Page 36 of By The Moon

“Maybe I should go back to bed.” Smiling softly, Jerome added, “Maybe you should come with me to make sure I’m recovering.”

Smiling back at him, Louis kissed him softly. “Maybe I should. We can’t be too careful, can we?”

“No, we can’t.” Returning Louis’ kiss, Jerome sighed. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Epilogue

“Dad,” Jerome whined. “Don’t do that. It’s embarrassing.”

“My house so I’ll do what I want. Louis. Answer the question.”

Louis’ lips twitched. “No. I never met President George Washington.”

“Were you even alive then?” Candice sat at the table, head resting on her hand as she watched Louis. Jerome groaned and shook his head.

“No, he wasn’t.”

“It was a little before my time. Most vampires I work with are around one hundred to two hundred years old. There are some younger vampires but we don’t have as many young as you do. We tend to live longer so I guess it’s nature’s way of balancing everything out.”

“You’ve seen some things though, right?” Shaun cut into his lamb. “How old are you again?”

“I’m one hundred and fifty years old.”

“So the invention of planes and cars and you are way older than any man I could have imagined for my son.”

“I saw planes, yes. The Wright brothers were nice men.”

“You met them?” Shaun’s fork dropped onto his plate.

“Once. Briefly. There were less humans then so it was easier to mingle and no cameras like there are today. They were in a bar sometime after their history making flight. I asked a quick question and they answered it. Like I said it was brief but they were nice men.”

“Woah, that’s awesome.” Candice fluttered her eyelashes and Jerome reached across the table to smack her. “Hey! What was that for?”

“Stop making googly eyes at my man.” Jerome glared at Candice. “I’ve got my eyes on you.”

“I’m not. Not really. I met someone.”

“Who? What’s his job? How old is he? Where does he work? What does he drive?” Shaun rapid fired the questions at Candice and Jerome actually felt sorry for her. A tiny little bit sorry.

“He’s actually a vampire, like Louis here.”

“A mate?” Louis watched and smiled when she nodded, her skin reddening. “What’s his name?”

“Hugo.”

“Hugo!” Jerome leapt up and pointed at Candice then at Louis then stared at Shaun. “I know him. I’ve met him.”

Louis chuckled. “He’s a good guy and I know he’s been searching for his mate. I’m happy for you.”

“We’re taking it slow.”

“Wow! Just…yeah…wow. Your theory about both of us having mates was right.” Jerome sat and stared open mouthed at Candice.

“I’m not just a gorgeous face.” Candice flipped her curls over her shoulder. “We’re going slow. I had exams and he didn’t wantto interfere with that and then the situation with Jerome and this Skylar, plus he’s working more.”

“He needs to tell the council and Gray so they can let him take some time off. Congratulations.”

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