Page 70 of Fang Fatale

My own sincerity still manages to surprise me.

"People think vampires are obsessed with immortality."

I know she can't hear me.

Maybe that's why I keep talking.

"It isn't living forever that gets us."

"It's the forgetting."

"Everything..."

"Everyone..."

"It all blurs together until memory has the consistency of a melted popsicle."

I pause.

"If you're lucky..."

"You get one or two moments."

"A handful of faces."

"The ones that stay sharp."

My hands become still in her hair.

"If I last another two centuries..."

"I'll remember you."

A quiet breath escapes me.

"You'll become the yardstick I measure everyone else against."

"I'll hate that."

"I'll never admit it."

"But it'll be true."

I look down.

She's curled against me like a contented cat, completely oblivious.

For one impossible moment...

I forget about the men hunting her.

The sky outside.

The violence waiting beyond the walls.

All I want...

Is this.