Chapter Two

~Dimitri~

Jer and I idly played a game of Chinese checkers while we waited for Giuseppe to return. He was called away on duty, and for the past two hours, Zair had been talking strategy with us on how to contact Mariella's parents in the most peaceful way possible.

"What about reaching out to Charlotte?" She mused. "She's good-natured, level-headed, stoic-"

"Who's Charlotte?" Jer asked as he fluidly beated me. Again. Only the smallest turn of his chin towards me indicated his achievement. I scoffed.

"She's a close family friend. James and Saria took her in when she was newly-turned and showed her how to survive, and she's been with them ever since," Zair explained.

"Almost like a third wheel in the relationship, if you will," I muttered. Jer threw one of the Chinese checkers balls at my face; it leaves a dent for a fraction of a second.

"Ow."

Giuseppe threw open the double doors at that moment. "Neither Saria nor James will appreciate indirect communication. They will search for ulterior motives and I can guarantee that they will be less likely to cooperate. No, we must reach out to them directly. A letter, perhaps?"

"Letters are slow in comparison to the other forms of communication that are available nowadays," Zair countered. "They will wonder why we've taken so long to notify them."

"An e-mail, perhaps?" Jer offered.

"Much too informal. Those are for mere business affairs. I am afraid this is far more serious." Giuseppe sighed. "That leaves us with the telephone."

"Or I could go and visit." All of my family members heads whip towards me.

Silence. No heartbeats, no breaths, no rustling clothing.

And then a maelstrom of sound.

Giuseppe's thundering voice quieted the room. "However risky, that may be our best option."

"You would be willing to risk the heir to the throne, our son's, life, all solely to notify her parents?" Zair countered. "Do not misunderstand me. I care for Mariella deeply. But we may be putting Dimitri's life in the balance here."

"We have done that time and time again, every time we have sent him out on patrols and missions around our territory. This is no different." Giuseppe said.

"It's entirely different!" Zair shouted. "This is a personal matter. An attack on Dimitri will be a direct attack on us."

Giuseppe pulled Zair aside to the far end of the room, and even though he spoke in hushed tones, Jer and I perked our ears. "Surely, you must have seen by now how our son looks at that girl. I do not believe that he will come through this intact if she does not pull through."

Mother ever so slightly dropped her head. "I agree. I just do not know at what cost we will be forced to buy back Mariella's well-being." Giuseppe grabbed her hand, twining her long fingers in his large ones before turning towards me to nod.

Their lack of confidence in her recovery shook my bones.

~Violet~

Jer swings by the infirmary and takes my hand, coercing me to peel my other hand out of Mia's limp one. We walk to his room in silence until he closes the door behind us and walks me backward until my knees hit the bed.

For a long, long while, he makes my fear go away with his mouth. He kisses me left and right, up and down, splattering me with kisses and joy and laughter. I forget about Mia lying there in the infirmary, unconscious and alone. I forget about how Jer and I are postponing our wedding and my turning until she is better, and how that kills me because all I've wanted for so long is to be with him and I don't feel justified in doing that until my best friend is back in my life. He makes me forget it all.

All I can do is return the favor.

I trace circles and ovals and figure-eights on Jer's abdomen as he lightly scratches my head. "It is going to turn out all right. Do you understand?" He asks me, his voice gruff.

"Mmhmm," I murmur, kissing his chest. I slither down, planting little kiss-seeds on my way past his belly button.

"Violet." Jer's voice is firm.

"Hm?" I look up at him through my eyelashes.

"Stop." He loops his hand underneath my arm and gently pulls me up to his face. "I am trying to speak with you."

"And I'm trying to be with you," I say against his jaw. I feel his entire body shiver, once.

"I want to make sure that you are all right," he tells me as his eyes close.

"I will be just fine if you let me have my way," I tell him. Nothing else matters if I just concentrate on this moment. Right here, right now. Be present, I tell myself.

One, two, three breaths, and he rolls me over. "After we speak, I will be more than glad to concede anything and everything you want," Jer says, giving me a long, blistering kiss on my lips. "But I would like you to listen to me first. I would like you to speak to me first."

I look into his eyes for one, two endless seconds. And then I collapse. "It doesn't feel like everything is going to be all right." I sniffle. "Nothing is all right."

So he rubs circles into my back, kneading away my fears of going through this ordeal alone. He is the salve for my soul. My chicken-noodle soul soup.

"I will not rest until we figure this out, Violet. I know how important Mariella has become to every single being in this household. No one will rest until she is safely with us again." He kisses my head. "Do you understand?"

I nod. My faith in her recovery is slowly being restored. This vampire family is stubborn, and I fully believe that they won't stop until Mia is healthy.

I look up at Jer's face through watery eyes and I'm surprised by the heat I see in his eyes. "Now that we have established my commitment to her return," he murmurs, "Can I assist you in any other ways?" His lips pepper my neck and his fingers dance over my body, and I'm wholly satisfied in more ways than one.

~Mariella~

Two heartbeats. The time it takes for my heart to beat twice is all I have to catch my breath before my head is plunged underwater again.

I'm bogged down by the wedding dress. The lace tangles around my fingers and my feet, and no matter how much I kick, no matter how hard I scratch the arm that's pushing my head down, I can't get out.

"Is this how you pictured your honeymoon?" William's warped voice gloats. I suck in a breath of water.

He pulls me up and pounds his fist against my back four times until I spit out all of the water. "Nice try, Mariella." Tangling his fingers in my hair, he pushes my face back into the water.

I sputter.

~Dimitri~

"You have everything?" Zair asked as she ran her hands down my suit jacket, picking off invisible lint. She rubbed a smudge of make-up off of Jer's face.

"Mother, we're fine. Dimitri's completely safe when he's under my care." Jer grinned; I scowled.

"Approach them respectfully, Dimitri. Mariella's parents are proud and they will be hesitant to forget," Giuseppe cautioned.

With one last curt nod, I turned towards the car, and Jer and I were off to convince Mia's parents to help us, her original kidnappers, steal her back from William.

"How long do you think we'd be grounded if we don't bring them back?" Jer asked, a huge grin on his face.

"We have eternity, Jer. I don't think it'd be good," I replied gruffly.

He quickly caught on that I wasn't in the mood for his banter. We sat the following four hours in silence.

The wooded scenery transformed into buildings and sidewalks populated by pedestrians. The lights in the streetlamps flickered to life as the sun crept beneath the horizon.

"Stop fidgeting, Dimitri. You have the appearance of an overeager Chihuahua." I stopped bouncing my leg immediately. I had never before been this nervous. I had mediated foreign policy discussions, discussed battle tactics, fought through massacres, but meeting Mariella's parents, people who were predisposed to despise me, was more frightening.

Jer slowed the car to a crawl to read the house numbers in the cul de sac. "This is it," I muttered as the house from my memory pulled into view. Mariella's house was wide, but beyond that was not notably distinguishable from the others. A steep stone staircase opened up into a semicircular driveway, at the head of which was a large oak door.

"It may be better to park the car down here rather than in their driveway," I suggested. While I was nervous to meet my prospective future in-laws, it would be foolish of me to forget that the last time I was here, I had kidnapped their daughter.

Jer and I approached the house cautiously, silently taking note of the security cameras strategically place around the yard. With every step, I felt the weight of expected rejection tugging at my feet. I wanted nothing but to run back to the car and drive away as fast as possible…but my feelings for Mariella were stronger than my self-preservation.

We stopped at the oak doors. Jer mouthed "Should I do the honors?" I nodded, too paralyzed with fear to move. Throwing me an over-the-shoulder lopsided grin, he raised his fist to knock on the door.

And was grabbed by the neck and catapulted thirty feet away from the door. I felt a jaw-breaking slap crack across my cheek. A streak of ruddy brown hair swam in my vision. Charlotte.

I was pinned to the ground by a hand around my throat and a knee in my groin. "Where is she, you foul scum?" She growled. I stared at her in awe. This was a woman who had helped raise Mariella, who had protected her at the cost of her own life, who cared about Mariella like I did. Our shared interest was my only advantage right now.

"She needs help," I grunted, refraining from flipping over this vampire whose strength didn't compare to mine. Charlotte searched my eyes, willing me to reveal any lies I had.

A few tense seconds—the span of a lifetime for us both—passed. Charlotte hauled me up to my feet by the neck. Jer, who'd found his way over, was following my lead by abstaining from aggression. "It appears that we may have some things to discuss," She noted hotly. Jer and I submitted silently as Charlotte shoved us forward, through the oak door and into Mariella's house.

~Mariella~

I'm wrapped in a white, silk bathrobe. It's so short that it barely hits the tops of my thighs. It's meant to be sexy, but all I feel is exposed.

Hands clasp my waist just a little too tightly and hot, rancid breath plumes over my ear. "This is how a honeymoon should be, darling." Fingernails clawing their way up the sides of my ribcage, coming to a stop at the bowed belt tying my robe closed. I see blood blooming against the stark white of the robe in the wake of William's fingernail tracks.

A quick tug at one loop tears down the one barrier between his body and mine. He pulls me against him and fear spikes in my gut. "Let me show you how to feel," he murmurs, and his hands begin to roam in unwelcome places.

I think fast. I angle my elbow into his side and rotate my arm up to crack my knuckles against his jaw. I hear a crunch followed by a groan of pain; his hands fall away. I turn around and grab his head in both hands and pull his face down to meet my knee.

I shove his bloodied figure away—he stumbles to the ground. William swipes the trickle of blood at the corner of his mouth away with his hand and shoots me a toothy grin.

"Torture me all you want. But I will never willingly give you that," I spit. He stares at me, grinning.

"We are going to have an enjoyable honeymoon, you and I," he gloats.

I run.