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of that mattered in the least, because I
loved her and I was not leaving her here to marry some asshole. She
would have to come with me, and we’d have to leave in secret. But
we’d need money to finance our escape, and to set us up in some
city, so I could get the right connections to support her myself...
I thought frantically about what to do and how to do it, tightly
clenching her hand in mine.
    She moved closer to me, almost lying on my
chest. “I wondered why you always seemed chilled. It is because you
aren’t human.”
    “I’m not,” I said, brushing her hair back
from her face. “I’m vampire. I won’t age, Anna, and I’ll need to
drink blood, or I’ll die.”
    She looked at me seriously.
    “I love you,” I said, throwing all my reason
to the wind. “I’m not living without you. Say you’ll come with me,
and we’ll leave here together.”
    She looked at me. “I am not ready to be your
wife, Devlin. I don’t know you well enough.” She burst out
laughing. “I feel like a brothel woman, saying that, with us laying
here as we are. But it’s the truth.” She paused.
    This was good. I wasn’t ready to make her my
wife, even if I loved her. The nobleman in me told it wasn’t proper
anyway, when I had nothing but myself to offer her.
    “I do want a commitment from you that you’ll
be with me and not other women. I won’t be disgraced, Devlin.”
    To Hell with being with other women. I wanted
just her. “You have it.”
    “If I refused to go with you, what would you
do?” she whispered.
    “I’d stay here, and let the sun have me,” I
said despondently. “I’ve already gone through so much. Now that
I’ve finally cared for a woman, I don’t see the point of
continuing, unless you’re with me.”
    My words were true in the mood I was in, and
better yet, they had the effect I wanted them to.
    “I will go with you,” she said, kissing me
lightly. “On two conditions.”
    “First?”
    “We must wait at least a few days, until the
caravan bearing my marriage money arrives. We’ll need some of my
dowry to buy a home and give us a start. That money is mine by law,
as it was my late mother’s.”
    “I’m sorry,” I whispered softly. “I believed
the woman your father was with at the dinner table to be your
mother.”
    “Stepmother,” Anna said with a grimace, then
her face smoothed. “I don’t mean to be unkind. She has given him a
son, and other daughters, and never treated me as less than them.
She eased his mind when my mother died having me. But she is not my
mother. Do you understand?”
    “I understand,” I said gently. “My mother is
dead also, and my father, brothers and sisters. I am the only one
left.”
    Anna hugged me. “I’m sorry, Devlin.”
    I kissed her cheek. “It happened a long time
ago, dearest. I was never close to my mother. She wouldn’t permit
it. Don’t trouble yourself. Think of our love instead.”
    Anna nodded. “You’re right, we must think of
our future and prepare quickly. I’ll need to pack a saddlebag with
my most precious things. You will need to buy us some horses,
Devlin. You’ll have to go outside the walls to procure some,
perhaps to the next town. If you purchase quality steeds for us
here, you’ll draw suspicion. Do you have enough coin for two good
horses?”
    “Call me Dev,” I said lovingly. “No one has
for many years. But I want you to, Anna.”
    Anna was all business. “Dev, can you get the
horses? We’ll never get away on foot. We must get them as soon as
possible.”
    This woman was odd, to not want to lie here
and be romantic with me, to be instead planning out our escape for
us. In her shoes I might be too, if I was about to be married
against my will.
    “Devlin, are you listening to me?”
    “Of course, Anna. I have most of the money
that I made here. It’s not much, but together with what you paid
me, we have enough.” I felt a little embarrassment mentioning her
money, but she took no notice of that.