Page 131

Dominique and Cassidy extended their own warm welcomes. They had never met most of their guests and knew only that they were friends and relatives of the groom. The guests, in turn, knew only that Dominique was their generous host and footed the entire bill for his cousin’s wedding—including all the first-class travel expenses for the overseas attendees. The faces of the new arrivals were polite, but it was clear that they were taken aback by Dominique’s youth and dazzled by his stark beauty, which he made no attempt to conceal with a more human appearance.

Au contraire, mon amour, Dominique said.They wonder at the most beautiful woman in the room at my side.

She chuckled.That’ll only last until the bride appears. Trust me.

The brother of said bride cut a dashing figure with his golden tan and tailored suit. Jackson didn’t even miss a beat when Dominique greeted him with a kiss on each cheek. It was the traditional French manner of greeting friends and family, and after their harrowing trials six months ago, they definitely qualified as friends. Soon they would be family, too.

Jackson’s bride-to-be was less nonchalant. Olivia looked flustered when the vampire kissed her cheeks. Though Jackson, Dominique, and Cassidy had explained—not to mention proved—the supernatural facts to her months ago, her world apparently still hadn’t quite righted itself.

Dominique murmured a compliment about how radiant she looked, which caused her cheeks to bloom with color. With her twins due in less than a month, Olivia was indeed radiant, but also huge. She looked about as comfortable in her sapphire dress as a beach ball trapped in a potato sack.

With an encouraging smile, Cassidy took the young woman’s hand in hers. “How are you feeling, Olivia?”

“Oh, good, thanks. Just, you know, adjusting.” The sidelong glance she darted at Dominique made it clear she wasn’t referring to the fishbowl in her belly.

Dominique understood. With a parting kiss for Cassidy, he excused himself to attend to his duties as both Lord of Night and the best man.

Jackson put a supporting arm around Olivia’s back. “You okay, babe?”

“I will be.” She smoothed her bright pixie-cut hair with one nervous hand. “But, shit. I forgot how imposing he is.” This was the first time Olivia had encountered Dominique since meeting him.

“You never get used to it,” Jackson told her, his eyes scanning the room for the other vampires. “You just relax and go with it.”

Olivia looked up at her future husband, love in her blue eyes and stubbornness in her firm chin. “Thank you, Jackson. For volunteering to trust me with this knowledge.”

“Oh? You think you would have figured this out on your own, do you?”

“Well, I did minor in psychology, so…”

Cassidy snorted. “I didn’t even need that.”

Both women laughed as Jackson’s expression soured.

Cassidy couldn’t help but wonder how different her own life would have been if Jacksonhadtold her about his vampire hunting before she met Dominique and formed a very different opinion of the supernatural. Whatever that life might have been, one thing was certain—she would not be standing here, big as a tent, glowing with devotion to Jackson.

No, this moment and everything that conspired to create it over the years would never have happened. She wouldn’t have known Dominique, he certainly wouldn’t be the Lord of Night, and his subjects would still live in shadows, still feed on terror. They would also still be pursued by a lone hunter, nursing bitter rage.

And Cassidy? She would have found herself married to that man of rage whose ultimate priority would forever be the next kill. Maybe she would have filled the emptiness with work or children, or both, assuming she had stayed at all. Jackson and Olivia had the kind of relationship Cassidy could have never had with him, and she was truly happy for them.

She was even more pleased with the way her own life was turning out. At least at night.

“Shall we go see how the bride is doing?” Cassidy suggested.

“Yes. Let’s.” Olivia set herself in motion, her waddling steps hidden by the long, blue gown draping off her belly. As she followed Cassidy down the path to the pool house, she said, “I still can’t believe Sam wanted me in her wedding party in this condition.”

Cassidy smiled over her shoulder. “You look wonderful, Ollie. Really.”

“I’ll try not to go into labor before the I-do’s.”

“I don’t think Samantha would mind,” Cassidy confirmed with a giggle, certain that as long as the groom was there, the bride would object to nothing.

Samantha had followed Étienne to St. Barth a week after he left to help Francesca wind down her life there. Her two-week visit had turned into two months. When he came to see her again in Florida shortly after that, he brought a ring. He proposed to her out by the pool at sunrise, on the very spot where they had lost their hearts to each other after charging into battle with a furious vampire. “It was inevitable,” Samantha often said. “We both knew it then and there. We are a team.”

She looked somewhat less thrilled now when Cassidy and Olivia entered the pool house. The bride stood in front of a bathroom mirror while her mother fussed over her hair, and a photographer snapped pictures non-stop.

“If I had known you didn’t hire a stylist, I would have brought mine,” Lillian said. “This hair is much too long to do anything with.”

“It works fine in a braid, Mom. It always has.”