The blush that appeared on Victoria’s cheeks when he complimented her eyes was endearing to Vail. He was glad that she seemed pleased with the change he pointed out to her rather than startled by it. After everything she had just been through, he hadn’t been sure how she would react. Then again, she had probably been expecting quite a few changes to occur since she had just been turned from a human into a vampire. Even though this one hadn’t been on the list, it wasn’t much different than her senses that had undoubtedly gotten stronger now that she was no longer mortal or the strength that would fill her lithe body as she recovered.

When she threw her arms around him, he returned the embrace, simply happy that there was life inside of her again. Looking at her corpse for a week had been difficult for him when he hadn’t been certain she would ever come back. “You are,” he mused with a smile, equally enthused that she was ‘like him’ now. As she pulled back to meet his gaze, he considered her question. “I do think so,” he nodded after a moment. The only person he’d needed to hide their relationship from had been his father, but Peter wouldn’t be an issue anymore. He had other problems with the clan leader that he still needed to deal with, but fighting with him about who he could be with wasn’t one of them.

Her question about his family made him shift his weight. He wasn’t quite sure how to answer her, and he didn’t want to dampen her good mood by telling her that more than half of the Hygrace clan had been killed by Mikael Wynter. Fortunately though, he was rescued from responding by Diana, who had burst into the room to see her daughter. Giving them space, he rose from his seat by the bed and stepped back while the elder Lady Crest hugged Victoria. If it was possible, she looked even more elated to see that she had survived the transformation than he was.

When Diana turned to him, Vail nodded wordlessly in reply to her gratitude. He knew she wasn’t entirely thrilled that her only daughter was now a vampire fledgling, but her joy at being able to reunite with Victoria seemed to outweigh her sadness about losing the young woman’s humanity. He assumed it would take her some time to get used to, so when she said that she would give them her blessing if they wanted to get married, he stared at her, taken aback. The statement felt abrupt, so it took him a moment to regain his composure before he managed to echo Victoria’s response and thank her as well.

Caught up in the uncertainty of whether or not the Crest heiress would even survive being turned, he hadn’t thought about marrying her in quite a while. Now that the subject had been brought up again, however, he realized that was something else they could do now that the barriers between them had been removed. It was a peculiar thought. Just a few months ago, he had believed he wouldn’t marry anyone unless his parents arranged for it. He’d never had the desire to seek out a life-long partner on his own. But now, looking at the woman who’d captured his heart, he wanted to wed her more than anything else. He only wondered if his family would be willing to attend the ceremony.

Stepping back over to sit at the foot of the bed now that Diana and Victoria had a chance to catch up, he turned to the widow as well when her daughter asked about the Saints. Though he’d been hoping to delay telling her about the battle until she’d recovered a little more, it seemed like that was going to be unavoidable because of all the questions she had. At least her mother was here to relay some of the news, so he didn’t have to bear the burden of filling her in on everything by himself.