“My word is as good as yours, hunter,” Stefan said. “So you may believe me when I say I will not hurt your daughter or shame her in any way.”
Barrett snorted. “The word of a vampire.”
Bryony’s appearance put an end to their conversation.
Stefan helped her into her cloak and they left the house.
“I can’t believe you’re here,” she said, as they walked around the side of the manor toward the gardens. “Where are you staying?”
“At the Stone House in the valley.”
“Oh?” She wondered why he didn’t stay at the beautiful house in the mountains when it was so much nicer. But he didn’t seem inclined to tell her. “How did my father know what you are?”
“You will have to ask him.” He took her hand in his and gave it a squeeze. “You have no idea how much I have missed you.”
“I’ve missed you, too.”
“Will you come away with me?”
“I thought you wanted to court me.”
“Do you not think we are beyond that?”
“Maybe. But I’m not ready to leave home so soon. I think I should like to be courted with flowers and candy and kind words.” She looked up at him with a teasing grin. “Do vampires do that sort of thing?”
“Have I not done so in the past?”
“Yes, you have.” She stopped walking and looked up at him again.
Unable to resist, he drew her into his arms. Her sky-blue eyes were luminous in the moonlight, her golden hair touched with silver, her lips slightly parted. Lowering his head, he kissed her hungrily, his tongue dueling with hers, while in the back of his mind, he wondered what future treachery her father was undoubtedly planning.
Barrett tossed and turned the whole night, unable to sleep as he imagined a dozen scenarios, all of which ended badly for his daughter. What foolishness had prompted him to agree to let a vampire court his youngest child? What idiocy led her to believe she loved the monster? What had the vampire done to her? He knew vampires were capable of mind control. Had the vampire made Bryony believe she loved him? Was it possible the vampire had toyed with Barrett’s own mind? Was that why he had agreed to let the ungodly creature come courting?
Earlier, he had stood at his bedchamber window and watched the two of them strolling through the gardens. It had turned his stomach when the vampire took Bryony in his arms. How could she let that damnable creature kiss her? Did she know what he did to survive?
When he finally fell asleep, his dreams were haunted with visions of Bryony becoming a vampire. Dreams so vivid that Maida had to wake him several times. Locked in her arms, he wondered if he should tell her what kind of man was courting their daughter.
The Guild, he thought. His only hope was the Guild.
Stefan came calling every night for a week. Bryony made sure that her parents and Stefan spent a part of each night together, even if it was only for a quarter of an hour, in hopes that her father would see beyond Stefan’s being a vampire and view him as a man and not a monster.
“I know what you are doing,” Stefan remarked as they left her house at the end of the week.
“What do you mean?” she asked innocently.
He laughed softly. “You are hoping that your father and I will learn to tolerate each other even if we never become friends. It will not happen. He will never see me as anything but a monster. Nor will your mother, if he ever tells her the truth.”
Bryony huffed a sigh. He was probably right but she couldn’t give up hoping that the two most important men in her life would find a way to get along. How could she stay with Stefan and alienate her parents? How could she choose her family over the man she loved, for love him she did. She had tried to talk herself out of caring for him while they had been apart, listed all the reasons why being with him was wrong, but to no avail. Yes, he was a vampire. Yes, he drank human blood. Yes, he had killed people in the past. But he had been forced into becoming a vampire. He needed blood to survive. She knew he had killed to preserve his own life, and perhaps for other reasons.
But none of that seemed to matter when they were together. Did she wish he was human? Yes. Did she want to be what he was? No. She just wanted them to be together and for her parents to accept him.
But, deep down, she feared Stefan was right. Her father would never see him as anything but a monster.
Bryony was all atwitter when Stefan came calling the next night. After a tense few moments spent with her parents, she took his hand and led him outside. They walked in silence fora time, not stopping until several tall hedges shielded them from view.
“We’re celebrating my mother’s birthday tomorrow night,” she said, tugging him down on the grass beside her. “You’ll come, won’t you?”
“If you wish.”
