To Love a Vampire - A.K. Koonce Page 0,56
from my mother to Jim as he fades the melody away, strumming the last few notes into the whipping wind. Tears run down Shae’s face already. It’s sweet but I can’t help but wonder how lovely she’ll find the ceremony when they start the rituals.
“Thank you all for joining us today,” my mother says, a melancholy smile filling her delicate features. Her hair is pulled up high on her head, a white formal flowing dress falls to her ankles, a color that I can’t remember her ever wearing before. Her voice is calm and endearing all at once and rattles my heart with thick, pent up emotions.
“We are all here this evening for the same cause. Because love found two people when they couldn’t even find themselves.” She pauses looking at us with more emotion in her eyes than I’ve ever seen.
“Love is the strongest emotion, stronger than man himself, stronger than envy, even stronger than hate. And that’s the reason it has the ability to bring conflict and anger halting. It has the ability to tread over race and diversity and distance.” She preaches to them—to us. Though she doesn’t need to. Anyone who has ever felt love, really felt it, knows it’s a conquering emotion. “The man and woman before us are an example of love. The two together symbolize an emotion so few of us are lucky to ever find and feel and experience.”
The witch’s voice cracks for just an instant and I’m firmly reminded she isn’t my mother. But I get the feeling she, too, felt love rip away from her just as my mother had.
Asher’s thumb brushes over my knuckles as he smiles down at me, he leans in, bringing his forehead to rest on mine, my eyes close gently. Our hands linger between us as we listen to the witch’s smooth voice drift through our minds.
“The Gods created man but they didn’t stop there. They blessed the fae and cursed the creatures of the night, oppressed the mortals and then the mystics. But what they didn’t expect was the beautiful creation the vampires and mortals created themselves.” I lift my lashes slowly to see Asher’s face, his strong features set in hard lines, his eyes closed tightly as he listens to my mother’s words. “They are unnatural, yes. But they are human, their hearts beat just as ours do. Asher’s beats for Fallon’s, just as her heart does for his. What the world doesn’t acknowledge though, is that not everything beautiful is intentionally made and not everything intentionally made is beautiful.”
Asher smirks at her words, his eyes lifting to meet mine. He traces my features, my mouth, with his eyes.
“We gather here as a group of people supporting the love that is this marriage, this union. Not between a mortal and a mystic but of two lives becoming one…” I lift my head glancing at my mother, who smiles knowingly back at me. “Kaino, if we could have the bondings please.”
I watch quietly, my eyes scanning their movements as my heart makes itself known again. For a different reason though. The ritual is starting. I swallow hard, trying to force away the fear that is clawing at my dry throat.
Kaino joins the three of us at the cliff’s edge, a thin twisting rope is held in one gloved hand. The witch takes mine and Asher’s hands, lacing our fingers together before lowering our joined hands at our side. We stand side by side holding hands. It’s a natural gesture but it now feels frightening and weighted. My nerves hum through my body as I wait to see what will happen next.
She takes the long rope in her bare hands. Her fingertips smoke lightly and a sizzling sound is heard. My eyes dart to her quickly but she doesn’t expose any emotion. She holds a calm and blank stare.
As she leans into us, between our joined hands, the rope held between the three of us, she whispers something. Her voice is low and barely audible.
“This is going to hurt. It had to be infused with magic as well as the dust of the Red Hills to mark him.”
Asher’s head turns hurriedly to me, his lips parted in shock but he says nothing. My spine stiffens at her words but I keep my composure as best I can.
My mother starts to chant a string of fast, rhythmic words that I don’t understand as she laces the rope around our forearms, wrapping around us, tying us together,