Nine
Dusk brought more bad news, and my heart broke with it. Poor Javier. He barely tasted immortality before his life was extinguished. I wished we had never dragged him into this mess. If not for us, he wouldn’t have been a target. But it was easier giving work to vampires and other supernatural creatures who kept to our nocturnal schedule and grasped our societal rules, and he was the best. It was the reason why he had accepted the offer from Clan Castro to have a necromancer cut his young life short in order to embrace vampirism.
Vampires tend to grow vainer with age, and his clientele was eager to secure his services for the next few centuries. They would be furious over his loss, and they wouldn’t thank us for getting him killed. As high as tensions rode between necromancers and vampires, it would only take a spark to ignite another round of bitter feuding I didn’t have time for because I was getting married in two days.
Pushing out a ragged exhale, I focused on the final menu tasting, even though I had lost my appetite.
Too bad it was too late to reschedule, but Vonda, the caterer, was already set up when I got downstairs.
“The first appetizer.” Vonda snapped her fingers, and two women wearing chef coats hustled out with dainty plates they set in front of us. “We paired fresh lemon and extra virgin olive oil with shrimp, octopus, mussels, and calamari for this hearty seafood salad.”
On my second shrimp, I glanced at Lethe, who swirled her finger around the oil left on her plate.
As in, it was all that was left on her plate.
Dang.
“The first main course,” Vonda croaked, shocked anew by Lethe’s appetite when she ought to be used to the bottomless pit that was my MOH. “Three double cuts…” Her eyes rounded when Lethe relieved me of my plate to finish the seafood salad, and she cleared her throat. “Ah, rack of lamb—”
Lethe turned up the plate and scraped everything into her mouth, including the shells, which gave me pause but didn’t slow her crunching down one bit.
Goddess preserve us.
“—coated in fresh herbs and…” Vonda struggled, “…um, aromatic spices.”
“Forgive my matron of honor.” I wiped sauce off Lethe’s mouth. “She was raised by wolves.”
Since her particular strain of gwyllgi were the product of fae gwyllgi mating with earthborn wargs, it wasn’t not true. Probably why she choked on her last bite of calamari as she fought not to laugh.
We sampled two more salads and three more main course options, all of which were divine, before Lethe asked about the buffet options we had settled on for the gwyllgi.
“There will be a carving station.” Vonda recovered nicely from the shock of watching two women clean so very many plates. “Roasted top round beef, turkey rubbed with Cajun spices, roasted fillet of beef, Virginia ham baked with honey, prime rib au jus…”
From cold pepper beef served medium rare on crostini with creamed horseradish to smoked salmon canapes topped with capers and fresh dill, she droned on and on, checking off each of Lethe’s requests. Boredom crossed my eyes before long, but Lethe drooled onto her chin, and I flung a napkin at her face.
Three hours and at least three million calories later, we made the formal gesture of accepting the menu.
Glassy-eyed from the number of clean plates her staff cleared, Vonda left in a daze. I could only hope she snapped out of it once she got some fresh air. If she couldn’t handle Lethe, she would descend into shock when faced with two-dozen gwyllgi in an all-you-can-eat environment.
With the wedding checklist up to date, I sought out Linus. “Any news?”
“The gwyllgi didn’t pick up any unusual scents near Javier’s shop. He was popular among necromancers, vampires, and humans. The volume of foot traffic means unless we isolate a scent for them to compare against the others, we’ve got no leads there either.”
“What about from the cleaners?”
“Gilly reports there are gwyllgi blood and tissue samples on the silver heels, which is to be expected since Eva wore them for a protracted length of time and they’re several sizes too large. The clutch came back clean.”
“Any word on their authenticity?”
“They’re replicas.” He angled his head down, his brow tight. “There would have been blood or tissue samples, even hairs stuck in the sequins, if either had belonged to you.”
Throat gone dry, I swallowed hard and reminded myself I wasn’t the same person Volkov sank his hooks into shortly after my release from Atramentous. I had years of training behind me now, and I had Linus, and Lethe, and Hood. And Woolly was stronger than she ever had been. He wasn’t getting in my house again. He wasn’t getting me again.
A knock on the door lit Woolly up like a Christmas tree, her lights as bright as they would go.
“Must be one of our wedding guests.” I started toward the living room. “She hasn’t been this excited in weeks.”
The front door swung open before I touched the knob, and Corbin Theroux stood there with his hands shoved in his pockets and a lopsided grin on his face.
Handsome and wiry, he smoothed a palm over his black hair in a nervous gesture that made me wonder if he missed the soft waves he used to wear down to his shoulders. It was military short now thanks to his position with the sentinels. His piercing green eyes, I was happy to note, were absent of anger and touched with fondness for me, for all of us. His new family.
“Hi, Mom.”
“Don’t make me hit you.” I wrinkled my nose. “I don’t want bruises in my wedding album.”
Corbin was my progeny, the only vampire I had ever made or ever would make, goddess willing. In that sense, I was a maternal figure, but we were about the same age, so it was just weird. Probably why he called me that when he wanted to be particularly obnoxious.
Oscar appeared, ricocheting off the walls until he hit Corbin hard enough to rock him back a few steps.
“You’re early. I slept and slept and slept so I’d be ready.” Oscar clung to him. “Wanna play?”
“Sure.” Corbin set the ghost boy aside to drift at his eye level. “I’ll start counting.”
Zipping through the nearest wall, Oscar shot out into the night.
“You spoil him.” I crossed the threshold and gave Corbin a hug. “Thanks.”
“He’s a good kid.” Corbin shrugged and lifted a duffle bag off the planks. “He makes it easy.”
Not so long ago, I had promised Corbin he would always have a place in my family, in my home. I wouldn’t live forever, but he was the only Deathless vampire on record for centuries. Given Oscar was also an eternal fixture around here, I encouraged their friendship so that neither of them would ever be alone. They would always have each other, and Woolly.
“I’ll take your bag up to your room if you want to go on,” I offered. “It’s no problem.”
Woolly had plenty of room and giving Corbin his own made him feel more comfortable during visits.
“Thanks.” He flashed a quick grin, handed over his bag, then waved at Linus. “Catch you later, Pops.”
The old house chimed her antique doorbell with laughter as he jogged across the yard.
“Don’t encourage him.” I glared up at the foyer chandelier. “If you can’t behave with Corbin, how can I trust you with actual children?”
The floor register nearest me sighed, and her presence retreated to pout.
That’s why she missed the arrival of our next guest an hour later.
“Anybody home?” Midas called from the living room. “Lethe told me to walk right in.”
Linus and I stopped boxing our bridesmaids and groomsmen gifts and went to greet him.
“Hey, stranger.” I let him make the call if he wanted a hug. “It’s been too long.”
All smiles, Midas embraced me lightly then pulled back. “The pack eats up all my spare time.”
“The pack eats anything that’s not nailed down,” I pointed out, “and even then they gnaw on it.”
“I’m glad you came.” Linus shook Midas’s hand. “I regret the circumstances for your early arrival.”
“I’m amazed Mom didn’t ground me to my room. It’s rare for the alpha and the heir to leave the city.”
“It’s a testament of her trust in her people.”
“It’s a show of strength.” He snorted. “Mom left her most loyal lieutenants behind to maintain order. She had to promise them a cookout when we get home to make up for what they’re missing. We had intended to make a day trip out of it, but it looks like we’ll be staying next door until after the ceremony.”
“I’m sure the city can spare you overnight.” Lethe would be thrilled for the extra family time.
Linus glanced past his shoulder into the yard. “Hadley didn’t ride with you?”
“No.” Midas almost, almost smiled, but then it was gone. “She’s coming down tomorrow.” He must have noted my interest. “She called the faction leaders to inform them she would be unavailable for twenty-four hours and that the Potentate of Raleigh would be filling in until her return.” He tucked an unruly lock of blond hair behind his ear. “I took the call for Mom.”
“Fess up.” I folded my arms across my chest. “You just came down so you could attend Linus’s bachelor party.”
The tightness in his features eased when I didn’t press on the obviously tender spot he had for Hadley.
“You got me.” He raised his hands in surrender. “I’m a total party animal.”
Well, he was half right at least. Or, since his soul was half man and half beast, maybe he was more like a quarter party animal? Who knew? Math wasn’t my strong suit.
“Neely is in charge of the festivities.” Linus pinched the bridge of his nose. “Goddess help us all.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to out Lethe as the mastermind behind my own party. At this point, I was pretty sure the Kinases were using Neely as their personal scapegoat where our parties were concerned in order to lull us into a false sense of security.