How to Kiss an Undead Bride

by Edwards, Hailey

  “Me too.”

  Maud always kept a jar of ground unicorn horn, humanely sourced, but I hadn’t believed it was real until this moment. Necromancers weren’t supposed to interact with fae, but there were no rules against bartering with them. Eileen was a fae creation, and Linus had bought her for me. But a unicorn? What little girl hadn’t wished for one of those? How amazing would it be to train your pet to stab anyone who looked at you funny?

  Then again, that was reason enough for me—and most people I knew—not to ever be allowed to own one. Best they remained wild and in Faerie, where they and their victims were someone else’s problem.

  “This is what I get for passing on Linus’s invite,” Boaz joked. “All the work and none of the fun.”

  “Don’t blame us.” I held up my hands. “Linus asked you to your face. I was there.”

  “If you were Linus, would you have wanted me at your bachelor party?”

  “No,” I answered honestly. “But Linus is a better man than I.”

  “Better than both of us,” he said quietly. “That’s why he deserved to enjoy tonight with his friends and not have to look at a reminder of our history.”

  Our history could be interpreted two ways, and he likely meant both.

  His volatile history with Linus, and my negligent history with him.

  Boaz hadn’t been kind to Linus when we were young, and I had pretty much ignored his existence in favor of daydreaming about Boaz.

  Goddess, I had been a dumb kid. No wonder Maud stepped in to arrange my marriage behind my back.

  Once that had been a sore spot with me, but now? I was grateful for her intervention, even if it never would have worked between Linus and me back then. We hadn’t fit. We were both too shiny and idealistic, too full of dreams and possibilities. It had taken life kicking us in the teeth a few times for us to shed those childish fancies and embrace the darkest corners of ourselves.

  On days when I had the bed to myself, I couldn’t sleep with the absence of him tugging on my senses like a black hole whirling above his empty pillow.

  Each time he left for Atlanta, I suffocated beneath the weight of my new responsibilities. Even though I had required the time alone to grow into what I had become, to earn the trust and respect of the residents of my city, it still hurt. Sure, I had learned to stand on my own two feet, and that was a gift beyond price. However, gratefulness didn’t stop me from waiting for him on the lowest step on the front porch each time he came for a visit or for training. Yeah, I was pathetic. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.

  “You’ll be there tomorrow, right?” I yanked my focus out of the past and back to the present. “Adelaide needs arm candy.”

  “Adelaide is the arm candy.” His gaze drifted past me to her. “She had fun tonight?”

  “I think so.” When she began pulling on her bottom lip, I waved to signal everything was okay between Boaz and me. “We would have had more fun if we were gwyllgi, but it’s the thought that counts.”

  “I’m glad.” He stuffed his hands into his pockets. “I worried.”

  “That we would bully her?” I shoved him. “What happened between you and me was never her fault. No one blames her. We’re all convinced she’s too good for you, actually.”

  Hadley bounded over to Adelaide, and they began chatting.

  Adelaide had never said either way, but maintaining the charade had to hurt. Here was Amelie, Boaz’s sister, given a second chance at life through the death of her own sibling. Each time Hadley’s name was spoken, Adelaide flinched away from the speaker. She was trying, they both were—they all were—but it was proving hard to replace the sibling bonds between Boaz and Amelie with ones between Adelaide and Hadley.

  Arm in arm, Hadley and Adelaide joined us, as if Boaz’s presence called to them too loudly for them to ignore.

  Hadley avoided her brother—make that soon to be brother-in-law—in public except when Adelaide could chaperone. Hadley’s disguise was a good one—it had to be in order to fool gwyllgi—but my time with Linus had taught me how to see beneath masks, and hers was peeling up at the corner.

  Adelaide, who suffered the opposite problem where Boaz was concerned, stepped into the breach to keep light conversation flowing.

  The nosiness forever getting me in trouble got derailed by the reappearance of my groom at my side.

  “It’s almost dawn.” I surveyed our ragtag groups. “I should probably send everyone home to bed.”

  “You’re right.” Linus ran a chill finger down my cheek that turned my blood hot. “Will you be coming home to bed?”

  “No.” Adelaide brushed Linus’s hand off me. “Lethe told me to collect you.” She eyed me with pity. “I get that he’s hot, I’m breaking a sweat standing this close to him, but you’re going to have to be strong and spend one last night apart.”

  A distinct growl perked my ears, but the gwyllgi weren’t to blame. This one was all Boaz.

  Guess Adelaide commenting on Linus’s hotness didn’t sit well with him. Poor baby.

  Okay, okay.

  I shouldn’t stir the pot or encourage it to simmer when things were smoothing out between all of us.

  That didn’t mean I couldn’t enjoy when Adelaide did the work for me…

  “Lethe is a meanie,” I grumped. “Where does she think I’m going if not home?”

  “Oh, we’re going home. Er, I mean, Woolworth House. Woolly missed out on all the fun, so we owe her that much at least.” She pointed out an SUV idling at the edge of the parking lot. “That’s your ride, Linus. You’ll be staying in town. A friend booked you a suite large enough for you boys to have your sleepover too.”

  The math didn’t add up for me, since his groomsmen were all present. “A friend?”

  “Not you, Grier.” She caught my arm. “You stay put. Linus is a big boy. He has to do this alone.”

  Linus leaned in, but Adelaide slid between us, taking the good-night kiss meant for my lips on her cheek.

  “Hubba-hubba.” She fanned herself. “I can see why you don’t want to let this one out of your sight.”

  Deep crimson flooded Linus’s cheeks, and mortification froze him on the spot. “I apologize.”

  “I’m not sorry.” Adelaide winked. “Why should you be?”

  I smothered a laugh, but he heard, and the tips of his ears flamed brighter.

  “All right, all right.” Boaz clamped down on Adelaide’s shoulders. “Stop embarrassing the groom with your wantonness.”

  Adelaide stuck her tongue out at him, proving once again I was a terrible influence.

  “We got a problem,” a sentinel called to Boaz. “We need loppers to cut these vines.”

  Tugging on one ear, he cast me a hopeful glance. “Can you undo it?”

  “Savannah is more of a doer than an undoer,” I explained. “Chaos is fun. Cleanup is…not.”

  Just like Woolly, whose selective hearing was legendary, Savannah suffered a similar ailment on a much larger scale.

  “Go on.” I nudged Linus to get him moving again. “Have fun.”

  With a precise nod, he set out for the van. The stiffness in his stride faded as he got close enough to see who sat behind the wheel, but I was clueless from this distance. Three steps away, the driver-side door swung open, and Mary Alice leapt out wearing black leggings and one of those tees with a tux appliqued on the front.

  “Doodlebug.” She rushed him, arms open, and clamped on to him. “How’s my boy?”

  “You came early.” Bending down, he returned her embrace. “I wasn’t expecting you until tomorrow.”

  “Yeah, well.” She drew back, patted his cheek. “You only get married once, right?” She squinted at the gathering. “Plus, I figured you’d be tired of these losers by now.” She made a complicated hand signal that might have been a gang sign. “Atlanta for life, bitches.” Grasping his upper arm, she hauled him along. “Hurry, kid. This crowd looks mean, and I have no idea what I just said to them.” She hooked a thumb over he
r shoulder. “I picked it up from watching Oslo talk to his friends.”

  Oslo was an apprentice at the Mad Tatter’s original location in Atlanta. Mary Alice rarely left the city without him, since she required adult supervision. He had two chin hairs, so she felt he qualified. Mostly, she tolerated him because he was more interested in shenanigans than an adult-adult. It was a match made in… Well, it all depended on your perspective and if you could afford to donate bail money.

  After shoving Linus into the front passenger seat, Mary Alice slid behind the wheel and revved the engine. She puttered away, going maybe twenty-five miles per hour, hands flashing goddess only knows over her shoulder.

  “He does know those people, right?” Adelaide chewed on her bottom lip. “Boaz called her, so I figured he would know, but…who gets rescued from their bachelor party by a gang-sign-flinging granny with a tattoo shop logo on the side of her van?”

  “They’re from the Mad Tatter. He worked with them in Atlanta. That’s where his franchise has its roots. Mary Alice keeps a chair in reserve for him in her shop, in fact. She won’t let anyone use his old station.”

  “Aww. That’s sweet.”

  “Sweet was Boaz thinking to call her.”

  A warm glow I hesitated to label as hope warmed her cheeks. “How does he know her?”

  “During the Siege, he helped coordinate between the sentinels and the artists. He must have gotten her information then in case of emergency.”

  For the sake of the sentinels patrolling the bloody streets, Mary Alice had loaned us a few of her artists. Using Volkov’s blood, and Linus’s original design, they tattooed every sentinel and Elite we could locate, protecting the men and women from vampiric influence and saving countless lives.

  “There were eight people crammed in the back.”

  That got my attention. “Who else?”

  “Oslo, Bo, Jean, Jean Too, Lao, DeShawn, and Ringo, plus a vampire we’re not supposed to mention.”

  “Reardon is in that van?” He wasn’t supposed to leave Strophalos. Ever. He was a made vampire with no affiliations to any clan. Technically, that made him a rogue, but he considered himself neutral. The only way to maintain that neutrality, however, was to remain on the university grounds under Society protection.

  “That sounds about right.” She studied me. “Boaz still did good, right? I don’t want to scratch his belly and tell him he’s a good boy if I should be popping him upside the head. It confuses his home training.”

  “He did good.” I massaged my nape. “Reardon and Linus aren’t exactly friends, but they’re close.” I quit that to rub my arms. “Mostly he gives me the creeps. Vampires can have weird reactions to me, and his was pretty high on the scale.”

  They could smell I was different, and they wanted a taste. Once they got a taste, they wanted a nice, long drink. Something told me my heart would give out before their thirst got quenched, so I wasn’t in any hurry to test the theory.

  Adelaide touched her throat in a sympathetic gesture. “Are you ready to head out?”

  “Sure.” I scanned the crowd for Lethe. “Come on. We’re leaving with or without you.”

  Lethe jogged over after hugging her mom. Tisdale was peeling off from our group to return to her hotel with Ares. Neely had run away, pleading fashion exhaustion, and he took Cruz with him.

  The girls piled back into Moby, and we left the rest of the guys standing around, wondering what to do now that the groom had ghosted on them. I had a pretty good idea of how their night would end, and it involved taking turns riding a certain mechadrabull now that Lethe was done hogging it.

  With that happy thought, I leaned my head against the window and passed out cold.

  Thirteen

  The bed was warmer than it ought to have been. Hot even. Linus caused cool spots in the sheets, which were a blessing in the South Georgia heat. It was half the reason why he made an excellent pillow. I flung my arm out and hit…boobs.

  “Who…?” I shot upright. “What?”

  “When,” Lethe mumbled. “Where, how…?”

  “Why are you in my bed?” I gulped at the moonlight slanting across the hardwood. “What day is it?”

  “I carried your unconscious butt up here, so show a little respect.” She twisted onto her side, facing me, and she was working on a smile. “It’s your wedding day—night—whatever.”

  Head swimming, I flopped back in bed. “Oh.”

  “Oh, no. You woke me up. There’s no going back now.”

  I pulled a slow groan all the way up from my toes.

  “No groaning.” She rolled out of bed. “No frowning. No pouting. No grumping.”

  “What’s left?”

  “Smiling, laughing, all that rainbow and sunshine stuff. Or, in your case, stars and moonlight stuff?”

  A thin crack snaking across the ceiling held my absolute attention as I traced it from end to end. “What if—?”

  “You’re not allowed to mention Volkov.” She palmed my shoulders and shook me silly. “Forget him. Focus on you. Hood and I will monitor the situation. Half the pack is on wedding detail, and sentinels will be in position as well. Your only responsibilities are looking fabulous, saying I do, and enjoying yourself.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Go shower. I’ll have breakfast ready when you come down.”

  “Hold on.” Pushing upright, I swung my legs over the side of the mattress. “Didn’t Neely say I needed next-day hair for styling?”

  “He did,” she allowed, “but that was before we got goat poop, cigarette smoke, and engine grease in it.”

  She bolted down the stairs before I could point out as MOH, this was all her fault. All of it. Well, except the vampire. One might argue that if Linus and I hadn’t been attempting to sneak off together, she wouldn’t have been an issue, but I was getting married today, and one better not argue with me if one expected any cake.

  The floorboards groaned beneath me in an urgent nudge while I stretched out the kinks in my back.

  “I’m going, I’m going.”

  The water came on in the shower, and steam billowed out into the bedroom. I stripped off my clothes, which were from last night, and I had to agree with Lethe. They smelled pretty horrible. I tossed them in the hamper, figuring I could donate the country-inspired threads, but pulled up short at a familiar squeaky noise.

  The windows had fogged, and an invisible finger was writing a painstaking message.

  I love you.

  Tears, the first of many guaranteed today, flooded my eyes, and I leaned against the nearest wall.

  “I love you too…” I had to wet my throat to get out the rest, “…Mom.”

  The old house shuddered in what promised to be a sob, and sure enough, the walls bowed inward, and the planks rippled. Shouts rang out downstairs, and I heard the sound of running water. She had cut on all the faucets, and what poured out were the closest thing Woolly had to tears.

  Getting her heightened emotions under control, she flicked her curtains to usher me into the shower.

  Thanks to Neely’s insistence I learn to love waxing, I didn’t have anything to shave. I used a co-wash on my hair in the hopes of getting it clean but not too clean. And even though I wasn’t supposed to anymore, I used Linus’s body wash.

  What can I say? During the times when he was gone, I used it as a coping mechanism. Along the way, it morphed into a spectacularly bad habit Neely expected me to break now that Linus was home for good.

  Once I was squeaky clean, I wrapped my hair and torso in towels then followed the tantalizing aroma of bacon downstairs.

  Marit whistled at me from her spot at the counter. “Wakey, wakey, eggs and nakey?”

  All my bits were covered, and my stomach was growling like a rabid gwyllgi. “What’s the point of putting on clothes I’ll only have to take off again?”

  “I can’t argue with that logic.” Lethe pranced around in her boyshort undies and a bralette. “The best thing about shifting is no clot
hes.”

  “Wargs can’t keep their clothes when they go furry. They take them off or bust out of them.” I watched her operate all four burners on the stove to keep the pans full of bacon popping. “How do gwyllgi keep theirs?”

  “Hello?” She twirled the spatula, flinging grease. “We’re the best of both worlds. We got most of the fae gwyllgi bennies without the drawbacks, like belonging to Faerie.” Spatula over her heart, she bowed her head. “There’s no bacon in Faerie. Who can live like that?”

  “Heathens.” Hadley walked in sucking on a square of chocolate from my secret stash.

  Make that a not-so-secret stash since everyone apparently knew where to find my hoard.

  Adelaide glanced between us. “Vegans?”

  “There’s a difference?” Hadley threw a truffle she just finished unwrapping at Adelaide, who caught it in her mouth. “Wow.” She eyed Adelaide with newfound respect. “I’m impressed.”

  As I claimed my usual seat, the front door opened, but I was too beat from the partying to rise again.

  “I’ll get it.” Lethe tipped her head back. “Who’s there?”

  “I could have done that much.” I nudged her with my foot. “Neely?”

  The list of people Woolly would let in without checking with me first was longer than it had ever been, but not so long I had many options left considering everyone loitering in the kitchen.

  “Who else would it be?” he called back, making his way to us. “You’re not eating, are you?”

  An empty spot in front of me waited for a plate. “No?”

  “You’re getting married tonight.” Horror contorted his features. “You can’t eat. You’ll have a food belly in all your pictures.”

  “Fine.” All that delicious bacon, wasted. On Lethe. Because bacon was never truly wasted around here. “Hand me my smoothie?”

  “Smoothie it is.” He located it in the fridge, where I knew it would be. Linus never forgot, and that was only one of the reasons why I loved him. “I would fuss at you about your hair, but I saw you last night. This wash was a necessary evil.” He waited a minute, staring the whole time. “Well?”