Their 10th Wedding Anniversary
Content Warning: Mature readers only.
"Close your eyes," Kieran instructed.
"Why?"
"Because I said so. Trust me."
Aiden closed his eyes, letting Kieran lead him through their home. They'd moved since their first anniversary—a sprawling estate that housed their growing family, but tonight, the house was empty. Kieran had sent all their children away for the weekend.
"Where are we going?"
"Patience."
They stopped, and Aiden heard a door open.
"Okay, open."
Aiden opened his eyes and gasped.
Their bedroom had been completely transformed. The walls were covered in photographs—every moment of their life together over the past decade. Their wedding. Elian's turning. Luna's adoption. The twins' first day at school. Family dinners. Battles won. Quiet moments of joy.
But in the center of the room stood something that made Aiden's breath catch: a replica of the monastery chapel where they'd first met in 1024.
"Kieran... how?"
"Marcus helped. I wanted to recreate our beginning. Because tonight, I want to renew our vows. In the place where it all started, even if only symbolically."
Aiden was crying. "You beautiful, romantic, impossible vampire."
Marcus appeared in the doorway, wearing ceremonial robes. "Shall we begin?"
They stood facing each other in the makeshift chapel, hands joined.
"Ten years ago," Marcus began, "you married in front of the supernatural community. Tonight, you renew those vows in private, witnessed only by the souls that have loved across lifetimes."
"Aiden," Kieran began, his voice rough with emotion. "Ten years. In immortal terms, that's nothing. A blink. But these have been the best ten years of my existence. You've given me family, purpose, joy. You've turned my curse into blessing. My loneliness into belonging."
He pulled out a new ring—matching their wedding bands but with an added inscription that glowed with magical light: "Worth the wait. Worth everything."
"I vow to love you for ten more years. A hundred more. A million more. However long forever lasts, I'm yours."
Aiden was full-on sobbing now. "How do I follow that?"
"Just speak from your heart. That's all I need."
Aiden took a shaky breath. "Kieran, I remember everything now. Every lifetime. Every death. Every moment of loving you and losing you. And I understand something important: we needed all of it. The pain, the waiting, the loss—it all led us here. To this moment. To this life. To this perfect, impossible forever."
He produced his own ring for Kieran—inscribed with: "Found you. Keeping you. Loving you."
"I vow to never leave you again. To stand with you against any threat. To build this beautiful life we've created and make it even more beautiful. To love you not just because of our past, but because of our present and our future. Forever, Kieran. In every way that matters."
Marcus smiled through his own tears. "Then by the power of love that transcends death itself, I pronounce you—still married, still bonded, still forever."
"Kiss him already," Marcus added with a laugh.
They kissed, and the bond between them exploded with light and warmth and perfect, complete love.
Marcus left, sealing the door behind him with a privacy spell.
"Alone at last," Aiden murmured.
"For the entire weekend. No children, no responsibilities, no interruptions. Just us."
"What should we do with all this time?"
Kieran's eyes flashed crimson with desire. "I have several ideas."
What followed was passion built from ten years of marriage, from a thousand years of waiting, from an eternity of love.
They made love in the makeshift chapel, honoring their beginning. Then in their bed, celebrating their present. Then in the shower, because they could. Then against the wall, because desire demanded it.
Each time was different—sometimes gentle and tender, sometimes fierce and desperate, always perfect.
"I will never get enough of you," Kieran said as dawn approached and they lay tangled in sheets, both thoroughly satisfied.
"Good. Because you have eternity with me." Aiden traced lazy patterns on Kieran's skin. "What's your favorite part? Of the past ten years?"
"Impossible to choose. But... watching you with Luna. Seeing you be the father you never got to be in previous lifetimes. Seeing you create the family you've always deserved. That might be it."
"Mine is simpler. It's every morning, waking up next to you and remembering that this is real. That we made it. That we won."
"We did win, didn't we? Against fate, against enemies, against a thousand years of curse and loss. We won."
"Because we refused to give up. Because love was stronger than everything else."
They made love one more time as the sun rose outside their sealed chamber—slow, intimate, perfect. A celebration of not just ten years, but of every lifetime that had led them here.
"Ten more years?" Kieran asked afterward.
"A thousand more," Aiden corrected.
"Ten thousand."
"A million."
"Forever."
"Forever."
They sealed it with a kiss that tasted like blood and promises and eternity.
Outside their room, the photographs on the walls glowed softly—enchanted to capture not just images but emotions. Joy, love, triumph, family. A visual history of their impossible happiness.
And in the center of it all, two souls who'd found each other across lifetimes, who'd refused to give up, who'd proven that love—real, true, eternal love—was worth any wait, any sacrifice, any struggle.
Worth everything.
THE END