Disclaimer:

Anything you recognise does not belong to me; I'm simply playing around with Alan Ball's and HBO's lovely universe and delectable characters.

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Epilogue

I felt so completely safe in the thick darkness that surrounded me, strong arms encompassing me as a protection from everybody and everything. I sensed him behind me as more than just the strong body that was holding onto mine; I sensed him as if our minds were linked with this unbreakable, golden bond, and I didn't have to focus in the least to feel his soul pulse warmly around mine, enclosing me as protectively as his arms did.

A warm surge of relief and love shot through the bond and I knew I was in some form of heaven. "How are you here with me? How is that possible?"

"I could not let you go," he murmured into my ear. I felt his breath move my hair strands against the sensitive skin, which puzzled me – I'd always thought that the place between lives was more ethereal than physical. The guilt now coursing through the bond confused me even more.

"I don't understand," I told him.

The arms around me constricted tighter, and I realised that we definitely had physical bodies. "I will explain everything in a little while, my love. But now it is time for us to rise." And with that he sat up, pushing at the darkness over us, which broke and crumbled.

I shielded my face as I was covered in what smelled like gorgeous, rich soil.

Godric easily jumped out of what turned out to be the hole we had been lying in, turning around to reach a hand down after me, but I was too preoccupied with staring open-mouthed up at a night sky of the likes I'd never seen before to take it. Millions upon millions of stars shone clearly down at me, and I could see galaxies swirling in the high distance. It was beautiful.

"Where are we?!" I gaped, awestruck.

A soft breeze hit my face, carrying with it scents of the forests and Godric and so… much more. I inhaled deeply, looking up at my beloved with amazement, and realised that even he was more beautiful than ever.

"We are home," Godric said as he gracefully crouched down by the edge of the hole, still reaching for my hand. "Come to me, Sophie."

Without even thinking I obeyed, grasping his beckoning hand with my own. I was effortlessly pulled out of the hole, only to once again be encircled in my soul mate's arms. I buried my face in his neck, enjoying the scent of him that was somehow stronger and deeper than normal. Yes, this was home; heaven, or nirvana, or whatever it was called – it was perfect bliss, being entirely entangled with Godric's very essence in this way.

"How are you here with me?" I asked again, moving to brush my nose over the skin of his throat. He didn't feel cold now, a realisation that disturbed the joyful tranquillity humming through my mind. I pulled my face back a little, looking into luminous, mercury eyes specked with sapphire blue. The starry sky was reflected in them.

Tenderness and sorrow washed over his features and through the golden bond, making my hands rush to his face in a desperate urge to soothe his pain. My entire being shuddered with an unrelenting need for him to never ache.

"Godric?"

"Be calm, my light," he mumbled, catching my hands in his and pressing them to his lips, one after the other. "I… could not let you go." Shame followed his words. "I hope, one day, you will forgive me for what I have done."

I stared at him, trying to process the shame and guilt. It was not meant to be like this – the afterlife was a place for peace, not…

The obvious answer smacked me in the face without warning, and I blinked, feeling my body going numb with shock.

"No?" I couldn't be. This felt too good; I was too alive.

The silent confirmation in Godric's bottomless eyes made me blink again before my gaze shifted to our surroundings. Though it was night, the colours of the lush garden seemed more vibrant than anything I'd seen before... in my prior life. The soft wind against my face brought with it smells of earth and water, vegetation and life, as well as rustling from a small animal underneath the bushes in the other end of the garden, the gentle flow of the stream to the East…

I turned my head and saw a large, darkened farm house maybe 30 yards away. Home. We were truly home, standing in the gardens of the house we had purchased. The house that was meant to be our safe spot in this world, the place I could start a new life with the man who was my new family. I looked back at the hole we'd crawled up from. It was so clearly an open grave. My grave.

"I came too late," he said, the ache in the bond shifting. "We came too late. When Eric found you, you were too far gone to save, without… " A pale hand slid through my hair, brushing clumps of dirt from it. "I was unable to let you go. I tried, my love. I swear to you, I tried. But when our bond died, I…" He didn't finish. He didn't have to, because I felt the pain echo through the golden cord.

The pain I had asked him to endure, for an unspecified number of years until I was reborn and thrust into his path again. It nearly knocked me to my knees in its burning intensity.

Expecting him to let me die had been so terribly selfish of me. I was his soul, his reason to exist as much as he was mine, and the deepened bond between us finally let me understand this to its full extent. I had been a fool; he could never have lived on after my natural death, no matter how late in my human life that would have occurred. And I had been a hypocrite; as I stood there, enveloped in the darkness and the very essence of the being I loved with my entire soul, I couldn't even force myself to think about how I would feel, should he ever perish and leave me behind.

Eric had been right; had he not taken my humanity, he would have lost his beloved Maker. But that didn't change the fact that he had betrayed and killed me. Hot anger bubbled through my veins at the thought of the blond man. He had lied to Godric about the circumstances of my death, it would seem. He had betrayed us both in his desperation to ensure his Maker's survival, disregarding both our spoken wishes in the process.

But while I could – and would – hate him for taking my choice from me, as I felt the direct connection to Godric now, I understood. If he was ripped from me, I'd lose my mind before following him into the True Death. He was my one reason to exist, my… Maker.

Eric had once told me that one day, I'd understand what a Maker meant. I stared at Godric, feeling the gentle pull from his very essence, the call from his blood to mine. It wasn't that I loved him more now, but… the unison we had was no longer plain spiritual, it was on a molecular level, and I existed purely because of him, for him. Literally.

"I understand if you must hate me." The soft tone brought me out of my inwardly swirling thoughts. "If you wish it, I will release you as soon as you can manage on your own."

Pure horror washed through me, and I gripped onto the very centre of my universe as tightly as I possibly could. "No! No, no, don't even say that!" I didn't quite know what he meant by 'releasing me', other than it indicated a lessening in our connection, and if I lost any part of him it would rip my heart out.

"Shh, be calm, my Child," he murmured, closing his arms around my shivering back and pressing me wonderfully close. "I will only do so if you wish me to. I felt the anger… hatred in the bond, and I will never force you to be tied to someone you hate. Even if… even if that means seeing you leave my side."

Of course. My wild emotions when I thought about Eric's betrayal would have gone straight through to him.

I opened my mouth to tell him everything, to explain exactly how I had died, how my anger wasn't for him, when Eric's words brushed through my mind in a whispered echo: 'He may hate me for an eternity, but you will be with him and he will know peace.' It was truth he had spoken. If I confessed his Son's sins, he would hate him for the rest of eternity.

But it was not for Eric's sake that I said: "I can never hate you," turning my full attention to my mate and, fumbling a little, pushed all my love and devotion through the golden string tying us together.

No, it was for the shudder of relief and joy and overwhelming love flooding through the bond as I was crushed against my mate and kissed fervently. It was for the whispered gratitude and words of devotion and prayer to any and all deities. It was for Godric's sake that I vowed never to tell him of his Son's betrayal, because I could not bear to feel his heart shatter.

A soft pull on the bond made me moan in surprise, any and all thoughts not centred on him vanishing as he pulled back from the kisses he had been placing on my lips, jaw and neck.

"How are you feeling, my love?" he asked softly. "Hungry?"

An empty feeling inside me at the mention of hunger made something in my gum ache longingly, and I let out a wanton moan. Oh, was I ever!

Godric smiled gently at my involuntary sound. "There is TruBlood in the kitchen; I will teach you how to feed later, when the authority has been dealt with."

The authority, the King… I clasped onto his arms and pushed away from the embrace. "What happened?" Would we have to run? Godric had… been fighting, Eric had told me. That could only mean that…

"King Richard is dead, along with Alistair and a few of his Guards. I did not plan to fight, but when I felt your pain, there was no other way." He said it evenly, as if he hadn't just slaughtered a King and we weren't moments away from being hunted down and tortured into our True Deaths.

A pale hand rose from its grasp around my waist and stroked through my dirty hair again. "There is no need for you to be scared, little one. It is… different, now. He harmed my mate – I had every right, even in the eyes of the Authority."

I blinked at his calm reference to what had been the definition of a shitty situation twenty-four hours ago. "Uh… but the… witch thing? Surely, to them, he had every right to have me killed?"

"The moment you were turned, your human crimes were wiped clean. That is how our ways have always been. Besides, with Alistair and Richard gone, the only claim that you were ever a witch is from the King of Louisiana, and I am sure Eric is currently convincing him that he should change his perception of what exactly you were doing at the coven. Without Texas' protection, I sincerely doubt that he will wish to further anger me." A note of steel slipped into his voice at that.

"So… we are free?"

The gentle smile returned. "We are close, my light. Isabel and Stan are at the estate, waiting for the Authority, and we will need to meet them there tonight for questions. But when we have fulfilled our obligations, there will be no further need for us to hide. You are my mate, my Child…" a pleasurable shudder went through the golden cord as he named me his progeny, "… and nothing is more sacred than that. No one can take you from me; you are forever mine."

I'm not proud to admit that I forcefully lunged at him, driven by the pleasure and possessiveness in our bond, wrapping my arms and legs around his body like a boa constrictor and pressing my lips on his, demanding access in a very unladylike manner.

A deep chuckle rumbled against me from where his chest was pressed into mine, but he obliged me without delay, pure joy enveloping me as we kissed. Until the pleasurable ache in my gum suddenly became overwhelming, and something snapped out from them, followed by the most wonderful taste in the universe; Godric's blood.

I pulled my head back with a start, though my entire body quivered with the urge to latch on to his lip, where my fangs had nicked him. "Did I hurt you?" Hurting him… the thought alone made me nauseated.

An impish smirk slid over his sculptured lips as he released his grip on me, letting me slide to the ground. "Hurt me? With those baby fangs? No. However, you need to feed now, before you lose control."

An involuntary shudder went through me, even as my now extended fangs ached longingly to be sunk into a warm body and pull life force from it. I needed blood.

It was as if the full extent of my new existence hadn't truly set in before that moment, where my body was longing to end another's life, as if the unadulterated pleasure of waking in Godric' embrace had somehow erased my knowledge of what it meant to be a vampire.

Even my beloved, the gentle soul I claimed as mine, had been gruesome in his youth.

A hand that used to feel cold grabbed mine and squeezed gently. "Look at me, Sophie."

I obeyed, searching his eyes for comfort and the promise that everything would be fine.

And I found it.

"You do not need to hurt anyone. I will teach you, my light. I promise you, I will teach you so you never have to carry the burden of an innocent's life. I will be with you through everything you will face, and I will spend eternity ensuring that you do not lose your pure soul. I swear this to you, as your Maker; I will not let you lose yourself."

In his eyes, in our bond and in his soul, I saw the truth of his promise, and I nodded mutely, too overwhelmed to find the words to express my gratitude – I was home. I was safe. Finally.

"Come."

Casting one, last glance at the upturned dirt that had held us through the day I followed my Maker as he led me into our house and into my new life.

END

xXx

Author's Note

I hope this happy end made up for last week's cliff-hanger!

EDIT: There sadly won't be a sequel to 'I See You' as I don't have the time to dedicate to another story. I might adapt it into original work at some point down the line, but I have about a gazillion projects I need to work on first.

I hope you enjoyed this fic, and will let me know what you thought of it in the reviews. It's been such an amazing process to write this, and it's really helped me grow as a writer. I cannot thank all you readers enough. Your support has helped me move into the real-life publishing world - a lifelong dream that I never thought I would achieve. Thank you so much.

- Midnat