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EPILOGUE
Loki leaned against Azrael as they stood over Torin and Sapphire's body. "Soon, promise me, Azrael, it will be soon.
"Let me settle my house a bit more, beloved, and it will be done. There are so many new mortal's in my home, let us not stress thing any more, but trust me, Loki, the moment I believe that Mark is going to be able to see to it all himself. Then yes, I will see to it that my son returns."
"It will not be easy of the poor mortal woman, to be with us, and yet not. You are going to have to dominate her, there is no other way, and she can't bond with you. Have you thought of her? She will end up almost as bad as Billy used to be." Loki worried, yes, he wanted Sapphire back with him in a way that almost defied logic, but they weren't Renegades, they had to seriously consider the damage this would do to the mother.
Azrael looked at him, smiling. "Do you find Mark, lacking in any way?"
"No, but you had a blood bond with him, even if he did come to terms with his place here, on his own, what other option did he have?"
"I had him dominated before he drank. I forced him that first time, but not afterwards. He chose to bend, of his own free will, or at least he thought it was. I know what I am doing, Loki. No mortal I take will run any risk of anything. The only reason I do not dare bond with her is she needs to conceive for me. But if she has not delivered by her due date, I will bond with her to force the birth. After that, she will be cared for as all of my pets. If Torin and Sapphire make it in time to take the mortal soul's place, then I will have my son to raise. If not, then we have children to raise for pet's one day. And I start over again." He reached down and stroked Torin's cold cheek. "Any way I must, I will have Torin back with me. No matter if I have to spend the next thousand years to get it right. I will have my Childe back ." *I promise you, I will never stop, I will have you back. *
* * *
Mark looked up as Azrael came to sit by him. "Master, is there a problem?"
Azrael chuckled, hugging him. "Not that I am aware of, pet, I do not make it a habit of coming to you, only when there is a problem." He lay a hand on Mark's upper thigh, squeezing gently. "I only wanted to see how you were, Mark. It has been something of a busy time for me since the explosion. I did not want you to think, that with all the new pets here, that I had forgotten you."
Mark closed his eyes, turning into Azrael's embrace, hips lifting a little to push against the hand on his thigh. "I know that, Azrael. But you know, it's nice to hear it."
"Foolishness," his mouth closed over Mark's. *Did you ever know me to slight Maria, my love? She was my first pet, and now you are. * 'Poor boy', he actually had begun to believe that Azrael would ever feel any less for him, all because he had a new slew of children, and new pets. *I love you, Mark. No matter, who else I love, I will always, love you. * His hand raised to his throat, as he lowered his mouth to Mark's, to cut a ga000sh0 in his throat over his jugular with his nail.
* * *
Mark leaned against Azrael, resting quietly. "So, boss, what was it you wanted to ask me about?"
Azrael just laughed. "What, I didn't satisfy you enough boy? I must be slipping in my old age."
"Nah, if I was anymore satisfied, Master, I wouldn't be able to talk. But like you said, I'm your first now. And more often than not, when you just decided to pay her that kind of attention, for nothing, not even a feeding, you usually had a reason."
"My but you, are, the observant one." Azrael chuckled. "Am I really that easy to predict?"
"I know six years ain't nothing to you, but for one of us, it's a good chuck of time. So yeah, I kinda got used to you. Now what's up?" It had taken him, almost, this long too finally, be at full peace with what Azrael made him, feel, but he had.
"Nothing really, I just wanted to make sure you were doing well. I have not given you a chance to grieve. I share your pain, believe me, Mark. I loved each and every one of my darlings."
Mark just leaned against him. "I know that, but, I." He just finally broke down. For the first time since it had happened, he was finally able to cry. "I don't even have Ren to hold anymore. He died with all the rest. Sapphire's two and Beernuts, Joy too. They are all dead."
Azrael held him, mourning with him. *I know, love. I do not even have their remains to join all the others I have, loved. I know. *
"What if I can't do it, Azrael? What if I just can't do it?" His greatest fear. That he would never hope to live up to what Maria had meant to him and this house.
"Hush, child. If you can ask that, you will be more than capable. I miss my precious girl, but I will be as proud of anything you do for my house. You are not that creature you were when I first took you." Azrael felt the weight of worry leave his shoulders. Mark was going to be fine. And he already knew how Casey and Willow were. Now he could move forward with what he wished, and not feel, as, if he had slighted anyone.
Mark hiccuped. "Thanks, Az. You don't know what this means."
Azrael just fussed at him. "Mark, child. You actually doubt me, or my love and commitment to you?" He just kissed the mortal. "No, you are fine, I am very happy with you and the way you have grown. I now know, that it will be possible for you to help me. I must go out and collect a mortal girl,"
Mark looked at him. "Another one? I thought we had enough in the house so far. What do you need another one for?"
Azrael smiled at him. "This child is going to be unlike any of those I have dealt with so far. She is going to come here, and for a time, be unbound to any of us. She is to help with the rebirth of Torin and Sapphire. So she must be able to conceive. I wanted to make sure that you could hold up under the strain having a pregnant unbound pet here."
"Okay, I guess you know what you are doing. But do you plan to kidnap a young pregnant woman, or what. Sorry, Master, but with as often as most of us are in bed with one of you, or together, we shoot nothing but blanks. We're no more fertile anymore than you are."
Azrael was impressed. Mark might worry about if he was ready for this responsibility, but Azrael could tell, there was strength in his pet, one that he hadn't helped to create. The steel that was now being shown in Mark's character, was all his own creation. "No, I will go out and get a young pet, old enough for pregnancy, but still young enough to be innocent. I dare not run the risk of dooming the children to illness. The sperm, like wise check, and assured of its health. I will take it from a sperm bank."
Mark shivered. "You're going to kidnap some kid? Master, I didn't think that was the way you acted."
Azrael took Marks head in his hands, and looked into his eyes. "I would do damn near anything to have my Childe back. Anything short of, physically, hurting any of you. She will be old enough to conceive and carry to term. I will see that she is pampered, and cherished for the rest of her life. I am aware that I am planning on taking a girl that is little more than a mortal child. But I will do it."
* * *
Azrael stood in the middle of the room, looking to Loki and Crystal. "I have not hunted for a pet, per say, since Amber. Both Torin and Topaz ended up as my children."
Crystal held out a comforting hand. "I'm sure it's like riding a bike. Once you know how, you never forget."
"Don't worry, beloved. You will do just fine. Any pet you bring home will be just as sweet as any of ours have been so far."
"But you might aim for as close to a virgin as you can get, Father, you don't dare run the risk of getting one like Gabriel's girl was. The, odds of her passing anything to her children is just too great. And you would risk condemning the babes to death."
"That will mean that I hunt in area's less apt to carry that risk. And will also mean that I will be forced to alter more than just one life for this." He sighed. "I will have to ease my guilt with the knowledge that I will not kill the child. That she will have a life like none that she had ever dreamed."
"We have that already, Master." Mark stood to one side, Willow under his arm. "That isn't going to be any big thing, she gets that anyway."
"Yes Mark, and you had best never forget that. But this girl, she is by necessity, going to have to be young. And to look where I will have to look, I will have to run a greater risk of taking a child from her home and family. And this one, I will be unable to share a bond with, for the time of her gestation. I will have to go out of my way, to see that she is never left wondering. It, is going to be a difficult time for her, I understand that. And I am counting on you to see that she is never left alone, not even for a moment, until I can bond with her."
"Just try to keep it about fourteen or so, Master." Mark looked down blushing. "Anything younger than about sixteen, and I start to feel like a pervert."
Azrael laughed at him. Again he felt comforted by the fact that Mark was going to be just fine. "You! Boy do you have any idea how much older I am going to be than this child I go to choose?"
"That doesn't count. You're a vampire. I still got mortality to deal with. I still count things like years. I'm twenty-eight, sixteen is twelve years younger than I am. And for me, that begins to tug on my nerves, just a bit. Fifteen I could deal with, I mean, hell, she's going to have how many more years now that she wouldn't have had. But fourteen is about as young as I can swallow without getting it stuck in my throat." He held up his hands. "Not to say, that if you have to get one younger, that I won't do right by her, just fourteen is about as young as you dare go for what you are planning."
Azrael reached over, pulling Mark to him . *I understand. I promise, no younger than fourteen. I too feel like you do. Rest and remember I will always be proud of you. No matter what tomorrow brings, I will always be proud, and you will always be loved. *
<The End>
THE FIRST OF, A, SECOND RUN OF BABBLES.
Well, I've pulled it off again. This time, with an entire new plot, and a change in the characters, some new, some old, and some painfully absent. As, May West, said once, 'fasten your seatbelts boys, it's going to be a bumpy ride.' Or, something like, that.
Whew, had ya going there for a while didn't I. This is the first book of mine that I didn't know from beginning to end just how it was going to play out. The last bit, Torin and Sapphire; originally, they weren't part of it. But, after listening to everyone who has read the first three, bitch, I sort of gave in, and changed my plans just a little. That was why it ended, like it did, it's a play up into the next book. And trust me, after the one I just wrote, there is going to be a next book.
And you have no idea how hard it was for me to let David and Cain go. I balled like a baby, and not even the fact that Loki wasn't going to stay dead for long, or Crystal's arrival, stopped me from making a fool of myself over the keyboard.
I do think, Mr. Golden, Azrael is at long last up to being able to have a, vampiric, pissing match with Octavian. I had never thought, when I first started this so many years ago, that it would be anywhere near as all-consuming as it turned out it to be. And the research, damn, I had to place the time line for the crash. For the time wasted between realizing that there would never again be any children of the Vampyr, then their trials and errors in an attempt to use the closest thing to then that there was at the time. The type of mortal human I had to chose from, wasn't great, but I tried to work it out well enough with the combination of the two races. Had to deal with the time involved in the attempts, up to and including the mistake that they made, that halted all attempts for a good two hundred years. Thus Drax was both graceful and brutal at the same time. Trust me, I have a headache trying to work it all out in my head, and I know what I was looking for. To think, when I started this, all I wanted was some good erotica that had a plot.
Well, thanks to all of those that were mentioned in the first three books and a few more that I have stumbled over in my time writing this contraption. Kelly, love ya baby. I think I can put this down for a few days, don't you agree? Grant, yes, even if you don't tend to be interested in this kind of erotica, I still listed you, so there. To all of those, that, were faithful and put up with my never-ending babble during the work of this book. And all those that would help me work out some writing practice in our friendly little games. Thanks, bunches.
A final thanks, to a dear friend that lost his life during the working of it. David, you're missed love. It's always the good ones that get called on early. See, Deb, he will never be forgotten. This is as close as you come to being a vampire and living for eternity. As long as my words are in print, anywhere, he won't be forgotten.
And of course, my usual warning, come on folk, do I have to say it again. Surely by now, if you have read anything I have written so far, you know how I feel about taking responsibility and keeping those you love, around with you for a long time. A tisket, a tasket, a condom, or a casket; don't think I could say it any better.
See you all in a few
<< I have to mention this, here, it was on the final day, that I was writing this work, that the unspeakable accrued, and terrorists took out both the Trade Center, and part of the Pentagon. Maybe by the end of book two, they will have not only found out who it was, but will have shown them Justice, even if it isn't vampire kind. Justice is Justice. >>