Let Sleeping Demons Lie

by Amy Sumida

  The Japanese Gods also made a showing. Amaterasu had brought her granddaughter-in-law Sakuya (but not her son or grandson), Shinno, and Hachiman. They looked incredible in their silk kimonos and elaborate hair styles. Next to them were the Froekn, several angels, and a whole lot of demons. Smack dab in the middle of demonville sat the Vodou Gods; they'd worn proper clothing and everything. The Celts had even come; Elatha looking over his shoulder to give me an appreciative grin and a naughty wink. Last, but not least, was my Intare; every lion in the Pride was there looking fantastic.

  Oh! And Salem came too. Luke and Holly had ridden him in with their demons; negating the need for a boat ride. Salem couldn't fit through the doors to get into the ballroom, but someone had opened a window for him, and he was able to angle his head inside. I was grateful that Luke had brought him; it wouldn't have been the same without my dragon friend there.

  My eyes widened behind my veil as I stepped into the arched doorway of the ballroom. A center aisle had been made between the rows of gilded chairs; silver to the right and gold to the left. All the seats were filled, but it wasn't the guests that had surprised me; it was the ballroom.

  Lavender, white, and yellow flowers decorated the rectangular room; accented by gold and silver silk. Lavender and white for me and yellow and white for Re. Among the yellow and white blooms were the narcissus flowers we'd decided on. Swaths of flowers and fabric were hung along each side of the aisle, between columns on the dais at the end of the aisle, and over every window. There were only windows on the right side of the ballroom, but that was okay because the best view was on that side of the palace.

  A serene river flowed before a manicured lawn dotted with palm trees. Far in the distance, the jewel city of the dead caught the light and set the horizon to glittering. The sun was still up, but it would be setting before our vows were said; Re wanted the ceremony to go from day to night. When the sun went down, the water would be painted with rose and gold, and then when night fell, the Moon would cast its silver reflection there.

  But the Sun outside was no match for its avatar.

  A quick glance showed me my husbands, Lesya, and Toby sitting in the front row on my left, but I couldn't spare them more than that one look. My eyes were drawn to Re. He stood with Osiris on the dais; smiling at me brightly. Re couldn't seem to look away either; not even a flicker when his daughters passed him and murmured their blessings. He said something back to them but kept his eyes on me.

  Re was as stunningly handsome as ever; dressed in a black suit with a gold tie. His complexion looked paler against the dark material, but it also shimmered more. From the highlights in his chocolate hair to the gleam in his metallic eyes, Re was every inch the golden god. But it was the look on his face that held me enthralled. He was smiling with the joy of a man who had gone through extraordinary hardship to fulfill his dreams. Re's smile was full of gratitude; a deep, humbling, awe that he was standing there, waiting for his bride. I'd never seen such a look on his face before; not even when I'd accepted his proposal. He had been happy, sure, but not like this. It made me realize that Re hadn't been certain of me. He had known that I was having doubts, and seeing me walk down the aisle to him—with obvious delight—was an answered prayer. A god's prayer to his goddess.

  With a small epiphany, I knew that he was my miracle too.

  I stepped onto the dais and absently handed Bastet my bouquet; keeping my eyes on Re. He swallowed roughly and started blinking rapidly; his golden eyes filling with tears. I instantly wished we were alone. Re's joyful tears were precious, and I didn't want to share them. So, I lifted my veil and slipped it over his head; hiding us together beneath the lace.

  Re chuckled—as did our guests—and I lifted my mouth to kiss his laughter. Our kiss was brief but sweet; tasting of sunshine and moonlight.

  Osiris cleared his throat. “Um, I believe that part comes later.”

  The guests laughed harder, and I pulled away from Re reluctantly.

  “Screw them,” he whispered gleefully and pulled me back. “This is for us.”

  “Yes, it is.” I wiped the tears from his cheeks and rubbed them into my skin; they were mine now. “Are you ready to do this?”

  “I'm beyond ready; I'm eager,” he said.

  Re took my veil and lifted it up and back; laying it gently over my hair. Then he claimed my hand, kissed it gallantly, and turned us to face Osiris.

  Osiris was an original Atlantean; he'd married into the Egyptian Pantheon just as I was about to. But he'd done it so long ago—at the beginning of the pantheon's creation—that he'd been made a major Egyptian god by the humans. He'd taken on the appearance that they believed him to have; that of a green-skinned, sharply bearded, virile man. Osiris could appear to have more human-colored skin, but today, he was going for traditional and was rockin' the green. He had many titles, but one was particularly fitting for this occasion; the Lord of Love.

  “Friends,” Osiris began. “Family. Thank you for making the journey here to celebrate the amazing love between these two gods. I'm honored to be the one to join our founding father to a woman who has shaken the realms and stirred things up; sometimes even in a good way.”

  Some of the gods snickered at that.

  “Whatever your feelings may be for the Godhunter, they don't matter today,” Osiris went on. “Today is about the feelings that Re has for her, and we are all here to give him our respect and support in that.”

  I frowned a little; it wasn't exactly the type of speech I'd have liked to hear on my wedding day. Re noticed my response and narrowed his eyes at Osiris in warning.

  “And by the end of this ceremony, Vervain shall be one of us,” Osiris went on with a meaningful glance at Re. “She will be our Queen, and so I'm overjoyed that you've all come here to give your blessing to this momentous event, and your allegiance to this incredible woman.”

  The Egyptians who'd been snickering went silent.

  I widened my eyes at Osiris. Nope; this wasn't at all what I was expecting, but I'd take it.

  “Re and Vervain have prepared their own vows, and will exchange them now,” Osiris went on into the heavy silence.

  I don't think the Egyptians had realized exactly what this wedding would mean. Hell, I don't think that I realized it. When Re started to make his vows to me, I just stared at him in surprise. His eyes gleamed with laughter; he had known exactly what this marriage would mean for his pantheon. He just hadn't expected Osiris to be so bold about it.

  “Vervain,” Re said. “Lala, the first moment I saw you, I thought to myself... why?” He started in a sweet tone and ended with bafflement and a confused expression. “Why would Anubis be so obsessed with this woman?”

  The gathering burst into laughter, Anubis even chuckled, but I grimaced at Re.

  “But then you spoke,” Re went on, “and I experienced all that is Vervain Lavine; the appalling humor, the sharp wit, the enchanting innocence, and the awe-inspiring strength.” Re stroked my face affectionately. “There is a beauty within you that shines like the Moon; subtle but pervasive. You were meant to hold that magic; meant to be my counterpart. There is no other woman like you; not on any world or in any heaven. You are the only Moon in my eyes; the only woman in my heart. Without you, my life would have continued to be an endless dance in the sunlight; pleasantly warm but utterly empty of any worth. Beneath that emptiness there was an ache that I pushed there; the hollow hurt of never holding you. I've felt the loss of you before I knew you, and now, I can see the truth; that the Sun can never be happy without the Moon to temper him. I needed your cool reflection to ease my heat, and your wild heart to make mine beat again. I will never stop shining my love upon you so long as you never stop reflecting yours back to me.”

  My knees went a little weak, and I clasped Re's hands tighter. He smiled tenderly at me. Then the moment was broken by my daughter.

  “Uncle Re, my Daddy said to give you this.” Lesya stood beside us with a ring in her outstretched hand. “Hi, Mom
my; you look pretty.”

  “Thank you, sweetheart,” I said as I stroked the dark hair out of her face.

  “And thank you for the ring,” Re said as he took the diamond ring from her.

  It was my wedding band from my second marriage; the one that my four husbands had added a diamond to. The diamond had been made by Luke; fashioned from locks of my husbands' hair. Azrael had recently taken the ring back to Satan and asked him to add a little something extra to the diamond; a lock of sun god hair.

  “You're welcome,” Lesya said. She held up a platinum band to me. “This one is for you, Mommy.”

  The platinum band was special too. I'd enchanted it—along with my ring and all of my other husbands' rings—so that it would alert any of us if Re were in trouble and vice-versa. It would also help us track him; in most cases. In short; he'd be one of us.

  I took the ring and kissed my daughter on the forehead. “Thank you, baby. Now, go back to your Daddy.”

  “Okay,” Lesya said as she stepped down the dais. At the bottom step, she paused, pointed back at me, and declared proudly, “That's my mommy.”

  The entire room laughed as Kirill hurried over and scooped her up. He gave me a smiling shake of his head as he carried her back to their seat.

  “Zey know, Kotyonok,” Kirill whispered to Lesya. “Zey know.”

  Re slid his ring on my finger; still laughing about Lesya. His eyes glittered when he lifted his gaze to mine.

  “With this ring—”

  “One moment please,” Odin stood up and the room fell into a horrified silence; even I stared at Odin in shock. “We—Vervain's husbands—have a slight change to make to the ceremony.”

  Kirill handed Lesya to Aidan, and my four husbands stepped up to the top of the dais.

  “What are you doing?” I whispered to them, but they only smiled at me, and then looked at Re.

  “Do you remember the vows we made at our wedding, Sun God?” Trevor asked. “The ones we made to Vervain and to each other?”

  Re's face went blank and then he blinked. His slack mouth shifted into a soft smile, and his gaze turned grateful.

  “I remember,” Re said.

  “Do you think you can repeat them without prompting?” Azrael asked.

  Re gave it some thought while Az handed him a piece of paper. My sun god chuckled as he skimmed the vows and then nodded.

  “I've got it,” Re said. “And”—he looked at each of my husbands—“thank you.”

  “You don't just marry Vervain,” Kirill said. “You become our brother.”

  “I'm honored,” Re said sincerely.

  And then we formed a circle. Re gave me my wedding ring, and I held it in my palm as the men placed their hands on each other's shoulders and on mine; Re on my right and Trevor on my left.

  “I bind my life to yours,” they all declared to me and to each other. “My magic will magnify your magic, and my strength will reinforce your strength. I will be your shield and your sword. I will stand beside you against all enemies, and if you fall, I will avenge you. I vow my fidelity to you above all others, for all of eternity. We are more than blood, we are one.”

  I shivered as the vow settled over us and bound us together. With a trembling hand, I handed the diamond ring back to Re. The Sun God slid the ring on my finger as the other men stood behind him; each with a hand on Re's shoulders.

  “With this ring, we thee wed,” they all declared.

  My husbands stepped away from Re; their hands giving him welcoming pats as they did. They went back to their seats discreetly; their part concluded. I noticed half of the room—Re's half—staring at us in open-mouthed shock. I pushed down a chuckle as I held up the ring Lesya had given me, and Re smiled even brighter. It was my turn.

  “I had a speech prepared, but then we were interrupted and it all went out those massive windows over there.”

  I waved my hand toward the view of the setting sun on the water, caught Salem's eye, and winked at him. Salem spread his dragon maw in a delighted grin and winked back.

  “Re, we weren't meant to be,” I said gently.

  The room went silent again—even more horrified than when my husbands had interrupted—and Re's mouth fell open. The poor guy; he didn't deserve all of these curve balls. But then again; he had made that “why” comment.

  “We were meant to be friends,” I went on. “We were meant to see each other casually and support each other with our strength and our humor. But another kind of destiny stepped in and changed everything.”

  Re smiled as he caught on and shook his head at me for giving him such a fright.

  “We found each other in a broken future; a time that was never meant to be either,” I went on. “But the love we made there was so consuming”—I stopped as emotion choked me for a moment—“so life-altering and magnificent and profound, that we couldn't leave it there to die. We brought it back with us, and you; you refused to let me smother it. You shoved that wild, reckless, amazing love in my face every chance you got until I understood what you already knew; that although some things are not meant to be, it doesn't make them any less precious than the ones that are. Sometimes, they're even more so because we have to fight harder to win them. You are that precious, hard-won thing, Re. The man who wasn't meant to love me, but who has become as important to me as the Sun in the sky; as the air in my lungs and the food in my belly. You sustain me. Our love is a destiny that we forged for ourselves; defying all of the odds against it.”

  Re nodded and brought my hand to his lips to kiss again. His golden eyes were full of a fierce, blazing light.

  “I promise to keep fighting for our forged destiny and keep loving you no matter where it takes us.” I slipped the ring on his finger. “With this ring, I wed you; the Sun God, Re.”

  The ballroom erupted into cheering as Re yanked me against his chest and kissed me passionately.

  “I declare you husband and wife,” Osiris said over the cheering. “May no god or man rip asunder what I have bound together today.”

  A tingling energy sprinkled over Re and me; a blessing from Osiris... and a warning to any who might try to come between us. The entire Egyptian Pantheon was now bound through marriage and magic to the Godhunter.

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  I'd done it; I had married Re. As we danced our first dance as a married couple, I thought back on how we'd gotten there. When I'd met each of my husbands, there had been moments when I'd looked at them and considered what it would be like to be their lover. You know what I mean; those fleeting thoughts of “what if” that you have when you meet an attractive man. They aren't serious; just a harmless fantasy that I can't help having around a man I could see myself with.

  I suppose it's my mind's way of differentiating attraction. There's the attraction that is simply an admiration; that's a good looking man but not my type. Then there's the other one; I could be happy with someone like him. It's the second that I'm talking about, and it happens whether I'm happily involved with someone or not. In fact, it had happened twice when I was with Thor; once with Trevor, and once with Odin. Although, with Odin, it had to do with the rising memories of my past life. But I'm getting distracted.

  What I'm trying to say is that I had felt that sense of what could be with every man I'd married—except for Re. Re was in a class all his own. In the God World, where most men were divinely attractive, Re outshone them all. I had been so intimidated by him that I couldn't fantasize about him. I knew—on a subconscious level—that any fantasies about Re and me would only serve to weaken me. Once I had those images in my head, I wouldn't be able to let them go, and I'd end up as just another of the countless women who pined for him. Who would want that? Not me. So, I didn't think about him. Not ever.

  But Re had shown himself to be more than just a gorgeous face. He had been there for me from day one when neither of us had known each other at all. He had helped me simply because he knew it was the right thing to do and through that kindness, a friendship had f
ormed. Time and time again, Re had come through for me. He fought against the Goddess of Strife and her undead army for me, and he showed up in Asgard to help Odin rescue me from Alfheim. Re had been a true friend to me without any thought to what he might gain from our friendship. And then I went into a future that had gone terribly wrong.

  In that future, Odin had left me, and my lioness magic needed another man to take his place. That man had been Re. He had come through for me again; right when I needed him the most. He'd given me the last part of himself that he had to give. The part that he had held back from every other woman since the death of his wife; his heart. I still wasn't sure if he'd merely done it to save me—I didn't have all of the memories leading up to that future—but I wouldn't be surprised if that was exactly how it started. Because that's the kind of man I had just married.

  Re was as loyal as my Froekn Prince, as wise as my Norse King, as compassionate as my Death Angel, as amusingly arrogant as my Dragon King, as ferocious as my Black Lion, and as steady as my Water God. He was romantic and protective; a loving father and a husband who had been true to his wife for centuries after her death. And when Re had finally let go of Lusaset and given me his heart, he did so with complete conviction. I tried to let him go—to free him from the bonds we'd made in that terrible future—but he had refused. Re fought for me in every way he knew how, and when my husbands refused to allow him to join us, he had walked away vowing to never love another woman again.