“Where’s Black?” Nick muttered, still looking around. “You forget your husband, doc?”
Angel grunted, refolding her arms.
I answered Nick.
“Him and Cowboy took the other plane, too. You know… tradition.”
Nick’s expression cleared slightly, but he continued to look tense.
When he just sat there, petting the dog, Dalejem cleared his throat.
“And that Dragon thing is definitely gone?” Jem said, his voice less hushed than both of theirs had been. “It seems odd that it came and went so quickly––”
“It is,” I said, giving him a warning stare. “Gone.”
The last thing I wanted to do was jinx things on that front.
Power of positive thinking and all.
The jets began powering up.
We were getting ready to leave.
I glanced down the aisle, then back at a stewardess, who used hand-gestures to ask me silently if I wanted another triple-shot cappuccino. Glancing down at my empty cup, I looked back at her and nodded gratefully.
I wouldn’t sleep on the four-hour flight, even if it was still only like two in the morning.
I never slept on planes.
I definitely wouldn’t sleep on this plane.
Dalejem grunted.
When I looked over, he was smiling, and not in an unsympathetic way.
“Wedding jitters?” he said, motioning towards my coffee cup.
“Something like that,” I admitted. I glanced at Angel. “Did you sleep at all?”
“Not a wink,” she confirmed.
The engines keened louder and higher. The plane began rolling backwards, away from the jetway, and away from the mostly-glass terminal. I let my eyes glance back over the occupants of the plane’s cabin as we continued to taxi, moving away from the private gate Black rented at SFO, specifically for the wedding party.
Most of the seats were full.
In fact, all of the seats I could see were full.
A lot of people stared back at me as I scanned faces.
Everyone on the plane had definitely noticed our group at the back of the main cabin.
I wondered if Ace, Javier, Alice, or one of the other humans close to Dex might be texting the Marine vet, even now. At this very moment, someone on our team might be sending photos and live video feed that showed Nick and Jem sitting on leather seats in Black’s private jet, playing with my dog, joking around with the rest of us.
The thought made me grimace.
It also brought back another wave of gut-wrenching nerves.
Then again, those nerves hadn’t really left.
For the past twenty-four hours, I’d been so freaked out, I thought I might throw up, pretty much any time I let myself stop long enough to think about it.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt like this.
The feeling was akin to terror.
I was genuinely worried I might throw up during the wedding itself.
“You won’t,” Jem assured me.
He smiled as he laid a hand on Nick’s thigh. I watched him massage Nick’s leg, right before he leaned most of his weight on Nick’s shoulder and side.
Jem continued to study my face and light.
Still watching my face, Dalejem added,
“Black is going to talk to him, na? Before the ceremony?”
I nodded. “Yeah. He wanted to talk to Kiko, too, even though Jax already talked to her. He’ll probably try to talk to both of them at the same time, probably en route.” Smiling humorlessly, I shook my head. “I suspect he wants to gauge the Kiko and Jax thing, too. And put the fear of God into Jax not to hurt his buddy, or he’ll do something terrible to him…”
Jem broke out in a grin. “Poor Jax.”
My voice grew more serious. “Actually, I got the impression Black approves.”
“He damn well should,” another voice said.
I looked up, surprised to see Holo standing there.
I hadn’t seen him board the plane.
Frankly, I couldn’t believe he was standing under his own power.
He made a polite, questioning gesture in my direction, indicating the chair next to where I sat, the one Panther occupied before. When I nodded, pulling the blanket off the seat that Panther had been sleeping with, Holo maneuvered his way into our six-seat area, lowering himself carefully into the recliner my dog had vacated.
I saw him wince and grimace as he did.
He jammed his cane into the space under his seat.
Once situated, he hit the buttons on the chair’s outside arm.
I heard the engine whirr as it reclined the leather padding back.
Holo closed his eyes.
I frowned around at the others, then back at Holo.
“Should you really be here?” I said. “I mean, we all want you here, of course, but you look like shit, brother.”
Dalejem burst out in a laugh.
Holo opened one eye, looking at me, then over at Jem.
“I like weddings,” he informed me haughtily. “Black said I could come. He promised to make it worthwhile. He also said he’d have a wheelchair waiting for me on both ends, and for the wedding itself… and that I’d get my own escort for the space-cakes portion of the evening.”
“Space cakes?” I mouthed, looking around at the others.
Angel shrugged, obviously not in the know, either.
Dalejem looked a little too deliberately innocent for me to buy it.
Nick’s mind was clearly somewhere else.
Panther barked then, and jumped off Nick’s lap.
I thought maybe the wolfhound was indignant that I’d given away his chair, but he jumped up on Holo instead, making Holo go “Oof!” Undaunted, Panther wriggled his way into the seat, seemingly determined to share it with the injured seer.
I snorted, rolling my eyes at my dog.
Panther didn’t care.
He barely looked at me as he made himself comfortable… until Holo had the ball of black fur half on his lap and half in the chair with him, and he had his arm slung around the dog’s back. Panther licked his hand, then laid his fuzzy head on his paws and sighed.
Something about seeing the two of them together brought a pain to my chest, followed by another dense wave of emotion.
I reached over, gripping Holo’s arm, fighting the tightening in my throat.
Remembering seeing Holo sprawled and deathly pale on the tile floor, looking half-dead in the lobby of the California Street building, I gripped his arm tighter, wiping my eyes with my fingers.
“We’re going to make you the flower boy,” I told him seriously. “That means a costume, brother. And a flowered hat. Since we don’t have any little nieces or nephews or anything… it’s all on you, Holo. The ceremony is in your hands.”
The seer grunted, rolling his eyes.
Then he smiled at me, clasping my hand in his fingers.
I looked back at Nick.
“I’m honestly not sure which of you is more nuts. It seems I’m not allowed to have a wedding without fearing for the lives of at least a few of the guests.”
Frowning at my own words, I realized I meant them.
“Honestly, I am worried about you.” I looked back at Holo. “…About both of you. Are either of you sure this is a good idea? Can’t you just stay at the resort, watch the wedding together as a simulcast? Get hammered on margaritas together while you soak in the indoor jacuzzi?”
Instead of either of them, Jem answered me.
“Black assures us Nick will be fine.” He looked at Holo. “I’m a little worried about brother Holo, too, but if he’s in a wheelchair, and we find a place where he can relax and nap during the reception, he should be good.”
“Absolutely not,” Holo said, louder, his eyes still closed. “Space. Cakes. I will not be deprived.”
Angel burst out in a laugh.
Holo went on in the same relaxed tone.
“Jax says Kiko is accep
ting it. Last time we spoke, Jax said Kiko believes the doc and Black that Nick is back to normal… more or less. Jax thinks Kiko will be fine. And he would know. He had her light all over him.”
He opened one eye again, glancing around at them.
“He said she took it pretty well, all in all. He was surprised at how well she took it, frankly. Both of them were a lot more worried about Dex. Not just in terms of Nick, but in terms of the two of them.” Holo gave Nick a warning look. “Either way, I wouldn’t get too close to her, vampire. Not where Dex can see it… or any of her friends. Which means everyone.”
Nick grunted, rolling his eyes a little, but didn’t speak.
I watched his vampire eyes––those oddly stunning, crystal-colored irises and jet-black pupils––shift towards one of the oval view ports, his vampire-perfect mouth hardening as he grimaced out at the view.
He was a vampire now.
I still had to remind myself sometimes, but I’d mostly accepted it.
I was even getting better at translating his emotions from his vampire demeanor.
Like, for example, right now.
He was a vampire, not human, but if he’d still been human, I suspected his face would be some shade of green from Holo’s comments about Kiko. Even as a vampire, he still managed to look like he felt sick to his stomach.
He wouldn’t go near Kiko… not even at gunpoint, I suspected.
Not unless Kiko herself held the gun.
Panther barked.
From the direction of the dog’s stare, he barked at Nick.
Dalejem reached up, massaging his boyfriend’s shoulder with one hand.
Panther barked again. It sounded almost like a question.
Like, Hey, friend! What’s wrong with you? Do you need me to go over there? Lick you a bunch of times? ‘Cause I will!
That’s when I realized Nick was crying.
He wiped his face while I watched, and while Jem continued to rub his back.
I didn’t think; I blurted words.
“Vampires cry?”
There was a silence.
Nick gave me a look.
“Sorry.” I felt myself flush. “I’m sorry. It’s just…” I looked around at the others. “I didn’t actually think they could cry. Not like a human.”
Dalejem gave me an odd look. “You didn’t think he could cry?”
“I mean, if pressed, I might have guessed they’d cry blood or something.”
“Cry blood?” Holo opened his eyes. He looked at me, horrified, his face pulling into a delicate grimace. “That’s disgusting, boss. Why the fuck would someone cry blood?”
Still frowning, he closed his eyes.
His arm tightened, hugging my dog in his lap.
“…Now I’m going to have that image in my head the rest of the day,” he grumbled.
From my other side, Angel burst out in a laugh.
When Nick and I looked over, she covered her mouth with a hand, waving us off, her ears turning noticeably red.
Nick frowned at her.
Jem continued to rub his back, and Angel and I watched.
Holo closed his eyes where he lay back on his seat, but I strongly got the impression he watched too, likely from the Barrier construct, which still hooked into all of us.
It hit me then, feeling that construct.
It wasn’t just me, Holo, and Jem.
All of them watched Nick.
Every seer on the plane watched Nick cry, while Dalejem comforted him.
Seers who weren’t on the plane also watched Nick; since we remained connected to all of them via the military-grade construct, every seer on our team could see him.
As they all looked at my oldest and dearest friend, I felt something in the consciousness of the group shift. It was subtle, but feeling it loosened the knot that had formed in my chest––the one that appeared the instant I saw Nick emerge into the plane’s cabin from behind those blue curtains.
Nick wouldn’t have felt it, of course.
Nick was a vampire.
Like the humans, he wasn’t in the construct. Unlike the humans, Nick’s mental state was unlikely to be affected by the construct, either, even indirectly.
But I felt Holo notice, and Yarli, who sat in the cluster of seats just forward of ours.
I felt Jem notice, too, right before he met my gaze.
The senior infiltrator’s pale green eyes brightened, contrasting even more with those stunning violet rings. I looked at the sheer happiness in him as he stared at me.
It wasn’t just happiness that Nick was safe. It didn’t stem only from fewer of Black’s team actively wanting to kill his boyfriend.
The happiness came from Nick himself.
They were in love.
I’d known that, if only because Angel had been saying so for months.
But I could see it now, reflected in Jem’s eyes, in the fierce protectiveness I felt on him where he massaged the back of Nick’s neck, trying to reassure him.
Jem was still studying my gaze when he broke out in a smile.
Something in his smile made me almost envious.
I wanted to feel the way he did. I wanted to feel that relief. More than that, I wanted to feel that sense of a new day, of a new world… of love conquering all. I wanted to feel things were really going to start to get better again, that Black and I could be together and everything would work out… everything would be okay.
Everything is going to be okay, my beautiful sister, Jem murmured softly in my mind. You and Black can be together, and everything will work out… for all of us.
I wanted to believe that.
I really, truly, absolutely, one hundred percent wanted to believe that.
But despite it being the morning of my wedding day, a day Black and I had planned off and on for several years, a day I still couldn’t quite believe was finally happening…
Well, and that was it. That was the problem, really.
I still couldn’t quite believe it.
Some part of me still didn’t believe the wedding would happen at all.
I was bracing, even now, for something to crash into the side of the plane, for everyone’s headsets to start pinging with an alarm about some horrible occurrence happening elsewhere in the world… something that would force us to cancel, yet again.
I was waiting for someone to tell me the wedding was off.
“Well, of course you’re afraid of that,” Holo murmured from next to me.
I looked over, but he didn’t return my gaze.
Sighing heavily, he went on, his eyes still closed.
“How many fucking weddings is this, anyway?” the seer muttered. “Seven? Eight? Ten? Black told me and Jem he planned the very first one before we even got to this dimension… in New York. Another splashy publicity media frenzy deal, but you got so pissed off at him for how he infiltrated the vampires, he ended up sleeping on the couch for a few months instead. He said you fucked off to Hawaii…”
Holo said it loudly enough, it wasn’t only me and Angel who laughed.
I heard laughter from Yarli, from Manny sitting next to her, from Lawless in the seat across the aisle, from Luce, Dog, Ace.
Holo opened one eye, smiling at me.
Then he closed it, snuggling deeper in the chair.
I knew he was right.
Black hadn’t even told me all the times he’d tried to plan a ceremony for the two of us.
Those plans changed to include different landscapes (beaches, deserts, Golden Gate Park, the Palace of Fine Arts, a church, a Buddhist temple), countries (the United States, Thailand, France, Indonesia, England)… not to mention states, cities, venues, times of day, guest lists… even dimensions, since Black raised it again when we stayed with his cousin.
Our plans had changed so many times I could scarcely remember what we’d first talked about doing, or why we’d settled on New Mexico this time.
“Have hope, my sister,” Holo murmured.
Reaching over,
he clasped my hand, squeezing it where I still gripped his arm.
“Have a little faith in us… in your family. Trust that we won’t let that happen to you this time.”
My eyes stung.
I only nodded, even as I turned over his words.
I felt hope, yes.
I loved my family.
I trusted them, too.
I also felt, in the deepest part of my bones, that this wasn’t over.
I could put it aside for today.
I could let this day finally happen… a day Black and I had wanted for years, even if we told ourselves we didn’t care, that we already were married, in our light and on paper, and screw the ceremony, and screw the rest.
I could marry Black, in front of my friends.
Once the honeymoon was over, we would have to face reality again.
But today, I wouldn’t think about that.
Today, I would be with Black, and I would be with my friends.
This is reality too, sister, Jem reminded me softly. At the end of the day, this is the only reality that matters. The only one that remains.
Looking at him, I blinked.
Then, turning over his words, I finally smiled for real.
24
The Day Of
The doors opened on the resort, and I felt myself take… and exhale… my first deep breath in probably a month.
I looked at Angel, and she grinned, then burst out in a laugh.
Arms linked, we aimed our feet for the front desk, where I saw Dalejem and Nick already standing, clearly in the process of checking in.
Before we could get there, we got waylaid by three people, two of which we already knew. Magic threw her arms around me and squeezed, laughing as she jumped up and down, holding me around the neck and forcing me to jump with her.
I was laughing too as soon as we started, then I turned to hug Devin, who stood behind her, smiling bemusedly.
“Where’s Frank?” I said. “Where’s Joseph and Geraldine?”
“They’re on their way,” Devin said, giving me one of his shy smiles as he pulled out of our embrace. “Everyone’s coming, Miri. Don’t worry. They’re probably trucking half the Rez down here… and a few of the neighboring ones, too.”
I laughed.
I noticed the third person who’d joined us.
Black Of Wing: A Quentin Black Paranormal Mystery Romance (Quentin Black Mystery Book 14) Page 21