She pulled an ancient looking red velvet box from her jacket. “I remember you complaining that you were bound to me without so much as a ring.”

Amelia slid her hands around Byron’s neck, and smiled. “Well, a girl should expect a ring of some sort if she’s going to be the wife of a super vampire, and Principessa to a clan of said vampires.”

“You are quite right.” Byron opened the box and revealed a silver ring, inset with a blood-red ruby. Amelia gasped.

“This has been in my family for over five hundred years.”

“It’s beautiful. Did your mother wear it?”

“No, she has her own ring that my father had made for her. This ring is different,” Byron said. She took the ring from its box, and held it up. “This ring will protect you from danger, and help you heal from my bites more quickly.”

“How can a ring do that?” Amelia asked, then said, “Wait, forget that. Of course a ring can protect me. I’m married to vampire royalty.”

“Not quite,” Byron said, lifting her hand.

“Wait, we’re not married? I thought the whole blood bond thing meant—”

“Yes, it does. There’s just a little ceremony we still have to complete, which is why I asked you to stand. Do you wish to complete the ceremony?”

Amelia caressed Byron’s cheek. After all they’d been through, Byron still asked. She was the noblest person she had ever met. “Of course I do. I’m not going anywhere now I’ve got you back.”

Byron lifted her own palm to her mouth and Amelia watched as the vampire in her emerged. Her fangs protruded, and she used them to cut a diagonal line down her palm, and it started to bleed.

She then lifted Amelia’s palm to her mouth. “You are sure?”

Amelia couldn’t deny feeling a little apprehensive. After all this was very different from wearing the big white dress and her uncle walking her down the aisle, but she was in a different world now, and in this world she was sure.

“I’m sure.”

Byron ran her fang down her palm. She jumped at the cutting pain which was soon forgotten when the feel-good chemicals hit her brain.

Byron placed their palms together, so that their blood mixed together.

“Repeat after me. Bound in blood and spirit…”

Amelia took Byron’s other hand, and looked directly into her eyes. “Bound in blood and spirit…”

“…for all eternity.”

“…for all eternity,” Amelia repeated.

Byron took the ring and slid it on to her finger, whilst repeating the vow herself. Amelia felt a surge of heat and exhilaration run from the ring through her body. She staggered back from Byron, feeling light-headed.

“What was that?”

Byron grasped her, looking concerned. “What are you feeling?”