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Luc

Shortly before the wedding, I was called to the Capital by the new king, Vermont. I contemplated not going, but out of respect for his father, I made the trip to the Castle. He greeted me outside, waiting for me as I arrived.

It looked well on him, the new role. He was young and inexperienced, but there was a wary attitude about him that I liked. He was not na?ve and he was not walking into the royal bedroom with stars in his eyes. He knew it would be a difficult job.

“Thanks for coming to see me,” he said.

“Your highness,” I bowed my head slightly.

He smiled. “Nah, we don’t have to do that.”

“Okay,” I said.

“Let’s walk,” he said and we took a tour of the gardens, which I had never fully seen in all my years of being at the Castle.

“I wanted to ask you to become my Special Advisor.”

I started shaking my head but he held up a hand.

“You know, my father spoke to me about a year ago. About succession. He said he was dying and he wanted me to be king. I said I didn’t want it, told him to offer it to Dano. He said the best leaders were those who didn’t want it. That is why they should do it. They understand what is involved. That it’s not about the power and the money.”

I nodded. Then he said, “He told me Taheera was sleeping with Matteo”

“So he knew all along, and you did too?”

He nodded. “He was worried about her. He thought she was the one poisoning him. Power hungry, already loving the status she had. She was alienating some of the families in her attempts to consolidate her power but she was so divisive. That is why they wouldn’t back us in the war,” he paused. “I know I must bring all of us together again. Unite us.”

He added, “But I need help. Your help.”

I shook my head.

“And I trust you,” he went on. “I don’t trust a lot of people here and I respect that you are starting a new life in the North but be a Special Advisor. Please. Every now and then, come walk with me, advise me.”

How could I say no to this request?

“On one condition,” I said. “You come to my wedding.”

Vermont gave a wide grin. “Are you kidding? I’d be honored.”

It was going to be the wedding of the century.

Not that I’d intended that.

But we were all ready for a big party after that bloody war. We had almost annihilated the shifters in the South. The ecological and environmental damage to the swamps was devastating, but we had paid reparations to the Human Council, allowing all of us to move past it. Sunny the Snake had been confirmed dead along with hundreds of thousands of little reptile shifters.

Ugly business. We had restored our blood banks, mended fences with the humans. Vermont was good at mixing with the mortals, going to gala events and laughing at lame jokes. He was better at it than his father had been.

When we started planning the wedding, the guest list ballooned. New people kept cropping up. I had to get guards and up security. Money wasn’t a concern and I simply couldn’t say no to Ruby. I didn’t want to. She flew her parents up, found friends I’d never even heard of, and invited half of the Castle. Strippers from her old club were coming to mix with the new king of the vampires.

It wasn’t going to be any kind of wedding that I’d ever been to.

But I loved how much fun Ruby was bringing into the cold North. She’d loved Mount Essay from the moment we arrived. The whole moody moor thing was right up her alley. The old house, cold and damp as it was, seemed to change overnight. She had the walls painted yellow and the effect was transformative. The bees she liked most of all, visiting them every day. After two weeks, she announced she was moving in.

Having her there was incredible. I had worried that it would feel strange or disrespectful to Francesca and my first family. But so much time had passed and my feelings for Ruby were stronger than ever. Stronger than anything I’d ever felt before.

We set up the wedding ceremony outside on the lawn, with a red carpet and roses lining the way. Guests were sitting and standing, spread out over the grass. It was cool and overcast but at least it wasn’t raining. Ruby came out in a blood red dress and all the guests started clapping their hands and whistling as soon as they saw her. It was an homage to her name and her new future life as a vampire.

She was pregnant but it was still too early to see anything. Her dress was figure hugging and tight, hugging her exquisite breasts and spreading out behind her. It was elegant and simple, much like Ruby herself. After the ceremony we went to the banquet hall where some of the ex-strippers did a celebratory dance on a specially erected platform. Ruby got on stage with them and they drank shooters and danced to rock music.

It wasn’t your typical, formal wedding.

I thought of the first time I’d seen Ruby, holding her own in that sleazy club and here she was, just as comfortable in a huge country house, still being herself, never pretending to be anything else.

I proposed a toast to my new wife and everyone raised their glasses but the highlight of the day was Cat, Ruby’s dad, who toasted the two of us.

“If anyone had told me thirty years ago that I would be making a toast at my daughter’s wedding to a vampire, I would have told them, no way. No way in hell. But I have come a long way. I have learnt that there is more to most of us than meets the eye and for someone who isn’t supposed to have one, Luc has a lot of heart.”

Ruby was crying tears of joy at this point.

I went over to her father to thank him for the speech.

“Ah, just make her happy, you know? It’s not as easy as it looks,” he said. “I thought I was doing it and look what happened.”

He was looking over at Charlotte, who was sitting next to Ruby. Charlotte had been released from the hospital after her successful completion of the new treatment protocol. Things were looking good but it was still too early to say. However, the two of them had moved to a town similar to Cape Falls and were running an ice cream stand near the pier.

I slipped out for a bit and stood on the grass outside, looking at the moonlight when Alexandra appeared by my side. She had been on the guest list, invited by Ruby, who felt ex-girlfriends deserved a place at the wedding too.

“Never thought I’d see you getting hitched,” she said. “Congratulations.”

There was no sarcasm in her tone.

“Thanks for coming.”

She shrugged. “I didn’t get you a gift, in case you’re wondering.”

I laughed out loud. She was still the same Alexandra.

“For a while, I thought you were trying to kill me,” I said.

“I certainly felt like it,” she chuckled.

She acknowledged that I was right. “Taheera asked me to get it. In case you hadn’t died, she wanted me to kill you. Finish you off.”

“But you didn’t.”

“Of course not,” her tone softened a bit.

“I was keeping an eye on her but acting for the Hattari. You knew my loyalty lay with them but we never wanted to act against the vampires. I never thought she’d go that far.”

“Did you see her at the lodge?”

She shook her head. “But I knew she was there. I recognized the dagger. She came back to get it when the body had burnt.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I was told not to get involved,” she said, having the decency to look guilty, “but I nudged you in the right direction,” Alexandra said, “and you got there in the end, didn’t you? Tell me, how did you figure it out?”

“It was Vlas,” I said. “He said I was a real friend, not like Matteo.”

“That was Taheera’s biggest mistake, underestimating Vlas,” said Alexandra. “He’d loved her, and tolerated her infidelities, even her ambition, for years; but in the end he couldn’t allow her to take the throne. It would’ve been bad for everyone.”

“To be honest, I don’t know what he saw in her,” I said.

“You have much better taste in women,” I suddenly heard Ruby say behind me.

“Amen to that,” Alexandra said with a smile. “Congratulations to both of you. I hope you will be very happy.”

Then she left us.

Once it was the two of us alone at the house, Ruby asked me, “Tired of the wedding already?”

“Of the wedding, yes, of the wife, never.”

She kissed me and I lifted her up in my arms, kissing her back, deeply.

“Take me to bed, Lord D’Essay,” she said to me in an affected posh voice.

“Gladly, Lady D’Essay,” I said with a bow of the head, whisking her off straight into our bedroom. As I lay her down on the bed, she whispered to me, “I can’t wait to get out of this dress. Will you help me?”

I was only too happy to oblige.

*****