So this is the epilogue. This is it. Personally, I had absolutely no idea what I was going to write for the epilogue for this, but I knew I had to write an epilogue because I knew that within the constraints of this story, there was still ends that - kind of - still needed to be tied up. Honestly, I don't feel like it's completely tied up, but I'll let you guys be the judges of that. I just want to thank you guys for all your support over the whole series. There were so many new things that I did with this series as a whole that I haven't done before - doing a completely supernatural storyline, adding gay characters (actually, adding characters in general, because I'm pretty sure that Thirst was the first time I really started using OC's). Thank you, all of you, so so so much.

Epilogue

Four Years Later

"Zoe!" Dan shouted, flattening himself against the wall. From several hundred metres away, Zoe threw Dan a gun and he easily caught it, swinging his body to the side so that he came to face the three-hundred-year-old vampire, his wavy blonde hair touching his chin. At least, Dan thought it was supposed to be blonde. It was so matted with the dried blood of his victims that it had turned a rusty dark brown colour. Between that and the evidence of his raging Thirst visible on the vampire's face, he would have made a terrifying sight, if Dan had not been exposed to vampires so much for as long as he could remember. It still shocked Zoe and Aneisha a little bit sometimes, but Tom . . . Tom was a werewolf. Even if he wasn't aware of it, his natural instinct was to hate and expect the worst of vampires.

The vampire, who called himself Damian, snarled at Dan and Dan shot him in the leg. The bullet was wooden and soaked in holy water, and Dan grinned, watching as Damian's leg bucked beneath him. Zoe seemed to appear out of nowhere, sweeping Damian's feet out from under him and pinning him to the ground. Zoe drew a knife from her jacket and stabbed it into Damian's stomach and the vampire screamed out in pain. Zoe started to jump back, but Damian grabbed her arm with one hand, the other tracing the shape of her jaw. "Pretty, aren't you? Too pretty to be a hunter?"

The vampire's mouth was nearing her neck and Zoe set her mouth into a hard line, pulling the knife out of Damian's stomach and driving it through his throat. He let go of her and Zoe jumped back, watching as he pulled the knife and dropped it, glaring up at her as his throat healed.

"You little bitch – " Damian started, getting to his feet and lunging towards Zoe. Dan got in his way, intercepting Damian and slamming him into the floor using only his hand against the vampire's chest.

"Offspring," Damian gasped, staring up at Dan. Daniel Morgan was no longer the teenage boy he once was, with an inheritance he didn't want. At 21, Dan Morgan was a strong and capable young man that put William and Katarina Morgan to shame. He had turned out nothing like his father and mother, but more like Ezekiel Morgan instead, with a pure heart that was filled with nothing but love for Zoe London.

"Not anymore," Dan told Damian, gritting his teeth as he shot a round into Damian's stomach. Damian lifted a hand to start to dig them out, but then he paused, staring at something behind Zoe. Dan stood and watched as a large wolf with a mark on the inside of his ear stalked towards Damian, his lips pulled back from his teeth.

"Werewolf," Damian gasped, and then he noticed Tom's mark. "Chosen Warrior."

Tom growled in recognition as Aneisha walked up, her eyes blazing. "Damian."

"Sorceress," Damian replied quietly.

Aneisha regarded him coldly. "Do you know why I'm here?"

"I killed people."

"But I'm not going to kill you," Aneisha said. She looked at Zoe and Zoe smiled grimly, pulling out an arrow from the quiver strapped to her back. Damian started to get up, but Dan stepped on his right arm and Tom put his front paws on Damian's stomach. Aneisha made a quick gesture with her hand and Damian found himself pinned to the ground, completely immobile and unable to move.

Zoe struck before she could make herself stop, driving the wooden arrow through the vampire's heart. She stepped back, watching as Damian exploded into nothing but dust. Taking a deep breath, Zoe stepped back and Dan stepped towards her, putting his hand on her cheek. Zoe sighed in relief, smiling tiredly. He knew that she loved this, loved that they were saving people's lives, that they weren't mortal monsters like the Hunters were, but he knew she wished they didn't have to kill anyone at all.

"I know it's not five star but . . ." Dan trailed off, dumping his bag on the bed and watching Zoe as she looked around the hotel room. In truth, the hotel they'd picked was very far from five star. It was shabby at best, but having grown up in SKUL, Zoe didn't mind. She'd slept in much worse conditions.

Zoe raked her hand through her hair and sat on the bed, looking up at him with her auburn hair falling across her right eye. "It's fine."

Dan watched her for a moment. She always got quiet like this after they killed, once the adrenaline had worn off. He knew that she knew that they were doing a good thing – using their past to help other people. Over the past couple of years they'd helped more young vampires tame their Thirst than either of them dared to count, but that didn't mean Zoe enjoyed killing the ones that were beyond help. Dan watched as Zoe ducked her head, letting her hair shift so that it cast a shadow across her pretty face as she wrung her hands together in her lap, chewing on her lip.

"Hey," Dan said softly, sitting on the bed beside her. Zoe raised her head, green eyes following his movements as he sunk down onto the mattress next to her. She reached up with one hand to push her messy red hair out of her eyes as she turned her head so that she could see him. His blue eyes were clear, open with love and compassion as he reached up to brush his hand across her jaw gently. "You alright?"

Zoe shook her head, swallowing, and Dan wrapped an arm around her, drawing her into his embrace. Zoe curled her legs underneath her as she tucked her head underneath his chin. She shivered involuntarily as his fingers brushed against her shoulder gently, where the tattoo of a cross sat, the blank ink dark against her fair skin. They'd learned from an ex-Hunter that if you got a tattoo of a cross made in part with Holy water, the Holy water permanently infused itself with your blood. As a result, your blood became the most vile substance imaginable to vampires.

"That used to be us," Zoe murmured into his shirt, closing her eyes. "We used to be hunted. And now – "

Dan grabbed her chin and made her look at him. "We weren't killing people."

Zoe averted her eyes, tilting her head so that her forehead rested against his. "I did."

"Hey," Dan said fiercely, grabbing her face and making her look at him. "You weren't you, okay? You were someone else and you didn't know what you were doing." When her expression didn't change, he sighed quietly and brushed his hand across her jaw. "I'll tell you what. We can walk away from this, you and me. We can go buy a house and get normal jobs and just . . . be normal. For once. What do you think?"

She considered this for a moment and then she nodded, smiling a little. "Okay."

"Okay?"

"Okay," she confirmed, smiling wider now, and he grinned at her as she pulled him towards her, wrapping her arms around his shoulders to pull him against her. She gasped as in one swift movement, he shoved the bag off the bed, pulled her against him and laid back so that she was leaning over him as his mouth worked against hers. He could feel her laughing and Dan let his head fall back against the pillows, smiling as she climbed off him, lying down beside him. He heard her sigh softly in content as he wrapped his arm around her, and Zoe rested her head against his shoulder. She fell asleep like that, content to just be with him. The past four years had been amazing, but it had to come to an end sometime. She was happy – and excited – to be starting to new life, a normal life with Dan.