A Gift of Three (A Shade of Vampire #42)(6)

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.

Though I did try to remind myself that we hadn’t truly lost them. That, wherever souls who passed in peace did go after death, somehow in spirit they were still with us… And they would live on through their children. Their three brave, beautiful children, whose features reminded me of their incredible parents every time I looked at them.

I took a few more minutes to compose myself before stepping back, my eyes leaving the gravestones. I continued on my walk around the courtyard, though I still remained lost in memories and contemplation.

So much in The Shade had grown and prospered in the time that had passed.

Tejus and Hazel had undergone their vampiric transformation (as had Ruby and Ash, who still lived in Nevertide)—and Derek and I had great-grandchildren. Our great-grandson, Phoenix Hellswan, was now eighteen years old, and similar to his father Tejus in almost every way. I loved him deeply, had been grateful for every second of watching him grow into a young man—from the fat bouncing baby phase that his mother and I felt was far too short, to the imperious years of being a toddler, making demands like a little prince, and then to the moody early-to-mid teen years (his father and mother had both been relieved when those were over), to now—a handsome, intelligent and fierce warrior with integrity in bucket loads.

We also had two great-granddaughters.

Vita Conway, born to Grace and Lawrence, was the same age as Phoenix. She was a beautiful, semi-fae girl with brilliant turquoise eyes and gold-brown hair, and her face looked so much like her mother that over the years it was becoming harder to tell the two apart. Vita was shy and quiet, intent on developing her inherent fae abilities. Fascinated by nature and the cosmos, both she and Zerus, Tejus’s brother, spent many hours trying to decipher messages and order in the night’s sky. I knew she would grow to become an amazing member of GASP—even more so when she broke free of her shy reserve.

I smiled to myself as I thought of my other great-granddaughter. She certainly had no issues with reserve. Serena Hellswan, Hazel and Tejus’s second child, was the polar opposite of Vita. Serena was a firecracker—a ball of energy and determination who ran around without ever letting up. Ever since she was a child she’d found it impossible to sit still, wanting to walk long before she could crawl, and so early to talk that it had shocked everyone. Tejus and Phoenix had their work cut out for them. Serena had the most protective father and brother in the world, and she constantly fought to carve out her own independence, determined that she didn’t need the constant guardianship of either of them. It was only the profound love that their family shared which stopped epic fights from erupting—and the presence of Hazel, who was always mediator, acting as a buffer against Tejus and Phoenix’s protective instincts. I knew that one day Serena would be glad of both her father and brother’s desire to keep her sheltered, but at seventeen, she wanted her freedom—and was determined to get it.

Serena Hellswan, Vita Conway and Aida Blackhall—the half-werewolf daughter of Victoria and Bastien—had struck up a firm friendship. Though Serena was a year younger than Aida and Vita, it never seemed to matter. The girls were as thick as thieves, their escapades as children legendary. Together, with Serena as the most likely ringleader, they had caused more mischief in The Shade than a bunch of brownies. Still, that was in the past. Now well on their way to adulthood, the girls were maturing, slowly becoming the exceptional women I knew they would be.

We also had another addition to The Shade. Yelena, Benedict’s childhood friend, had visited us every summer since her return from Nevertide, right up until she was sixteen. She had stopped coming then, sending Benedict a letter telling him that she had a boyfriend now, and would be moving to New York to finish her final years of school. Benedict had told everyone that he didn’t mind—that he was glad she wouldn’t be coming to ‘bother’ him every summer. That had lasted for two years while his mother and I waited patiently for him to see sense. Two years later, just after his eighteenth birthday, Benedict had started to grow restless. He packed his bags, left his mom a note that he’d gone in search of her, and disappeared from The Shade.