Free Blood Ties by Amelia Elias

me,
sweetheart. You could stay with the Clan for a short time, perhaps
a decade, just long enough to build your strength and learn your
powers. If you don’t like the life they have to offer, you could
leave the right way, with the Master’s blessing. You have to
consider it.”
    She watched him with narrowed eyes. “You said
you don’t offer me an easy life,” she said quietly. “Do you offer
me any life at all, or is this just a complicated brush-off?”
    “I’m not brushing you off,” he assured her.
“But I need you to understand that staying with the Clan would not
make you evil. You’ve just shown that you can feed from a human
without harming him. Ellyra has offered to adopt you as her own and
keep you safe. All right? This is one option.”
    Kira nodded stiffly. “Give me the other one.”
Even her tone was tight, hurt.
    Orion
released one hand to trace the curve of her cheek. “Be my mate,” he
whispered. “Come with me, despite the fact that I can offer you
little besides my love. I cannot defeat Gregori, but that doesn’t
mean I’m powerless. The Nighthawks don’t want to let me go because
I am strong. You would be without a
home, but not without protection, and I would die before I let
anyone harm you. Let me help you find your strengths, teach you to
use your powers. Love me and follow me. Be my weakness. That’s the
other choice.”
    Her eyes filled with tears, sparkling green
pools he could drown in. “You,” she whispered. “I choose you and
all the danger and bullshit that comes with you. Did you really
think I wouldn’t?”
    Orion grinned. He couldn’t help it. Joy rose
through him, echoed in his mind along the mental pathway he shared
with Kira, and spilled over into his smile. “I hoped not,” he said.
“But I had to let you know everything before I asked, didn’t
I?”
    “There’s such a thing as too much
information,” she shot back. “Now how do we do this mate thing? Do
we get to say some mystical rhyme that magically binds our souls or
something?” When he laughed out loud, she blushed. “What? I read it
in all the books! All vampires do this magic spell thing when they
get married.”
    He bent and rested his forehead against hers,
still smiling. “No spell,” he murmured. “Just a ritual promise,
rather like human wedding vows. And in our case, a permanent
honeymoon vacation.”
    “Do I have to wear a big white dress and
smear cake on your face and all that?”
    He laughed aloud at that. “Not unless you
want the big dress and cake and all the trimmings of a human
wedding. We don’t even need witnesses. We speak our promises to
each other and that’s it.”
    She bit her lip. “And there’s really no
binding magic that keeps us faithful?”
    “No magic,” he repeated. “You won’t get
soul-cramps if you break the vows or have an affair, but I warn you
that vampires don’t separate and divorce like humans do -- there’s
usually blood, pain, and messy death involved when the cheater’s
mate discovers it. I should warn you that I’m not forgiving and I
don’t share. If you want to leave me, you’ll have to kill me,
because I don’t plan on ever letting you go. Can you handle
that?”
    Kira smiled. “I can handle that. Let’s do
it.”
    Orion kissed her, then took her right hand
and placed it over his heart before placing his own over hers.
“Kira Jacques, I swear to share my eternity with you, giving you my
heart, body, love and life until I meet my end.”
    No matter what Orion said, Kira felt a warmth
spread through her body as she savored those simple words spoken in
his deep voice. How could something that made her so happy, that
gave her the man she’d always wanted and never thought she could
have, how could these words not be magic? She echoed them back to
him, feeling his heart beating beneath her palm. When she finished
and he tilted his head to kiss her, she pulled back just a
fraction. “This doesn’t get you out of giving me a