Silent Bite-A Scanguards Wedding (1001 Dark Nights) (8 page)

“Easy for you to say! Haven is a vampire, and Kimberly is a great actress. And what am I? Am I the only sibling who can’t make anything out of himself? Don’t you understand? I want to be somebody. I want to do something useful.”

Oliver shook his head, though in a way, he understood Wes all too well. “But you are somebody. You’re training as a bodyguard with Scanguards. Isn’t that something?”

Wes turned his head away and looked out the side window, staring into the dark. “And you know as well as I how I got that position. Because I offered my blood the night you were turned, Samson felt obligated. Do you think he would really have offered me to train as a bodyguard if I hadn’t practically blackmailed him?”

“Are you telling me you’re having scruples about that?”

Wes shrugged. “I just wonder sometimes about what would become of me if Hav and Scanguards didn’t exist. You know.” He glanced at Oliver. “I need to have something that’s independent of it. Something that’s just mine.”

Slowly, Oliver nodded. “I get that. I do. But you can’t force it.” He reached for the door handle and pushed the car door open. “It’ll happen. Just be patient.”

Then he exited and walked up to the entrance door. When he reached it, he felt a strange tingling sensation creep up his nape and stopped. He inhaled deeply, picking up many unfamiliar as well as familiar scents. Shaking his head to rid himself of the odd sensation, he pulled his key from his pocket and inserted it into the lock. The motion pushed the door inward. It hadn’t been locked.

Cautiously, he stepped into the well-lit interior. Voices drifted to him from the open living room door and the kitchen in the back. Maybe one of the workers had left the door open when he’d left. He would have to speak to Quinn about security at the house during the wedding. It was bad enough that so many contractors marched in and out at all hours of the day, but to know that they were careless and left doors open so that anybody could just walk in off the street was inexcusable.

Just because the latest threats of the operators of the blood brothel and their customers, as well as the vampires who had special mind-control skills and had nearly crushed Scanguards a short while ago, were dealt with, didn’t mean they had no enemies.

“Hey, Oliver. Glad I’m catching you alone.”

He looked up and saw Maya walk through the living room door and approach him.

“Hey, Maya.” He pointed to the bag in her hand, a red dress peeking out of it. “I see you guys tried on your bridesmaid’s dresses. Nice color. I had no idea they were red.”

She smiled. “A Chinese good luck thing, I guess.” She tossed a quick glance over her shoulder. “I just thought I’d let you know. I looked in on your future father-in-law. He’s doing fine. I did a blood test, and his doctors are correct. It’s just a bit of anemia. Nothing to worry about. I’ve given him some meds to tide him over until he’s back home.”

“That’s a relief. At least that means we don’t have to worry Ursula with it. She’s stressed out enough.” The last couple of days she’d seemed frazzled most of the time. And he didn’t like that look on her, the look that said that she wanted all this to be over.

“Uh, about that.”

“What?” he asked, instantly worried.

“Ursula and her mother had another blowout tonight.”

He shoved a hand through his hair. “About what?”

“Your date of birth.”

“What’s my birthday got to do with the wedding?”

“Apparently everything. You have two fours in your date of birth.”

“So?”

“In Chinese that’s bad luck.”

“Damn it! Superstitious crap!”

“Well, of course it’s superstition, but it’s not any different than Westerners finding Friday the thirteenth unlucky. Unfortunately, it’s really upset Ursula.” Her eyes turned toward the ceiling.

“I’ll take care of it. Thanks, Maya.” He ran up the stairs, taking two steps at a time. Nobody had the right to upset the woman he loved, not even his soon-to-be mother-in-law. Particularly not over a stupid thing like a birthday.

Without knocking, he entered the guestroom. “Ursula!”

She wasn’t alone. Vera had her arms wrapped around her and stroked her hand over her hair. Both looked up when the door fell shut behind him.

“Just in time,” Vera said calmly and rose from the bed.

Immediately, Oliver pulled Ursula into his arms and rubbed his hands over her back. “I’m so sorry, baby. I just heard. Tell me, what can I do?” He looked at her tear-stained eyes, and his heart bled for her.

Before Ursula could answer, Vera replied, “I have an idea of how to fix this.”

Oliver looked at her. “How? Last time I checked, nobody could change their birthday at will.”

“Well, technically your birthday is the day you were turned into a vampire, which I believe was August 8. And that means you have two 8’s in your date of birth, and that’s very good luck.”

“Yes, but you can’t exactly tell Ursula’s mother that without telling her I’m a vampire.”

“Of course not! But I can use mind control to make her think she heard August 8 instead of April 4 when Rose told her your birthday.”

Ursula eased out of his embrace and sat back on her heels. “That’s not a solution! We can’t keep wiping my parents’ memories when something happens that they don’t like.”

“But we did it after you escaped those vampires. We had to.”

“Exactly. We had to!” Ursula said firmly. “But this time we don’t. Just because my mother has some crazy-ass idea about numerology doesn’t mean that we have to wipe her memory. We have to reason with her.”

Oliver rolled his eyes. “Reason with your mother? Aren’t you asking a little too much?”

Ursula braced her hands at her hips. “What are you saying?”

“I’m just saying that she’s not likely to listen.”

“You don’t know her like I do!”

Oliver jumped up from the bed. “Well, I’m not the one who’s crying and all upset, am I?”

“I can’t believe you said that!”

Shell-shocked, Oliver backed away. Were they just having their first fight? They’d never argued before. For several long moments, he simply stared at Ursula, who held his gaze without flinching.

“Well, no wonder I always dreaded family visits,” Vera said calmly. “Brings the worst out in people.”

Oliver shot Vera a look, then dropped his head. “I’m sorry.” He raised his lids to look at Ursula, slowly placing one foot in front of the other to approach her again. “It’s just, I hate seeing you unhappy. It hurts me. Here.” He placed his fist over his heart. “I can’t stand it when I can’t help you.”

Ursula reached her arms out to him, and he eased into her embrace, pressing his head against her chest and encircling her with his arms.

“I’m sorry too. It’s just all so overwhelming. Every day there’s something else that goes wrong.”

He lifted his head. “Nothing else will go wrong, I promise you. Our wedding day will be the happiest day in our lives.”

A smile formed around her lips. “Are you saying that after our wedding day we won’t be as happy again?”

He chuckled. “That’s not what I meant.”

“What did you mean?”

“Want me to show you?”

“Uhm,” Vera’s voice interrupted.

Darn, he’d forgotten that Vera was still in the room. He grinned at her sheepishly. “Thank you, Vera, for being there when Ursula needed you.”

“No problem.”

“What shall we do about your mother now?” Oliver asked.

“Nothing,” Ursula said. “My mother is getting what she wants with everything else: the wedding dress, the bridesmaids, the wedding date, and the decorations! But I’m not going to compromise on the groom.”

Oliver grinned. “That’s my girl!”

10

After much crying, Ursula had reached a truce with her mother. As long as everything else at the wedding was arranged so that it compensated for Oliver’s
unfortunate
date of birth, as she called it, she would look past it and not mention it again. This meant that her mother would include every good luck charm she knew in the wedding decorations, almost as if she thought she could ward off the bad luck Oliver’s date of birth brought.

Ursula had agreed, not wanting to alienate her mother any further. After all, she was her parents’ only child, and this would be the only wedding her mother ever got to arrange.

Finally, the day had arrived. In a few hours, she would be married to Oliver. The house was already swarming with catering staff.

Her mother was still not back from the hairdresser, and her father had decided to take a short nap, claiming he hadn’t yet adjusted to the time difference between Washington D.C. and San Francisco.

When she heard a soft rap on the door to her room, she instinctively knew who it was. Was she already feeling the special connection that only blood-bonded couples had? She swore she could sense his presence in the house from the moment he’d entered shortly after sunset.

“Come in.”

Oliver slid inside, quickly closing the door behind him. “Hey!” He was still wearing jeans and a T-shirt.

“You’d better not get caught in here or my mother will have a fit!”

He chuckled and pulled her into his arms. “You’re not wearing your dress yet, so I think it doesn’t count.”

Smiling, she wrapped her arms around him and pulled his head to her. “Does the bride get a kiss?”

“Since you’re asking so nicely,” he murmured, sliding his lips over hers and capturing them.

When his tongue slipped between her lips and started to explore her with long and sensual strokes, she sighed contentedly. She’d missed him during this week, even though she’d seen him every day. But there’d never been a moment for them to be alone. Somebody had always been there.

Oliver’s hands roamed her body, his fingers caressing her just like his tongue did. Warmth and desire filled her, rushing through her body like a flashflood. Her entire body tingled pleasantly, and the place between her legs hummed, yearning for a touch. His touch. His kiss. She’d never believed that love could be like this: all consuming, passionate, while at the same time comforting and safe. Yet she felt safe, safe with a vampire, the very creature she had once feared. Oliver had made her forget all her fears and shown her that even a vampire could love.

She felt his love now. It burned brightly and steadily. With every touch and every kiss, she felt it. And tonight, after the ceremony, she would feel it in his bite. His loving bite, how lovingly and silently, he would make her his forever. How he would bestow immortality on her without robbing her of her humanity. How he would make himself vulnerable because once they blood-bonded, Oliver could only feed off her. His body would reject all other blood. In fact, it would make him violently ill if he ever drank blood other than hers.

For a vampire to bond himself to a human required ultimate trust. She felt that trust between them.

When he finally severed the kiss, she breathed heavily.

“We’ve gotta stop, baby, or there won’t be a wedding, because I’ll tie you to my bed and won’t let you go.”

She chuckled. “Would that be so bad?”

He shook his head and wagged his finger playfully. “And deprive myself of seeing you walk down the aisle in your beautiful white dress while—”

“White dress?” she interrupted him.

He pulled back a little, his eyebrows snapping together. “Yes, of course.”

“Oliver, I won’t be wearing a white dress. My dress is red. White is bad luck at a Chinese wedding. Red is good luck.”

She watched as Oliver’s facial expression changed to one of dismay. “Uh-oh!”

Trepidation rose in her. “What?”

“You said white is bad? How about white flowers? We can have white flowers, right?” he asked, grimacing.

Her stomach plummeted. “White flowers? Oh, please don’t tell me you got white flowers for the wedding.” She searched his face.

“I didn’t know! I swear I had no idea,” he insisted.

Ursula covered her face with her hands. “Oh no! This is not happening!” She sniffed, trying to push back the rising tears. “I should never have told you to take care of the flowers! I should have done it myself. Oh my god, my mother is going to be livid!”

“Baby, I’ll fix it!”

She lowered her hands. “You can’t fix that! You’ll never get that many red flowers now! It’s only a few hours till the ceremony. If there’ll even be a ceremony! Once my mother sees the flowers, she’ll insist we call the whole thing off!”

Oliver cupped her shoulders, forcing her to look at him. “I’ll fix it. Whatever it takes! But this wedding will happen tonight, one way or another! I’ll get rid of the white flowers. I promise you. When you walk into that tent in a few hours, the flowers will be red. Please trust me!”

The look which he gave her was penetrating. For long seconds, she simply stared back at him. What choice did she have? She had to trust him to make this right. Silently she nodded.

He pressed a quick kiss to her lips and left the room.

Oliver raced down the stairs. Shit! He’d screwed up. He couldn’t remember if Ursula had ever told him about not getting white flowers, or whether she’d simply assumed he knew. It didn’t matter now. There was no need wasting time by blaming somebody. What was done was done. And now he had to undo it. Swiftly, and without her parents, particularly her mother, noticing.

At the foot of the stairs, he nearly collided with Cain, one of his colleagues. The vampire with the permanent stubble looked as if he’d been born in a tuxedo. Before tonight, he’d only ever seen his fellow bodyguard in street clothes and had no idea how well he wore formalwear.

“Cain, hey!” he greeted him.

Cain glanced at him then the stairs and smirked. “Snuck in a visit to the bride?”

Oliver sighed. “Just as well that I did. Has her mother come back from the hairdresser yet?”

“Haven’t seen her.” He motioned to the guard who stood at the entrance door. “Bob’s been here for the last hour, just like you requested. I’ve got another one of my men at the side entrance. The catering staff will use the side entrance and the guests the main entrance.”

Oliver nodded approvingly. “Thanks for taking care of that. It makes me feel better.” A glance at the bodyguard whom Cain had called Bob told him that the man was a vampire. He leaned closer to Cain and dropped his voice to a low whisper. “And the guy at the tradesmen entrance. Is he a vampire too?”