White Wedding Nightmares
Annette McCleave
“...are those diamond pins I shellacked in your hair and the pearls from your dress,” Carrie whispered. “Use your sorceress powers to make them twenty times their normal size, and you’ll have everything you need to make the big blue guy dizzy.”
I blinked, confused. Last time I checked, the only combo that had made Drago dizzy was a crimson lace bra and panty set from Victoria’s Secret. “Uh, really?”
Carrie sighed. “Come on, Raven. Don’t you remember? Dragons find it impossible to resist a treasure. You know, I love you, but I never really understood how come you got to wear the leather corset and ass-kicking black boots. Yeah, okay, I like to torture small animals. But what do you expect with a lineage like mine?”
Then, in another pillar of flame, Carrie and Mark were gone. To hell.
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A treasure? But wait a sec. Lucien had a treasure in that dark, dank basement of his, and Drago hadn’t been flummoxed by that. Which would only make sense if...
I spun around to face Lucien. “I need answers, and I need them now.”
He stiffened. “What do you mean?”
“I’m tired of the lies and deceit, Lucien. You ran off to Macedonia without leaving a note. Yeah, yeah, I know. You were collecting the elixir. But you never explained what held you up for two years.”
His silver eyes met mine. “You can’t honestly believe I’d leave your side to steal a stupid potion, Raven. You’re my wife, my soul-mate.”
I rolled my eyes. That soul-mate crap never did much for me, and this wasn’t the time for a lengthy vampire soliloquy. Seth and Ulfric were in a battle for their lives. “Cut to the chase.”
“I went to Macedonia to retrieve my mother’s wedding ring. Placing that gold ring upon your finger was the only way to truly consummate our marriage under vampire law. Unfortunately, the ring had been stolen centuries before and hoarded in the den of a very powerful dragon.”
“Drago,” I said, a little breathless.
He nodded. “Although, I didn’t know it was Drago. In Macedonia, he went by the name of Fiero the Damned and didn’t bother with that pretty boy glamour he’s been wearing here. Unfortunately, someone betrayed me when I got to his lair, and my attempt to retrieve the ring failed. As you might have guessed from Mark’s note, his father is dying and to keep his powers potent and his body in such fine form, Drago needs a steady influx of immortal blood. He kept me imprisoned in Macedonia, using my vampire blood to sustain him.”
“That sucks.”
Lucien quirked a smile. “Literally.” He scooped my wedding dress off the floor and handed it to me. “Then you came of age, and Drago learned your blood could grant him full immortality. So, he brought me here, set up his treasure hoard in my basement, and sent his sniveling little worm of a son to ingratiate his way into your life. He tried to get me to do it, but naturally, I refused.” His eyes softened to black. “You know I’d rather end my existence with a stake-thrust than ever hurt you.”
My heart went pitter-patter at those words. Whose wouldn’t? “How did you get free?”
“Ulfric,” Lucien said with a grimace. “He scented my presence and roared into the mansion determined to beat the crap out of me for breaking your heart. It took a while—and plenty of spilled blood on both sides—to convince him of my story.”
“Speaking of poor Ulfric,” I said hastily, as I plucked the pearls off the once-lovely gown and got dressed. “We need to get back to the grove. “He and Seth won’t last long against Drago.”
“Yeah, about Seth...”
“Sweetheart?” I wrapped my arms around his cool neck, pressing myself against his rock-solid chest. Hmmm. What would half-vampire, half-werewolf babies look like? “Less talk, more teleporting. We’ve got a dragon to slay.”
His eyes went silver again, and I knew he didn’t like being ordered about. But he did it anyway. Because as much as he hates to admit it, my bloodthirsty vampire has a savior complex.
Back at the grove, the fight was in still in full swing, but Seth and Ulfric had not fared well. Ulfric’s beautiful white fur was stained crimson with blood, and Seth’s golden wings were scorched nearly featherless. Both the wolf and the angel were limping. Drago, on the other hand, had nary a scratch on him. His thick blue dragon scales had kept both fangs and angelic fury at bay.
When Lucien and I popped into the clearing, Drago tipped his head to the sky and roared his rage. But his snit didn’t last long—he promptly spit a stream of blue-orange fire at us. A firestorm of flames that would have reduced us both to ash if I hadn’t called upon my new-found powers and put up a shield.
Like all alphas, my two white knights leapt when Drago’s back was turned, throwing themselves back in the battle despite the horrific extent of their injuries. As the monstrous dragon whipped a huge taloned claw in their direction, eager to rip them from his flesh, I tossed fifteen diamond hairpins and forty matchless pearls into the grass and murmured the words I remembered from Grandmother’s ancient grimoire: xnirwen sydojiopf.
Instantly, the gems grew to twenty times their normal size. Giant ivory pearls glistened in the light of the burning trees and basketball-sized diamonds mirrored the smoke clouded night sky.
And just as Carrie had promised, Drago proved powerless to resist their allure. His eyes locked on the treasure, and drool, rather than fire, escaped his leathery lips. With a childlike snort of glee, the mighty dragon waddled over to the gems and tenderly scooped them up. Holding them to his scales, he closed his eyes and crooned a lullaby.
I wasted no time.
“Lucien, I need your help,” I said, grabbing his hand and tugging him forward.
His chest puffed out with pride, and a cocky smile curved his wickedly sensual lips. “Of course you do.”
I tossed him one end of a mystical rope, a miniaturized version of Thor’s Hammer, and a unicorn horn. All of which I conjured out of thin air. Hot damn, I’m one fine sorceress. “Tie him down, quick.”
Lucien pounded the unicorn horn through the threads of the mystical rope and deep into the ground, using his superior vampire strength. I did the same on the other side, pinning the dragon to the earth with unbreakable bonds.
“There,” I said, dusting my hands off. A job well done.
Happy, I glanced around the grove. Ulfric was licking his wounds, Lucien was glaring at Seth, and Seth was...
Fuming. At me.
There really wasn’t a better word to describe it. Steam was coming out of his ears and those lovely golden eyes were seething with red fury.
“You should have suffered more,” he roared. “That wasn’t nearly enough.”
Okay, I admit it. I was knocked for a loop. Seth was sweet and syrupy and ... well, angelic. He wasn’t the epitome of hellish, raw anger. Or, at least, he hadn’t been until today. Until this white wedding nightmare.
“You deserve to endure far more pain for what you did to me,” he howled. “Thanks to you, I was cast from heaven. I lost my position at God’s knee.”
I glanced at Lucien, who shrugged. I tried to warn you.
Seth shook his wings and they blossomed back to life, black as sin. “I’ve plotted this revenge for years, using my lord’s daughter to get close to you, revealing Lucien’s presence to Drago, and even creating that bloody elixir.” He stomped forward, coming face to face. “But everyone succumbs to your damned charm. Even Carrie. I hate you.”
I suppose I should have been frightened. But quite honestly, Seth was behaving more like a petulant child than a demonic angel. “Seth,” I said, shaking my head. “You need to grow some brass ones. I did not lure you into sin. You had already slept with a dozen super-heroines before me. Wonder Woman, remember her? How about Cat Woman? I’m pretty sure you swore she was your soul-mate.” See, when crazy people swear stuff like that, it’s really hard to believe in the concept. “I just happen to be the only gal who dumped you, instead of the other way around.”
“Intimacy problems,” Lucien offered softly from the sidelines.
I glared at him. Then I turned back to Seth. “If it’s any consolation, this has definitely been the worst day of my life.”
“Really?”
I smiled weakly. “Really.”
“Good.” And with that, he vanished in a puff of red smoke.
“Ulfric,” Lucien said. “Beat it. I’ve got something I need to say to Raven.”
The werewolf studied my face for a moment. Whatever he saw there satisfied him, and he loped off into the woods.
“Raven.”
I lifted my gaze to meet Lucien’s.
He crooked a finger. “Come here.”
I’m a sap when it comes to handsome, autocratic guys. I went.
He held up a gold ring crusted with emeralds. It was the ugliest damned ring I ever saw, but Lucien was smiling, so I smiled, too.
“I love you.” He slipped it on my finger, and the world suddenly felt right again. Normal? Nope. Furthest thing from it. But perfect.
I slid my arms around Lucien’s neck, which he took as an invitation. He kissed me. Hard, and long, and deep. His fangs were sharp, but to a huntress like me who thrived on danger, they just set my heart to racing.
“I love you, too,” I whispered. “Husband, take me home.”
THE END
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