Fanged Love by

Seriously, I can’t even imagine how he’ll be in bed if just nibbling on my neck brings me to the point of insane ecstasy. I’m pretty sure my head will explode tonight.

It’s finally our wedding day. I’m dressed, my makeup is done, and Mom is putting the finishing touches on my hair. Mabel and Eliza have been cooking up a storm for over a week. It was Boz’s idea to have them cater “the nuptial feast for the human guests.” Neli provided a list of traditional Transylvanian wedding dishes to inspire their creations.

Speaking of Neli, I’m not going to lie, seeing her transformation has given me a new perspective on becoming a vampire. Someday. Maybe? I know it wasn’t what she wanted, and it did break my heart that I was partially to blame (had I just stayed in France, she wouldn’t have died), but Neli assured me that she felt surprisingly happy. “I love being able to levitate. It’s so much fun!” she’d said.

I then asked her if Boz could bond with me, since she was now free of him. I wondered if that might be a way for me to have my cake and eat it too. I could stay human, walk in the daylight, have children, and eat normal food. I would stop aging and be with Boz forever. It turns out it’s a possibility.

The only downside of me accepting the bond is that, at some point, we will have to tell my family the truth. They’ll notice that Boz, Neli, and I aren’t aging. Whether they accept us or not, I’ll still have to face the heartbreak of watching them grow old and die. After giving it a lot of thought, I know my parents would never want to become vampires. They’d see it as unnatural, cheating the cycle of life—something they’ve always felt passionate about. Watching things grow, serve their purpose and die, like the grapevines, is a sort of natural poetry to them. As for the twins, I don’t think they’d want to trade their love of culinary arts for anything, and from what I understand, in speaking to Boz and Neli, vampires think human food smells like a giant outhouse. So, yeah. I think I can safely say that vampire land is out for my family.

Someday, I will have to face the inevitable. But not today. Today, I am marrying the love of my life. A man who has waited over eight hundred years for me.

Dad steps into my room. “Sweetie? Everything okay?”

I beam at him, noting how handsome he looks in his red and black tux. “Yeah. I’m ready.”

I stand from the vanity stool and take one last look in the mirror. My makeup is understated and natural looking with the exception of my bright red lipstick, which matches my red lace dress. It’s not the white I imagined for my wedding day, but according to some ancient Transylvanian tradition, everything must be red. And poofy.

“The red symbolizes life. Passion. Blood of our ancestors,” Neli said, insisting we all had to wear red. The poofy stuff, like my huge dress with a hoop skirt, is just some royalty thing from long ago.

“You look gorgeous, honey.” My mom whisks a tear from beneath her eye. “And I’m really warming up to the Romanian theme.” She glances down at her red pantsuit. Her dark hair is up in a bun.

“You look fantastic, but…I think you should wear your hair down. It will go better with your outfit.”

I understand there are over three hundred vampires attending the ceremony and dinner. No reason to expose tempting necks. On our side of the family, it’s only sixty guests—cousins, aunts, friends of the family, and my friends from school and college. Neli assured me the vampires won’t dishonor Boz by touching his guests, but better safe than sorry.

Hide that neck. I pull the pin from my mom’s hair and straighten out the locks. “There. That looks way better.”

She gives me an odd look. “I see your nerves are finally kicking in.” She laughs. “Ready?”

“Ready.” We follow my dad downstairs.

The twins join us in matching poofy red dresses with black shawls. They do a couple of spins to make the dresses swirl. “Take it for a spin,” Eliza says to me.

I do a twirl for them, and they clap. I smile. “You both look beautiful.”

“You too,” they say in unison.

The moment I step outside and feel the cool night air on my cheeks, my heart starts beating uncontrollably. I’m beyond nervous.

“Wow. Would you look at that,” Mom exclaims.

I follow her gaze to the enormous horse-drawn carriage a few yards away. “Wow is right.” It’s like something out of a dream, straight from some old Victorian movie, made for a princess, complete with candles inside lanterns to light the way. Every inch of the outside of the carriage is covered in red roses like a float in a parade.