A Gift of Three(6)

He nodded, digesting my words. A span of silence passed, and then he seemed to shift out of his reverie.

“You’re right,” he said, glancing down at me. “Maybe one day Maura and I will think about marriage. Maybe neither of us are ready yet. I haven’t even asked Maura how she might feel about that… It’s never really come up.”

I nodded. “You need to do what you feel is right for the both of you,” I replied.

We were nearly back at home, and our conversation returned to Grace and their new baby girl. I kept the rest of my thoughts on Field and Maura to myself. I knew that my son loved her, and went out of his way to be there for her. He was kind, loving and considerate. They had a good relationship that had brought both of them happiness, but I wondered how long it would last. I was glad that Field had opened up to me about it—their relationship was a subject that I’d been wondering about for a while now. I just didn’t want Field to have to suffer heartbreak if things didn’t go as they planned…But perhaps I was worrying for nothing. Taking things slowly hadn’t exactly been my experience of love, but I’d meant what I said. I knew it didn’t always happen like that. Field would work it out for himself. If it was meant to be, it was meant to be.

Only time would tell…





Sofia





EIGHTEEN YEARS LATER…




I had thought I was alone in the Sanctuary’s courtyard, but a rustle in the nearby bushes announced the arrival of Lucifer, Tejus and Hazel’s haughty lynx. He purred around my ankles, a far friendlier creature than had arrived here… over eighteen years ago now.

Where has the time gone?

I reached down and petted the feline’s soft fur, jumping slightly as he dashed off again—no doubt to hunt down some poor, helpless prey in the forest… or get himself found by Shadow the dog.

I straightened, my eyes returning to the peaceful scene that surrounded me. I resumed my silent walk among the moon-dappled gravestones, the dewy grass crunching beneath my feet, the gentle breeze carrying the warm scent of the redwoods, until I arrived at my destination—the old stone fountain at the center. I gazed down upon the two gravestones in front of it, where two of the dearest friends I’d ever had were laid to rest. I shifted the two bouquets of white roses I carried in one arm and laid them across each of the stones, careful not to cover their engraved names… Anna and Kyle.

It had been two years since we’d lost Anna, three since we’d lost Kyle, to the one thing no amount of jinni or witch magic could stop: time.

Like me, Anna had been an immune, which meant she couldn’t turn into a vampire like a normal human. Unlike me, she’d never been ‘cured’ of her immunity. It was sobering to think that, if I hadn’t been kidnapped to Cruor all those years ago, I never would have lost my immunity either. I would have lived a mortal life, and probably be lying here with them in this courtyard.

We’d considered more than once taking Anna to Cruor to see if its atmosphere broke her immunity, like it had done mine. Anna and Kyle’s children—Jason, Ariana, and young Kiev (who were all vampires and, like my descendants, thankfully hadn’t had the immunity passed on to them)—had eventually convinced Anna to visit Cruor, now that the threat of the Elders had died down and they’d become almost nonexistent shadows. But Anna’s immunity wouldn’t break—the intensity of the Elders’ former power no longer infused the atmosphere. My son Ben, who knew more about Cruor than most of us thanks to the unfortunate time he’d spent there, had escorted her and Kyle there… only to return with the discovery that Anna still couldn’t turn.

The revelation didn’t come as a blow to Anna, who had already resigned herself to live a mortal life, and neither did it to Kyle, who had sworn to live out his human life alongside her.

To the rest of the island, however, their eventual deaths had been almost unbearable, crashing over us in waves of grief. Although they’d died natural deaths—both fully aware and at peace with their passing—Anna and Kyle were, especially to those who had lived in The Shade since the very early days, practically fixtures of the island. We'd known in the back of our minds that they wouldn’t be with us forever, but when surrounded by so much immortality, so much power and magic, so much choice, it was easy to forget what it meant for life to take its natural course. Easy to be… completely blindsided by it.

I swallowed back the lump that had formed in my throat, and took a deep breath in an attempt to still my palpitating heart. We’d had a fair amount of time to mourn our friends, but visiting their gravestones still made me choke up. I doubted that would ever change.