He still didn't respond but continued to let me talk.
Before our fight, I knew Alexander hadn't planned on leaving me, and I was immature to think he needed to sink his fangs in my flesh to prove that to me. I faced him strongly and sincerely. "I want to be a vampire," I said. "Your vampire - and if it is to happen, it needs to happen when we both are ready. If not, I am happy the way we are."
He listened to what I said but still didn't respond.
"Please say something - " I said.
He didn't yell at me or even kiss me. Instead he took my hand in his and gazed down at me and took a deep breath. His voice was deliberate. "Raven." My heart fell. Was this the moment Alexander was officially going to break up with me? I had pushed him too far this time.
He gazed at me intently. "I've been thinking."
"About what?" I asked, worried. "Wait, Alexander, please don't say it - I came here to apologize."
"It's important for me to tell you this now," he said with a deliberate but urgent tone.
"No," I said. "I came here to make up, not break up."
He placed his finger over my black lips and shook his head. "Now it's my turn to speak." I took a deep breath and squeezed his hand. I didn't want to let go under any circumstance.
"There is something I want to talk about." His voice was so serious, I was frightened. The rain broke, and the crescent moon shone brightly overhead. "You are so much like my grandmother. If she had been changed, then maybe her fate would have been different. I don't want to see you at covenant altars with other vampires. Only me."
He leaned in to me and gazed so intensely that I thought I could see his soul. "I want you to know I thought about it that first night I saw you outside my house on Halloween. And I've thought about it every night since then."
"Thought about what?" I asked.
"Turning you."
I melted. To hear it from his lips sent chills surging through me. I shouldn't have needed him to reassure me countless times. However, I did like hearing it.
"You've told me you have thought about it, and I should have listened. But I shouldn't have pushed you. I just want us to be like we were again. I don't want us to argue. I want us to be together. Like we discussed, I'll be turned when the time is right." He took both of my hands. His rain-soaked hair was tousled and wild and his sexy dark eyes stared through me again. "I want you to know I think the time is right."
I was stunned. "What did you say?" I asked.
He leaned in even closer. "I think the time is right," he said with confidence. "For you to be turned. By me." I was floored. I wasn't sure I was hearing him correctly. "Are you serious?" I had been waiting for him to call our relationship off and he was suggesting the opposite. I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
"Dead serious," he said with a heavenly smile. "I think th listenee time is right for us to be together - forever. In fact, I know it is." I didn't know how to respond. I was so taken aback, I was speechless.
He smiled a gorgeous smile. "You have waited for me," he said sincerely, "and I have waited for you. Now we need to stop waiting." I was awestruck. I stared up at my vampire boyfriend. Was Alexander actually suggesting what I thought he was? What I'd wanted since I was little and even more so when I met him? Was this in fact the moment I had waited for all my life?
My hands began to shake and I felt as if I were in a movie. Time seemed to stand still. A vampire - the most gorgeous and mysterious one in all the world - was asking me to be his vampire mate for all of eternity. I was still at a loss for words.
"Have you changed your mind?" he asked, suddenly concerned.
"No!" I exclaimed. "I just can't believe this is really happening. Is this a dream?" I asked.
"No!" I exclaimed. "I just can't believe this is really happening. Is this a dream?" I asked.
"If it is," he said with a sweet grin, "then I'm having the same dream."
I was overcome with delight.
"So what is your answer?" he asked. "I don't think I can wait forever for that. The suspense is killing me."
"Of course!" I burst out, and hugged him with all my might. "Yes! Yes! Yes!"
As we embraced, the pain of our fight escaped my body and the excitement of his proposal began running through it.
"I don't want you to be afraid," he said. "If you want to change your mind - at any point - I will understand."
"How could I be afraid?" I wondered.
"I'm a vampire, remember. And you'd be one as well."
The thought of my really becoming a vampire sent more chills through me. "I'm not afraid of you, or of becoming like you," I said. "Not now, nor will I ever be. This is what I've always wanted."
He smiled another gorgeous smile. We stared at each other, then he drew me in to him again and kissed me long. My knees were weak, but my heart raced and I was dizzy.
"Are we going to do it now?" I asked excitedly. I didn't want to lose this moment by putting it off, but since I'd envisioned being turned by him so many times, I wasn't sure if I needed more preparation for the actual event. "I imagined wearing a pretty dress ... not looking like a slug. But I a se="3can do it now if you want."
"We don't have to do it tonight," he said, guiding my dampened hair away from my face. "We can wait as long as you like."
"I don't want to wait too long," I said eagerly.
"This will change your life," he said. "You still have school."
"School? Schmool!"
"But that is just as important."
"I don't want to wait until I'm finished with school. That's more than a year away," I said impatiently. Then something important came to mind. There was one new person I'd want to see me change and she wasn't going to be in Dullsville much longer. "I'd really like to be turned while Stormy is still here. I'd like her to see me as a vampire. I want her to see me like I see her."
"She means that much to you?" he asked.
"You both do."
"But she's leaving next week."
"I know."
"But you still have classes, and your education is important."
"I can go to night classes. Or take online courses. Or even Jameson can teach me. I'll be homeschooled like you," I suggested. Now that Alexander was on board, I wasn't going to let anything get in our way.
"I thought - but what about your parents? Do you think they are going to be happy about this?"