the shelves at newspaper kiosks when she’d been buying her monthly copy of Fang.
“That’s a keen idea. Let’s go!” Glenda was eager. The worst enemy of a vampire was ennui. Any new diversion was worth its weight in gold.
Since they were both gifted with flight (not all vampires possessed this skill), the two were able to reach the most imposing mansions in the city quickly. Glenda and Dahlia hovered over them to detect an outside celebration that might prove to be a wedding. At the VanTreeve place, they struck nuptial pay dirt. Tiffany VanTreeve was marrying Brendan Blaine Buffington that very night. The two vamps landed unobtrusively behind a tent set up on the grounds.
Dahlia eyed the scene critically, taking mental notes. The vampire sheriff of her area in the city of Rhodes, Cedric Deeming, was worried about giving a proper wedding in such a hurry. Though lazy and lax in many respects, Cedric was a stickler for protocol. He’d urged all the vampires who nested with him to bring home details of modern wedding proceedings.
Dahlia obediently began making mental notes. Close to the house, there were two long tables loaded with food and a huge cake, though the food was discreetly covered with drapes for the moment. There was a cage full of doves, with an attendant in coveralls. Perhaps these were intended for a ritual sacrifice? There were two phalanxes of white chairs on the lawn, arranged facing a large white dais adorned with banks of pink flowers. A long red carpet ran between the two sections of chairs, right up the steps of the dais, where a minister in a sober black robe stood waiting.
Note to self: Find some kind of priest. Wasn’t Harry Oakheart some kind of Druid? Maybe he knew a ceremony.
A string quartet was playing Handel. (Note to self: Find musicians.) Not only were all the seats full, but there was a standing crowd at the back.
“What a swell spread,” Glenda whispered, eyeing the buffet tables. “I guess the wolves’ll need food. Looks like we’re expected to feed them. The sheriff won’t like that. You know what a tightwad he is. At least Cedric won’t have to provide food for half the guests.” She winked at Dahlia, as if it were very funny that vampires didn’t eat food. “And we’ll need liquor for the Weres, and we’ll need a big stock of blood. Maybe we could nip off the guests?”
Dahlia looked daggers at Glenda. “Don’t even say it as a joke,” she told the younger vampire. “You know what’ll happen if we even suggest that to a breather. Follow the rules. Only from a willing adult!”
“Spoilsport,” Glenda muttered.
“Cedric has already hired a caterer, a man who says he can do the whole thing, flowers and all. Cedric is so cheap, he took the lowest bid. No sit-down dinner, just … finger food.” Even Dahlia could not suppress her smile at the term, and Glenda laughed out loud. A few of the guests turned to see who was so being so boisterous, and Dahlia slammed Glenda in the ribs with a sharp elbow. Everyone else present was being properly solemn. “But we have to do it properly,” Dahlia said, in a whisper inaudible to the humans around her. “We can’t be found wanting. It would shame Taffy, and the nest.”
Glenda gave it as her opinion that the Weres should be grateful they were even being allowed in Cedric’s mansion. “I’m surprised Cedric will acknowledge the wedding,” she said.
The music gave a final flourish, and the guests rustled expectantly.
The two vampires watched the ceremony unfold: Glenda with a sentimental tear or two (tinged red) and Dahlia with fascinated horror. The groom, looking as though he’d been hit over the head with something large, took his place in front of the minister and stared down the strip of red carpet rolling between the two fields of white chairs. His groomsmen lined up on his side of the dais. At a signal that was invisible to Dahlia, who was stretching up on her tiptoes to see, the traditional music began.
“Here’s the most interesting part,” Glenda whispered.
One by one, the bridesmaids emerged from the white tent. Some were tall and some were small; some were buxom and some were slim as reeds. But the seven girls were all united in costume. Dahlia, the most elegant and particular of women, closed her eyes in appalled horror.
All the bridesmaids were wearing matching floor-length lime-green silk sheaths. If you could strip the