The Marquis regarded Danny like he was both an inferior and an oddity, but he didn’t immediately respond. “How in the world did you even find this house?” he asked finally, ignoring the question that Danny had posed to him.

When his gaze flicked to Liam, Danny surged ahead by two paces. “It wasn’t him,” Danny said, stopping when several tense members of the court shot to their feet like they meant to stop him. He took another deep breath to still his nerves, wishing he could lift his hands to set everyone at ease. “I looked for you and I found you because I knew Liam wouldn’t be able to make this argument himself.”

Youssef barked an incredulous laugh. “Any vampire under my care can state their own cases without needing a human to do so on their behalf.”

“Not if they knew you might reject it.”

“He is my vassal. That is my right,” he said, sounding both haughty and condescending. “Though I grant Master Quinn’s behavior has no doubt left you confused. Your insubordination might do well with him, but the only reason you are still breathing is because I want an answer before I snap your neck. How did you find this house?”

“It was me,” Mari said, calling out. The attention of the room shifted to her and as it did, she, too, took a couple of steps forward. “I wanted to keep him, to give my master something he refused to ask for himself.”

“Neither of you are helping right now,” Liam muttered.

“I don’t care,” Mari said, snapping her attention at her maker first before engaging the Marquis again. She walked beside Danny and placed a hand on his shoulder. “I gave him my blood, Your Lordship, to keep his mind from slipping. I have a feeling that might be how he found your estate.”

A hushed murmur swept through the room, interrupted by Youssef who raised a hand to demand swift silence. “You bonded with him?”

“Jesus Christ,” Liam said.

“Yes, I did,” Mari said. Her hand on Danny’s shoulder shifted to enclose him in her arm, and as she did, Danny looked at her, seeing her eyes shimmer. “Your Lordship, I wanted to keep Danny for my maker. I know you see just a human when you look at him, but we don’t. And despite my master being mired in ideas of tradition, I know he wants to keep Danny, too.”

“And I fail to see how this human is anything other than a risk,” the Marquis stated, directing his attention entirely on Liam. “I ordered him ended and, instead, I’ve had reports from other vampires that they’ve seen you out with this human, parading him around like he was one of us.”

“Your Lordship,” Liam said, stepping forward to join Danny and his sire. “Other vampires bring their pets.”

“You don’t have the fortitude to end him, and you openly flaunt your disobedience to my proclamation,” the Marquis challenged back. “He’s hardly a pet to you, Master Quinn.”

The accusation echoed throughout the room, as if everyone gathered had been driven to the same silence their leader had with Danny’s brash behavior. Only now, they hung on the response, and as Danny felt the eye of every person settle on him and Liam, his heart swelled while his stomach twisted. He felt tears dance in his eyes and stared at his vampire lover, wondering if this would be another moment when he would step away from something he felt his heart couldn’t confess.

“No,” Liam said. His voice started small but gained confidence when he spoke again. “No, he isn’t a pet to me, Your Lordship. I love him. The same way he has told me he loves me.”

The tangle of Danny’s emotions unraveled too quick for him to stop himself. As Liam looked at him, he saw the truth written on his face, laid bare, with a small hint of chagrin. Wriggling his wrists, Danny wanted nothing more than to throw his arms around Liam, to hold him not just body-to-body, but heart to heart. He thought he saw a tear streak down Mari’s cheek where she stood next to him. Ignoring everything else in room, from Marquis down to the humans, Danny’s eyes unwaveringly settled on Liam. “Stop pushing me away, then.”

“I’m sorry,” Liam said. He stepped forward again, moving close enough to reach out and cup Danny’s cheek. “I don’t even know how all of this will work –”

“Does it matter?” Danny leaned into his lover’s touch. “Can’t we figure that out?”

“I don’t know.”

Danny heard the implication behind that, pulling away from Liam only to glance up at Youssef. The Marquis watched the two of them with curiosity, not interrupting but far too concerned with deciphering what his eyes beheld to offer commentary. He looked mortified, intrigued, and baffled all in one expression. If it wouldn’t have made matters worse, Danny would have given in to laughter. Instead, he took a deep breath, drifting away from Liam’s touch. Mari took that moment to snap the ties his wrists, which inspired another murmur through the crowd, but Danny simply reached out to clasp one of Liam’s hands. They exchanged a look, Liam furrowing his brow, and as Danny let go, he turned to face the Marquis.

Lowering onto one knee, Danny sobered. “If fealty is what earns me the right to make requests, then I offer it,” he said. “Let me stay with Liam and Mari and I won’t cause any more trouble. I swear it.”

The Marquis blinked, and finally the warring emotions demonstrated coalesced into amusement. He blurted a laugh, and leaned an elbow against his chair rest, propping his head up with two fingers while not bothering to hide both his condescension and mirth. “I’m sorry, but you’re offering me your loyalty?” he asked. “My word, you have got to be the most audacious human I’ve ever met. I’d accuse you of having an overinflated sense of self-worth, but I gather you mean this.”

“I do,” Danny said. “I don’t even care that you’re mocking me for it.”

“And there it is again.” Youssef sighed. He glanced at Liam and as Danny saw resignation, he struggled not to get his hopes up. “I’m not going to be able to stand for this, you know.”

“Your Lordship –” Liam began.

Youssef held up his hand. “By that, I mean I’m far too amused by this earnestness and your extremely baffling behavior, Master Quinn, to ignore it.” His attention shifted to Mari. “Miss Ramos, remind me how old you are in vampire years?”

Mari straightened her posture. “Eleven years,” she said.

He sighed. “Far younger than I’d like for this pronouncement. I leave it to your master to determine how you’d like to handle it, then.” Crossing one leg over the other, he shifted to fold his hands on his lap. “Here we have a human attempting to pledge fealty to me, a young vampire with a fledgling blood-bond to him, and a centuries-old immortal who claims to be in love with him. I, frankly, think the three of you deserve each other.”

A dramatic pause preceded his next words. “Miss Ramos, you will be turning your bonded vampire before leaving your master’s care. He’ll teach you how to instruct your sire, and at the point after he is finished being under your care, he will return here to serve out his promise to me. Ordinarily, I don’t like to intervene when it comes to the sanctity of a maker and their child, but… if the lot of you can’t come to terms with his death, then please, grant him his request to serve me. It will tickle me, to say the least.”

Danny felt his heart race again. As he stood, he glanced from Liam to Mari and back to the Marquis, understanding the words, but struggling to reconcile them. “Did he just… did he tell you to turn me into a vampire?” he asked.

“We can discuss this elsewhere,” Liam said. While he glanced at Danny, apologetic, he made no effort to acknowledge Danny’s question afterward. Instead, he looked at the Marquis and nodded. “Very well,” he said. “We will take this as a condition of keeping Danny in our lives.”

Danny nodded. Mari remained quiet, but in her silence, Danny heard acquiescence. The drive back to the condo held some solace for Danny, and after comically standing outside with the need for Liam to compel him back in, Danny collapsed into bed and let his mind go blank for what felt like hours.

At some point, he fell asleep. When he woke, the two vampires had fallen asleep as well and left Danny to walk around inside what had once been a prison and had since become a home. He stared at the alarm that no longer held any sway. He glanced down at the street from the window where he had once mourned the loss of his freedom. After making coffee and smoking another cigarette, he asked himself again if this had been some acute case of Stockholm Syndrome and couldn’t bring his heart to see it as anything but a quest for happiness.

It was the voice of his sister in his head that solidified that resolution. “This is the first time you’ve smiled since I’ve died,” she said. “I mean, genuinely smiled, like your heart was happy again.”

Danny saw her face in the window as he peered down at the street. “Yeah, I think you’re right,” he said. Taking a deep breath, he released it slowly as he focused on her – or his memory of her, he corrected. “If I take this offer up, then I probably won’t ever see you again.”

“Or, it’ll be a while. I can wait.”

“What’s an eternity after all?” Danny shut his eyes, holding back the temptation to cry again; knowing that he was tired and worn thin and suddenly in a place where he could relax again. Somehow, letting go of being so emotionally wrought for so many days was taking time to work out. Instead of questioning it, he ate some food and sat on the couch. When the urge to nap asserted itself, he didn’t bother to fight it. Instead, he rested until night returned and when it did, he opened his eyes, realizing that this would be the rest of his life, then. Waking in darkness.

Mari greeted him with a soft smile on her lips. He exchanged the expression with as much softness, and when she said, “Liam wants to see you,” he nodded and righted himself into a seated position. Stumbling into the bedroom, he saw Liam lying as he had been when Danny left the room. Only now, his eyes stared vacantly at the wall across from him.

They shifted to Danny when he sat in front of Liam. Danny extended a hand, which Liam reached for, intertwining their fingers while he spoke. “I owe you so many apologies,” Liam said. “I think it’ll take decades until I know how to express them properly.”

“Seems like decades might be what we have.” Danny laid on the bed, facing Liam, and brought their hands to his chest. “Do you really want to do this?” he asked.

“I thought that question was for you.”

“Yes, I do. I don’t know why, but I do.” Saying the words out loud solidified his resolution and as they stared at each other, Danny surrendered to another smile. “Tell me what it’ll be like. With you and with Mari. I want to know what I have to look forward to.”

Liam grinned. “More insanity,” he said, “But a lot more love than either of us would have had alone.”