Chapter 21
Although I would try hard to remember each detail of the rest of the ceremony as clearly as I recalled the second when I knew that Lucius really was my husband, I would succeed in capturing only certain moments that followed.

The instant when Mindy passed my silver cup to me, offering me my own blood to share with Lucius – a strange, almost troubled, look in her eyes, instead of the sentimental tears I’d expected – and the way Lucius closed his eyes as he accepted the cup from me, lifted it to his lips, and drank deeply.

And I would remember finally noticing Raniero – realizing that Lucius had somehow managed to get his best man cleaned up and into a tuxedo, so he looked suitably regal as he offered Lucius his cup, the feel of which would always be etched into my memory, too, as deeply as the V that was scored into that ancient vessel, the letter a crude precursor to the elegant initial that adorned the bookmark Lucius had once given me.

Of course I would also recall – always – Lucius telling me, in his deep voice, “I offer you nothing less than my blood, Antanasia… Nothing less than myself,” and the heaviness of the silver as I accepted the cup from him and lifted it to my lips, hand trembling just a little with nervousness and anticipation. Nor would I forget the taste of his blood – that sweet, cool, incredible essence of Lucius, himself, which I’d craved for so long. The cup hadn’t held enough to satisfy me – it wasn’t supposed to – but I’d known that I would drink more later…

There were vivid images, too, of Alexandru opening the genealogy Lucius had shown me months ago and sliding it across the stone table so I could affix my name next to my new husband’s. I had turned, just before placing pen to paper, and seen my mother looking bravely happy, my father crying openly, Dorin’s eyes alight with the history of the act, and Claudiu refusing to look at all, face turned away as Lucius bent next to me, his body steadying mine while I carefully inscribed my signature and he wrote our marriage date above the empty place where our children’s names would be written in the same black ink…

All of those things went by so quickly, up until the moment when Lucius slipped a gleaming wedding band onto my finger, and I did the same for him, conscious, in a wonderfully, shamelessly, selfish way, that this, even more than the mark on his palm, would tell the world that he belonged to me. Not everyone would understand a scar specific to vampires – but a gold ring was almost universal in its meaning.

Nobody else could have him now…

Lucius held out his left hand to me, watching my face, laughing a little at how I was so obviously eager to put this public claim on him, as if he read my thoughts, and I felt the strength in his fingers as I pushed the band as far as it would go.

Then, when our rings were in place, Alexandru Vladescu spoke the words I swore I couldn’t wait one more second to hear. “Lucius, you may kiss your bride.”

Continue to Chapter 22...