I laid my head on his shoulder and closed my eyes, breathing in his heady masculine scent, a mix of a forest fresh after a storm and spicy cloves. He was danger and goodness rolled into one beautiful piece of man, and I couldn’t get enough of him.
‘And you, Laura, child of Rome.’ I started when she addressed me. I couldn’t see why she should. ‘Because you sacrificed your own immortality so my son could live, with the last of my powers, I grant you this gift: so long as one lives so shall the other. Your lives are intertwined. Long shall you both live, love and prosper. And long shall be the lives of your children.’
Her words went through me like an electric shock. Not one that burned and destroyed, but one that energised and infused every cell with new life and with the promise of good things to come.
Deep down, a great welling of happiness rose from my chest. So much so, I thought it would burst from joy. My lips tried to form the words ‘thank you’, but they simply wouldn’t come. I was too overwhelmed. But from the smile she gave me as her apparition faded, I believed she knew.
I gazed at Alec with tears swimming in my eyes.
‘Forever, my darling,’ he whispered, his lips cool against my brow in a gentle kiss.
‘Does that mean I can daywalkee like ... always, and eat whatever I want?’ Kari’s excited voice had me whipping around in Alec’s arms. Where had she come from? Cradled in her arms was my peacefully sleeping daughter.
How had she managed to do that?
‘Sure does, kiddo.’ Jake stood and threw his arm around her shoulder, a beaming smile on his face.
‘Me too?’ Dominik stepped out from behind Kari.
Alec’s smile vanished. ‘I’m sorry, Dom. Only those juvy’s changed by Sieur Marcus and his men, and Lord Luc and me were given that gift.’ He placed a comforting hand on the boy’s shoulder.
Dominik’s lip quivered. ‘It’s not fair.’ He turned and ran from the courtyard.
Alec’s gaze followed him as he disappeared.
‘Poor kid,’ Kari said, turning sympathetic eyes after him. It wasn’t often that she sympathised with the fifteen-year-old who had such a crush on her.
‘Kari.’ I held out my arms. She passed Sophie to me without waking her. ‘You’re my angel. Thank you.’
‘Nah! That’s what aunties are for.’
‘I’d say we have an even better incentive for making a daywalking serum. What say you, Jake?’
‘Definitely.’ Jake tried to shake Alec’s hand, which was under my knees. Amid laughter, they somehow succeeded. ‘Thank you, brother. I’ll never be able to repay you.’
‘You owe me nothing.’
Terens, Cal and Sam surrounded us and expressed their thanks as well, clapping Alec on the shoulder and back while making funny comments about his new eye colour.
‘Where did you go with her?’ I asked Kari while cradling my baby’s face against my cheek.
‘Up there.’ She pointed to the castle keep, a tall cylindrical building crowned with a conical tower. ‘I reckoned we’d be safe there for a while, and I could see and hear everything that was going on.’ Kari touched Sophie’s cheek, her expression warm and tender as she gazed at my baby girl. ‘I sang to her, and she fell weepy sleepy. We came down after miss shiny witchy disappeared.’
Marcus stood at a distance. He’d remained silent, studying Alec in a way that had my stomach in a knot. I remembered he’d made a vow to hunt down and kill every witch he could find. If he meant to keep his vow, then Alec was in danger.
I had to dissuade him, but I had no idea how.
Wheezing came from behind us. Alec turned quickly, spinning us around.
The old guy who killed the lamia. We’d forgotten about him, captivated, as it were, by another seismic event. He laid where he’d fallen. Dougal tried approaching him, but the sword prevented him getting near.
‘Dougal, stay away from him,’ Marcus called out. ‘We need to be rid of that sword.’
No Brethren could do it, only a human, and I was the only human around. What the witch had transformed Alec into, I still had no idea, although I didn’t care so long as I was with him. Were witches, wizards ... whatever ... humans?
I wriggled my toes and flexed my calf muscles.
‘Don’t even think about it, Laura.’ Alec shot me a warning look. ‘I’ll go. And since I’m human again’ —he shot me a grin— ‘he poses no risk to me. Besides, he looks like he needs a doctor.’
A rush of adrenaline tingled through my body. He’d read my mind. Was that a witchy thing since we no longer had the serpent rings? Guess I’d have plenty of time to find out.
Go then. I sent the thought back to him. Perhaps we’d never truly needed the serpent rings. Either that or it’d helped speed the bond that had always been there between us.
I will. He chuckled, kissed my mouth and gently put me down. Jake stood next to me in case I needed support.
Alec strode to the elderly man and crouched down next to him. He took his pulse, helped him sit up, and put his ear to his upper back. The elderly man continued to cough even after Alec placed what looked like a puffer to the man’s mouth, the sort I’d often seen my asthmatic students use. But this man’s cough was far worse than asthma.
He slumped back against Alec and whispered something to him. When Alec pulled out his phone, the old man weakly raised his hand and covered the phone, then said something else.
‘Can you hear what they’re saying?’ I asked Jake.
‘Yeah. It ... concerns you.’
‘What? How’s that possible? I don’t know him.’
‘Alec’ll tell you.’
Alec had his head right next to the old man’s ear. The old man pointed to his sword, whispered something more. Then his head fell back and he stilled.
I swallowed.
Alec looked at us and shook his head. He placed his hand on the man’s chest, bowed his head, then laid him down. He reached for the sword and threw it into the air. A bolt of blue shot from his hand. The sword erupted into flame, its ashes blown by the breeze as it floated back to earth.
‘Great hounds of hell! Tell me Alec just didn’t do that?’ Terens’s mouth hung open.
As did everyone else’s.
My throat dried. I’d only just gotten used to being married to a vampire, and now here he was already showing evidence of becoming a powerful witch ... wizard ... whatever. And from the skillful way he obliterated the Pazu sword, I took a guess that Alec hadn’t only inherited the witch’s power but the knowledge of how to use it. No wonder she’d said for him to be wise in applying it. He probably had all her spells and incantations and potions—or whatever witches do—whizzing through his head. I didn’t know whether to be excited or concerned. Maybe both. But for the present, I concentrated on the positive.
‘He sure did, and he did it for you,’ I said.
Jake smiled. He hoisted me and my baby into his arms and moved forward, past the bodies of Dougal’s men. I counted three slain by the lamia. Sadness welled in my chest for them and for Dougal. He and those who were left quietly gathered their dead.
Alec rose as we approached. ‘Laura, there’s something you need to know.’ He took me from Jake, and we sat on the sepulchre’s steps. ‘That old man was Robert Junot, a Pazu. Sommers found him from an address he got from the Pazu youths in Sydney. Same ones who burned down the house. Sommers told the old man where to find us.’
‘Oh! The tracker in my phone.’ I couldn’t believe Matt could sink so low as to have done something like that. But to be fair, perhaps it had been the Pazu in him. That much I was willing to concede.
Alec nodded. ‘Junot wanted one kill before he died. So he acted on the information. He was in the last stages of emphysema. He had nothing to lose. He arrived here from Avignon earlier tonight, crossed paths with the lamia and followed it in when the ward collapsed. You saw the rest.’
‘That’s sad and horrible too. If not for the lamia, he would’ve tried to kill one of you.’
Again, Alec nodded. ‘But he didn’t. He’s gone and so’s the last of the lamiae. How fitting.’
‘What is?’
‘That they killed each other.’
‘Huh! Pity he didn’t show up sooner. Those men might not have died.’ I looked over to where Dougal had gathered his men’s bodies. Among them, surprisingly, he included Junot, a dead Pazu. ‘Will he bury them or let the sun burn them?’
‘The sun. He’ll keep vigil over them the rest of the night, and now that he can daywalk, I reckon he’ll stay to see the job done. That’s what I’d do.’
‘What about the old man, Junot? His body won’t spontaneously combust.’
‘The fire from our Brethren will consume him too. Dougal’s awarded him a rare honour.’
The mournful notes of a bagpipe filtered down from one of the towers, where a lone piper stood on the battlements. A lament for fallen comrades. Dougal’s remaining men poured petrol over the lamia’s remains and set it alight. The sharp-smelling smoke was preferable to the stench that had come from the misshapen, ugly creature. When done, they joined Dougal, and by their comrade’s side, fell on one knee and bowed their heads.
This scene would be forever burnt into my memory.
As was another. ‘How did you know to burn the sword with magic?’
Alec released a breath—a real breath—which he normally didn’t need to do. ‘You’re breathing!’
He grinned, then inhaled and exhaled again, fully enjoying the sensation. ‘I’m completely human, and yet...’ His brow creased, and he examined his hands, his fingers, as if seeing them for the first time. ‘I feel this power all through me. And ... I know what to say to access it. In here.’ He pointed to his temple. ‘It’s all already there.’
‘From vampire to witch, sorcerer, wizard...?’
‘Mage. That’s the word that’s coming to me. She was a mage. So am I.’
‘This is going to take some getting used to.’
‘That makes two of us.’
I couldn’t help it. Maybe it was the euphoria of the moment after everything we’d gone through, but it bubbled out of me. ‘Could come in handy if Dominik hacks into another website. You could just zap him!’
He stared at me for a second. Then his face lit up. ‘Laura, that’s brilliant!’
‘What is?’
‘I think I may know how to change him back.’ He licked his lips, his brow furrowed in concentration. ‘Dom’s a regular vampire. There is a spell that counters the transformation ... but it’s not clear. Not sure why. I just know I can’t reverse any of Eithne’s curses.’
This was exciting. ‘It might come to you later.’
‘Hope so. The look on his face when I told him...’
‘Not your fault.’
Alec sighed and pulled the blanket higher up my shoulders, letting his fingers rest on Sophie’s tiny head. ‘Junot asked me to destroy the sword.’
So that’s why he did it. ‘I told Jake you did it for them.’
‘I would have still if Junot hadn’t asked me to do it.’
I shrugged. ‘It’s gone anyway. So it doesn’t really matter.’
‘No, it doesn’t.’ His gaze turned toward the blaze where the lamia’s remains had almost all been consumed by the greedy flames, the smoke of which leapt up to the clouds in a dirty column obscuring the pale autumn moon.
‘Our enemies are gone too,’ he added.
‘So’s Matt.’ His face sprang to my mind.
We were silent for a moment. Although I hated to place Matt in that category, it was the truth. There was no doubt he would’ve killed Alec: my stars, he’d almost succeeded. My father, Luc, recognised it long before I did. I just didn’t want to believe it. It still hurt when I thought of it. Which prompted another thought: had the Pazu in Matt been drawn to me the day we’d met, or had it all just been a coincidence? Chances are, I’d never know.
It was best left alone.
Exhaustion slammed into me. I leaned into Alec’s shoulder, fighting my eyelids’ desire to shut. Sophie whimpered and her eyes opened. ‘She’ll be needing another feed soon.’
‘Time to get you both indoors.’
As Alec made a move to stand, Marcus approached. I tensed. Alec stiffened.
‘Your vow. Am I now included in it?’ For one second, tendrils of blue light illuminated his hands, then died down.
Being human, I had no magic, but if there was a way to prevent Marcus keeping his vow and hurting Alec, I’d find it. It wasn’t his fault Alec was now a mage.
‘Grandfather—’
Marcus held up his hand. ‘Laura, mea neptis, worry not.’ He came close, laid his hand on Sophie’s head and kissed her. ‘I would do no harm to my great-granddaughter’s father or my granddaughter’s husband.’
Alec relaxed. ‘You know I would never—’
Marcus held his hand up again. ‘Deus! Let me speak.’ He inhaled deeply and folded his arms over his chest. ‘The man my son trusted to carry on his legacy who also begged for my freedom ignoring his own, and the man who destroyed the only weapon that could kill me is not the sort of man I need fear as my enemy.’
‘I hope never, Marcus.’
Marcus nodded, his smile deepened, and then he laughed. Great peals of booming laughter that had him in tears—real water tears, not blood. He wiped his eyes and studied his hand as if unbelieving. ‘Bless you, my boy.’
He and Marcus embraced. They were finally free, no need for an Ingenii anymore. They had the daylight without it. Who would’ve thought it? The Principate was safe. The only question was, could Alec still remain princeps now that he wasn’t a vampire?
No, I wasn’t going to think about it now. That was a question for another day.
I looked into my baby’s blue eyes and touched her tiny fingers to my lips, utterly content and thankful. ‘Well, Sophie, shall we ask your father what he’d like to eat for dinner? He hasn’t had a good meal in over a hundred years.’
I couldn’t stop the smile that spread across my face.
Epilogue
Two Years Later
Alec stepped down from being princeps and passed it onto Marcus. The Elders and prefects agreed with the decision, seeing as Alec was no longer a vampire, but they granted him a special status: Mage of the Brethren.
I called him a witch doctor.
Alec had found the spell to reverse Dominik’s vampirism. Once again, the fifteen-year-old was fully human and had returned to his family in Prague. He’d also been sworn to secrecy. As far as the Brethren were aware, being adopted into Marcus clan, and underage when transformed, he’d been included in the witch’s gift. Alec also gave him a hexed silver ring ensuring no vampire would ever come near him again.
Kari actually hugged him goodbye.
As each day passed, Alec began to understand his magic more, and the reason why he hadn’t immediately been sure of the spell to help Dominik. It was that the mage, Eithne herself, hadn’t fully explored it. She’d been studying it the week Marcus and his men had ridden into her village. And being pregnant, her magic had been restricted to protect her unborn baby.
Magic, we were quickly learning, had consequences.
We moved back to Sydney, leaving the D’Antonville Chateau to Marcus and the men. He made us promise to come back to celebrate Christmas with them there each year.
Sabine cried when we told her we were leaving. I cried too. But I told her we’d be back for Christmas. And now that the men could eat normal food again, I had no doubt she’d be busy keeping them fed.
The old Residence in Vaucluse had been burned so completely that little could be salvaged. Not even the beautiful old stained-glass window that told the story of Marcus and the witch. It had been sad seeing the wreckage, but as Alec said, it belonged to another age, and that was now past.
We constructed a lovely new house on the site, naming it Dantonville. It contains room enough for family and guests, and unlike the old house, has fire alarms and sprinklers throughout. So
phie happily ran around her new bedroom the day we moved in, chatting and giggling in excitement.
Thankfully, the fire that destroyed the old house hadn’t touched the garden. The seat, where Alec and I first kissed was still there. We sit there often, arms around each other, snatching kisses while Sophie plays on the grass.
In three weeks, we celebrate my birthday and the second anniversary of our first meeting in St Andrews Cathedral: when the big, bad, beautiful vampire was waiting for me in that little alcove.
If I had known what awaited me then, would I have consented to it?
Oh yes.
Not having Alec and Sophie in my life was unthinkable, and if going through the darkness was the only way to get to this point, then, yes, I would have done it. But knowing I would also be freeing Marcus, Jake, Terens, Cal, Sam, Kari and Dougal from that dreadful curse was like the frosting on the proverbial cake.
They were my family.
Whispering through my mind, came the words, Well done, ma petite.
Warmth spread through my heart, and I snuggled into Alec’s embrace. He pressed his lips to my brow and rested his head on mine. Sophie chuckled, chubby little arms upraised to catch the snowy petals that dropped from the jasmine bushes.
We were home.
The End
Thank you for reading BloodWish, the last book in my Dantonville Legacy Series. I loved writing Alec and Laura’s story, and sharing their journey with you. It’s going to be hard saying goodbye to them. But all good things come to an end – a happy ending.
And, if you enjoyed the story, please write a few words in the review section of your favourite retailer. I’d really appreciate it.
Keep a lookout for The Dantonville Chronicles: Jake, Terens, Sam and Cal’s stories. So, there’s more to come, and you’ll find all that information and more on my website www.timamarialacoba.com
Or, keep up with all things Dantonville on my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TimaMariaLacoba/?fref=ts
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