I wander through the lounge room and see an enormous painting, a casual portrait of a man and a woman with a baby. It hangs over a beautiful fireplace that dominates the room, neatly surrounding it is an ornate lounge and two black wing back chairs. The fire gently licks at the air, crackling the wood with a few pops. But the painting draws me closer, their eyes watching me. Looking over me. I stop one of the servants as he passes me.
"Your highness?"
"Is that me?"
"Yes your highness."
"And my parents?"
"Yes your highness. Is that all your highness?"
"Yes, thank you."
I look at the painting, my mother, my father, both looking happy. I am in my mother's arms, asleep.
"You are the spitting image of her."
I turn and see the queen behind me.
"That was the day that you were christened."
"Vampires can be christened?"
"Yes, the churches official stance is that vampires do not exist."
I frown. "How is it that we could even enter the church? Wouldn't we... you know, holy ground?"
She smiles.
"A vampire enter any building, holy ground, anything."
Oh.
"How are your parents coping with it?"
"Surprisingly well."
"Are they planning on moving here, turning?"
"I think so."
Penny enters the room and curtsies.
"Your Highness."
"Penny, how are the preparations going?"
"Very well, everything is on track for this afternoon."
"Well then, it might be time for you to get ready."
The guests stand as I walk down the aisle, followed by my ladies in waiting. I see some faces that I remember from the council meeting and it fills me with dread, will Finn be here? Of course I would. Finn? Who else would enter your mind like this, on such an important occasion with total disregard for it? I giggle in my mind. I miss you he whispers almost like it is a wind blowing through my mind. Finn, please... I know, you are married now, this is what I meant by if I were to pursue you my future would hold pain, I knew who you were and what the future would be, it was foolish of me to chase you, I should have known better. Oh, Finn, don't be like that, you know you had fun. Yeah, I guess I did. So what did Godfrey give you? Promise you won't be upset? I promise. I look over at him as I get closer to him, a young woman stands in front of him, she looks similar to me, but has some distinct differences. Made to measure? Of course. She is beautiful. Her muse is more beautiful. Aww, how sweet. I just want to say, it was a great time and I will never forget you and if you ever feel like cheating on Alex, make sure I am the first one you call. I will keep that in mind. Alina? Finn! He laughs as I reach the alter. I love you. A tear wells in my eye as I try to hold it back, not wanting anyone to notice. I love you too, always. The priest begins the service for my coronation. I didn't think that this was necessary for the vampiric world, but a few months ago, I guess I didn't know it existed or even the fact that I was one.
After the pomp and pageantry, I am queen of the vampiric kingdom of Rostonin and of the Elm'nyth Realm, the day had been declared a national holiday in my honour and in true vampiric tradition we partied into the wee hours of the morning. Even the werewolves hung around which apparently is unusual. I worried about my parents being that they were human in a room full of many, many vampires but I was informed that Terrance threatened them with death if they touched even a hair on their bodies. No dark being was ever to drain a single ounce of blood from the new queen's adoptive parents.
What I didn't know about the next day was what had been secretly planned, a second wedding, the public wedding. That is why everyone hung around, there was another event to attend. My parents looked like their eyes were hanging out of their heads, whereas everyone else was normal, vampires barely sleep, shape shifters can go for a week without it and the werewolves had found somewhere within the castle to nestle down for a few hours. While I was getting ready, they did manage to find a few hours' sleep.
By mid-morning I received visitors, Alex's sister Erianna and her husband and their son to introduce themselves.
"Your highness, Lord Gaston and Lady Erianna Corjone and...." the maid stops speaking as a butterfly enters the room.
"Master Benton."
She curtsies and closes the door behind them.
"Please come in, sit."
Gaston carries a large box and puts it on the coffee table in front of me. He and Erianna sit on the lounge opposite me as they watch the butterfly flitter around the room.
"Ben!" Erianna scolds.
The butterfly flitters down to my lap and turns into a small boy. Two big blue eyes filled with excitement stare up at me, his cheeks a rosy red. He looks a lot like Alex with his unruly black hair and pale olive skin.
"Are you Alina?"
"Yes I am."
"Uncle Alex sent you a present."
He points to the box on the table, climbing off my lap, he picks it up and gives it to me.
I hear a feint meowing as I lift the lid on the box, a tiny grey kitten, on its collar Tsar II.
"A kitty!" Ben squeals.
It purrs as he strokes its back. A note sits inside the box, just one little sentence. To keep the other side warm. I couldn't help but grin. Cheeky bastard.
"We just came to say hello before the ceremony. I hear you have had a trying couple of days."
"Yes. Very trying."
"Are you planning a honeymoon?"
"Soon. I have urgent business to attend to."
"Yes, I would imagine there is a lot that needs to be caught up on. Lord Eliade wasn't known for his paperwork skills."
Gaston looks at his watch.
"Well my dear, we should be moving, I am sure Alina has many things to do before her wedding."
I stand as they begin to depart. Ben skips after his father, Erianna holds back for a second.
"I am happy that you and Alex love each other, the weight of an arranged marriage has hounded the two of us for years. I was fortunate to have grown up with Gaston and with the time that passed he became my best friend and lover. Sadly, Alex never got such comforts but visiting him this morning, I see that he is happy. I have never seen him like this."
She scratches the cat on the head.
"I wish the two of you the happiness that I have found in my own marriage and a lifetime of love."
"Thank you."
She nods at me and closes the door. The door opens again, Miranda walks in looking beautiful. She squealed with delight when I asked her to be my bridesmaid, so happy to be by my side.
"Nice dress." I grin at her.
"You like?" she swishes the deep blue skirt around.
As she stops twirling the material settles around her full belly, the baby within is now big.
In her hand I see a leather pouch. Oh no, not again. She sits on the lounge opposite me and passes the cards to me. I look at the cards in her hands, blank. I take them from her and begin to shuffle them, watching as the pictures appear on the cards as they pass from one hand to the next.
"Why were they blank?"
"They are always blank until they are put into the hands of the person to be read."
A card jumps out and she takes it, putting it face down on the table. I keep going until she has the three cards again.
"Are you ready?"
I nod.
"Going to tell me this time?"
"Maybe."
She flips the first card over, the death card.
"Well, this is your past, so that indicates that your troubles are over."
"Thank Christ." I mutter.
She flips the second card over, a man and a woman, both in white cloth material, both wearing a ring of flowers on their heads. A slight smirk crosses her face.
"Is that supposed to be Alex and I getting married?"
She nods.
"That's a terrible picture." I scoff. "That dress makes me look fat."
She laughs and turns over the third card, the smile drops away leaving a confused frown.
"What's wrong?"
"This is an odd one." she mutters.
I look down at the card, it has four women on it, all wearing white robes, all wearing floral wreaths on their heads. Each of them has a long chain in their hand, at the end of the chain is a pendant, each different. The first woman has the red cross, which I figure is me. The second woman has what looks like a shield with two swords crossing over it. A love heart is the third and for the fourth it is a gold bird, much like the picture of the bird on the back of these cards. They look like they are standing on the edge of a river, the water shines with a pearl lustre. The grass below their feet is a deep green, dotted with flowers of multiple colours. As I squint at the card I see something at the third woman's feet, a pale tan cylinder.
"Miranda?"
She cautiously picks up the card and continues to frown at it. Her stare is so intense I swear she could burn a hole through it.
"Who are they? I mean, I'm figuring that first one's me, right?"
"Yep." she sighed "And it's highly likely that I'm number four, although there are two more phoenixes that this woman could be. But these others... I don't know."
"What does it mean?"
Miranda looked up at me, for the first time ever, I saw a Miranda that didn't know what to do.
"I just don't know." she whispers.
The door opens slightly distracting us from the cards, Miranda quickly scooped them up and packed them away, muttering something about Godfrey. I watch the door slowly creak open, fingers slip around the edge of the door appear first, then her long black hair. One perfect jade green eye stares at me, assessing me.
"Evie!"
I get up, finding myself at the door in the blink of an eye, hugging her. I pull her out to arm's length, looking at those sad eyes.
"I'm sorry." she whispers.
"For what? Looking after me? Probably saving me on countless occasions. Crazy girl, don't be ridiculous."
She smiles, wiping her nose with the edge of her sleeve.
"I have something for you, if you will accept it."
Her eyes show hesitation.
"Well two things really, the first one I will be heartbroken if you don't accept, the second still heartbroken but will accept your decision."
She looks at me completely confused. I take her hand and drag her over to the robe, pulling out a dress. She looks at Miranda, seeing that she is wearing a similar dress.
"As you know, there is going to be the official wedding today, the public wedding. Now that I have had time to do some preparations, I have decided that I wanted my best friends by my side."
"You want me?" she frowns as she wipes the last of the tears from her cheeks. "To be your bridesmaid?"
"Of course I would. You have been my best friend for as long as I have had memories, you put up with my psycho-ness, my hair brain schemes. You stood up for me, you were there for me when I needed you, you were always my perfect alibi when the shit hit the fan. You, apparently threatened to kill my cheating husband."
She chuckles with the memories. "You gave up your childhood to protect me from a man that should have loved me, a man that killed my parents." I whisper the last of the words, feeling the pain flicker through my heart as the tears beg for release. "Why would I not want you with me, by my side?"
Before I knew it her arms were around my neck, hugging me hard.
"I would love to." she whispers.
"Well then, you had better hurry up and get dressed."
She takes the dress from me with a big cheesy grin and nearly skips into the robe. I shake my head with a grin as I wander back to the lounge.
"So what's the other thing?" she calls out from the robe.
"Oh." I look at Miranda, she grins back at me. "Well, as you may or may not know, I have a new job. Apparently this world was looking for a queen, I have been accepted for this highly sought after position."
"Really?" she gasps as her head pokes out the door of the robe. "You, queen? Why on earth would they want you?"
"Ha-ha. Hilarious, isn't she?"
Miranda purses her lips with a smile, shrugging her shoulders.
"I hope you said yes, dear Aunt."
"Of course, darling, why would I not think you are hilarious?"
"So come on then." she says appearing out of nowhere. "What's the second thing?"
I look at her in the dress, probably the first time I had seen her in something so flattering.
"Wow Evie, you look great."
"Yeah and Aston isn't here either." she pouts.
I sigh. "Ok, three things."
She looks at me, the pout leaves her face as she thinks about it.
"Is he here?"
"Yeah, got on his broomstick and flew in this morning."
"What?" I frown at Miranda.
"It was a joke, you know witches, broomsticks."
"Is Aston a witch?"
"Yeah." Evie gushes. "A good one too."
"Ok." I say slowly, eyes wide. "Everyone in my life is something."
"You're parents aren't."
"I think they might be turning."
"Really? Is that number two? Your parents are joining us?"
"No." I frown with a grin. "Number two is a job."
Her eyes flutter as she tries to comprehend my words.
"A job?"
"Yes, I need people around me that I can trust and who else would I trust except the one person who has protected me for my entire life?"
"So security work?"
"Well, yes, but not really. I have big beefy gorgeous guys to do that. I thought more along the lines of an assistant, you are intelligent, a hard worker and you have the added bonus of all your wonderful capabilities. So? What do you think?"
"Hmm. Working for the newly appointed queen of the realm. What's the pay like?"
"Pitiful."
"Right. Holidays?"
"Never." I try and hide the amusement in my voice.
"Ok. Sick days?"
"I know when you fake it."
"Dental?"
"You're rich and royal, pay for it yourself."
"Company car?"
"What's wrong with your legs?"
"Corner office?"
"In the basement."
"Casual Fridays?"
"Naked Fridays."
"Right. Birthday cake?"
"Mud pie with worms."
"Secret Santa?"
"A free calendar from the bank."
"You are a tough negotiator, your highness." she says with a sly grin. "I accept your terms."
"Excellent."