Fatal Cravings: Immortal Keeper Vampire Paranormal Romance Series, Daniella Starre [classic books for 11 year olds .TXT] 📗

Not that I had any true claim to the vampire. He was trying to help me.

Again, why?

And then the answer came to me. Yes, he might eventually want to leverage me against Viktor, but until then, he wanted to protect me just because I was an enemy of his enemy. The whole enemy of my enemy is my bride type thing.

My stomach clenched, and I exhaled loudly.

“What do you ask of me?” she asked.

“Will you wed us?”

“You wish to marry her?”

I expected disdain to drip from her words, for the words to be spewed out of her mouth as if they were filth, but instead, she merely gave me a slow once-over as if she wished to see what it was that Maxwell saw in me.

No clue, vampire. I don’t even know myself.

At any moment, scorn would appear, disgust. She’d wrinkle her nose as if she smelled something repulsive.

Instead, she merely took my hand and placed it in Maxwell’s.

“There are many different marital rites,” she murmured. “Which do you prefer?”

“Whichever one you think most suitable would be sufficient,” he said in that same tone.

Some vampires could compel humans to make them do things against their will. For a time, I wondered if Maxwell had done something like that, if that could be that bond that tethered us. I came to believe that wasn't the case, but this almost seemed like he was compelling the vampire. Was that possible? Because he was so old? I knew that different vampires had different abilities, but I couldn’t help wondering and wishing I knew more instead of being so naïve and ignorant.

The female vampire put her hands over mine and Maxwell’s. His large hand engulfed mine, a bit cool to the touch, but hers was like ice and growing colder every second.

“May you draw from the heat of your passion, from the strength of your love. May the ice of the world never plague you. May you forge your own fire to fight your own fights and protect one another always.”

I risked a glance up at Maxwell. A muscle in his neck jumped, and he appeared to be… Was he in pain? He was hardly breathing, so tense and rigid beside me, and then, without warning, his hand grew warmer and warmer, almost too hot to touch, and I stared down at our hands, which had been covered in literal ice that was now melting away. Steam rose from our hands, and I couldn't help smiling and laughing as the smoke twisted to form a red heart above us.

All around us, vampires began to cheer and clap. They approached us, giving us congratulations, not seeming to care at all that their benefactor had married a human whom they had never met before.

Maxwell humored them for a time, but eventually, he lifted our joined hands. We had never stopped holding them, I realized.

“If you will be so kind as to excuse us…” Maxwell lifted our hands, and I gaped at him as the vampires all began to laugh and chuckle at his insinuation.

Surely he couldn’t mean…

But Maxwell picked me up as a husband would his wife, and he—at human speed—walked over to the stairwell. Then, he used his great speed to zoom us up to a room that was decidedly nothing at all like the small tea room I'd been in earlier. The bed was massive, California king-sized, the sheets black silk. The bed frame was also black with four posts, no curtain. I couldn't tear my gaze from the bed to see the rest of the room, and I blinked several times.

“Maxwell…”

With his back to me, he removed his suit jacket cleanly and crisply and then proceeded to methodically unbutton his shirt.

He couldn’t be serious.

“We can’t…”

“We’re husband and wife.”

“Not really—”

“We will be once it’s consummated.”

I swallowed hard.

“The thought never occurred to you?” He turned about to face me, a wry curl to his lips that could only be described as a smirk.

“We… This is just… We can divorce, right?”

Maxwell didn’t move a muscle, didn’t blink or breathe.

“I just…” My mind raced. “I…”

“Why are you so nervous?” he asked. “I promise not to break you.”

“I-I’m not afraid of you breaking me,” I stammered.

“But you are afraid of something, hmm?”

I swallowed hard.

He waited, and I slowly nodded.

“Of me?” he murmured.

“Of… of it hurting. Of you not enjoying it. Of me bleeding. Of…” The words tumbled out of me, but the widening of his eyes shocked me.

“Bleeding? I won’t hurt you in any fashion, I assure you.”

“I… I’ve touched myself down there, but…”

“You’re a virgin,” he said.

I nodded.

“I suspected you were then,” he murmured, turning his head to the side. “You’re a stunningly gorgeous woman. Why is it that another man didn’t think so?”

“I didn’t want to be with anyone…” I swallowed back the next word in the sentence.

Else.

“You didn’t love anyone? You never dated anyone?”

“What was the point?” I shrugged one shoulder and rubbed the back of my neck.

“There is always a point to love,” he scolded me.

My eyes narrowed. “Are you so sure about that? I mean, Viktor killed my sister for revenge, out of a twisted sense of love.”

Maxwell placed his hands on my shoulders. “I know you’re going through the gamut of emotions right now—grief, anger, fear—”

“Doubt and guilt too,” I added.

“You shouldn’t feel guilty.”

“No? Why not? You don’t know the circumstances as to why I killed Magnus.”

“No, I don’t, but I do know Viktor, and if Magnus was anything like him, then Magnus was asking for it.” He massaged my shoulders, and his touch did something to me, taking away some of my grief and fear and replacing it with something else altogether, something I suppressed beneath hatred for years now.

The thing was, Maxwell was right. Magnus had deserved it. I just wished I knew how I did it because I was only human. I wasn’t anything special.

“But you don’t need to feel anger or fear toward me,” Maxwell continued softly. “I vowed to protect you, and I won’t