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“I will never harm you. And you’re no longer human. Not at all.” She nodded. “I will do anything for you. I love you, Rose. I will for the rest of our lives together.”

“I’m afraid.” He reached for her, and she went into his arms. As soon as she was there, everything in her mind seemed to calm. She supposed that was what love did to a person. “I think I love you, York. But I don’t know what that is.”

“It’s all right. I’ll show you every hour of every day how to know that I love you.” She nodded but didn’t let go. He was saving her from herself, and she knew that. As soon as he let her go, she looked up at him. “I would love to kiss you right now. I know that this isn’t the place to make love to you again, but when we get home, I’m going to love you until we’re both exhausted.”

“I’d like that.” She took his hand into hers, and she walked to the door with him. “I have my own car, but there are times when I don’t like to drive. I assume from the limo that you own that you don’t like to drive sometimes too.”

“I’ve discovered that I love to drive, but you’re right, there are times when I find it’s easier to be driven rather than to drive.” He laughed a little. “All I wanted was someone to check out my cars and my whole life became better.”

She asked him questions all the way back to his house. She said that she’d talk to her employees in the morning about the garage and would have an answer by the end of the day. He told her there was no hurry, but she felt there was. Rose wanted to get started on her life with York and the sooner the better.

They made it home in time for lunch. He sat with her but didn’t eat. He told her that her blood had filled him nicely and that he’d not have to feed for a long time. She asked him if that meant he’d not bite her anymore.

“I’ll bite you every time we have sex. It’s the most wonderful feeling in the world. And when you drink from me, I have the best climaxes ever. You make me want to have sex with you every moment of the day. However, I know that it’s not possible.” She asked him why not. “Because you need to replenish or you’ll be too weak.”

“I guess I never thought of that. Jenkins told me that I needed to eat more red meat and to drink more in the way of fresh juice. He made sure I had some before I left the house this morning. I think it was his polite way of telling me he knew what we’d been up to.” He said that he thought the household knew. “Now I’m embarrassed. Do you think they heard me screaming?”

“Doubtful, but I don’t know. I do know that as soon as we bonded, what making love did for us, the two of us got more magic. The household would have as well because it would know to protect you while you’re here. I mean the people that work here, not the house itself.” She said that she understood that. “Good. I didn’t know if you thought I meant the house. Though the house has its own magic. People with ill will in their hearts or minds will not be able to enter. That’s to keep the people working for us safe too.”

“They all know that I’m going to be living at the house?” She answered her own question. “I guess since I spent the night with you, that pretty much told them that you and I are a couple.”

“That’s right. And speaking of being a couple. Would you marry me? We can have a large wedding if you wish or just something at the courthouse. It’s entirely up to you. I don’t have anyone, but my mom and five brothers, and you have only your brother and father. It’s up to you how we do this part of our relationship.”

“Just the courthouse.” He said that he’d take care of things in the morning. “Good. One less thing to worry about. So I’ll be Rose Malone then?”

“Yes. My full name is York Patterson Malone. I have titles as well that we’ll get into later. I asked my mother, and she said that I was born twenty-four hundred years ago. Just a hundred years after they were married.” She asked if his father was alive. “No. He somehow got silver in his bloodstream, and it ran throughout his body. When it did that, he died a slow and painful death. We still don’t know to this day how he contracted it, but we’ve been looking. He’s been gone for a while now, but it feels like just yesterday.”

“The same with my own grandfather and great-grandfather. He had a massive heart attack that killed him when he was only fifty-eight. My grandda died of a broken heart not six months later.” He said that he was sorry. “I’m sorry for your loss as well. I guess they’ll all be coming over to meet me tonight. How does that work? They don’t eat dinner.”

“They’ll eat something to make it so you’re comfortable. For me, I’ll just bask in your love. As soon as dinner is over, we’ll sit in the living room, and you can ask them questions too. They’ll be more than happy to answer them for you.” She asked if they would know more things than he did. “I’m not sure. We’ve all had different jobs since we left home. Right now Gib is a computer programmer, and Radford is an ER doctor. Bax and Safford are attorneys and help out the family a great deal when it’s needed. And Yardley is between jobs right now. He’s been about everything there is as well.”

“Will I have the same kind of life, you think? Doing things just because I want to try it?” He said that he’d been working as anything he wanted as well and had at one time been a mechanic too. “I think that I’m going to like that. Being able to try different things.”

“You’ll be able to go to college if you wish or just hang around the house. Whatever you wish to do. If you want to not ever work again, that’s fine as well.” She nodded; he’d told her that already. “Once you decide that you want to do something, one of all of us will help you out. As I said, we’ve all been just about everything there is.”

“I’ll have to think about that.” He laughed and told her that his mom wanted to meet her again. “I’d like to meet her as well. She must be something special to have raised boys like you into good men. I don’t know that she likes me all that much anyway.”

“She wonders if we’ve been good men sometimes. There were times when all or some of us have been in trouble with something or another.” He laughed. “I think I’ve been the one that caused the most trouble for her. With my job, I was looking for ways to get my head on straight for killing rogues, and acting out was the only way that I could work around it. I guess that made better sense in my head.”

“I understand. You needed an outlet, and you acted out. Your mom probably took that into consideration too. She must love you guys very much.” He said that they all loved her just as much. “Good. I can’t wait to talk to her. She must be a saint to have been able to raise six sons on her own. I know that I’d have trouble keeping up with six grown men.”

They talked about everything that he’d done in the last century. She didn’t want him to go beyond that as she was afraid he’d tell her more about his job. She knew that he was good at it; he’d been doing it for a long time, but it worried her that he was doing it where he might get hurt. He couldn’t, he’d told her, but she still worried.

Chapter 5

Phillip read the paper twice when he read his sister’s name. He didn’t get along with her all that much, but to see that she’d gotten married for some reason pissed him off. He tossed the paper aside and went to find her. She had to be at her garage by now, and that was the first place he looked. However, when he got there, the place was closed up tight and a sign out front said that it was under new management. He wondered what that meant.

Going to the side door where her apartment was, he could see in the window that the place was still as it had always been, but she didn’t come to the door. Pounding on it harder, all he got for his trouble was a bruised hand and a headache.

Pulling out his cell phone, he pressed the buttons that would show her picture. Holding the phone to his ear, he could see that there had been a big van in the drive that hadn’t been there before. He kept tabs on Rose so that she’d know he was around, but he never wanted anything from her other than a few bucks now and again. And she usually gave it to him when he was running short. Like today.

He’d been out last night and had his credit card denied. He didn’t realize they could do that if you were late on a payment. He’d been about a month behind for the last six months, and he supposed they didn’t care for that. He’d just ask his sister for a loan to get it caught up and he’d pay her back in a couple of months. She was usually good for it. He kept thinking about the garage being under new management, and he wondered if she’d got fired or something. Which wasn’t possible, as he thought that she owned the place. When his call went to voicemail, he told her to call him. That he needed about two hundred bucks. He didn’t explain why, but knew that he would when he picked up the money. She was forever wanting details when he borrowed money from her. He didn’t understand why; she was his sister after all.

Getting in his car, he forgot to tell his sister that he needed her to change his oil and stuff. It was time. She’d set a reminder on his phone for it to be done, and she never charged him for it. Again, he wondered at the sign and thought that if she wasn’t working anymore, then she could still do it for free. He looked forward to not having to pay for it, and she wasn’t going to change her mind even though she was out of work. It was the only reason that he could think of that the place was under the new sign. She’s somehow lost her job.

Phillip didn’t know what to do when he couldn’t get in touch with his sister. He thought about leaving her another message but knew that would just piss her off. One time when he needed some money, he’d left her about a dozen messages about it, and she’d been so pissed off that she didn’t help him out.

“One message is enough. I’ll get back to you when I can.” He’d told her that it had been an emergency. “Your emergency does not mean that I have to drop everything and call you back. I’ll call you back when I have time. Leaving me that many messages only pisses me off. Just one is enough. I’ll get it, and that’s all there is to it.”