Emma frowned at him as she sat up and pulled the sheet against her. "Really?"
"Yes. None of that will be a concern for you."
"It's all so strange," she mumbled as she ran a tremulous hand across her now healed lip. There wasn't even a bump from where his teeth had pierced her skin. She couldn't tear her gaze away from his sculpted physique as he pawed through a drawer and came up with a black t-shirt.
"Ethan?" There was a questioning expression on his face when he turned toward her. "You're mine, right?"
He broke into a grin and strode across the room toward her. Emma stared at him as he placed his hands on either side of her on the bed.
"I am yours for eternity, Emma; I will be your rock, your best friend, your lover, and the father of your children. I am going to be by your side for thousands of years, and I’m going to love you every second of every one of those years. When this bond is complete, you will never doubt that again."
"I don't doubt it now," she whispered as she leaned forward to kiss him. "I just want to make sure you know."
He laughed as he pulled away. "Oh, I know."
She watched him as he finished dressing before rising to her feet and pulling her robe on again. "Maybe you should take Stefan and Aiden with you too, just in case," she said nervously.
"I'll be okay, and I prefer to have more vampires here, with you."
A knock on the door brought both of their heads toward it. "Let's go, purebred, some of us are hungry!" Brian called from the other side.
"Maybe that guy won't be safe," Ethan muttered.
"Why don't you take Stefan instead?"
He shook his head. "There's no way he'll leave Isabelle behind, and neither of us want Isabelle around this. Are you going to join the others?"
"I'm just going to hop in the shower again, and then I'll go out."
"Okay, just don't go outside, at all."
"I won't," she promised.
"I'll see you soon. I love you."
"Love you too." He gave her a swift kiss and left the room. Emma sighed and headed into the bathroom.
Jill and Mandy were waiting for her when she emerged from the bathroom. "You're really going to do this?" Mandy asked nervously.
Emma dropped the towel she’d used for her hair on the bed before grabbing the shorts and tank top she set out earlier. She already missed Ethan, it was the strangest sensation, one that almost made her feel like a stalker, but she wanted him here. It made no sense to her, but she couldn't shake it. She disappeared into the bathroom again and dressed before rejoining them.
"I am," she told them.
"Are you sure about this?" Mandy's chocolate eyes were troubled as she studied Emma.
"I've never been more certain about anything in my life," she said honestly.
"So is this kind of like getting married?" Jill asked.
Emma laughed as she picked up her hairbrush and ran it through the thick mass of her hair. "I think binding yourself to someone for eternity is kind of like marriage," she said with a smile.
"I don't even like to bind myself to someone for a month," Jill said as she sat on the edge of the bed. "Ethan's hot and all, and this is about the biggest understatement of the century, but that's a really long time, Emma."
"It is, and I can't wait."
Jill shook her head. "This is crazy; you're going to die."
Emma shuddered at the reminder and dropped the brush. She walked over and sat on the bed beside Jill. "It's going to be okay, I promise, and I do want this."
"You barely know him."
"But I feel like I know him better than I've ever known anyone else. I know it sounds crazy, and I know you don't understand, but please trust me on this. Please stand by me. I've stood by all your decisions."
"My decisions didn't result in my death," Jill retorted.
"Well, some of them almost resulted in me killing you if that means anything," Mandy said. "Especially the night you drove home drunk from the club, in your underwear, and hanging your head out the window like a dog because you were convinced it would sober you up. I wanted to choke you when you passed me on my way back from the library."
"Not my finest moment," Jill admitted. "But I survived."
"And so will I. You heard what Stefan said. My heart will only stop for a second, and then I'll be alive again. I'll be stronger, and I'll be with Ethan, forever. Ugh, I sound like a six-year-old dreaming of a fairytale, and if you were saying these things to me, I'd lock you away until you came down off whatever drugs you were on."
"I'm considering it," Jill said with a laugh.
Emma squeezed her hand before wandering back into the bathroom. "Believe me this is one hundred percent a natural high," she said as she turned the water on and brushed her teeth. She spit in the sink and rinsed it before returning to the bedroom. "And it's a good..."
Her voice trailed off when she spotted Mandy lying prone on the floor, with one hand beneath her and the other stretched out above her head. Blood was already beginning to pool on the tile beneath her head. Fearing she’d fallen, Emma broke free of her paralysis.
She only made it three steps out of the bathroom when something heavy hit her on the back of the head. She was unable to get her hands underneath her in time to stop herself from face planting onto the floor.
Blood burst free of her broken nose. Tears blurred eyes, but even as she was trying to figure out what had happened, hands were grabbing her arms and hauling
