Page 24 of Her Vampire

“Tonight,” I whisper, giving Chipper a belly rub.

He rolls over and his tongue lolls as he grins up at me.

“But is he ready, eh, little man?” I mutter.

Perhaps that’s an unfair question. He’s told me he’s ready plenty of times, told me he’s been waiting his whole life to find me, but my head spins whenever I think about it.

He’ll go from never having to worry about mortality to being a forty year old mortal man.

“But I don’t care,” he growled last night, his fingers making patterns in my hair as we recovered from our frantic sex. “I want to put my seed inside of you. I want to watch you grow with our child. I want to live, Tammy, with you.”

“I hope you don’t mind me leaving you with the dog sitter tonight, boy,” I say, bringing him to my face and kissing his nose.

He smiles and laps at my cheek, his tail wagging as he scrambles up my chest to get better purchase for more face-licking.

Tonight.

Everything changes.

And I can’t wait, my womb eager for his child, to begin a life I never could’ve dreamed of just two and a half weeks ago.

I take a deep breath of the bracing autumn air and then turn Chipper so that he’s facing the city, his little body bathed in sunlight.Curiosity swells in me as I step from the chauffeured car and walk across the airstrip. A light rain falls across the sky, seeming to sparkle in the light of the landing strip, flashing.

Torsten stands next to a small plane, the kind you see in stunt shows and in spy movies. It has a propeller and a DIY look about it, and as I get closer, I can just about make out its blood-red paint in the darkness.

Torsten has a smirk on his face as he strolls over to me, moving languidly in a tight-fitting black shirt and jeans, the clothes doing nothing to hide the irrepressible bulk of his body beneath.

“You’re about to tell me you know how to fly that thing,” I say. “Aren’t you?”

“That would be bragging,” he chuckles deeply. “And you know how much I hate that. Anyway, I’d prefer to show you. If you’ll trust me?”

I glance at the plane, a note of fear shivering through me.

“I’ve never been on a real plane before,” I murmur. “Let alone a toy plane.”

“I am an excellent pilot,” he says. “But if you don’t feel comfortable—”

“No,” I say quickly. “I mean, I’m going to be scared. But you’ve taught me not to live my life in fear, Torsten. Where are we going?”

“Somewhere private,” he says, closing the distance between us and leaning down to place a kiss on my cheek.

Neither completely warm nor completely cold, it oscillates between the two as his hunger flares within him. I place my hand on his chest and then feel something new there.

The amulet.

I feel its heat, too, glowing against my palm.

“Are you nervous?” I ask softly.

“About what?” he says. “Seeing the sunrise with the woman of my dreams? Starting a life that’s going to be filled with happiness and joy and mortal savor? No, Tammy, I’m not nervous. Are you?”

“Only about the plane,” I giggle, nudging him playfully. “I really hope you’re the pilot you claim to be.”

He leads me over to the plane and helps strap me into the front seat. I sit back, taking deep breaths, as Torsten climbs in beside me and starts fiddling with the controls. He handles them all deftly and then starts to taxi the plane onto the strip.

“Don’t worry,” he says, turning to me with his so-Torsten smirk. “I would never let anything happen to you.”

His voice is comforting through the headset.

And then, like magic – how fitting – we’re soaring over the inky blackness of the water and out to sea.

I reach across and grip onto Torsten’s arm, feeling the solidity of it, ready to snatch my hand away if he tells me needs his hands free for the controls.

But he allows me to clutch onto him as we make our path through the sky, the stars seeming insanely close when I finally summon the courage to look.

He turns, grinning at me, seeming almost boyish in the simple joy he takes in the flight, his hair the same silver of the moon as it glistens.

I relax into the flight, even a little surprised when he turns us down to land on a small island seemingly in the middle of nowhere. A flashing landing strip marks the spot and Torsten guides us steadily down, landing so lightly I can barely feel the transfer of the wheels to the strip.

We come to a stop and he leaps down, opening my door and reaching up to help with my straps with his vampire speed.

Is he going to miss it? an anxious voice whispers. Is he going to miss being a creature a thousand times more powerful than other men?

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