Chapter 23
Those last few hours leading up to our flight, there was a certain tension lingering in the house, one neither James or I wanted to address.
Though on the same hand, we didn’t need to address it.
Not right away, that is. We both knew what needed to be done: We needed to tell Gabriel what we knew, and we had to figure out how to get his sisters’ focus off of us.
But none of that could happen right away.
We had too much to do. All of our family and friends were currently either in Vegas or on their way there.
Even as I tossed and turned in bed, trying to shake it all so I could fall asleep, I knew that James was right: The twins—however powerful they were—would be foolish to make a move with so many eyes on us.
Especially with humans in the mix, if their aim was to protect the human race and all.
James started kissing my shoulders before the sun even rose. He’d been a total airport dad about packing; who wouldn’t want to arrive way too early? Seriously. The roosters weren’t even up yet.
“James,” I groaned, burying my face in the pillows. “I just got to sleep.”
He removed the blanket with his teeth. I whined, squirming against the cold—then again when his lips kissed my bare ass cheeks. “What if I said we could shower together?”
His weight vanished from my back, and I cracked an eye to see him walking backward toward the bathroom. The water was already running, steam billowing from the room behind him. My eyelids threatened to droop again, until he dropped his underwear and leaned against the doorway.
Dammit, my dick was interested now.
James snickered as I scrambled off the bed to chase after him. We stumbled into the shower, where I shoved him to his knees and made him thoroughly apologize for waking me up so damn early. Supernatural strength or not, he still knew when to give me the upper hand.
I longed for the day when he didn’t need to “let me” anymore.
Though as we packed the last of our things, fed Carlos and left a note for the dog walker, and locked up the house, butterflies kicked up in my stomach. The next time we walked through that door, it would be as a married couple.
I couldn’t wait.
At the airport, James offered me a second apology in the form of an expensive coffee, but even the extra shots of espresso didn’t stop me from yawning.
I was so sleepy as we boarded that I was momentarily confused when James tugged me to a stop in first-class.
Once we settled in the comfortable seats, I raised a brow at him.
“Seriously?” I asked, letting him stow our luggage above.
He shrugged. “What better time to splurge than our wedding?”
The special treatment continued when a flight attendant handed us glasses of champagne. “Congratulations.”
James and I thanked him, settling in for the long flight ahead.
As I sipped at my drink, I took one last scroll through my phone. There were a few notifications: My parents, confirming they’d made it safely, and a text from Raleigh saying how excited he was to visit “Salem” again. I snickered, amused at the commitment everyone showed to keeping Vegas a secret.
James’s hand brushed my shoulder, his finger trailing a path up my arm. I met his eyes, and a grin tugged at his lips. “You should try and get some rest.”
Leaning over as far as he could, he grabbed my champagne and pressed it into my palm.
Fortunately, the alcohol relaxed me a bit, and exhaustion slammed into me once more.
By the time we reached cruising altitude—and I hit the bottom of my glass—my eyelids were growing heavy.
I grabbed a pillow, stuffed it between the wall and my head, and closed my eyes.
Apparently, no amount of wedding jitters could keep me awake.
I managed to sleep for the entire flight. James woke me up by squeezing my thigh, and I suspected there’d been some vampiric powers keeping me asleep. I didn’t mind. I felt a bit better without the fatigue weighing me down on top of everything else.
The plane hit the ground, and that started the buzzing in my veins.
I hadn’t been back to Vegas since making up my mind that I needed to return to Salem for Hannah’s sake. I’d always intended to visit regularly, but between Hannah and James and vampire stuff, time had gotten away from me.
“Is Raleigh here?” I asked, excited to see my best friend. A bar emergency had cut their last visit short, and I was determined to make up for the lost time.
James just smiled. I started to press him, when a loud voice from baggage claim started singing “Here Comes the Bride.”
“All right, all right!” I said, laughing. Raleigh, with his height and alternative appearance, hardly needed ribald singing to draw the attention of everyone in the airport. “I get it, you missed me. Where’s my girl?”
“With the sitter. We couldn’t fit the car seat and all four of us.”
“I offered to get a rental,” James explained, “but they insisted.”
I barely heard James as Raleigh lifted me into one of his bone-crushing hugs, sparing James the same treatment. I rubbed my sternum, shocked when Angel stepped forward to wrap his arms around me too.
“We won’t have any newborn vampires causing problems, will we?” he asked quietly.
We parted, and my hand snapped up to cover my neck. I should have realized Angel, of all people, would notice immediately.
It had come out during their last visit that “angel” was so much more than a name. The all-seeing eyes across his body were no mere tattoos, and while I hadn’t seen them myself, Raleigh confided in me that Angel had a beautiful set of wings.
He wasn’t human, and he probably could see the venom trapped beneath my skin, pulsing at the two marks on my neck.
“Someone’s got some explaining to do,” Raleigh rumbled. “And to be very clear, you’re legally obligated to tell me if we do have a newborn vampire on our hands. A human baby is enough to handle.”
“There’s nothing to worry about,” I assured them, dropping my hand. “It didn’t work.”
I jolted when Angel suddenly pinched my chin between two of his fingers and turned my head side to side. “How many times did he bite you?”
“Twice.”
His icy blue stare went to James. “Twice?”
“Three times, technically,” I amended, “since there were two bites on the second attempt.”
James sighed. “We’ve got a lot to tell you two.”
“Come on.” Raleigh snatched my suitcase from me just as I had his months ago. “Let’s get away from the day dwellers.”
During the drive to the hotel, I caught my two closest friends up on everything that had come to light since the beginning of the year: I wanted to turn into a vampire as soon as possible to help James thwart the hunters of Virtus who’d been hunting us despite being led by vampires themselves—and, in all likelihood, by the twin sisters of James’s closest friend.
Dani, our former bartender who we all thought to be dead was…
well, undead. She’d been working with Virtus to take James down, but after the vampires turned her, she switched teams again.
Unlike Dani, I couldn’t become a vampire because I was descended from witches, and I needed to obtain the blessings of both of our families in order for the witch’s block to be lifted enough that James could turn me—a feat made all the more difficult because it would require a lot more venom to overcome my witch DNA.
That same DNA meant that Hannah would become a witch and gain powers very soon.
By the time Raleigh pulled into the parking lot of the hotel and parked, exhaustion had swept over me once more.
“I need a drink,” he laughed, scrubbing a hand over his face. “And you chose to get married in the middle of all this?”
James and I shared a smile. “Why not?”
My best friend watched me, shaking his head in disbelief. “Who are you and what have you done with Ryder Clark?”
“I said the same thing to you a couple of years ago.”
James stamped a kiss to my cheek. “I’ll go get us checked in.”
“I’ll come with you,” Angel offered.
As they went inside, Raleigh and I took the bags out of the trunk. I took a minute to stretch my legs, soaking in the Vegas sun. In February, there was a slight chill to the air, but it was nothing compared to the bitter New England cold, and I was going to cherish every second of it.
The car wobbled, and Raleigh perched next to me. “You really ready for this?”
An involuntary smile curled my lips. “I know it sounds crazy, but I am,” I answered without hesitation. “I thought I’d feel a lot more nervous about it.”
Raleigh shrugged. “When you know, you know.”
He lifted his left hand, pushing it through his shaggy hair. As he did, his gold wedding band caught the sunlight.
“When did you know with Angel?”
“Somewhere around ‘giant, tattooed buffoon.’”
I laughed. That was one of my finer moments. Even if Raleigh did get his advice revenge a year later when my surprise daughter popped up. And again a few months ago when I found out I was fated to a vampire.
Okay, Raleigh needed to have another life crisis so I could be the voice of reason. It was time for me to have a turn.
“Be glad you knew so early,” he continued. “I lost out on a lot of time to truly love Angel because I couldn’t get my head out of my ass.” He nudged me with his shoulder, dimple piercing glittering. “I’m glad you’re here, Clark.”
I gasped, feigning shock with my hand over my chest. “Someone call the press! Raleigh Jenkins is admitting his feelings!”
“And it’s over.” He shoved me, laughing.
Raleigh and I were notoriously bad at sharing our emotions, but we just seemed to understand each other. “I’m glad you’re here” was as good as an “I love you” from him, and vice versa. I always knew they cared about me, but I couldn’t believe the lengths they’d gone to just to make me happy.
James wrapped his arm around my waist. “Want to go upstairs?” he husked, nipping at my earlobe.
“Hell yes, I do.”
With a promise to meet for drinks, we said goodbye to Raleigh and Angel and made our way to our hotel room.
“You didn’t spare any expense for this wedding, did you?” I asked, gazing around the lobby.
Unlike most Vegas hotels with their grand entrances, high-vaulted ceilings, and busy colors that made your head spin—which was especially dangerous, considering how many drunk people wandered around the place—The W offered a cozier environment.
Low, golden light illuminated the space, casting a warm glow over the rich leather furniture and dark wooden floors.
I took everything in as James led me to the elevators.
“Well,” he drawled, finally responding to my question, “our venue is a little more intimate, so I thought we could splurge on where we’d be staying for our wedding.”
The elevator doors slid shut and with nothing else to distract me, I noticed the button James had pressed. My eyes widened. “The penthouse?”
He shrugged. “Splurging.”