她的心跳漏了一拍，脚步也跟着乱了一瞬。

“对不起。”她不好意思的说。

“不用道歉。”洛勒莱带着她重新找回节奏，“我们再来。”

这一次，洛勒莱哼唱的旋律稍稍加快了些。奥斯汀开始逐渐适应这种亲密的距离，这种同步移动的韵律。

当洛勒莱引导她完成一个流畅的转身时，她甚至没有意识到自己已经学会了这个动作。

“你学得很快。”洛勒莱夸赞她。

“是你在带着我。”奥斯汀诚实地说。

“那还想再学一点吗？”洛勒莱问。

奥斯汀点点头，退开半步，再次躬身伸出手。动作比刚才更自然，更从容。

她们练习了一遍又一遍，从生涩到默契，从需要提示到仅凭一个眼神便能领会转向的时机。

当彻底熟练已是深夜。

洛勒莱停了下来，按住胸口喘气。昨夜缺乏的睡眠，加上整日的劳碌，让她眼角泛起了倦意。

“我跳不动了。”她揉了揉小腿道。

奥斯汀立刻扶住她：“去休息吧。”

洛勒莱确实累了。她简单洗漱后便躺上了床，几乎在枕头上沾到脸颊的瞬间，呼吸就变得绵长而平稳。

奥斯汀在床边待了一会儿，为她掖好被角，然后才转身走回客厅。

她在桌前坐下，取出那封未完成的信。斟酌片刻，继续写道：

My dear Lorelei,

（我亲爱的洛勒莱，）

My Eternal Daylight:

（我的永恒白昼:）

Words are too light, and promises too easily scattered.

So I commit my heart to paper, letting it become an indelible mark between us, and the testament of my marriage proposal to you. （言语太轻，承诺易散。于是我将心意落于纸上，让它成为我们之间永不褪色的印记，也作为我向你求婚的凭证。）

They all say vampires should not yearn for the sun.

But ever since that moment when I was nine, seeing you approach with a lantern in that dilapidated warehouse, every day without you has become an endless exile, and every night with you a feast granted by divine pardon.

（他们都说吸血鬼不该渴望太阳。可自从九岁那年在破旧仓库里看见你提着风灯走来的那一刻起，每一个没有你的白昼都成了无期的流放，每一个有你的夜晚皆是神明赦免的盛宴。）

So it was ten years ago, and so it remains on this night, ten years later.

（十年前如此，十年后的今夜，依旧如此。）

You picked me up from the mud and despair, teaching a monster how to love like a human, with books and embraces never given in doubt.

（你把我从泥泞和绝望中捡起，用书籍和从不迟疑的拥抱，教会一个怪物如何像人一样去爱。）

And I merely followed Gita's dying wish, to protect you with this non-human body of mine, never anticipating that at the end of protection would lie such a torrential love.

（而我只是遵从吉塔临终前的嘱托，用我这具非人之躯去守护你，却未曾预料到，守护的尽头会是这般汹涌的爱意。）

The nights at the monastery were always cold.

When I donned that priest's robe, what stood between us was no longer just a wall, but a forbidden, impassable thicket of thorns.

（修道院的夜晚总是很冷。当我穿上那身神父袍，我们之间隔着的就不再是一面墙，而是处于禁忌的，不可跨越的荆棘丛。）

Often, I listened from one side of the confessional as your footsteps faded away, lamenting that this bloodline prevents me from approaching you openly under the sun, yet basely grateful—if not for this "difference," I might never have been left behind in that rainy night, never have met you.

（我常常在告解室一侧听着你的脚步声远去，懊恼这身血脉让我无法在阳光下堂堂正正地靠近你，又卑劣地庆幸，若不是这“不同”，我或许永远不会被留在那个雨夜，永远不会遇见你。

Persephone returns to the mortal world each year, and spring returns to the earth.

But my seasons revolve solely around you, beginning the moment you wake and ending with your next blink.

（珀耳塞福涅每年重返人间，大地便春回。而我的四季只随你流转，始于你醒来的刹那，终于你下一次阖眼。）

You are the only measure by which I gauge time.

（你是我丈量时间的唯一尺度。）

Please forgive my occasional presumptuous imagination: we may have long since become each other's myth.

（请原谅我偶尔自负的想象：我们或许早已成为彼此的神话。）

You are the land surrounded by waters; I am the tide that flows only to you.

（你是被众水环绕的陆地，我是只流向你的潮汐。）

When Cain was branded with the eternal mark, fate might have already written: you and I, like the Northern Cross forever circling its axis.

（当该隐被烙上永恒的印记时，命运或许早已写下：我和你，如同北十字星永远环绕它的轴心。）

My long life is a frozen river of stars, and you, you make the stars flow once more, giving the eternal night the meaning of dawn. （我漫长的生命是冰封的星河，而你，让星辰再度开始流淌，让永夜有了破晓的意义。）

So, will you?

（那么，你愿意吗？）

Will you let my long night be forever steeped in your morning light?

（愿意让我的长夜，永远浸润在你的晨光里？）

Will you let me use all the eternity that remains to become the most faithful reflection of your mortal years?

（愿意让我用余下的所有永恒，去成为你人间岁月里最忠诚的倒影？）

Sworn by blood, witnessed by stars, in the name of all dawns regained.

（以血为誓，以星为证，以所有失而复得的黎明之名。）

Your Austin

（你的奥斯汀）

On the seventh night before the eternal daylight arrives

（于永昼降临前的第七夜）