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“Wonder what?”

“I wonder when you’re going to get tired of ht? For ood lasts forever And we don’t have any sort of … we haven’t really talked about the long ter now”

Gabriel opened his mouth to protest, then snapped it shut After a few moments’ consideration, he blurted out, “Is this because I haven’t said that I love you?”

“No,” I said, caught off guard enough to gape at him a little “Are vampires even capable of love?”

“Jane, that hurts me,” he said

“It shouldn’t I honestly have no idea I love my parents, I love Zeb I love Aunt Jettie But I had those emotions before I was turned How do I know they aren’t just residual echoes of what I felt when I was human? I was never in love with aI really like you Does that help?”

He made a face

“Have you ever been close to getting et married?”

He grinned down at me “Is that a proposal?”

I ignored hially?”

“No, not yet,” he said “If a va turned, and the spouse is still hual and valid It took the council nearly two years of lobbying Congress to acco after-death rights for vampires We are technically dead, so the hard-line conservatives insist that we don’t have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness Marriage, adoption, voting—”

I gasped “We can’t vote?”

“You didn’t notice that in Nove the election?”

“Of course I did, because I vote …” I protested “OK, fine, I didn’t even try to vote I forgot I’m a horrible person”

He shrugged, patting my head “Well, you had to have flaws You don’t vote or have tact or have control over ross motor functions—”