I woke up in the morning to the smell of coffee. We'd had a hectic night once the engagement party at the New York house was over. Damon had purchased the engagement gift, and I glanced at the black music box on the nightstand where I had placed it.
I still remembered the entire party, and the biggest thing that still made me dizzy was that Damon wanted to do it with me. I looked at the ring on my finger and I adored it. Damon had made it himself. He told me it was a unique ring.
We had returned from the restaurant to the limousine, to the house in New York. This was a tall but narrow building and there were four floors and it was full of quite small rooms, as if it had been a school or something before. We had the biggest bedroom upstairs, black, pink, gold, and purple. Damon had been there secretly to finish it.
The bedspread was black velvet. While the pillows were pink and purple satin. There was only one big blanket and silk sheets on the bed. It was also a four-poster bed and bloody lovely. The bathroom was enormous again, with an enormous tub and a lovely spacious shower, and already had my new shampoo and shower gel in it.
I hadn't even changed out of my dress when Damon had taken me to see the bedroom before the guests arrived for our engagement party.
He sat me down on the bed and handed me a package, which I opened and there was a black music box.
He said; "Here baby, your engagement present. This is ours. It plays our tune."
I looked at Damon and said, "It's lovely. Thank you, my love. I didn't get you anything, as this was a complete surprise."
Damon laughed, and I inspected the music box more. It was black ebony with lots of gold ornaments. When I opened it, I heard a tune. It was incredibly beautiful, but I didn't know what or whose composition it was. It was so lovely, somehow it really warmed my heart.
I asked Damon, "Whose composition is this? It's really beautiful."
Damon said: "It's unique. It only belongs in this music box. I used to know this maker, look at the bottom LvL. Ludvig Von Lussenberg made these music boxes for the perfect woman. There were twenty of them and he made the tune for each one himself. He was a kind of genius."
I was silent and again my eyes moistened. We had our tune, unique and no one else would ever use it. This music box symbolized our relationship so well. Unique, one of a kind, rare and perfect. He knew how to make me go all teary-eyed and moved. I was not prepared for this.
I thought it was a wonderful engagement present. We were engaged to be married. Then Damon dropped the next bombshell. I hadn't even had time to think about the wedding yet. I was only engaged.
Damon said: "Baby, my beloved, I want to go through the ancient vampire ritual of marrying you. I've never done it with anyone and you can only do it once. No matter how old you are. I would like to, baby, do this one time only with you. We could go to the registry office, there for an official human wedding, and this could be our special wedding. What do you say? "
It impressed me. A ritual you can only do once. Damon is old and wants to do it with me. He could have anyone and he chose me for this honour.
My voice was thick and moved, but I said my answer. "Of course, the love of my life, my future husband, and my own. The registry office will do very well."
Then we went downstairs. Damon announced the same thing to everyone there but said nothing about the music box. It was just the two of us. The party lasted past midnight and we fucked vigorously until 5 am before exhausting ourselves.
I fell asleep on top of Damon again. And then I woke up now to this smell of coffee in our bed. I had no idea what a vampire wedding was going to be or hold, and I was in no hurry. We had time, and we were engaged. I felt less of a monster and more of a woman or beloved.
I went to the bathroom, took a shower, and just put on my robe. I went to sit on the bed and the door opened.
Adam walked in and said, "Damon had to leave. But are you coming for breakfast soon? Breakfast is ready and Samuel wants to take some blood tests, and check your heat status since you've been pretty active in that area."
I said "Yeah, I'll just get dressed. Look, Damon bought me a one-of-a-kind music box as an engagement present,"
I opened it and let Adam listen to it.
He said, " Lovely tune. I'll look at your clothes and then do your hair downstairs."
He walked over to the drawers and wardrobe, chose my clothes, and then went downstairs already.
I got dressed. I knew that whatever Damon was doing; we were engaged and somehow I suspected that this was a vampire problem and Damon would not go for strange women. Not at all. Maybe it was our bond that told me these things.
Adam had given me a driver's license and a car as an engagement present, so now I had the freedom to move around. I went downstairs with my hair damp, almost in a tangle as I didn't bother to use conditioner.
They set the table. Bran and Samuel were eating, and I felt somehow insecure when Bran looked at me. I was wearing a looser button-down shirt and an over-the-knee skirt, but somehow Bran's expression was falsely beastly and lustful, but only for a moment. He looked at me like he would have now permission to attack me or something.
Adam saw it and directed me to eat next to him, away from Bran. Glaring angrily at Bran as he put a gigantic pile of food in front of me. Adam was very protective mood.
On top of the food, Samuel took me to the medbay and examined me. My time of heat wasn't coming yet, so Bran relaxed as soon as he heard the result. He tried to peek at my body, but Samuel was very careful now and protected me carefully so that Bran didn't get a good look at me.
Samuel also took a considerable number of blood samples and biopsies. Damon had told me about my reaction to the herbs and also that I had now found the right shower gels and shampoos. Samuel was eager to take samples of my skin for that.
Then, after a few hours, Samuel fully examined me and stayed to go over the results while I left the medbay.
Adam said, " We could go from here to Chicago. It's a 14-hour drive and you now have your own car so that you can drive yourself after me."
I replied, "Fine, that's fine, and I'm not in a hurry for gigs yet. "
Adam nodded and then left again when George called to say there was still no sign of Ben. I noticed Adam's irritation, and I suspected he wanted to be in the car by himself for that very reason.
I was planning to cook and bake as soon as we got to Chicago. Damon would get there when he could, and then maybe we could dedicate the bedroom properly again.
I was actually looking forward to the drive and soon after we'd eaten; we were ready to go and Samuel got in the car with Adam. I was enjoying myself. My car was a Lexus, a white SUV, but a Lexus, nonetheless.
The very first thing I did was go and put all the seats and adjustments in place. This was comfort first and foremost. This was my car, after all.
Then I went for a drive behind Adam and sang quite a few different songs on the way. Really loud. That was fun. We stopped every five hours or so and I ate if I wanted to; I wasn't always hungry, and I'd learned a little about being sensitive and not wanting to poison myself, so I had coffee, coke, and sometimes I might have a sandwich or something.
Adam and Samuel talked little.
All I heard was Adam saying to Samuel, "I do feel Ben, but it doesn't feel right. I know he exists but is somehow wrong. "
Samuel grumbled, " Bran has nothing to say about it. He doesn't seek out Ben. That's your problem, and Charles is at a gig. He might have figured out what's wrong with it,"
But when I got closer, neither of them would talk to me and the conversation stopped completely. Fine. Then not my problem.
The rest of the journey went without a hitch, it was great to drive a car again and it gave me the much-needed freedom and also security as the car was a lot safer than a motorbike, and more comfortable too, you didn't have to be wet in the rain.
The men stopped talking about Ben and we actually drove the last eight hours in a row so I was pretty tired and ready to go to bed, Adam wasn't available so I went upstairs to sleep, showered, changed into a nightie and hoped the smell of Damon in bedclothes would get me to sleep safely.
But I woke up three hours later, wet with sweat, trembling, and knowing I wouldn't sleep then. I was pretty panicked for few hours. But I controlled myself and didn't go wandering off. I grabbed my laptop and ordered some baking supplies on the express order. I researched all the recipes I could make and made a plan for myself.
I then started baking pretty early in the morning when I didn't want to sleep. Adam came for breakfast, and it mildly surprised him to find me awake. He also felt a little guilty, as he didn't want to make me fall asleep.
Actually, I didn't know why, whether it was because I was now engaged to Damon, or whether the Ben thing weighed too much. Didn't he trust himself to be around me? Either way, I didn't want to sleep or I didn't want to talk about it. I baked and baked bread, and rolls, and made cakes all day or so.
Yes, I ate whenever it was time to eat, and then tomorrow I would cook. Day in and day out, I baked and cooked as long as I felt like it or something came up. I knew that at some point I would have to go to the store and get more supplies. I had my cookbook where I would always put the recipes I made, if only so Damon could go through them and see if there was anything too dangerous in them.
I heard Adam talking to Samuel that Charles had now destroyed an enormous bunch of black witches, but there were still plenty of them and they could be a threat, too. The black witch was the wicked one. A human with magical abilities but twisted, and they usually wanted the pain and suffering of their victims.
I remembered Drusilla and those pain crystals. The memory flashed in my head and I dropped a plate on the floor, breaking it. Adam and Samuel didn't hear a thing, thankfully.