A Call of Vampires (A Shade of Vampire #51)(16)

I now understood the mischief I’d seen behind her earlier smile. I blushed, lighting up all bright and silvery, as I sprayed some of the perfume behind my ears, then tucked the bottle away in a hidden pocket of my dress. I flashed Aida a grin and hugged her.

“Thank you… Sister,” I whispered in her ear.

“Consider this your ‘something new’,” she replied, then moved back so that Serena could take her place.

“Now for the ‘something borrowed’,” Serena said, holding up a superb pearl bracelet that actually matched my earrings and dress.

“I don’t get it.” I sighed, not familiar with Earthly customs.

“Oh! You don’t know.” Serena smiled as she put the bracelet around my wrist. “It’s a little wedding tradition we have back on Earth. We give gifts to the bride. Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue! This is a bracelet that Draven got me during our honeymoon, and I’m giving it to you for today.”

“Thank you.” I nodded, patting more tears from my eyes with a tissue. Serena hugged me and moved to stand back next to Aida and Vita. “So something old, something new, something borrowed… What’s next, something—”

“Blue,” Vivienne said, and stopped in front of me.

Aida’s grandmother was a vision in her own right, wearing a superb navy-blue chiffon dress that complemented her curves and offered a beautiful contrast to her pale skin. Her long black hair was straight and combed back, and her blue-violet eyes radiated warmth and affection.

She smiled and handed me a beautiful blue lace band. I stared at it for a moment, not sure what to do with it, as if my brain had suddenly stopped functioning. The girls, on the other hand, were all grins and giggles.

“Tha… Thank you?” I managed to say, prompting Vivienne to laugh.

“This is a bridal garter, Anjani,” she said. “It goes on your thigh, and, later tonight, at the wedding party, Jovi will have to use his teeth to remove it. It’s another quirk of our Earthly weddings. And it’s blue.”

“Woah, Grandma!” Aida exclaimed. “I never knew you had a dirty mind!”

Vivienne smiled coyly. “Just something I remembered from your grandfather’s and my wedding…”

Victoria raised her eyebrows at her mother, while Aida doubled over with laughter.

“Do you think Jovi will be able to do it? I can already see him choking on it,” Aida said, making me giggle.

“We’ll find out,” Vivienne replied, and gave me a playful wink. “Welcome to the family, Anjani. We are honored to have you.”

I just nodded my thanks, as I was busy swallowing back more tears.

“Okay, let’s stop now, because Anjani’s eyes are going to get all puffy before the wedding is even over!” Corrine said, and blew a smooth pinch of dust in my face.

I held my breath, taken by surprise, but I could feel the dust penetrating and relaxing the skin around my eyes.

“Call it a small, cosmetic artifice.” She winked.

“Thank you… thank you all,” I said, and bowed respectfully before the creatures who had become such an important part of my life. “I never thought I’d live to see such a day, because I didn’t think it existed… I’m about to marry my soulmate… Peace has been restored in Eritopia… The incubi and succubi are living in harmony, sharing their cities once more… It feels like a dream.”

“We’ve fought long and hard to make it a reality, Anjani,” Hansa replied gently. “Now it’s time we sit back and enjoy it.”

“You seem incredibly calm today. What happened?” I asked, finally noticing the obvious.

Hansa had been on edge from the moment I’d said yes to Jovi’s marriage proposal. She’d gotten involved in the entire organizational process, from floral arrangements to dinner menus, and all the other bits and pieces that were meant to make today perfect. I’d heard her bellow over a mismatched table cover and I’d seen her cry when Corrine had first shown us the wedding dress design.

And yet today, the most important day of my life—and hers, too, apparently—she was all mellow emotions and timeless wisdom. I would’ve expected her to be even snappier until Jovi and I kissed and were declared husband and wife.

Hansa chuckled, then took out a small glass bottle filled with a pale green liquid. She unscrewed the top and took a swig, then dropped it back into the hidden dress pocket from which she’d produced it.

“Ori and Malachy were kind enough to make me this special potion,” she said. “It relaxes me completely, and I think it was the best thing I could do today to stop myself from going on a murderous rampage over the littlest things.”

I laughed and hugged her again. She wrapped her arms around me and held me tight, resting her head against mine and humming gently in my ear. I recognized the song; it was a lullaby she used to sing to put me to sleep when I was little, and she’d sung it to her girls, too. Hansa had been with me my whole life, and I knew just how much today meant to her as well.

For ourselves, as succubi, getting married was a rarity. As in, once every few decades one of us would fall in love and run off to marry an incubus. But now that our species had unanimously agreed to put aside our differences and once again peacefully coexist in the free cities of Calliope, more succubi were choosing to spend their lives with their soulmates.