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“YOU'RE REALLY GOING to live there?” Mindy asked,
without taking her eyes from 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
house 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.
The vast stone edifice, the size of a 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 spiked turrets and
dominated by a tall watchtower, I couldn’t help thinking that
fairy tales always have dark twists. Little kids got lost in
desolate forests and stumbled across witches intent on 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 . . .
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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.
Awesome.
Imposing.
Fearsome?
“Yes, I know,” I agreed, dropping my hand and looking at
Mindy. “It’s almost too much for words.”
She finally managed to tear her gaze away, too. “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.” Then she turned back to peer across
the valley. “Where, exactly, will you get married in there? 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
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 never had a boyfriend—not unlike me too
long ago—she’d been planning her own wedding since we
were five years old. There was no way Melinda Stankowicz
would ever let anybody—not even her one true love—surprise
her with a location for the most important night of her life.
Especially not if she was getting married in a place 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, and a courtroom where one day I’d be expected to
hand down judgments that might involve destruction.
“Jess, are you sure you don’t want to see where you’re
actually exchanging vows?” Mindy interrupted my thoughts.
I heard 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 eyes for a long time,
knowing that this was a once-in-an-eternity chance to choose
where I’d get married . . . and thinking, just for a split second,
that the vampire who’d stood before me had not too long ago
surprised me with a stake pressed to my heart.
Lucius had been smiling, teasing, but there’d been
something serious in his expression, too, and I’d had a feeling
that he was testing our bond, just a little. Then I’d begun to
smile, too, mirroring Lucius’s own grin . . .
“Jess—seriously!” Mindy’s voice brought me back to the
present again. “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 again
as I turned to Mindy and said, very honestly, “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 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 Zinns’
barn. Mindy probably knew most of what had happened that
evening, including how my parents had taken away my car
keys, 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. “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 setup, to save Lucius’s life, actually.”
“Yeah, your mom told me the story,” Mindy said. “There
were so many rumors, and so much confusion after that night
. . . I had to finally go ask her 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
one with vampires.”
“I don’t think he’d be comfortable in a castle,” I agreed.
Yet I still thought of Jake as a hero. A nice guy who’d tried to
do the right thing. But I was destined for somebody very
different. A prince who was probably at that very moment
donning formal dinner attire, or running a razor over his 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 give that night . . .
Although I saw Lucius every day now, my stomach started
to tickle the way it always did when I thought of him, and I
began moving us toward the SUV again, suddenly in a hurry.
“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 while I knew that Jake Zinn wasn’t
on the guest list, I still wasn’t exactly sure who all might show
up.
Continue to Chapter 4.....
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