Dietrich

My mother did all she could to keep us in the house because she wanted to know as much about Evelyn as she could. The woman had lost her common sense since Evelyn walked into my life. I was thrilled that they got along easily, but my mate wanted to go for a walk and I was going to give it to her.

“Mother, we’ll be back in a few hours.” I took Evelyn’s hand and rushed through the front doors of the house. We jumped into my truck because I wanted to take her out for dinner in the middle of our excursion.

“Is she always like this?” she asked. My mother hounded her about new clothes and things she liked to eat. We were capable of eating both human food and blood, but it made us stronger to eat raw meat or to drink straight blood. Since we were too civilized, we didn’t actually bite humans. Not all of us held to that idea, but most in the business world did stick to it.

“Most of the time, no, but you’re my mate and she’s been waiting a good eighty years for a chance on grandsons.”

“Oh my. I completely forgot about that. How often do, you know, we make babies?”

“It depends. Most only have one or two in centuries. When the big war broke out more births occurred, but ebbed as the war faded into the background and less vampire lives were lost.”

“Duh, the sun,” she said to herself.

“Rarely. Most of the time it’s through the sunlight, but there’s another way to go. A vampire must lose his head and his heart must be pierced for us to die.”

“Wow, sounds violent. Have you ever had to kill someone?”

“A vampire, no, but I have killed a few humans in the past. I was attacked once in the 1930s by some gangsters, and they didn’t realize who they were messing with until they were all dead,” I divulged absentmindedly while driving into a large park.

Realizing what I revealed, I turned to her and I could see the color had drained from her face. “Do humans know about you?”

“No, they don’t. We’ve spent a great deal of time figuring out ways to deceive them. It was something we were good at hiding. Most of us were just the added number of patients with skin disorders or phobias that kept us in the dark and isolated. It’s pretty easy until it comes to the lack of aging.”

“Do we have to go all synthetic masks to look older?” she teased, opening her door before I undid my buckle.

I jumped out quickly and hurried around to her. That’s something we can talk about when we get closer to it, my love.

I’m sorry. I forgot where we are.

Don’t be. It’ll take some time, but you’ll get there. It helps that we can talk like this. Now, my sweet Evelyn, let’s walk and talk wedding.

Wedding? I didn’t think you all did that. I hadn’t considered ever getting married.

We do. It helps with our image in the human world. Plus, I’d take any excuse for showing the world you belong to me.

Don’t say things like that or we won’t be doing much walking, Dietrich.

“Well, then, let’s get to it. I want you to experience everything you can or ever hoped for.” I tucked her arm under mine and intertwined our fingers. We headed off on the nearest walking path with only joggers passing by us. With winter coming soon, the chill would bring less and less of them, but with the mild temps there was a lot of them.

“So about this wedding? How soon do you want it?”

“It doesn’t matter to me. We could get married in a courthouse if you wanted.”

“No, you deserve more than a courthouse, but we could have a wedding at the house.”

“You mean your mansion.” She laughed at my word house, but that was what it felt like to me, especially now that I had her.

“Our mansion, but yes.”

“Sounds perfect to me.”

“What about your parents?” She froze and dropped her hand from me. “I’m sorry if I upset you, Evelyn.”

“Oh, no. I’m sorry. I’m not upset, but it’s the first time that I actually thought about them. Throughout this whole day, I haven’t even considered them at all.”

“Is that bad?”

“No, it’s wonderful.” A heavenly smile spread out across her face. “I’ve spent years worried that I’d never be more than their little pet and now, I can breathe without feeling suffocated. I don’t want them at the wedding.”

“Then let’s get to it.”

“Okay. Can we go home now? I want you to make love to me until we pass out from exhaustion.”

“I am totally on board for that, my love.” I spun her into my arms, kissing her fiercely before flipping her over my shoulder and to the car. I ran all the way to the car, making her laugh, and that was a sound I would be getting very used to.