I stared down at my hands. “I’m not used to good things happening to me—I always expect something”—or someone, more precisely—“to take them away.”
Leanne looked thoughtful. “The future is ever-changing. Nothing about it is certain. I can’t promise you anything more than a possibility of what’s to come, but what I do see is a life filled with lots of happiness and very little pain. And if that ever changes, I can tell you that I’ll be there for you, through thick and thin. As will Oliver. And, most especially, as will Andre.”
She scooched over on the couch and gave me a hug. “And like anything else, when it comes to the future, all I can really tell you is this: safe travels.”
I squeezed her back. “Safe travels.”
Epilogue
Gabrielle
5 years later
“I still can’t believe you didn’t let me wear white.” I stood in the bedroom of Andre’s house in Cluj Napoca, trying not to let nerves get the better of me. Being someone’s soulmate was one thing. Marrying him amongst an audience of hundreds of people was another.
Oliver fussed around me, arranging my wedding dress.
“Sweets, you’re the queen of darkness, and the queen of darkness doesn’t wear white to her wedding.”
“The queen of darkness probably doesn’t wear pink, either.”
“Ombre,” Oliver sniffed. “And I did give you a little white.”
Technically he had, right around the bodice. It just wasn’t much. At least the shear back didn’t drop so low, like his original mockups. I had to fight him on that one.
“You can see my back dimples,” I’d said, when he unveiled the first iteration.
“Yes, and they’re adorable.”
“I don’t want people to see my back dimples,” I’d protested.
“Listen, ho, this is already a prude wedding dress for a fairy.”
“And I’m not a fairy.”
“You’re an honorary one in my book.” There he went sweetening me up. “And way too bloodthirsty to be considered otherwise.”
Back in the present, I let my “mate” of honor make last minute adjustments to the dress he’d designed.
“Leanne,” he asked over my shoulder, “got any evening forecasts?”
“For the fifth time, Oliver, I’m not telling you whether or not you’re going to get laid tonight.”
He huffed. “What is the point of having a seer friend if she’s not going to even tell you these things?”
Before Leanne had a chance to reply, my mother entered the room, holding my bouquet.
The first time she met Andre, like any reasonable mother, she might’ve freaked a little. The guy had bad news written all over him. But Andre had won her over fairly quickly, like he tended to do when it came to women. It helped that he was my soulmate … and that the other man I’d been fated to had been the devil. That kind of put things into perspective.
“Sweet daughter of mine,” she said, her eyes tearing up as she took me in, “you look radiant.”
“Thank you, Mom.” I had to breathe through my nose. Gah, I was going to cry too.
Pull it together, Gabrielle.
She handed me my bouquet, then leaned in and gave me a kiss on the cheek. “The car’s here. Are you ready, honey?”
I blew out a breath and nodded as a nervous smile pulled at the corners of my mouth. “Yeah, I am.”
In the holy stillness of St. Michael’s church in Cluj-Napoca, beneath the stained-glass eyes of angels and saints, I married Andre de Leon, my soulmate and the former king of vampires.
The moment I’d caught sight of Andre standing at the altar, his hair brushed back from his tanned face, I’d lost myself in those dark eyes of his.
Jericho read the marriage rites, wrapping our hands with a silken cord. The symbolism wasn’t lost on me. The fates had woven our threads together. But we hadn’t simply been given this love. We’d fought and earned it.
Andre’s jaw worked as he stared down at our joined hands, fighting back some strong emotion. He smiled at me when he realized I’d noticed. Even if I hadn’t, the electric connection between us would’ve given him away.
“You have declared your consent before the Church,” Jericho said. “May the Lord in Her goodness strengthen your consent and fill you both with Her blessings. What God has joined, men must not divide. Amen.”
Andre’s lips pressed to mine. The kiss was gentle, reverent. A promise to cherish our mortal life together as well as our immortal afterlife—one free of damnation, devils and eternal pain. Our stained souls had been cleansed.
Back at Andre’s home in Cluj, the wedding reception was in full swing. After greeting a barrage of people and taking way too many wedding photos, I’d gotten a brief respite with him and Leanne.
My smile felt like it was about to fall off.
“So,” Oliver said, swirling his glass of wine and giving an eligible bachelor a predatory look. The man stumbled into an older woman, spilling her wine all over them.
Oliver tore his gaze away. “Are you going to go all Twilight on us and push out a vampire baby within the next year?”
I rolled my eyes, bringing my own glass to my lips. “Andre and I are no longer vampires.”