VA 2 - Blood Jewel (13 page)

Chansey cut her eyes at me as she
and Shelby went inside to change for our foursome and I gritted
through my teeth, “What are you doing, Sol?”

He carelessly shrugged and said,
“What? I don’t know what you mean.”

He was lying. He knew exactly what
I meant. “You’re flirting with Shelby. A lot. Why are you doing
that?”

He shrugged again and it pissed me
off because this wasn’t a game. Shelby was Chansey’s best friend.
“I don’t know why. I just want to for some reason and I like the
way it feels. I like Shelby.” He raised an eyebrow at me and said,
“She’s hot.”

I shouldn’t have to explain this to
a vampire older than me. “To Shelby, it looks like you’re trying to
get a date with her. Leave her alone because she has a
boyfriend.”

As if a boyfriend should matter.
She was human. That was reason enough for him to lay
off.

He laughed and said, “I think
that’s news to her because she told me she was single.”

He had no business discussing her
boyfriend status. “Does it really matter if she has a boyfriend or
not? She’s human and you’re...not.”

“Chansey is human and you’re not,”
he argued.

I couldn’t believe what I was
hearing. “What the hell is wrong with you? You know that Chansey
isn’t completely human. She’s my Agápe. I didn’t randomly choose to
fall in love with her. She was born specifically for me. You can’t
force it if that’s what you’re thinking. It’s not your decision to
make.”

Solomon ran his hands through his
hair. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s happening to me, Curry. I
became so restless last week when you and Chansey came to the
compound. With all of the talk about Agápes and marriage, I
thought...”

He wanted to tell me, but I could
see the doubt on his face. He was afraid. “It’s okay. You know that
you can tell me anything and I won’t judge you.”

“God, this so stupid,” he
grumbled. “I thought your sudden arrival with Chansey was some kind
of preparation for me. Like maybe I should be expecting someone
like Chansey to walk into my life.” He looked away and said, “I
even tried to put my hand in sunlight one morning and burnt the
hell out of myself.”

He shook his head and said, “I’m
stupid, I know. Please, don’t tell the others. Gia and Lairah
wouldn’t be able to stop laughing their asses off at
me.”

He looked so sad and miserable and
I wanted to do or say something to make him feel better. “If there
isn’t an Agápe out there for you, you can always find companionship
in another vampire.”

He stared at the ground. “I don’t
mean this the way it is going to sound because I know all vampires
are not evil, but that’s not where I want to find companionship. I
prefer to live without a mate if I have to find it in a vampire. I
know that sounds like a hateful thing to say about my own
species.”

Some might be offended by his
opinion, but I wasn’t. I completely understood. “I don’t think
there’s anyone that would understand that better than
me.”

He looked up at me and said, “I
don’t want the family to know how I feel.”

He looked so guilty for admitting
his true feelings. “I won’t tell any of them.”

He laughed at himself and said, “I
can amuse you further. I came here hoping that I was going to find
an Agápe at your wedding. I thought Chansey could be the connection
to bring us together. I thought Shelby was the one, but nothing
happened when I saw her so I touched her in hopes of feeling
something. Still, nothing happened. It’s not going to, is
it?”

I slowly shook my head. “No, not
with Shelby. You would have immediately felt something different
about her if she were your Agápe. I’m sorry.”

He kicked at a rock on the ground
and sent it flying across the lawn. “Yeah, me too, because she’s
really hot. Curry, I haven’t told you, but I am very happy for you
and Chansey. I’m glad you found each other because you deserve
happiness.”

I looked toward the door in
anticipation of the girls coming out at any minute. “You deserve
happiness, too. Who knows? Maybe there’s an Agápe out there waiting
for you to find her.”

“Nah, I don’t think so. The best
thing for me at this point is to get to Savannah and get to work.
It will take my mind off these foolish ideas I’ve had.”

I watched Chansey and Shelby come
out of the front door. “Well, you’re not going to Savannah right
now because you’ve got a date.”

“Umm,” he said as he began to
think of an excuse to get him out of the mess he created with
Shelby.

The girls were walking down one of
the staircases off of the front porch and I told Sol, “Don’t umm me
because you got yourself into this all on your own. You’re going
out with her and you’re going to show her a good time. You owe her
that much for trying to sentence her to eternity with you. That’s
that.”

I quickly turned my attention to
Chansey. “You look stunning, Love.”

I turned to Sol to cue him and he
took the hint after a few seconds. “Shelby, you look
beautiful.”

She smiled and said, “Thank you,
Solomon”

We discussed our options, but
decided to keep with what seemed to be a tradition around here and
go to the casinos since there wasn’t anything else to do. The
environment would be neutral ground for Sol. He could talk to
Shelby and have a good time with her, but it wasn’t private enough
for him to explore any of his earlier ideas about her.

Although he seemed to accept that
Shelby wasn’t intended for him, I still wasn’t positive about where
his head was and that was a painful place for him to be. I didn’t
want to see my best friend in such agony and I hoped he was right
about Savannah. Maybe it would give him the peace he
deserved.

≈ ≈ ≈

It was late, or rather early, when
we got back from the casino. Sol found a dark place in my basement
apartment to sleep the day away, but I never went to sleep because
I was too excited about the wedding. I spent the entire day
thinking about how Chansey was going to be my wife and how I was
finally going to be her husband tonight.

After I showered and shaved, I
unzipped the bag containing what Chansey had chosen for me to wear.
I was glad when I saw it was a casual, light khaki suit with a
white shirt and no tie. My girl knew me well.

When I took the suit from its bag,
I found a folded notecard with the initials CLR on it. I opened the
card and it read:

Meet me at the top of the open arms
staircases.

8 p.m. Sharp. Don’t be
late.

With all my Love, C

I smiled as I looked at the front
of Chansey’s monogrammed notecard because those initials would be
all wrong in a matter of a couple of hours. I should have gotten
her new personalized notecards. I’d put my sisters on that task for
me so they would be ready for her when we got back from our
honeymoon.

“What are you grinning about?” I
heard from across the room.

“Nothing,” I lied as I sat the
card on the bed.

Sol sat on the bed next to my suit.
“It’s okay for you to happy, Curry. You’re not being unkind by
being happy, but you are being unkind by lying to me to protect my
feelings. I’m not fragile and it’s pissing me off that you think I
am.”

“I know you’re not fragile. I just
didn’t want to rub my happiness in your face. I thought that might
piss you off more,” I explained.

He took a deep breath as he leaned
forward, propped his elbows on his knees and pushed his hands
through his hair. “Will you tell me about it? I mean what it’s
like.”

He didn’t have to explain what he
meant. We both knew what he was asking. “When we get to Savannah, I
will tell you about it if you still want to know.”

He looked up at me. “I don’t know
why I would want to know about it, but I do. Is that
weird?”

He told me to not lie to him. “Yes.
It’s a little disturbing that you would want to know about my sex
life, but I’m trying to convince myself that it’s only out of
curiosity.”

He got off of the bed and walked
toward the bathroom. “Well, I guess I’ve never really been normal
anyway. This disturbing weirdo is going to take a
shower.”

I sat on the sectional in my
apartment and nervously watched for the hands of the clock to tell
me it was time to meet Chansey at the top of the
staircases.

Sol broke my intense concentration
on the clock when he came out of the bathroom dressed in a khaki
suit and white shirt like mine. He held his arms out and announced,
“Dude, I’m shocked. Don’t take this the wrong way, but I love
Chansey. She didn’t put us in monkey suits like I
expected.”

“I know. I was glad when I saw
what she picked. I don’t think I’ve worn a tie in the last 22
years.”

There was a gentle knock on the
door and I had to calm my heart by telling it that it wasn’t
Chansey. I opened the door and found a smiling Anna on the other
side. “I wanted to check on you since I haven’t heard a peep out of
you all day long.”

“I had to tie him down to keep him
from running off, Mrs. E. He has a severe case of cold feet,” Sol
announced to Anna from across the room.

“Thank you for not allowing him to
escape, Solomon. Chansey would have been quite upset about that,”
Anna laughed.

I felt the need to rationalize my
lack of an appearance. “I didn’t want to risk running into Chansey.
Everyone knows it’s considered bad luck to see the bride before the
wedding and I’m afraid she would have freaked.”

Anna reached for my face and smiled
at me as she cupped her palm on my cheek. “Such a considerate young
man. Chansey is very lucky to have you to love her and protect her.
She was born especially for you and I know you will never allow
harm to come to her.”

I didn’t know how to respond to
Anna and I wondered if she saw the bewilderment on my face. Her
choice of words could be purely coincidental, but it didn’t feel
that way. It felt more like she knew exactly what Chansey was to me
and she was trying to let me know she did. Impossible.

“Now, I know that you don’t have a
mother or sister to do this for you, so I guess that I’m going to
have to do,” she said as she held up a small white calla lily
boutonniere in her hand for me.

Still shocked from Anna’s
statement, I was unable to speak but managed to step forward to
offer my lapel to her. I watched her aging hands as she pinned the
flower to my jacket and she said, “There. Looks
perfect.”

She turned to Sol and said,
“Next.”

He walked over to her and I watched
as she repeated the same steps to pin his smaller purple call lily
on his lapel. She patted his chest next to where she just pinned
his flower and said, “Now, you look perfect, too.”

She looked down at her watch and
said, “Fifteen minutes until show time, boys. I think it’s safe for
you come up.”

Did she mean safe like we wouldn’t
see Chansey before the wedding or safe like the sun wouldn’t light
Sol up like a 4th of July firecracker?

“We’ll be right up. I have one
more thing I’d like to do before the wedding,” I lied.

“Okay, but don’t tarry too long.
You don’t want to keep your bride waiting,” Anna warned before she
walked out the door.

I didn’t get the door shut
completely before Sol said, “Damn!”

I turned to look at him with wide
eye. “Do you...?”

“Yes,” he interrupted. “That old
lady knows.”

“No way. She couldn’t possibly
know,” I said and I wasn’t sure if I was trying to convince Sol or
myself.

“Would Chansey have told her
grandmother?” Sol suggested.

That wasn’t an option. “No, Chansey
wouldn’t have told Anna anything without discussing it with me
first. It was simply a coincidence. It has to be.”

We talked back and forth about
whether she knew or whether she didn’t and Sol said, “We can’t sit
here pondering if she knows or not. It’s show time and you have a
bride waiting for you upstairs,” Sol reminded me.

“And I couldn’t be more
ready.”

≈ ≈ ≈

With a couple of minutes before the
ceremony, Sol and I took our places at the top of staircases next
to the pastor. I looked around at all of the beautiful decorations
around us for the first time and I couldn’t imagine a wedding in
October with months of planning being any more
beautiful.

I looked at our guests seated in
the chairs on the lawn in front of the house and saw all of my
family members. It was undeniable...they were here only because the
woman I loved made it possible.

We chose to have a simple ceremony,
so the sound of a lone guitar signaled Chansey’s entrance and I
couldn’t wait to see her. I had no idea what her dress looked like
or if her hair would be up or flowing down her back.

I didn’t have much time to imagine
how Chansey would look because she gracefully rounded the corner on
Grady’s arm and began the walk toward me on one of the staircases.
I can only say that my imagination didn’t do my bride
justice.