Wake up the following morning to shower and dress. Surprisingly, Ben stuck around to make sure I was alright, and even helped me shower. Very sweet of him to do so, I think. I text Donnie after Ben leaves to apologize for not saying anything when he left early that morning (or noticing that he left at all), and then he and I agree to still meet up for lunch. As I have nothing else to do until then, I head over to the hotel to see my family. I go to my brothers’ room, but the do not disturb sign is on the door, so I call Raph, who is downstairs at the bar having breakfast.
We talk, and he informs me that Gabe is thinking of staying. He makes sure I’m okay, then lets me know that Mom and Dad are at IHOP, so I head there to have breakfast with my parents for the first time in years. Afterward, I head back to the hotel to catch up with Gabe, and discuss him moving to town, and I promise to help him out however I can.
Head home and change to head out to lunch and wait for Donnie to pick me up. This time we go to a much fancier place, where he had to make reservations. At one point, violin players come by our table to play, and that’s when Donnie gets down on one knee and proposes to me. I’m so flustered I don’t know what to do…I ultimately say yes, however, mostly because I don’t want to disappoint Donnie (and I want to avoid further embarrassment).
Donnie drops me off at home around three in the afternoon – and no one is there for me to talk to about what just happened, so I call Gabe (everyone else in my family is on their way home). He drops by, at roughly the same time Scott gets home. I let them know about the engagement, and then to take my mind off the situation I turn the topic towards my brother. I take him apartment hunting with Scott, but first we take him by the video store to turn in an app. The manager isn’t there, however, so we opt to come back when he’s in.
Danielle is home when we get back, and she’s happy for me. She also has news – she ran into Raul, who is doing well. He’s on meds, and isn’t taking kindly to the blood for some reason, but is still working for Donovan in some capacity. He sends apologies to Scott and I. We chill for a while and just hang out. I had texted Ben to join us, but he was unavailable.
Come evening I hear Donovan stirring in his room, then I hear him throwing things around. Before things can get out of hand, I knock and inform him we have company. He asks to speak to the three of us (myself, Scott and Danielle) in his office then. In short, he has a job for us. A girl from the massage parlor ran away to elope with her boyfriend, and we are to get her to come back willingly, by force if we have to (though we are not to leave marks), or, if all else fails, kill her.
Say goodbye to my brother, then head down to the massage parlor and get info on her from the Madam there, then head to Suki’s (that’s her name) apartment to do a search. Find pictures of the boyfriend, but in every one he seems to be hiding his face. We learn she conversed a lot with a close friend, and was set to meet at a restaurant. We split up, sending Danielle to the restaurant and Scott and I try to pressure the friend into telling us what she knows, but she doesn’t know anything. Meet up with Danielle at the restaurant and wait for the server that served Suki and her boyfriend the previous night to come onto shift. Of all the bad luck it turns out to be Jeremy. He suspects something is up, and lets us know as much – we get some info, but not a lot.
Danielle sticks around to try and get more info out of him, while I go outside to try and scry his location. The pendulum swings along the highway leading north into the wildlife preserve. Oh joy of joys, he’s heading into lycan territory. Danielle was able to get his name (Craig), and we head onto the highway after them, Scott driving. Decide to call Craig, ultimately deciding to meet at the rest area a mile from the preserve to try and negotiate. Talk to him, offer him a couple of options, and he is unwilling to take either.
We talk, and decide then that we’ll use Craig to flush out Suki. I clock him in the gut, and Scott whacks him in the back of the knee with a crowbar. We manage to flush Suki out this way, then grab them both and put them in the back of the car while I call Donovan. Donovan says that with her level of devotion she won’t come back, and to kill her and disfigure him. After hanging up with Donovan I decide to try and give them another chance, but I am headbutted and they take off into the woods. Danielle runs them down and disfigures Craig with her claws while Suki begs us to stop – then she had to go and switch tactics, saying she was going to tell everyone everything about the massage parlor and what goes on there. Danielle is the one that ends up killing her with the crowbar. We take the weapon with us and leave them, heading back home.
Donovan rewards each of us on a job well done when we get home, by handing us each a manila envelope. Mine contains $5,000, a ticket to full VIP treatment at the spa, and two tickets for a romantic dinner at a five star restaurant, with a hotel presidential suite to follow after. He then has us leave the house for a while, as Madeline is present, so I decide to drop in on Donnie. I spend a few hours with him watching movies, cuddling, and talking about why he wants to marry me. In short, he wants to be my rock – my normalcy and solidarity in my crazy life. I don’t have to give up Ben or my faith or anything like that – I can continue being me, he just wants to be a part of my life.
Around two in the morning I receive a text stating that I can head back to the house, which is about the time Donnoe calls it a night, as he has classes the following day. Once the three of us arrive back at the house, Donovan is in a good mood, an we discuss vampire stuff – clans, factions, politics, etc. It’s a lot to take in. I inform him of my engagement, and in return get chastised a little for not thinking about how it affects him (Donovan), and why that’s an important thing.
While the rest of us are toasting with wine and ice cream over my engagement, he tells us to wait and that he’ll return momentarily, and he heads for the basement. During the time he has disappeared, I notice that Lovecraft is missing as well. After a little while, Donovan returns with a contented Lovecraft in his arms, and he hands him to me – and I swear I can hear Lovecraft in my head. Donovan informs me that he is my familiar now, and that has some benefits. I thank him, and he gives me one more gift – the book he got the spell from (which also happens to be the book he summoned Ben from). I text Ben later to let him know about the book, and he is very interested. I then go to bed for the evening