Chapter 3
“You’re really going to live there?” Mindy asked, without taking her eyes off the sprawling, soaring, Gothic Vladescu estate. She took a step closer to the edge of the precipice, and I grabbed her sleeve, not wanting her to tumble down into the steep, narrow valley that separated us from Lucius’s home. But Mindy seemed too transfixed to even notice that I’d stopped her. “You’re actually getting married there?”

It was hard to tell if I heard awe – or concern – in her voice. Maybe there was a mixture of both. Or maybe I was projecting my own conflicted emotions about my soon-to-be home onto my friend.

Letting go of Mindy’s sleeve, I shaded my eyes against the setting sun and joined her in studying the massive castle where I would soon live with Lucius.

The vast stone mansion, the size of a small – or maybe not-so-small – city block, was magnificent, without a doubt. Like something straight out of a fairy tale. And yet, as my eyes traced along the rambling exterior, which was punctuated by sharp, spike-like turrets and dominated by a tall watch tower, I couldn’t help thinking, with more than a little misgiving, that fairy tales always had dark twists. Children got lost in desolate forests and stumbled across witches intent upon stuffing them into ovens. A handful of beans could lead to an encounter with an angry giant. And, as Lucius had reminded me in the shadow of the very stone walls I was observing, innocent girls could find themselves eaten by wolves, if they weren’t always on guard…

Mindy interrupted my thoughts with a soft, low whistle. “That place is…”

She couldn’t seem to articulate her thoughts, but I could finish them well enough.

Huge.

Awesome.

Imposing.

Fearsome?

“Yes, I know,” I agreed, dropping my hand and looking to Mindy. “It’s almost too much for words.”

She finally managed to tear her gaze away, too, and met my eyes. “When you said you were getting married at Lucius’s ‘estate,’ I didn’t think you meant, like, an honest-to-goodness Cinderella, king-and-queen castle.”

I looked a little deeper into my best friend’s eyes, because, for the first time since Lucius had come into my life – maybe for the first time in Mindy’s and my friendship – I thought I’d witnessed a flash of raw jealousy there. But it vanished so quickly that I wasn’t even sure I’d really seen it. The light was fading fast, and it was getting hard to see…

Mindy turned back toward the valley, seeming drawn to look at the edifice that dominated the landscape, its silhouette getting more and more stark as the sun set.

“Where, exactly, will you get married in there?” she asked. “Is there, like, a special room just for weddings? Because it looks big enough to have a special room for everything.”

I looked again at the castle, too, searching the towers and shadowed courtyards and tall, narrow windows – and trying to imagine the spot, myself.

“Lucius won’t tell me,” I admitted.

Mindy spun toward me, clearly shocked. “What? You’re joking, right?”

Although she’d hadn’t had a boyfriend yet – not unlike me too long ago – she’d been planning her own wedding since we were about five years old. There was no way Melinda Stankowicz would ever let anybody – not even the love of her life – surprise her with a location for the most important night of her life. Especially not if she was getting married in an estate that held collections of weapons and was splashed with bloodstains, for crying out loud.

No, Mindy would have insisted on seeing the room… or the chamber… or wherever, exactly, her groom intended to tie the knot.

“The only thing I know is that I haven’t even seen the spot yet,” I told her. “Lucius purposely kept it hidden from me when he showed me the rest of the castle.” Including a labyrinth of buried chambers that could only be called a dungeon, where Lucius admitted he’d sometimes been “disciplined,” to use his own euphemism…

“Jess, are you sure you don’t want to see where you’re actually exchanging vows?” Mindy asked, with genuine concern – almost alarm – in her voice. “This is your wedding!”

“I know,” I agreed. “Believe me – I’ve thought of that!”

I’d been very worried when Lucius had first suggested that I let him pick the location.

But when I’d brought up the topic of choosing where we’d marry, my future husband had said to me, “I know the perfect place.” Then he’d arched his dark eyebrows, mischief in his black eyes, and asked, “Do you trust me, Antanasia?”

I’d looked into those complicated, mysterious, wonderful eyes for a long time, knowing that this was a once-in-eternity opportunity to choose where I’d be wed… and thinking, just for a split second, that the vampire who stood before me had not too long ago surprised me with a stake pressed close to my heart.

Lucius had been smiling, teasing, but there’d been something serious deep in his eyes, too, and I’d had a feeling that he was testing our bond, just a little. That something important was happening between us. Something more than just a decision about where we’d perform the ceremony that had united generations of vampires before us.

Then I’d begun to smile, too, mirroring Lucius’s own expression…

“Jess – seriously!” Mindy’s voice brought me back to present. “You’re letting a guy – even a guy as cool as Lucius – make that decision?”

In spite of the twinges of apprehension I always felt in the shadow of the Vladescu estate, I found myself smiling the same way I’d done the night that I’d given control of that crucial choice to Lucius as I turned to Mindy and said, without any lingering doubts, “I trust him.”

Then I glanced at my watch, realizing we needed to get moving. “Come on,” I said, heading toward the waiting vehicle. “We need to get to the Dragomir estate – which is much less impressive,” I warned her, so she wouldn’t expect too much. “I’m sure you can’t wait to clean up, and we both need to get dressed for dinner, then round up Mom and Dad, too. The last time I saw them, they were off on some nature hike in the mountains, looking for a medicinal plant Dad remembered harvesting the last time they were here.”

“Your parents came?” Mindy asked. “Really?”

“Of course,” I said – surprised that she would be surprised. This was my wedding. Then I remembered how Mom and Dad had tried to stop me from going to Lucius’s aid on that terrible night when he’d almost been destroyed in the Zinn’s barn. Mindy probably knew most of what had happened that evening, including how my parents had taken my car keys away, afraid that Lucius really had succumbed to his darker nature and bitten Faith Crosse.

“I forgave Mom and Dad a long time ago,” I told Mindy, not even bothering to ask how much she knew for certain. “They were only trying to protect me. They didn’t know how bad things were about to get for Lucius.”

“Yeah, I guess not,” Mindy agreed, as we reached the Lexus. But she held back a step, seeming to have something on her mind.

I waited, too, while she chose her words. “Jake…,” she finally began, seeming hesitant to bring up the topic of my old boyfriend – who’d plunged a stake into the love of my life. “He…”

“He didn’t really try to kill Lucius,” I reassured her. “It was all a set up, to save Lucius’s life, actually. Jake is a nice guy.” Which, in a strange way, was part of the reason I couldn’t love him.

“Yeah, your mom told me the story,” Mindy said. “There were so many rumors, and so much confusion after that night… I had to go ask her, one day, what was true.”

“Lucius tried to invite Jake to the wedding,” I added. “Even volunteered to fly him here. He feels so grateful for what Jake did.”

Mindy’s eyes widened with surprise. “And…?”

I shook my head, before Mindy could start thinking anybody else from school would be at the ceremony. “He declined. I think he’d rather just forget the whole thing.” Maybe forget me, too, after how I’d treated him.

“Yeah, I can see him wanting that,” Mindy said. “Jake doesn’t seem like a guy who’d like a fancy wedding – especially with vampires.”

“No, I don’t think he’d be comfortable in a castle,” I agreed. Yet I still thought of Jake as a knight in shining armor. A really good guy who’d risked a lot to save a classmate he didn’t even like. A hero, in a way. But I was destined for someone very different. Someone who was probably at that very moment completely at ease while donning formal dinner attire, or running a razor over his stubbled jaw, being careful at the spot where his skin was scarred. Or maybe he’d be issuing last-minute orders to his staff, or pacing around his study, hands laced behind his back as he prepared the toast he’d probably give that night…

Although I saw Lucius nearly every day now, my stomach started to tickle, like it inevitably did when I thought of him, and I began moving us toward the SUV again, suddenly in a hurry to see him. “Come on, let’s go!”

“Where’s the dinner going to be, anyhow?” Mindy asked, following my lead.

The driver reached out and opened the door for both of us, and as I climbed in, I grinned over my shoulder. “Let’s just say that in a few hours, you’ll get a much closer look at Lucius’s house!”

“Oh, boy,” Mindy muttered, climbing in, too. “Oh, boy…”

And for the second time that evening, I couldn’t quite tell whether she was excited or scared. Or maybe I was projecting my own feelings again. For although I knew that Jake Zinn wasn’t on the guest list, I wasn’t exactly sure who all might show up.

Continue to Chapter 4.....