She laughed with some of this. “You blocked me to protect me.” She scoffed some. It was that same old story that she was so tired of hearing. Why do they keep doing it? She would never know.
Jimmy laughed some with this. “It was your idea. You chose to stay with him.”
She nodded. She could not argue with this so she didn’t.
Robert believed that he understood. “I blocked myself so he couldn’t read my thoughts either.” He nodded. That sounded like him.
Jimmy nodded too. “It was the only way to get through this.” He looked back to Kenar. “It was a mistake. We should have killed him back then.”
Kenar could not agree more. “I know.” But this was also over with too. “At least he’s gone now. It’s over now.”
Brandon held Sasha in his arms as he listened to everything, but he had something to add, so he turned to Jimmy and asked it. “What did he mean about knowing something that you didn’t?” He looked at each of them, and then went back to Jimmy again. “Who did free him?”
Jimmy bowed his head. “Only the past knows that. I don’t think it matters much anyway. With him gone, the last of the full Blood Walkers are gone with him. There is no one left to challenge the truce with the human race.”
Sharlia listened, and felt that it was her time to come in. “You are the last of the Blood Walkers Kalima. That makes you our leader. It makes you our king.” She looked at her family and everyone else there. She saw the needs in their eyes. She felt it in herself. “We need a leader to rebuild the families.”
Jimmy scoffed with this. Inside him, so did everything that he was. “I have never wanted that.” He looked at all of them in turn. When he turned to Sharlia, he saw the hurt in her eyes. She truly did hurt with what he just said, and he felt the need to add a name to that need. “I may not be a leader, nor do I want to be one, but I do know one that can do it.” He let go of Rana and walked in front of Sharlia. “I name you the leader of the families.” He gave her a hearty smile.
She felt stunned by this. She truly was. “You are the Trinity. You are the chosen one.”
He smiled with this. “I am only who I am. You are the true leader that all of them need, not me.”
Her stunned feeling faded some, and a sense of pride came in with it. “If you believe this…” she turned to all of them and looked back to Kalima. “…then I accept it.” She nodded.
With this, the entire room turned to her and went down to their knees.
Jimmy saw this, and did the same thing. He kneeled down in front of her.
She saw him do it, and the pride in her soul only grew.
Jimmy then stood back up. He took Rana again by the waist and embraced her firmly.
She returned it. “What now?” She, herself, had no idea. Everything that happened to her felt like nothing but a haze. She remembered everything, this was not the problem, but what she saw did. So much affected her. There was so much pain. So much agony surrounded her heart and mind, and it seemed hard to gather them together long enough to think about all of it straight. She just did not know what to think, or what to feel.
He released his embrace, but kept his hands on her waist. “What do you want?” He of course could feel what she felt. He could see it in her eyes. He had the same thoughts, the same feelings. “Do you wish to live as you are now, or as you were?” He bowed his head.
Hearing this, she swallowed with a shallow sigh. “I’m not sure.” She bowed her eyes some too.
He felt her mind fly in to a thousand different directions all at once, and again, he understood it. Again, he felt the same way. “We could block one another from the pain? We can start over again as just Rachel and Jimmy.” He took his left hand from her hip and brought it up to her chin. He held her face up to his.
She looked deeply into his eyes. “I don’t want the pain, but I also don’t want to be left in the dark again. I don’t want to feel helpless like that ever again.” She remembered how she felt when she saw Devish again. She remembered how scared she was as Rachel. She could also feel what she now felt. She felt strong. She felt right again too. She felt better knowing the truth.
Again, Jimmy agreed. He gave her a solemn smile, and reached in and kissed her gently on the lips. After some thought, feeling exactly as she felt, he nodded. There was another choice. He felt sure that it was the right one at that. “We can always live as we are. Live together, just us. Find a home. Start the life that we deserve. Make some new memories along the way.” He smiled strongly.
The look melted her mind. Her heart went right along with it. She loved him more than she ever truly remembered that she did. “Sounds good to me.” She smiled too.
With that, they paid their respects to the others.
Sharlia and the remainder of the families agreed to form new leaders—to form new families. The old had to be washed away. The old ways deserved to end with Devish’s death. Surprisingly, everyone agreed. They all wanted the fresh start. They all wanted to start over again.
Cassandra and her packs would do the same thing, by heading back to their previous lives. Not surprisingly to Jimmy, they wanted nothing to do with the families. They played their parts, and with it, they all agreed to stay out of the world. They agreed to stay with themselves.
The only thing left was to destroy Devish’s body so they did that by burning it. Without a heart, he would never again walk this world, but why take the chance. No one there did.
Kenar and Danny agreed to head back home. His grandfather was still there. Danny truly loved the idea of that. They too could get back to life.
Robert joined Jimmy and Rachel, a name she preferred over the other, and Brandon and Sasha, and headed back to the states. They headed back to the life and to the future that was left for all of them.
48
“I now pronounce you—well—married.” Sharlia smiled. She turned to Brandon, and then to Sasha on her left. She had no idea what to call them, so she figured that a simple married would do. In the end, it didn’t really matter anyway.
Brandon gripped his new bride’s hands tighter. His boyish grin engulfed his face.
She gripped him back, smiling too.
Her grip actually cracked his knuckles some and it made him wince. “Honey? You’re hurting me.” He grimaced with it.
This made her laugh. “Sorry.” She blushed afterwards. “I didn’t mean to do that.” She shrugged just as shyly as she sounded.
He loved everything about her. He also breathed again, when she stopped squeezing his hand.
Watching them, Sharlia could not help but laugh with them. It might have been at them too, but there was one thing left to do. It was time to make this official. “The groom may kiss your bride.”
He actually blushed some with hearing this. He reached in and kissed her firmly on the lips.
She kissed back, and that was it.
The thirty-four guests, all of them Walkers of course, all of them happy too, cheered. They applauded. They truly welcomed them together.
Hearing all of this, Sasha now did blush. Her pale white face turned instantly red. It almost matched the color of her hair.
They stopped and turned to the crowd.
Jimmy, standing with Brandon, took the chance to greet them first. He shook his best friend’s hand. “You be good to her.” He kept his eyes firm. They even sparkled some with a little yellow behind them.
Brandon saw the color, and he instantly went cold—colder than normal. “I will.” He bowed his head.
The look, something like a boy being caught taking something that he should not have, made Jimmy laugh. It caused a smile to explode over his face. He just could not help himself. “I was just kidding.” He dropped his hand. “I just never thought that I’d see this day.” He always thought that Brandon would stay single and a chauvinist forever. He never expected him to settle down. He seemed hopeless up until now.
Brandon laughed. “I never thought I would either.” He looked back at Sasha and wat
ched her and Rachel embrace.
Rachel of course stood with Sasha, and had tears in her eyes.
Turning back to Jimmy, Brandon had other things on his mind. “What is marriage like anyway?” he asked and swallowed heavily. He avoided the question for the past five months, since he stood with Jimmy at his wedding to Rachel, and continued right after he proposed to Sasha. Some of him wanted to know, but the other side of him did not. He was just too afraid to know the truth. Now, however, well, it was all too late for that.
Jimmy smiled with a nod. He looked at Rachel as he answered him. “Fantastic. It’s far better than I remembered it.” He looked back.
Hearing this, Brandon did breathe. He also felt relaxed. Relieved was another good word to use for what he was feeling too. “Thank God.” He looked back to Sasha.
She turned to him at the same time.
Jimmy saw the love flowing out between both of them, and it truly made him feel proud. Proud for his friend to have such a beautiful woman holding him up and so proud for his daughter who looked happier than she ever had. Seeing them, feeling this, his eyes began to tear up.
Rachel let Brandon and Sasha leave the front aisle, and she joined Jimmy.
Together they watched them leave back up the aisle and join the rest of their friends.
After Sharlia also left them, she turned to Jimmy and took his right arm in to both of her hands. “You know they’re going to be happy right?” Being alone with her husband again gave her the time—the time to say what she needed to say. She had been wondering when it was going to be best time to tell him, and now, well, it seemed like the time. She just didn’t know what he was going to say after she told him. She didn’t know how well he was going to take it too. In anyway, now was the time. “Jimmy, there’s something that I have to tell you.” She gripped him firmly. She squeezed his arm.
He nodded, watching his friends leave. “What is it?” He thought of nothing, and after hearing what he was about to, that would only continue with a healthy amount of shock rolling in with it.
She swallowed. She took a deep gasp of air. She exhaled as she spoke the words. “I’m pregnant.” Now she waited. She could not wait to hear his joy. She could not wait to hear his excitement. What she got, well that blew her mind.
He turned to her slowly, and felt his face go pale. He felt his heart skip, and true fear erupted through his soul. “What?” Nothing else came out. In fact, he could not do anything. He just stared at her face. He just watched his life pass before his eyes.
After what felt like days, days that might have been only minutes, he finally moved. In all actuality, he didn’t even remember doing it.
Thankfully, she was with him every step of the way.
My Journal
It took many years to get to this point in my life. It took a lot of pain. It took a lot of blood. In the end, I’m back to what matters to me the most. I’m back with the woman I love. I’m back with the life I had before everything ended. I’m happier than I’ve ever been before.
Through it all—through everything, I can’t believe how far I’ve come. In the end, I’m happy—and quite relieved—that everything worked out. In the end, my brother didn’t give me any other choice. His hatred for what our father did, showing love to a human woman and not him, branded him too harshly. He would never forgive him for it, and in the end, he could never forgive me. I may not understand him fully, but I do understand this.
Now here I am. I’m back again being me. I still have all of the pain, but being with Rachel again has made all of it worth it. It is a part of me now and with it, so is she. Rachel and I went back to Redford Forge after leaving Sasha and Brandon at my home in New York City. We went back to her house in town here, and here, we decided to spend our days. It feels odd being here again where it all began for me as Jimmy, but at the same time, it just feels right. With her by my side, I believe it always will. At least I hope so. After all, I’m going to be a father again, so anything is possible. It also scares the living hell out of me and that I find funny. I could stand my ground in a fight with dozens of Walkers at once, but the thought of a baby does me in. Who would have thought it possible before?
Thinking about this has made me think back to the past. With everything that happened with Devish, I can’t help but to think about my parents again, Kalima’s parents, and everything they went through to be together. Now that I’m living a life again—the life that I always wanted—I’m going to begin writing down everything I know about what happened to them. I just hope that I can do it, but I think they deserve the right to have their story told. My child—son or daughter—needs to know the truth. They need to know how they began by knowing how all of this started. I just don’t know how they will handle knowing everything. I’m not even sure if they will become a Wanderer or Walker or not. This makes me worried, but that’s why I have to tell the tale. That’s why they need to know. Wanderer, Walker, or even being both, my child has to know the past to protect themselves for their future. I just hope I can do it. I just hope that I can do it right for them, and more importantly for us.
I’m going to get to it as soon as I can. Rachel is starting to show some, and that makes me more and more preoccupied with her. Some time, I will find the time. Some time I’ll start it.
In the end, time will only tell me when, and now thankfully, time is everything that I now will always have.
The Saga continues with The Dawn of Humans…
A Werewolf's Saga Books 4, 5, & 6 (A Werewolf's Saga Boxed Sets Book 2) Page 62
