Bitten – Epilogue
Epilogue
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“Come on, Emily. You can do it.”
“I can’t.”
“You have to.”
“I won’t.”
“Just close your eyes and hold your nose or something.”
“It’s impossible!”
“Do I need to force it down your throat?”
I narrowed my eyes at Vincent. “No.”
“Then drink it,” he returned, thrusting a bag of blood toward me. “You’ll like it, trust me.”
Shaking my head vehemently, I shoved his hand away. Thanks to my newfound strength, I actually managed to do so. “I won’t drink it!”
“You’ll die if you don’t.”
“You told me vampires don’t die unless they go two weeks without drinking blood. It’s only been a week for me,” I pointed out.
He scowled. “Yeah, but you’ll still grow weak. What if someone comes and attacks you? How will you protect yourself?”
I batted my eyelashes at him. “You’ll protect me, won’t you?”
“Emily. Drink it.”
“Absolutely not!”
He set his jaw, his knuckles turning white from his grasp on the bag. “I seriously will force it down your throat.”
Giving him a challenging look, I planted my hands on my hips. “Do it.”
“Come on,” he groaned. “Just drink it!”
“No! I refuse to drink human blood!”
“You’re a vampire now! You have to!”
“No!”
Throwing his hands up in the air in exasperation, he turned his back on me. “Fine. Whatever. You can die for all I care.”
Frowning, I crossed my arms. “That’s not a very nice thing to say to your girlfriend.”
“My girlfriend who’s too much of a wimp to drink blood even though if she doesn’t she’ll die.”
“But I was human just a week ago! I can’t… It’s like cannibalism!”
Vincent shrugged. “You’ll have to get used to it.”
“I can’t…”
Sighing, he turned to face me again. “Sebastian would want you to drink the blood, you know. He’s probably giving you a disapproving look from wherever he is right now.”
My heart dropped into my gut. He was right. Sebastian was the one who wanted me to become a vampire in the first place. How could I let him down now? Now, when Fiona needed me the most? Swallowing my disgust, I held out my hand for the baggy. “Just… give it to me.”
“Here,” Vincent said, handing the bag over. “Trust me it’s not that bad. Once you get used to that, we’ll go hunt a real human. They taste a lot better.”
Wrinkling my nose, I brought the bag to my lips. A surprisingly delicious smell met my nose. Instead of the scent of blood being rusty and acidic like before, it now resembled the smell of a barbeque. However, knowing it was blood I would be drinking still made me feel sick.
.
.
“Go on,” Vincent urged.
Taking a deep breath, I screwed my eyes shut, and poured some of the liquid into my mouth. Caught off guard by its sweet taste, I half-gagged and half-gasped. The gagging reflex was just from the thought of blood pouring down my throat. A sudden thirst overwhelmed me and I poured more fluid down my throat, doing my best not to think of what I was drinking. When I finished, I tossed the back to the ground, pressing my lips together tightly.
“That wasn’t so bad, was it?”
“I think I’m going to be sick,” I confessed, putting a hand to my mouth. “I’m going to throw up. I’m going to puke!”
“Don’t be over dramatic,” Vincent said, rolling his eyes. “Geez.”
Resisting the urge to upchuck, I staggered toward the Victorian style couch where I collapsed. “Vincent, go get me some ice cream.”
“I’m not your slave,” he retorted, moving my legs so he could sit on the couch. He placed them back down on top of his lap when he was comfortable. “Besides, you have no excuse for me doing stuff for you anymore. You’re neither sick nor dying now.”
“So you were only nice to me because I was dying?”
“Well…”
“Vincent!”
He grinned. “I’m kidding, Stupid.”
Huffing, I crossed my arms. “You’re stupid.”
“Coming from the girl who talked to the wrong grave for half an hour before I redirected you to the right one…”
“It was too early in the morning! Besides, Sebastian Rutherford and Sebastian Rawnsley are too close. They shouldn’t bury people with the same name next to them.”
Vincent smirked. “Just admit you’re stupid.”
I glowered at him. “I’m not!”
“You didn’t finish high school.”
Unfortunately, he got me there. No, I hadn’t finished high school, neither was there record of me ever going to that school. Which meant I’d have to repeat my whole senior year over again in order to graduate. As the new girl. “Don’t remind me,” I groaned, dropping my head. The school year started in two months.
“Isn’t it good though?”
“How?”
“You get to make new friends.”
“New friends that I probably won’t ever see again after this,” I pointed out.
He shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not.”
“I don’t want to go.”
“You have to go.”
“No, tutor me.”
“No.”
“Vincent!”
He grunted. “I don’t see why you’re complaining. I finished my high school career a long time ago. About—”
“I don’t want to hear it!” I interjected, covering my ears. “I don’t want to hear how old you are. It might disgust me.”
.
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Rolling his eyes, he lightly smacked my leg. “I’m still nineteen in body. Just not in mind. Which means I shouldn’t have to go back to high school.” His voice lowered to a growl.
Smiling innocently at him, I tilted my head to the side. “But you are because you love me, right?”
“I don’t trust you alone.”
“Hey!”
“What?”
“You could at least say you love me!”
After pretending to think about it for a moment, he wrinkled up his nose. “Love is such an overused word— ow! ” Glaring at me, he rubbed his thigh where I’d punched him. “What the hell? That hurt!”
“Forget I’m one of your own now, did we?” I shot back at him. “You love me and you know it!”
“A little desperate for affection are we?”
“Vincent! You’re a jerk! I hate you! You should have just let me die!”
All playfulness disappeared from his eyes, replaced by a solemn look. “Do you really mean that?”
Taken aback by his demeanor change, my voice stuck in my throat. No, I didn’t really mean it. Honestly, I’d been terrified at that moment. I really didn’t want to die. Of course it wouldn’t have mattered if I died since I wouldn’t have known whether I lived or not, but I was glad to be alive. I was glad Vincent had changed me. Otherwise I’d be missing out on the rest of my life— the very, very long life I now obtained.
“Emily?”
“No, I didn’t mean that, I’m sorry,” I murmured, lowering my gaze to the ground. “Sorry, Vincent.”
His look softened. “Don’t apologize.”
I couldn’t help but smile at his sincere words. Lately he’d been nicer to me, but not too often. It still was surprising and pleasant, which I was glad for. A Vincent who was nice all the time wouldn’t be the same Vincent I’d grown to love.
“Can we go see William?” I requested, sitting up so I could curl my body against his. “I miss his cute little face.”
“All he can do is cry and shit. I don’t see what’s so cute about him.”
Huffing, I puffed my cheeks out at him. “You’re insensitive, so I don’t expect you to understand. He’s so adorable though! I can’t believe how slowly vampires age!”
“I could tell you the secret—
“How many times do I have to tell you I don’t want to know the secret?”
He cocked an eyebrow. “You’ll figure it out some day. You’re a vampire too now, you know. You’re now growing just like us.”
“I know,” I grumbled.
Letting out a low chuckle, he patted my back soothingly. “You’ll get used to it soon, Emily.”
“I know, but…”
“But?”
“Are we going to have children some day?”
.
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His whole body tensed and he sucked in air like he’d been punched in the gut. Grimacing, he let his head fall back. “You don’t spring that kind of question on a teenaged guy, Stupid.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re only a teenager in mind.”
“So are you.”
“I never said I wanted children now,” I snapped at him. “No. I don’t even want to think about it. I’m way too young.”
He pursed his lips at me. “Then why bother asking?”
“Um… Well… I was just thinking…”
“Spit it out.”
“The other day your mom cornered me and made me have the talk with her because she’s known for awhile that we’re, you know, like that and she was telling me I have to be careful because you never know what could happen and she didn’t know if you ever wanted to have children so I was just kind of curious,” I babbled in a rush, totally forgetting to breathe. When I finished I sucked in air like I was breathing for the first time.
A groan of embarrassment left his lips. “Mother…”
“But you know… I was just wondering.”
“You can tell mother to get off my case,” he told me, setting his jaw. “She’s been on it ever since Fiona gave her a grandchild. It’s not you, Emily.”
“Oh good,” I breathed in relief. “I don’t want a child yet.”
He nodded in agreement. “I’ll have to have a chat with her. Just ignore her if she says anything else about it.”
“Will do.” Snuggling closer to him, I let out a yawn. “Let’s go take a nap.”
“We can’t. Or at least I can’t. Fiona’s crowning ceremony is today, remember? I have to go to all that stupid shit to prepare for it.”
I blinked. How could I have forgotten? “Haha! You have to do all the work while I just lounge around!”
He growled softly, jabbing his finger into his side. “You laugh now, but you’ll be coerced into working too.”
“Doubt it. Everyone still treats me like the poor, kidnapped human Emily.”
“Well they should stop. You never really acted like the victim of a kidnap—”
“Except the first few days…”
He shrugged. “Well those were obvious. I’m curious though, why did you calm down so easily?”
“It’s easy to become come in a non-threatening environment,” I stated simply. “Sebastian made me feel at ease.”
“Sebastian,” Vincent muttered. “Stupid brother.”
I laughed. “You’re just jealous he was nicer to me at first.”
“I’m not. The jerk always gets the girl.”
“Why do you sound so confident?”
“Because it’s true,” he pressed.
I turned my head to look at him. “Why do you think that?”
He smirked. “I got you, didn’t I?”
After a short staring contest, we both started laughing. As much as I hated to admit it, it was true. I’d fallen for the jerk… The jerk with the surprisingly sweet side. The jerk who changed my life completely. The jerk I’d be spending the rest of my changed life with.
And it was perfectly okay with me.
“I love you, Jerk,” I stated, smiling contently.
He tightened his arms around me. “I love you too, Stupid.”
THE END
