“Besides, you have to try the bubbly. It’s to die for.”
The wedding ceremony took place in the ballroom, which, aside from the grounds around Vlad’s estate, was the only place large enough to fit his many guests since it took up over half of the third floor. At a rough estimate, there were two thousand people here, yet I’d only need both hands to count the number of humans.
The bride, Leila, and the older man I supposed was her father were among the rare mortal exceptions. She gasped when she entered the ballroom, but that might not have been from the thousands of people who stood up when she appeared. It could have been from the gigantic pillars made of white roses that lined her path to the altar, or the ancient chandeliers blazing with more candles than I could count. That wasn’t Vlad’s best decoration, though. When Leila started her descent down the aisle, the iron canopy Vlad stood under erupted into flames that burned so hotly, by the time she reached him, it looked like he was haloed by a covering of gold.
“Wow,” I whispered.
“Showhound,” Bones muttered in reply.
Once Vlad took Leila’s hand, the ceremony started. It turned out to be surprisingly traditional. Mencheres handed over the rings when the time came, and a brunette who resembled Leila accepted her bouquet. Aside from Vlad’s giving his responses in both English and Romanian and the roar his people let out after he declared that he would love, honor, and cherish Leila as his wife, it was a textbook-normal wedding.
And a dose of normal was apparently what I’d needed. I already knew I’d missed our far quieter life in the mountains, but I hadn’t realized how much until now. Something tightly clenched inside me unwound a little as I listened to two people swear to take on all of life’s challenges together in the name of love.
In my thirty years on this earth, I’d already seen and done more than many people would in a lifetime, but I wouldn’t have made it this far if not for love. That had been the solid ground beneath my feet when everything else around me had crumpled, and despite the danger and uncertainty of what lay ahead, I knew it would be again.
For a split second, I pitied Madigan. He only had ambition and ruthlessness holding him up. How great his fall would be from such a tenuous, unreliable perch.
Silently, I slipped my hand into Bones’s. At once, he brought it to his lips, brushing a whisper soft kiss over my knuckles. Another hidden knot inside me eased as the cloud that had been hanging over me from weeks of frustration became pierced by rays of hope. We’d been through so much together. Surely we hadn’t come this far to fail now.
Buoyed by the thought, I cheered when Vlad and Leila were formally pronounced man and wife—according to human law, anyway—and vowed to make the most of this brief time-out from our troubles. Soon I realized that if the ceremony had been more traditional in nature, the reception had shades of Vlad’s over-the-top style. It spilled into the entire third floor of his mansion and had enough food and drink to make even vampires physically sick, and that wasn’t counting the wedding cake that stood taller than me in high heels. I didn’t even get a chance to say hello to Vlad until almost three hours in, when we brought up the rear of the reception line.
Vlad’s long dark hair was slicked back enough to show his widow’s peak. The severe style also emphasized his high cheekbones, strong brows, and unusual coppery green eyes. He wasn’t classically handsome like Bones, but he was striking in a way that couldn’t be ignored. His fur-edged scarlet cloak and the richly braided suit beneath it only added to his commanding presence, not to mention he could club someone to death with the massive gold pendant hanging around his neck.
“You’re going to coin the term ‘medieval fabulous’ in that outfit,” I teased as I leaned in to kiss his cheek. Then I murmured, “I’m so happy for you,” against his stubbled skin.
He embraced me, brief but welcoming. “I’m pleased that you came, Cat.”
His lips curled downward as he looked over my shoulder, but all he said was “Bones” in a noncommittal tone.
“Tepesh,” Bones greeted him in an equally ambiguous voice.
I rolled my eyes. At least they weren’t threatening to kill each other. That was progress for their relationship.
Then I turned my attention to Leila, wrapping her in a hug before a zap of electricity reminded me that she gave off voltage due to a power line accident when she was a teenager.
“Congratulations,” I told the lovely, raven-haired bride.