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."
She tilted her head as if she were less than sure about his honesty. "That works?"
He nodded. "It's magic."
"Okay, I guess, and then what's the next part?"
"The next is optional and can be done or not done whenever we choose. It's where I combine my life force to yours."
"Why would you do that?"
"Because you're human, and if we don't you'll die in less than a hundred years, while I still have another four to five hundred years left before my old age kicks in."
Bride was completely stupefied as she recalled Bryani's words. At the time she had attributed them to either her insanity or Bryani's. Apparently, it was true, just like the rest of this madness. "You really are four hundred years old?"
"Four hundred and sixty to be exact."
She breathed in slow and easy at that. Dear Lord, what would it be like to live so long? How much could a person see in all that time?
It was mind-boggling.
But more than that came a frightening realization. One that made her heart clench as a horrible panicked grief swept through her. "I would seriously outlive everyone I know," she breathed. "Tabitha, my brother and sister, my cousins. Everyone would be long gone before I even grew old?"
He took a deep breath and nodded. "It's not easy, but you would have me and my family and friends." His expression lightened as if a thought had occurred to him. "Sunshine Runningwolf. You know her, she's immortal."
Bride was shocked by that. She'd known Sunshine for years. "Sunshine's immortal?"
"Yes."