Fan Fiction ❯ Past and Present ❯ Epilogue ( Epilogue )

"It's all over now," Raziel declared swinging a confusedly jubilant Tanim about in a circle.

"What? (Be careful, your stitches are still fresh)." He set her down, but kept a firm grip on her in case she decided to wiggle free. To hell with his stitches, he thought He had never felt healthier or more alive in his life.

"We have slain that vile beast Janos Audron and taken his black heart. (The stitches are fine)." The tired sparkle in her eyes dimmed with the mention of his profession, but he plowed ahead determinedly. "Lord Moebius has promised that vermin will start to decline now that we have severed their progenitor. You can gather herbs in the moor without fear of being attacked. We all will be able to live normal lives."

"You would never be happy with a normal life, Raziel," she sighed with a mixture of happiness and sorrow. Only she could mix such contradictory emotions into a single exhalation of breath. "You're special. You're destined for something large. I can feel it."

"You can? It's probably putting up with you." She attempted to give him a light punch in the shoulder, but he kept her arms firmly trapped in case of her retaliation for his comment.

"I have something important to tell you and now is as good a time as any, I guess," Tanim told him, a deep blush pouring color into her normally pale cheeks.

"What?"

"Well, it's…you see, I think…Okay, I can do this…I'm-"

The air shattered under the burden of a volley of terrified screams. Reflexively he tightened his arms about her. She winced slightly and tried to follow his gaze about the circular room.

"The Circle…"

"Vampires?" she questioned.

"Raziel," Turel yelled as he flung the door open. The two lovers waited with varying degrees of impatience while the man struggled to catch his breath. "Two demons have breached the sanctuary. Lord Moebius has ordered us to guard the Heart while he and Malek take care of the Circle."

"Where are-?"

"The other knights are already stationed in the planned defensive arrangement. I'm about to take up my post. Prepare yourself." Turel's keen eyes took in the horrified healer and his leader's protective grip about her. "You should have kept your tryst to a less…conspicuous area, Raziel. One of the fiends is headed this way and your lady will most likely encounter it."

"Go on, Turel. We shall be fine," Raziel grated out. The man sketched a sardonic bow before retreating to his assigned post. "Dammit."

"You aren't going to fight are you?" Tanim demanded angrily.

"Would you have me a pacifist at such a time?" he snapped.

"Your wound hasn't healed. If you fight this creature, you will tear out my stitches. You, my dear, are at a serious physical disadvantage." He couldn't help but laugh at her perturbed and indignant look. Gently he ran a finger down the creases in her forehead.

"Four other Elite Knights are with ready swords outside this room. Only a god or something invincible could get through. As far as I know, gods have never bothered with the affairs of men and no creature is invincible. Janos Audron is proof of that."

"Raziel…" She looked away even as she seemed to be on the edge of divulging some urgent parcel of information. He captured her chin in his hand and forced her to look him in the eye.

"Don't worry, Tanim. Every thing will be fine. I'll be fine. We'll talk later."

"If there will be a later."

"There will."

He wasted a few seconds to lose himself in her sad mouth and tired, vibrant life.

"Please take care. I love you," she whispered before following Turel's exit from the room.

"I love you too."

~ ~ ~

Raziel glared with defiant courage at the blue monstrosity, strangely elegant in its desiccated movements, before him. A chaotic band of worries struck a discordant march in his brain and sang her name, Tanim, through his reeling mind. She had left his presence mere moments before and now this creature had replaced her. And what of her? Was she alive?

"So you have slain my comrades. Did you enjoy it fiend?" The creature regarded him with in a manner that bespoke of weightier thoughts distracting it.

"Give me the heart and I will spare your life."

"Did you spare hers?" Raziel demanded coldly as he slowly drew his sword from its sheath. The creature's glowing eyes flared briefly under the pressure of some emotion.

"If I told you I haven't harmed her physically, would you accept that?"

"And emotionally, mentally? What did you do, you vile wretch?"

"Give me the heart of Janos Audron and you will find out," the creature replied brusquely.

"I will draw answers from your eviscerated corpse," Raziel yelled. The creature nodded as if he knew there would be no other outcome.

~ ~ ~

I remember the Sanctuary both in its glorious newness and the decayed carcass of my vampiric rebirth. I have traversed its echoing, sometimes leaky, halls and the area about it for countless years. I know every cranny and every slight raise of earth, yet I never found this single glen. Perhaps that is how it should have been for I would not have known the significance of the two stone edifices cradled in a lush spread of grass that defied the corruption of the land.

From the weathered chisel-work the final months of Tanim's life unfolded before me. Yes, she had only survived for a span of seven months after I killed my mortal self. The larger stone marker held her precious name and the dates of her birth and death. The smaller was that of our child.

The baby, a boy for she had named it after myself, or rather my other self, had lived for only a couple of days. The date of Tanim's death placed it one day later. She had told me that she had something to live for and when that went away she…

I remember the horror and sorrow, and love gods be damned, in her tired eyes when she saw my changed countenance. She had told me, begged me, not to commit the suicide of destiny's ordinance. She abhorred the loss of any life, whether human or, yes, even vampire. Suicide was the lowest anathema in her heart, yet she had turned to it. I drove her to it. I broke her, her spirit, her soul, and she took her own life.

She had been so strong, vibrant even her usual tiredness. No one could drag her from the lofty heights of her self-discovered truths. No one could do that, but the one she loved without regard to heart or time.

But that isn't the worst I did her upon our final meeting. Even breaking every promise I ever made her doesn't surpass the final travesty I visited upon her.

I let her die with the fallacious knowledge that I no longer loved her.

~ ~ ~

And that's a wrap. Thank you to everyone who has read my story, and even more thanks to those who reviewed. I'm nothing thinking of a sequel, but rather a pre-quel of Raziel's life as a boy till his final moments as a human. Of course Tanim will come in as well. Then maybe I'll write a sort of independent epilogue of sorts revolving around Tanim's final seven months of life. And maybe during that, aside from another story I'm thinking of (Too many! I'm getting too far ahead of myself already!), I'll put up a true sequel.

Anyway, please review if you feel so inclined.

Much love,

Sarryn