He nods. "Once we trust them to keep secrets we could tell them and turn them when they grow up."

"Yeah. Or something. The details can be sorted out later depending on what we want. If we even want it, I'm not impatient to have children? Especially if we have forever."

He nods again and—

—doesn't kiss her hair, they're not there yet. Probably.

She doesn't notice his dilemma.

"You said newborn vampires are hard to control? I'd rather not be hard to control near people I might kill. If I turn you could take me to... Antarctica seems a bit much, but maybe Greenland? Some big place where there isn't a lot of people."

"It... probably won't be necessary to go that far. But if you wish, yes, I can do that."

"Oh? What seems like a reasonable place to take me instead? You're my vampiric expert here."

"I think a clear five-mile radius should be sufficient. I can," and he swallows dryly, "tear off your arms if you get too out of control, and then your instincts will turn against me rather than towards food and I will be able to stop you."

"... noted. Let's. Let's not force you into the position where you need to tear your mate's arms off, okay, dear?"

"Okay."

"If it comes to that we can make my brother do it," she says, sagely. "As penance for not telling you important information. But I think I'd really prefer isolation over backing my loved ones into a corner to rip my arms off."

"Okay."

She wriggles an arm out of her blanket cocoon and pats him gently on the cheek.

"Thank you, though. I appreciate the offer."

Eeeeeee he closes his eyes happily and makes a... yep, that's a purring sound. An honest-to-god purr.

"Oh, you purr. Vampires can purr! That's adorable, I am delighted, that's going in the pluses column."

"—oh, yeah. And growl."

"Not an adorable plus, but not a negative. It can go into the neutral column."

James thinks about it for a bit and then smirks. She's his mate, so...

He growls, quietly, it's almost indistinguishable from a purr except for how it's more—raw, animalistic. Sexy, even.

She goes very still and blinks up at him. If he's paying attention, that looks like a faint blush to her cheeks.

"... Nnnnot a neutral," she says, very quietly, after a pause. She shivers a little. It... is not a bad kind of shiver. "Nevermind, I take it back, I apologize for my hasty categorization."

He just grins, a smug "I knew it" grin.

"And we are moving right along now," she declares, nestling further into her blankets to hide her face. Her voice is slightly muffled. "So how bad is the unpleasantness from being thirsty all of the time?"

"It's about as bad as turning, at its worst, but concentrated to the throat area, and it flares whenever human blood is brought to our attention."

"And turning is bad enough that people in the middle of it routinely want to die. Okay. I'd take it over dying, though. Especially if it can be mitigated with frequent, uh, quenching. Animal based quenching."

He nods. "It can, when you're not hungry and not around any humans it's not hard to distract yourself from the thirst."

"Okay. I expect to be able to tolerate the world's most annoying sore throat for all eternity."

He has the best mate.