Chapter 20
In the last moments before I committed myself to be his – to be part of him – for all time, Lucius allowed me to see that dark, damaged place inside of himself that had once driven him to thrust a sharpened stake up under my breastbone, before he’d broken down and cried out in rage and despair, “Everything around me is destroyed!”

I stared into his eyes, shaken but refusing to look away, even though this aspect of Lucius was terrifying. I knew that I would never see this part of him again, though – not like this – and I wanted to try to understand this side of him before we were joined for eternity.

And as I studied his eyes, I saw not just the vampire prince who had nearly destroyed me, and who had destroyed his uncle, and who might very well take life in the future, but also the orphan raised with beatings in lieu of love. It was like I saw Lucius’s whole history unfolding before me, both the source of his strength – his ability to stoically endure terrible pain, to rule a far-flung vampire nation, and to sacrifice even his existence if necessary – and the reason that his power would always be dangerous, too, because it was rooted in suffering not tempered with love.

“Oh, Lucius…” Forgetting the ceremony, forgetting our guests entirely, I murmured his name. “Lucius…”

He was giving me one more chance to run from him, like he’d offered on the night when he’d first tasted my blood. The very last chance to run…

But seeing that glimpse into his soul only made me want Lucius even more.

He trusted me enough to reveal his darkest nature to me. Trusted that, although love was new to him, ours was powerful enough to keep me from ever turning away from him.

We stood in silence for a long time, the blood that flowed between our palms thickening, bonding us even more tightly. Our guests would have no idea what was passing between us, and probably wondered if I was about to call off the wedding.

And then, without the slightest hesitation, still staring into Lucius’s eyes, confronting the deep pain and the incredible, barely controlled power that I saw there, I told everyone – and yet only Lucius, as he’d just told me, “Yes, I accept Lucius as my husband, now and always, for as long as I shall exist.”

When I said that, Lucius lowered his eyes once more, and I knew that he really never would reveal that side of himself again, so openly. That I shouldn’t see it again. That, like the stake he’d pressed against me, and which had disappeared, I would have to accept that this part of Lucius existed, henceforth out of reach to me… but always capable of surfacing in his actions.

When he opened his eyes again, I saw complete happiness in them – the restoration of the vampire I had first come to love, in all his arrogant, wonderful, witty, tender, commanding glory. Eyes that held just the faintest shadow of that dark place, which I would always recognize, now, along with the love that I always saw in his gaze.

That darkness he harbored – I would never again see it so completely, but its source would never be entirely hidden from me, either. And as his bride, I thought that seemed right.

The corners of Lucius’s lips lifted with a smile, and I smiled, too, knowing that we were both feeling the same way. Both believing that, although the ceremony wasn’t finished yet, in that moment when I’d accepted Lucius and he’d accepted me, we had become husband and wife.

I could hardly wait to kiss him, to seal the new covenant between us…

We continued facing each other, sharing happiness and a wonderful new peace.

It took effort to stop meeting Lucius’s eyes, to stop smiling at one another, but eventually we released our unmarked hands and both turned back toward Alexandru, who nodded first to Raniero, then to Mindy, signaling that they should reach for the small, silver cups filled with our blood.

Continue to Chapter 21...