|
AS OUR GUESTS took their seats again behind us, Alexandru
Vladescu, the ancient vampire presiding over our ceremony,
reached across the table and rested his hands on both our
foreheads, compelling me and Lucius to bow slightly while he
offered our families’ equivalent of a benediction.
“We gather this evening to unite, for eternity, Prince
Lucius Vladescu and Princess Antanasia Dragomir, and to
offer them the blessing of our clans,” he said, fingers firm
against my head. “From this day forward, as promised in the
pact sealed at their births, they shall live—and rule—as one.”
Then he took away his hands so Lucius and I could
straighten, and I knew that I’d just witnessed one of only two
times Lucius Vladescu would ever bow down before another
vampire, no matter how venerable or powerful that Elder
might be. The next time Lucius lowered his head would be at
our coronation. If that day ever came.
 |
I shifted my eyes slightly to see Lucius in profile. Would he
ever really be king? And could I really be queen?
“But first,” Alexandru said, summoning my attention
forward, so I found myself looking into eyes that were darkly
familiar. Vladescu eyes, which had seen centuries, maybe
millennia, of marriages, births . . . and destructions. “First
you must accept one another as bride and groom, before your
witnesses.”
I clasped Lucius’s hand more firmly and got a little nervous
again.
Although I knew Lucius wanted to marry me, the question
that was about to be asked wasn’t just a formality, like in a
regular wedding. In the world that I was entering, where
unions really were eternal, the words that would be spoken
next were meant to give both partners one last chance to
reconsider before the die was cast forever.
“Lucius Vladescu,” Alexandru said, voice low, almost
ominous, “will you accept Antanasia as your wife, now and
always, for as long as you shall exist?”
Lucius and I turned to each other, and he took both my
hands, and the moment that I saw his face, my apprehension
vanished. “Yes,” Lucius said, addressing everybody—but
really talking only to me. “I accept Antanasia as my wife, now
and always, for as long as I shall exist.”
Although I’d known in my heart that Lucius would accept
me, and that my momentary fear had been unreasonable, I
was still relieved to hear him say those words out loud.
Then, while Lucius and I remained facing each other,
Alexandru Vladescu spoke my name and asked me the same
question. “Antanasia Dragomir—will you accept Lucius as
your husband, now and always, for as long as you shall exist?”
I opened my mouth to answer, hardly even waiting for
the elder vampire to finish. But just before the words came
out of my mouth, Lucius whispered, “Antanasia . . . wait.”
Continue to Chapter 20...
|
