The woman standing opposite Harlan looked like she wasn’t used to being speechless. Frowning, with her black hair in a loose ponytail and dressed casually in jeans and a t-shirt, she stared at him, and he couldn’t help but stare back.

Blue eyes offsetting her dark hair, with a heart-shaped face, small, thin nose and a pouty lower lip, Harlan found something about her very sensual, and appealing. The scars on her neck still looked pink and shiny, and she held her right arm awkwardly at her side, but her stance was proud and the fire in her eyes clear.

“Excuse me?” she finally said. “I think you have the wrong place and the wrong woman, buddy,” she huffed. “Now get out before I call the police.”

“I thought you were the police,” Harlan remarked, taking a sip of his drink.

Making a face, he set it down on one of the kitchen counters before stepping out into the living room.

“Do I know you?” she demanded, clearly more agitated than afraid.

“Not quite. But I know some things about you, Ruby,” he smiled. “I’m glad you pulled through. It was touch and go there, for a minute.”

Recognition flashed across her face for a moment, as she looked him up and down.

“Were you there, in the alley?” she asked, taking a half-step closer.

“I was,” Harlan admitted, letting his gaze sweep over her lush curves.

Brave and sexy. Not a bad combination.

“Then you saw what happened. That man… You called him Grant. You know him? You know where he is?” she asked, blinking at him.

“I don’t,” Harlan shrugged.

Not anymore, it seems.

It was a lie, but he didn’t think telling Ruby he used to be friends with the man who attacked her would get him very far.

“I have to interrupt this interrogation and ask… What did you see that night?” he said.

“Oh, no. You break into my apartment, call yourself my future husband and you expect me to not ask questions? You have another thing coming,” she shook her head.

“These first encounters are always so tiresome,” Harlan clucked his tongue, growing impatient.

He had been a day late and a dollar short in tracking down Grant even after he first found the man gnawing on Ruby in that alley, and the last thing he wanted was Julius to show up again to motivate him to try harder.

If he had time, he would try to ease Ruby into his world a bit more gently, but despite being immortal, time was in short supply at the moment. Especially considering how violent and careless Grant had become.

So, he stepped closer to Ruby, and bared his teeth in a half-smile, half-snarl. Touching on the predator inside him, and drawing in the sweet scent of Ruby’s blood, rushing in the veins just below her smooth, pale skin, he could feel his canines elongate, until they were poking at his lower lip.

“Is this what you saw?” he asked, watching the color drain from Ruby’s face. “Don’t worry, I’m not here to harm you,” he assured her, as his teeth returned to normal.

Ruby didn’t look particularly convinced as she backed away from him, heartbeat thudding loudly. Or at least, it was loud to Harlan.

“I’m the one that intervened. Why would I save your life only to come back to hurt you?” he asked, as he could see panic taking over Ruby’s thoughts.

To her credit, she seemed to absorb that information, coming to a stop near the hallway. Narrowing her eyes at him, she stared at his mouth.

“Am I going insane?” she asked, mostly addressing herself, it seemed.

Rubbing her temple, she looked around the room before focusing back on him. Harlan stepped closer, and reached out to take her left hand in his. She hesitated for a moment before giving in. Harlan had a feeling she was too disoriented to argue.

Covering her hand with his, he pressed her palm firmly on his chest, right on his heart.

“Do you feel it beating?” he asked.

Her hand was warm against his skin, and for a moment, the touch felt a lot more intimate than it should have. It was a lot more personal than having Brittany writhe around in his lap, that was for sure, as odd as that sounded.

Ruby bit her lip, her clear blue eyes widening as she stared up at him. Pulling her hand away, she pressed her ear against his chest, next. That caught Harlan off guard. He had thought she would rather distance herself after his demonstration.

It was nice that she didn’t.

“Holy crap,” she muttered to herself, before taking a quick step back. “What are you? What is going on here?”

Thinking honesty might be the best policy, Harlan folded himself into an armchair near the center of the room, before rattling off everything he felt Ruby should know.

“I’m a vampire,” he said, already holding up a hand to quiet any objections Ruby might have.

It was a statement most people struggled with, and he couldn’t really blame them. His kind was supposed to be a work of fiction, after all. It was like hearing Santa was real, or that tiny elves made your shoes. A bit tough to come to terms with right away.

“And so is Grant. But Grant seems to have gone off the reservation. I’ve been sent to retrieve him. I tracked him down by looking into attacks that sounded like they could have been the work of a vampire. That brought me to New York. I know the types of places Grant likes to hang out in, so that’s how I happened into that alley while he was making a meal out of your neck.

“He wasn’t listening to me, so I made a gamble. He obviously wasn’t following the rule of peaceful feedings, but some traditions are more deeply rooted than others. Like the tradition that a vampire’s bride-to-be is off limits. So I claimed you as mine to get him off your throat. It worked,” he shrugged.

Ruby sank into the couch next to him, eyes glossed over.

“Vampires,” she muttered to herself, before whipping her head around to face him. “Wait a minute, I’m not going to be turning into one, am I?” she asked, her hand flying to her neck and her eyes widening in horror.

“Not quite how that works,” Harlan chuckled.

“Well, vampire or not, I’m not your bride and I sure as hell am not your next meal,” she said, pointing a finger at him. “So don’t get any ideas.”

“I promise to have absolutely no ideas,” Harlan chuckled, holding his hands up. “But since I claimed you, we are kind of stuck together.”

“I couldn’t care less about your… vampire rules,” Ruby protested, sounding like she was still having trouble saying the word ‘vampire’ in a non-horror movie context. “I appreciate you saving my life and all, but there’s no way I’m grateful enough to marry you.”

“Oh, my little fiery jewel,” Harlan laughed. “I don’t want to marry you, either. No offense, but I’m not really a one woman kind of man. Nevertheless, I still claimed you, and I can’t back away from that without consequences.”

“So we both agree we don’t want to be married. Great. The door is over there,” she said, pointing her chin at the exit.

“As I said, there’s a tiny problem with that,” Harlan admitted. “Vampires aren’t supposed to claim humans they don’t intend to turn into vampires. We can’t be turning people left and right, so there are strict rules about who gets to join us and who can’t.

“But things must have been more romantic in the past, because falling in love is still a valid reason to turn someone,” he added, seeing the confused, slightly horrified expression on Ruby’s face. “Claiming to love someone just to turn them is very much frowned upon, though.”

Now that was an understatement, but he didn’t want to regale Ruby with the gory details. Just as humans were struggling with overpopulation, vampires had their own overcrowding problems. In the era of smartphones and satellites, staying hidden was more difficult than ever, not to mention more vampires meant needing to have more donors.

“In any case, I’ll have to talk to the man who sent me on this mission to see if I can somehow unclaim you. But until then…” he left his words hanging in the air.

“Alright, fine,” Ruby waved a hand. “So we go to this man and get this cleared up right now.”

“He’s in Romania,” Harlan interjected.

“He’s what?” she asked, shooting up from her seat.

“Sorry,” Harlan shrugged. “But let’s be real here, it’s not like you’re the only one suffering. I mean, look at this place. You don’t even have a decent coffee machine,” he scoffed.

“What do you care about my coffee machine?” Ruby asked, immediately suspicious.

“Because I’ll be staying here, of course.”