A Girl's Guide to Vampires

The words reached me as I knelt over Raphael, one hand holding his, the other stroking his face. His skin was warm, his pulse was slow but steady, his long brown lashes resting peacefully on the taut skin of his cheeks.

"I love you, Bob," I whispered to him.

His fingers tightened around mine as voices from the far side of the cave echoed down to us, calling to find out if we were all right. The police had finally arrived.

"Love you, baby," he murmured.

High in the night sky a beautiful voice etched into the heavens the song of a brave warrior and a beautiful maiden, and their love so true it could not be destroyed, not even by death itself.

I smiled at my warrior as I waited for help to arrive.

Epilogue

To: Joyful

From: Roxanne Benner

Date: November 5, 2003

Subject: I'm baaaaaaaaaack!

Hi Joy (and Raphael)! I'm back home, and boy do I have a lot to tell you! You're not going to believe what happened to me after I left Germany… but I'm going to tease you and make you wait for it. Are you waiting? Am I driving you nuts? Good. Now you know how it feels. Hahahahahah!

I'm glad to hear you guys made it to London OK. What's Raphael's apartment… sorry, FLAT look like? 'Roomy and near a big park' doesn't tell me much. Take pictures.

And speaking of him, I'm happy the tattoo wasn't touched when they dug that bullet out of his gut. A scar you can live with, but if that tattoo was ruined… well, I'm just glad it's not. How long will it be before you know if Interpol is going to throw him out of the organization for going off on his own to find the vampire murderers? I can't believe they yanked him off the case in the first place. I mean, didn't he have Dominic and Milos pegged all along? It wasn't his fault if someone messed up the evidence; he knew it was Dominic, they should have listened to him, not forced him to take a leave of absence. Is he still in denial about Christian, or has he finally given in and admitted that there are Dark Ones? Must be tough living with an infidel unbeliever. Still, all's well that ends well, eh? You got your man, Inspector Bartos has Milos locked up safe and sound, and I got… heee! Nope. Not going to tell you yet. Waiting, waiting, waiting…

OH! I got an e-mail from Christian! Who knew Dark Ones were Internet savvy? He said he was going to send me a sneak peak at Book Thirteen, and was even going to name a heroine after me. Too cool, huh? I hope you're doing everything you can to find his Beloved, although I don't have a clue how you're going to go about it. Maybe you should put an ad in a London paper asking to interview single women? Or how about this—write a book about vampires so steamy that it will bring Christian's Beloved out of the woodwork. I even have a title for you: A Girl's Guide to Vampires. Brilliant, huh? Yeah, I know. I should be in marketing.

Work is the same old same old, no fun without you, but I'm not crying in my coffee. Want to know why? Ha! I just bet you do. Keep waiting. That's a hoot what your mom said about Bradley, BTW. I always said he was no good. I hope they take his license away. There's just no excuse for drunk drivers! Can we say LOSER? Sure we can!

Rats, it's after five. I have to go. I'm flying out to Rio tonight. RIO! As in, de Janeiro! You're dying to know why, aren't you? OK, I'll spill, but only because you're my best friend, even if you did leave me to shack up with a guy halfway around the world. You'll notice I'm not screaming about this. Why, you must be asking yourself, would dear sweet old Rox be so calm and collected?

I'll tell you why—Captain Richard Blaine. That's captain as in airline captain. Richard was deadheading on the flight home from Frankfurt, and sat next to me, and we talked, and I spilled my screwdriver on him, and one thing led to another, and… well… let's just put it this way: Miranda is two for two, Joyful.

Can I have my condoms back, please?

Will e-mail you when I get back from the land of sun and samba. Kisses and hugs to the big guy!

Roxy the no longer pure