“I suppose for the sake of the other residents I can deal with having utilities. But…” He strolled over to her and patted her ass. “My needs are simple. A loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and thou.”
She tipped her head. “What are you going to do with the bread?”
“Feed you, of course. I may not eat, but you’ll need to.”
His thoughtfulness always impressed her. She could never picture him losing his humanity.
He continued to mosey to the kitchen where he retrieved a glass for his special wine cure. They had taken to calling it Sly Wine.”
Morgaine looked down and shuffled her feet. “I need to discuss something with you.”
“Sounds important.”
“It is.”
“You haven’t changed your mind about marrying me, have you?”
“Goddess, no! That’s not it at all.”
Sly smiled. “Good. Come here, love.” He set down the glass, took her hand, and led her to the sofa.
Morgaine perched on the edge so she could face him and took both of his hands in hers. “We only scratched the surface of this conversation before, but I need to finish what I wanted to say.”
Sly nodded. “Of course. Go ahead.”
“It’s about my getting old and dying and you going on alone for who knows how long.”
He hung his head. “Oh, yeah. That.”
Morgaine threaded her fingers through his hair. “I love you, Sly. I’d do anything for you. I think you know that, right?”
He smiled and gazed at her. “Yes, I know.”
A golden shimmer appeared in his eyes. She didn’t think he was trying to mesmerize her. They had already established that he couldn’t, and his eyes weren’t changing from brown to blue and purple. The brown irises simply glowed with amber light.
“I… I want you to turn me.”
His jaw dropped and he reeled back, as if slapped.
She placed her finger against his lips to silence him. “Please don’t say, no.”
“In that case, I’ll say absolutely not.” His eyes narrowed and the rich brown faded to cold black. “How could you even suggest it? You know what I’ve had to do to survive. You know how much I hate my condition. I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy.”
“But I’m not your enemy. I’m your beloved. And from what I understand, I may be the only one you get. Iwantto do this, Sly. I want to be with you, forever.”
Sly stood and paced, his lips clamped shut in a tight line. Morgaine waited. She was about to ask if he was okay when he finally spoke.
“My answer is still no. I can’t ask you to do that for me.”
“You’renotasking. I am. If necessary, I’ll beg.”
He stopped pacing and held his head in his hands.
She couldn’t see his eyes. He was silent so long it scared her. “Sly?”
He dropped his hands to his sides. “Morgaine, I love that you want to be with me, but I really need to think about this.”
“Why? Maybe you’d rather be single and free to date whoever you want after a while.”
