“You’d do that for me?”

He shrugged. “I can’t just leave you stranded like this.”

I fell silent, still trying to process everything he had just told me. Immortal. I’m immortal. That was insane.

The idea of never dying—never growing past seventeen—was terrifying to me.

But Ben’s words had provided at least some thread of comfort that perhaps there was hope for me. That we might discover a way for me to turn back into a human and return to my family who so desperately needed me.

I fixed my eyes on Ben’s stoic face. And once again I caught myself wondering why he would put himself out for me like this. I wasn’t used to this sort of kindness without some expectation in return.

I drifted off into my own thoughts, and, it seemed, so did he. We were silent for a long time, until finally I asked the question that had been at the back of my mind ever since we left The Oasis.

“Ben. Why do you think Jeramiah let us go so easily?”

His eyes darkened.

“I’m not sure why. But I hope we never find out.”

Epilogue: Derek

I looked around our long candle-lit table. We’d pulled it out onto the veranda to dine beneath the stars. Surrounding me were some of my closest friends and family. Sofia sat next to me on my right, Rose on my left, while Caleb sat on the other side of my daughter. Further along the table were Eli, Vivienne and Xavier; Kiev and Mona; Aiden and Kailyn; Gavin, Zinnia and Griffin; Ashley and Landis; Anna and Kyle; Corrine and Ibrahim; and, of course, the two guests of honor—Yuri and Claudia. The latter had just returned from their belated honeymoon to Paris and had successfully accomplished what they’d set out to do. Claudia was now officially pregnant.

She positively beamed as she sat at the opposite end of the table, digging into the meal Sofia and I had prepared together. They had not been gone long—not that any of us had expected it to take long.

Claudia’s animated voice filled my ears as I ate from my own plate of food, while all the vampires present just drank blood. Claudia dominated the conversation, asking question after question about what had happened on the island since they’d been gone.

“You missed Caleb’s and my wedding,” Rose said, through a mouthful of quiche. She held up her ring finger.

“Oh, my God. You got married!” Claudia practically bounced in her chair. “Are you going to turn into a vampire?”

Rose shot me a sideways glance, wiping her mouth with a napkin. “We don’t know yet,” she replied. “Ben still hasn’t returned and we still don’t know what went wrong with his turning… So we’re just waiting for now.”

“What about your honeymoon?” Claudia asked.

Rose blushed as she looked at her new husband. “We’re still deciding on that also…”

Sofia changed the subject and proceeded to explain about the dragons. Claudia seemed to be most interested in gossip about the relationships the fire-breathers had struck up with the humans around the island. Not that it interested me much. Rose mentioned that none of the girls had revealed any details about their relationships, but they all seemed to be exceptionally happy—which was all that mattered.

As for the dragon prince, he had left unexpectedly after my daughter’s wedding, and nobody was sure exactly where he’d gone, or if he would ever be returning.

“You’re going to have to do some detective work yourself about those dragons, Claudia,” Vivienne said, grinning. “Those girls are tight-lipped.”

I smiled at my sister, eyeing her growing bump. She grew more luminous by the day. We still didn’t know if she was carrying a boy or a girl, but none of us could wait to meet our newest addition to the family.

By the end of the meal, we’d recounted everything else that had happened that we could think of while Claudia and Yuri had been in Paris. After a dessert of cheesecake and fresh fruit, I leaned back in my chair, listening to the conversations around me. Then I locked eyes with Xavier. I nodded subtly, and he nodded back.

I leaned over to Sofia, who was chatting with Corrine, and kissed her neck.

“I’ll see you later,” I said softly.

My wife understood where I was going. She squeezed my hand and kissed me back.

Then I took my leave with Xavier. We headed out of the penthouse and made our way down to the ground. We walked silently through the forest and to the Port. A seventeen-foot boat was waiting at the end of the jetty—a new one that Caleb had recently designed. Xavier and I boarded it and navigated it across the waves toward the boundary of the island. We stopped just before we reached it and scanned the ocean surrounding us.

Even without vampire vision, I could see clearly three large gray ships floating in the distance.

“So they’re still here,” I muttered.

“They’re too close to The Shade for this to be a coincidence,” Xavier said.

Of course, he was right. These ships had first been spotted by Micah three days ago, and they had been floating in the same area ever since. Clearly, they were also strategically distanced from each other—the space between the three of them was identical. Their presence here was precise and calculated.

Someone had discovered The Shade’s location, and was watching us.

And that someone was a hunter.

There had been several more sightings of supernatural creatures in the past week that had been picked up by mainstream media—sightings that had not been of anyone from The Shade. No, there were other supernaturals who knew how to enter the human realm, and they were no longer bothering to keep themselves hidden since the code of secrecy had been broken.