damon marcello

She has always been so observant, always picking up on the most subtle of shifting in someone's body language. As always, she sees me get nervous and she jumps to the worst conclusion. I can literally feel her trembling fingers in my own and I want nothing more than to pull her close in a cocoon and hold her until she has no need to tremble anymore. Especially not at my expense.

I reassure her and I can feel her body relax a little, only to feel her stiffen once more for a whole new reason when I drop to one knee. Of course this is a universal sign to any woman who has ever watched a romance so they all know what it means. I can see her legs trembling and I'm ready to catch her at a moment's notice if she starts to sway and fall but I can only hope she's trembling for a good reason this time.

I know it's hard to imagine me of all vampires ever coming to this point in my life. Commitment has and will always be a weakness of mine, but it doesn't have to run my life. Not anymore anyway. Before it was never a question. I wouldn't get close, wouldn't get attached. But Isolt changed all that because no matter what I did, she was always there at the back of my mind. She broke through my walls one by one until there was nothing left but this shriveling mess of a man. She brought me back to my human days, back when I felt weak both on the inside and the outside. I was always self conscious. I was just always good at hiding it behind an arrogant exterior so no one would see the child on the inside.

Isolt has a way of seeing right through me though as if I've been vulnerable all along. No matter what, she knows when I'm upset or thoughtful. I've never known someone to read me the way she does. It scares the shit out of me. Everything about her and the way she makes me feel scares the shit out of me but I'm addicted like any weak human. I keep coming back for more because the thought of going without it, without HER, is worse than any other fate life or death could throw at me. She is worse than any heroin.

She's mine and I want to keep it that way. No one else can have her because if I can't have her, then who am I? I don't even know my own identity without her. She is my other half. I never believed in love, let alone soul mates but she changed all that for me. She carries my soul around with her, embracing my heart the whole time.

I'm sure Isolt had been like any other school girl, dreaming of the day she would take some lucky man's last name and bear him children and come home every day to say "Honey, I'm home!" like all those corny sitcoms you see on Saturday morning TV. I'm probably nowhere near the man she imagined in all those scenarios and children is no longer an option to her but that doesn't mean happily ever after can't be. I want to give her everything she deserves and more, if only she'll give me that chance.

Her lips part but no words come forth. I wait on bated breath for something, anything. A hint, a clue, a sign. She is my life line and I'm helpless without it. I'm not going to jump to conclusions or anything. I'm just going to stifle my impatience and simply...wait.

I feel her finger move first, caressing my knuckles and I take it as a good sign. At least she's not running. She's not flinging my hand aside to escape the thought of ever being tethered to a man like me. I look up her, siimply waiting.

And then she says it, the magical word I've been waiting for all my life it would seem for the way my chest suddenly expands like a balloon being blown up. Suddenly the world feels a little bit brighter, a little more like sunlight hitting my skin. She says it again and I let out a breath I didn't even know I was holding because of course I didn't have to in the first place. As she pulls herself against me, I close my arms around her, nuzzling into her hair, kissing whatever I can reach of her head and neck and face, anything to touch her, to hold her, to know she's mine. As she pushes her lips to mine, I'm tasting what heaven must surely taste like. I'm enraptured by it. The smile on her lips is beautiful as she pulls back and I smile right back at her, slowly bringing the ring up.

I reach for her hand, slowly slipping the ring over her finger before I pull it to my lips, kissing the ring and all it signifies before I look back at her. "It was my mother's. It looks beautiful on you."