The Bride In Black

Part 26

"I assume you have questions"

"Do you... have to kill me?"

"Yes, You've seen too much. I don't want to, But I have to last time someone saw too much and got out, we lost a lot of family. " he says 

"why would you want me to be your wife?"

"Becuase your beautiful, you're smart, I think you and I would be good together."

"Or is it you just like the smell of my blood?"

"well. that helps" He smirked "Yes. You smell utterly divine. I can smell the blood racing through your veins from anywhere in the manor, I can feel the heat of your body on any surface you touched on the last day, it wouldn't be making me this hungry if I didn't like you so much." 

"what will happen if I stay?"

"Then you will be my wife. we'll get married"

"Will I have to be... like you?"

"Yes." he says "but not for a while, we have to get married first before I can put you through that"

"though what?"

"Becoming a vampire is not as simple as cinema makes it look, I can't just bite you and you'll become like me. there's a lot of tradition and ceremony behind it" he explained "To turn you, we would have to be married, we will have to remove almost every drop of blood from your body"

"All- all of it?"

"All of it. Its human blood we have to take it won't work properly, then slowly refill your body with vampire blood and trust me it hurts it will burn your every vein until it fills you completely, Then we have to make sure you start making it on your own and don't revert back to human blood, then you'll gain everything I have, Immortality, strength, heightened senses, your own true form. And then you and I can mate."

"Mate?"

"vampires mate for life darling. I can't do it when you're human."

"If I agreed to stay. could I stay as a human?"

"Darling." he sighed "I don't make the rules. Oliver and ava had to follow them too, if we got married and you remained human... I'd have to watch you wither and die and I wouldn't even change, I'd have to bury you and live the rest of my life in mourning. and I can't do that. if your going to stay you have to become like me, so we can be together so I don't have to watch you die." he explained "and... if we do put you through the process, you and I will be bound together body and soul for eternity, we'll share the pain, hurt and hunger, everything."

"You said this had happened before?"

His smile dropped, and he looked stern and angry. he got up and refilled his glass from one of the large barrels that surrounded us taking a long sip

"Yes. this has happened before."

"What happened,"

"It's none-"

"I want to know. before I decided."

"It was years ago." 

"Please. tell me"

"She was a girl from the nearby village, I thought she was the sweetest most beautiful girl in the world," he says returning to his seat unable to remove his eyes from his glass "My family warned me to stay away from the village said I was too young to get wrapped up in such things, but... I couldn't help it. I loved her. More than I've ever loved anyone... Twenty-five years. I waited. I might be immortal but I don't have the greatest of patience, For Twenty-five years I courted her, did everything she asked of me, and waited till she was ready to get married, I thought after twenty-five years she'd love me too. But I was wrong." He explained "She used me. she knew I was in love with her, and she didn't care. taking the dresses and other gifts I brought for her to live life as a higher-born girl than she was, and when the time came she kicked me aside like I was nothing and went off to Wiltshire with some lord boy. I thought it was all a mistake that her family had forced her into this marriage so I brought her here. thinking that all our time together meant she loved me too and wanted to be with me, so... I showed her. what I am. showed her my true form, the only person still outside this family who has ever seen it. And she bolted." he says fighting back tears "I thought she would love me. that she loved me enough it didn't matter. but she bolted for the moors, when I caught up to her she called me a monster and never wanted to see me again. I didn't have a choice. I couldn't let her tell anyone... and she didn't want to stay. I had- I had no choice" he says down the rest of his glass' contents

"You killed her?"

"I had to"

"did you love her more than you love me?"

"... I did. and I still had to kill her." he says "It will kill me, but If I have to. I will do the same to you" he warns "I don't want to do that, I want you to stay here with me. I can offer you immortality, a life free without the slow decay of life, you can be free utterly free, just like you wanted, you can go and do whatever you want without the worry of fear, and unless time to do it in, you can take up oil painting and if it takes you a Hundred years just to do one painting or doesn't matter, you don't have to waste your life on a job just to scrape by watching your life slip away, you and I can spend our time together doing whatever you want, and I will love you utterly and completely, I'll adore you like a goddess and treat you as my queen. All you have to do is agree to stay here with me and not say a word about what we are" he says kissing my head "I'll give you till morning to decide. Martin. Lock her in her bedroom, stand guard at her door and put another at her window." He ordered

"Yes sir" he nods

"Just precautions my darling. You get some rest and consider my proposal"