course, the words weren’t altogether pertinent since the subjects getting married weren’t human. Don wasn’t going to leave his mother, and Taffy wasn’t going to leave her home. Taffy’s home had slid into the ocean a couple of centuries before, and Don’s mother was now pregnant by another member of the pack. But the sentiment, that the two would cleave together, was timely.
Just as Dahlia’s eyes began to feel a little watery, Cedric appeared to give Taffy away. This was his right as sheriff, and Dahlia was proud that Cedric had stirred himself enough to be fitted for a traditional tuxedo. (He’d threatened to appear in an elaboration of his court costume from the time of Henry VIII.) The scene outside seemed to be boiling with activity, lots of the caterer’s minions milling around. They needed to be more unobtrusive, Dahlia thought, and frowned.
The music changed, and Dahlia recognized the signal. She snapped her fingers. The bridesmaids grew still, and Taffy stared around her, looking as though she was going to panic. Cedric was searching around in his pocket for a handkerchief, since he was prone to tears at weddings, he’d said. Though he was perhaps a foot shorter than Taffy, he looked quite dapper in his black-and-white. His gleaming skin and dark Van Dyke beard and mustache made him appear quite distinguished, and if it hadn’t been for a few niggling worries, Dahlia would have been very satisfied with the showing the vampires were providing. Cedric might not be a ball of energy, but he was handsome and had a polished turn of phrase that would come in handy at the wedding banquet.
“What’s happening out there?” Taffy asked. “Do I look all right?”
“Don has come to stand by his friend the minister,” Dahlia reported. She had to stand on her tiptoes, even though she was at a slight elevation, to see what was happening. Don’s friend, who’d been chosen over Harry the Druid, was a mail-order minister who happened to have a wonderfully solemn voice and an appropriate black robe. The marriage wouldn’t exactly be legal anyway, so appearance was more important than religious preference. “He’s looking toward the house, waiting for you!” Dahlia tried her best to sound excited, and the other bridesmaids twittered obligingly.
“Here’s Todd, coming for me,” she said, making sure she sounded quite emotionless. This was the way they’d agreed to do it, each bridesmaid going down the aisle paired with a Were, echoing the bridal couple.
“That sucks,” Glenda had said frankly, but Dahlia had given the other bridesmaids her big-eyed gaze, and they’d buckled.
Dahlia held her bouquet in the correct grip, and as Fortunata opened the door, Dahlia stepped out to meet the approaching Todd, who offered his arm at the right moment. The assembled guests gasped and murmured in a gratifying way at Dahlia’s beauty, but Dahlia wanted to record only one reaction. Todd’s eyes flared wide in the response Dahlia had long recognized as signaling sure attraction. Dahlia suppressed a grin and tried her best to look sweet and demure as she reached up to take Todd’s brawny arm.
He bent down to tell her something confidential, and she waited with the faintest of smiles as they walked slowly down the red carpet.
“The caterers,” he whispered. “There are too many of them.”
“I wondered,” she said, keeping her face arranged in a smile with some effort. “How’d they get in?”
“The caterer’s in on it. They all had ID cards.”
“This may be more fun that we’d counted on,” she said, looking up at him for the first time.
He caught his breath. “Woman, you stir my blood,” he said sincerely.
She put her own feelings into her eyes and felt his pulse quicken in response. She murmured, “Armed?”
“Don’t think we need to be,” he said. “Tomorrow night’s the full moon. We can change tonight, if we throw ourselves into it.”
“When do you think it’ll happen?”
“When the bride comes out,” he said.
“Of course.” The fanatics would want Taffy most of all. What a triumph for them if they could destroy the dead thing that wanted to marry a living man!
“If you change … there can’t be any survivors,” she observed, her soft voice audible only to his sharp ears.
He smiled down at her. “Not a problem.”
They’d reached the front of the assemblage now. Dahlia was close enough to notice that the waiting groom was trembling with nerves, though Todd’s arm under her hand felt rock-steady. They were due to split up here, Dahlia going to the bride’s side