Night Play(70)

Vane waited until they were completely alone before he turned back to Bride. "Hell of a day, huh?"

Bride sat back on the couch and took a deep breath to help her cope with all the odd events of the last twenty-four hours. "Yeah, oh yeah. We got flying babies, wolf-brothers, psycho moms, serial-killer boyfriends, vampire-killing friends, and I'm not even sure what else."

This was so beyond her ability to cope. "Am I insane?" she asked him. "Really, be honest."

"I wish it were that easy. I wish I could say yes so that you could have Grace fix you, but no, you're not crazy."

She was afraid of that. The question now was, what should she do?

"So let me see if I got everything straight from your mother. This"—she turned her hand over to show the mark—"means that we are somehow meant to be husband and wife. But if I refuse you, you spend the rest of your life impotent and alone? But I, on the other hand, am free to live my life however I see fit?"

He nodded.

"It really sucks to be you, doesn't it?"

Vane looked away as a muscle worked in his jaw. "I don't expect you to accept me, Bride. I never did. I mean, I hoped for about an hour or two, but I'm not stupid and I don't live in the world of… well, okay, I do live in a world of fantasy, but I've never deluded myself."

He knelt on the floor before her, took her hand in his and kissed her palm. Oh, he was so tender with her. So kind. She curled her fingers against his warm, whiskered cheek.

How could she leave a man like this?

He's not human.

Not fully, anyway. And he lived in a terrifying world of magic and mystery and scary monsters capable of all manner of cruelty.

"What do you want, Vane?" she asked, desperate to know. "Be honest with me. Do you want me simply because of this?" She held her palm out to him. "Or do you want me? I mean, you don't really know me, do you? Nor do I know you. I know you're a great guy in a pinch and that you have a family that makes the Addamses look normal. But I don't know the real you."

He took her hand from his face and held it in his callused one, staring up at her with those piercing hazel-green eyes. "The truth is, I don't know. I've never wanted any female the way I want you, Bride. But I honestly don't know if it's the mark or not. I don't."

At least he had told her the truth. That was definitely one thing in his favor. He'd never once bed to her.

"How long do I have to make a decision on this?" she asked.

"Two weeks. Roughly. Barring any further demon or mother interference."

"Then how about we try and act normal?" She burst out laughing at the ludicrousness of that statement. Yeah, they were just Jack and Jill Average climbing the hill to hell. She only hoped Jack didn't break his crown or that she went tumbling after.

Bride sobered. "Okay, at least we can pretend to be normal. Let me see the real you in all your strangeness so that I know what I have to look forward to and then I'll decide if I can handle it all without going totally insane."

He looked stunned by her suggestion. "You're not just running away from me?"

"I probably should and I can't imagine why I'm even considering this. But I do like what I know about you, Vane, and I guess everyone has problems. Not as profound as yours, mind you, but at least with you, when I tell people that my boyfriend is a dog, it's not just a figure of speech."

He chuckled at that.

Bride squeezed his hand. "So give me your worst, wolf. I'll give you mine, and at the end of two weeks, we'll see where we are."

Vane couldn't believe her. She was too good to be true. In all honesty, he had expected her to scream at him and run out the door, calling all of them loons.

But she was giving him a chance.

And that was something he hadn't had in a very long time… Hope.

Joy burst through him at the thought that she might actually stay with him. "There's so much I have to tell you."

She cringed. "You're not going to suck my blood, are you?"

Damn. She would pick that one thing to fear. Well, it was pointless now to keep anything from her. Better he lay it all out for her than she get pissed because he withheld something from her. As his mate, she deserved to have her questions answered. "I don't have to, no."

She looked at him suspiciously. "What do you mean, you don't have to?"

"My people aren't vampires, but there are two parts to a mating ritual. First is you accept me as your mate."

"How do I do that? Is it like a wedding?"

"To my people it is. Only we do it naked."

Her jaw dropped. "With witnesses? Forget it!"

"No," he said, laughing at her outrage. She was beautiful whenever her cheeks colored. It made her amber eyes glow. "It'll be just us. I lie on my back, we join our marks together, and you take me into your body, then we make our verbal pledges to each other."