“Without consulting you first?”
“Yes…”
“Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?”
Emotion swept his features. “Who knew I could be so grateful knowing I’ll be having the same argument about compromise for thousands of years?”
Jonas picked up Ginny and cradled her against his chest. He didn’t take his attention off her once as he crossed the hall and settled into the throne where Clarence had sat. Then he looked out over the gathering of vampires he’d helped in their time of need, his face impassive as they each took a knee and pressed a fist to their chests.
Their voices rang in unison. “To the king.”
Jonas drew Ginny closer. “And his queen,” he said.
EPILOGUE
Three months later
Ginny looked down at the bouquet of roses clasped tightly in her hands. In a word, they were pink, to match her wedding gown. But they were so much more. Tiny dew drops clung to the buds. The green leaves were shot through with tiny, intricate veins of varying sizes. If she listened carefully, she could hear the moisture being carried through them to hydrate the roses.
Wonder curved her lips and she hugged the bouquet to her chest.
Her feet were planted on the roof of the funeral home, but she could have been levitating, for all the hope and optimism in her heart.
Today she married her love.
Her mate, her best friend, the king to her queen.
Ginny stood behind a veil of flowers, waiting to walk down the aisle, and even though she was aching from being separated from Jonas—even by mere yards—she needed to savor the moment. To acknowledge the journey toward reaching such…completion.
There was a quiet hum of conversation coming from the guests on the roof and she could pick out each individual voice. Elias and Tucker sat in the front row, beneath a waterfall of fairy lights and roses, Tucker no doubt exceedingly uncomfortable in his suit. The rest of the voices were newer to Ginny, but growing more and more familiar. They belonged to the Silenced Jonas had counseled over the years, now members of his royal court. Jonas ran his kingdom the way he did everything else. With heart, fairness and wisdom and the vampires who served him were loyal, not only to Jonas, but to Ginny.
When Jonas took the throne, he’d immediately begun making changes to the High Order’s policies and was in the process of sending ambassadors to all major cities to guide vampires through their transition from human to immortal. Feeding from humans was still illegal. And now Silencing humans at will and thus, leaving them without guidance was no longer allowed, either. But at Ginny’s urging, Jonas had compromised and decided to make rulings over Silencing matters on a case-by-case basis.
After all, weren’t they proof a vampire and human could fall in love and choose to spend eternity together?
Compromising with her fiancé was a beautiful thing…if sometimes a bit of a challenge.
For instance, Jonas had been adamant that Ginny remain with him at the High Order’s underground palace, which they were in the process of giving a much needed makeover. But she’d reminded him of the importance of her father’s legacy. Not only that, while her preferred location was by her future husband’s side, she wasn’t the kind to sit back and let everyone else do the work.
P. Lynn Funeral Home was a funeral home no longer.
They’d sealed off the windows, turned the morgue into a series of bedrooms and it was now a halfway house for freshly Silenced vampires.
At first, Ginny worried that she would miss being a mortician terribly. Being entrusted with the important job of sending the deceased off with care and respect. But, in a weird way, she was still doing relatively the same thing, wasn’t she? Vampires came to her and Jonas, confused and alone. Through counseling and giving of resources, they were able to send the undead off to a new life, armed with the support they needed. Her new undertaking even fulfilled her with a sense of family that had been missing in her prior line of work. Now she had friends and a purpose.
For Ginny’s part, she’d required little guidance transitioning to the vampire lifestyle. She and Jonas had spent a lot of time speculating why, usually in between bouts of passionate lovemaking that often resulted in broken furniture.
Jonas had a theory that went like this. Fate had selected them as mates, vampire or otherwise. And thus, Ginny’s body had been prepared, even in its humanity, to step into the role, no matter what it took. That was why she’d experienced his pain. Why her spirit had traveled through time and found him again. Fate had deemed it so—and the consummation of that destiny would change the course of the vampire world forever.
Ginny looked out over the lights of Coney Island, her attention lingering on the Shore Theater where Tucker and Elias still stayed on occasion, when they weren’t at the palace. They’d been given the job of searching for Larissa—and they had. Far and wide with no luck. In the beginning, Ginny had felt betrayed by her stepmother. Like she’d spent years having her privacy invaded. But now…
The more she replayed the night Jonas seized the throne, the more she remembered. When Clarence asked Larissa if the prophecy had shifted, she said yes. When it clearly had not. If Larissa hadn’t lied on their behalf, the night could have ended quite differently. In an odd way, Ginny now felt indebted to the seer. And if her father was still alive—and Lord, she wished he was there to witness her wedding tonight—he would want Ginny to forgive Larissa and so she had. Forgiveness was pretty easy with love occupying every inch of her heart and soul.
A lone violin started to play and Ginny’s fingers tightened around the rose stems, her body going through the motions of taking a deep breath, though it was hardly required. Jonas was waiting for her and she could already pick out his pulse among dozens, true and heavy, anticipatory. Her fangs almost dropped in response, but she pressed her tongue hard to incisors, placating herself with the promise of later.
Later Jonas would crowd her into to a quiet corner and take rough hold of her backside, lifting her so she could reach his neck—and when she broke his skin and took, his moans would shake the rafters.
“Easy there, tiger,” came a voice lightly accented with Russian. “You’ll give new meaning to the term ‘blushing bride.’”
“Roksana?” Ginny breathed, whirling around. And there was her friend, who’d been missing in action for over three months, standing in the moonlight. In a persimmon gown. “You’re wearing the dress I made you.”
“I am.” She picked up the skirt and lifted it, revealing a series of stakes strapped to her thighs. “Very convenient for hiding weapons.”
“Are you going to complain if I hug you?”
Roksana sniffed. “I’ll endure it on your wedding day. Even though you’re a bloodsucker now.”
Ginny threw her arms around Roksana’s neck, surprised when the slayer returned the embrace. “I guess this means you’ll have to slaughter me now,” Ginny whispered.
“Yes. Tomorrow.”
Emotion weighed Ginny’s chest down as she stepped back. “Walk me down the aisle?”
Roksana scoffed, but her eyes turned suspiciously damp. “You want a slayer to walk you down the aisle at a vampire wedding?”
“Yes. Please?”