"I told you, Sim, you can't just take humans away from their lives."
"But Vane took Bride."
"No, Sim. Bride chose Vane."
"Then go make Travis choose me."
"I can't do that. It wouldn't be right."
The demon blew him a raspberry before she saw one of the bears bringing a cake from the kitchen. Her tears dried instantly.
"Ooo," Simi breathed, eyeing the cake hungrily. "Chocolate. My favorite. Gotta go now. Bye."
Ash laughed as Simi ran and literally attacked the poor bear who was holding the cake. She grabbed it out of his hands and headed off to a corner to be alone with it.
Shaking his head, Ash turned back to them. "Your father is now out of your hair and I just wanted to say Congrats again to both of you."
"Thanks, Ash," Vane said, holding his hand out to him.
Ash nodded as he shook it. "By the way, you don't have to worry."
"About what?" Bride asked.
"You'll have babies and not puppies. And no litters."
Bride was more relieved than she would have thought possible. "Thank you."
"Any time."
Ash left them and picked up a pie from the table which he took to Simi, who looked up at him with her face covered in chocolate. She literally inhaled the pie in less than ten seconds.
Vane draped his arm over Bride's shoulders. As they walked back to her table where Fury and Cujo were sharing a piece of steak, Bride started laughing as she looked around her newfound zoo and family.
"What's wrong?" Vane asked.
"Nothing. I was just thinking that my life has gone completely to the dogs and I wouldn't have it any other way."
Epilogue
Vane shifted himself to the past. It didn't take much effort to find his parents. After all, Acheron hadn't bothered to shield their scent from him and they had only been here together for about an hour.
The Dark-Hunter leader had sequestered the two Were-Hunters on an isolated island during the fifth century. Neither of them had the power to leave either the island or the time period.
It was truly a fate worse than death.
Or at least it was about to be.
Vane flashed to the "arena" where his parents were battling each other with swords drawn. They were both bloody from the fighting, and even though he should be amused, he wasn't.
How could he be? These two people, for all their faults, were his parents, and if not for them he would never have been born.
Even so, some things could not be forgiven.
His father hesitated as he saw Vane. It gave his mother the opening she needed to run Markus through with her sword.
It should have been a killing blow.
It wasn't.
His mother jerked the sword free, cursed, and stabbed Markus again. Markus only stood there blinking in disbelief as he remained immune from her attacks.
"Give it up, Mother," Vane said as he approached them.
She spun on him with another curse until her eyes focused on his face.
For once Vane didn't bother hiding his facial markings from either one of them. He stared at her blankly as horror filled her expression and she realized the truth about her eldest son.
"I know Acheron probably couldn't care less if you two destroyed each other," he said slowly. "But I couldn't live with myself knowing that he had sentenced one of you to die even though you deserve it."
"What do you mean?" Markus asked.
"I'm altering things a bit. You two can fight and kill each other over and over again, but neither one of you will be able to die by the hand of the other."
"Fine, then," Markus snarled. "I'll kill myself."
"I won't allow that, either."
Bryani cursed him. "You can't stop us."
Vane laughed. "Yeah, Mom. I can. You should have listened to Fury when he tried to tell you about my powers. There are only a small handful of people on this earth whose powers can negate mine. And neither of you are one of them."
Bryani's eyes narrowed. "Why are you doing this?"
"Because you two need to come to terms with each other. What Markus did to you was wrong, but then, I've always been told that two wrongs don't make a right. So here I am trying to do the right thing for once. You two have to deal with each other and settle this hatred." He took a deep breath. "I'll be back in a few decades to see how it's coming."
"You can't leave us here. Not like this!" Bryani screeched.
"Why not, Mom? Dad beat me and Fang and hung us out to die, literally. You beat Fury and left him for dead. Now the two of you can both pummel the one who really pissed you off, and we can live our lives out in peace away from the two of you. Have a nice war."
Vane flashed himself away from them, back to where Bride was busy packing up their things in Valerius's house.