracle or another, everyone survived.
Everyone on our side.
Whatever that meant.
I heard later Ryder incapacitated Reiko with the simple act of ramming her face into a brick wall until she stopped moving. She wasn’t dead, although she was currently under the supposed “tender care” of the Council of Vampires that seemed like a collection of master vampires who had taken it onto themselves to reign over the world of vampiric beings. Jason wasn’t sure when she would be allowed freedom; I’m not sure if I wanted her to ever be free.
I was told Matthias had never truly forgiven the Committee for killing the Sanguinate a century ago…the Sanguinate who had turned out to be his own wife. When he heard of Jason, he sought revenge against those who had doomed his lover to the death.
I understood his actions a little better. That didn’t mean I forgave him.
The coup had failed.
The Fellowship never made it past the first basement level of Vincent’s club. Most of them were arresting for unlawful trespassing, but most of them made bail after the first night. They never showed up after that again.
Matthias’s human Renfield confessed to Vincent and suffered a quick and merciful death.
I heard that phrase a lot in the next few days after the underground war that had leveled an entire city block and set fire to the north side of Centennial.
Fenrir had been implicated in the coup although he protested his innocence, saying Annabelle and Matthias had free rein of his home, that he hadn’t the faintest idea they were using his own home as their base. I thought he made a terrible liar, but Vincent and Noir let him live.
They let Jason live, too. For now.
Three days later, I received word from the Fellowship.
My name was on par with Noir’s name on their hit list.
In their eyes, I had suffered a vampire to live and for that crime, I would be hunted until either they died, or I did.
For some reason, this didn’t bother me as much as it should’ve.
I still didn’t know who killed Adrian and tried to kill Elder Chang. Vincent, though his elaborate system of spies and informants, informed me that Elder Chang was still in a coma.
Once Elder Chang awakened, maybe then my name would be cleared.
But my hopes aren’t that high.
Jason has been released to his own estate, although he can’t function as well as he did before. The day is his curse and you can’t run a major pharmaceutical corporation when all the board meetings are during nine and five pm.
He’s thinking of selling it to Johnson and Johnson and taking his billions to his private island in the Philippines.
“Of course, you’ll have to come with me,” he said at my bedside, while I struggled to recover from the worst migraine in the history of mankind. “I must have my Ailward with me.”
Four days after the coup, I felt well enough to stand on my own two feet without falling in a heap and six days later, Ryder took me out.
We went to a planetarium and he bought me three Manhattans at the Black Masque.
I got so drunk that I started dancing and singing and Ryder took me in his arms, laughing so hard I didn’t know who was going to fall over first.
So for now, life is calm. I am more relaxed than ever and I’m starting to learn a life outside of the Fellowship. Vampires have become my friends, my saviors.
But it’s a two-way street and I’ll do my best to keep Jason alive.
Because I am his Ailward.
Because he is my Master.
Because he is mine.
And I am his.
THE END