18. Getting Ready for the Unknown

Afew hours later I heard a car outside, and I couldn"t help but be surprised. Jared was back, just like he said he would be, just as my dad assured me that he would be. Of course, Dad hadn"t given any indication of the conversation they"d had in the garage, other than to say it was nothing but small talk.

My parents have tried their best to keep my mind off wondering where he"d gone, regaling me with even more tales and antics from their cruise. But I think they could tell I was only half listening to this. Something that became evident when my dad kissed me on the top of the head and told me to stop being a worrywart, just as my mother had called me.

Knowing he was back, I was up and opening the door as he was making his way out the car. Without a second thought, I ran toward him, throwing my arms around his neck whether he was ready for me or not.

"Whoa, nice to know someone missed me," he said, chuckling and making me grip on tighter. I also tried to bury my head in his neck after getting up on my tip toes just so I could breathe him in and lose myself in his scent.

"I would always miss you. In fact, I don"t think I could ever be without you," I told him honestly, hoping… no, more like praying, that this was enough to get the message across. To tell him that whatever he was planning; for him not to do it. To rethink it, to confess it. Just anything other than walking away and doing what he thought was right.

However, I wasn"t sure what to make of his reaction because it didn"t exactly look as if he was contemplating or reevaluating any plans he intended to make. No, instead he grinned, tugged me close after his arms wrapped around me, and tucked his fingers into the waist band of my jeans. Only then did he rumble,

"Good to know, baby."Then he jerked his nose at my cheek, silently telling me to tip my head back so he could kiss me. Something that left me hoping that it wouldn"t be our last for a while.

"Where have you been?" I couldn"t help myself from asking. But again, he surprised me with his reaction. Because instead of giving me some bullshit excuse, he took my hand in his and led me to the back of the car. Then with that grin of his still in place, he told me,

"Well, I wanted it to be a surprise, but I suppose unless I want to share you naked with the world, then you will find out soon enough."

"What are you talking about?" I asked, just happy to see that mischievous smile back as he pressed the fancy key fob, making the trunk open. A large black box with fancy silver writing on the front was sitting there with a smaller shoe box next to it.

"A gift… for me?"

"Gods, Ella, is it really so shocking that I would want to buy you a gift?" he asked, laughing and making me grin down at it in a totally sappy happy way.

"You bought me a gift?" I repeated, hoping and praying that this had been what he was planning all along. And if this was true, how utterly foolish I felt for spending the last few days worrying.

I reached out and ran my hand along the box but before I could ask, his lips came to my ear and he whispered in an amused tone,

"It"s a dress, babe."

"A dress… you bought me a dress?"

He laughed again at this, pulling my back to his front, where he stood behind me.

"Yes, sweetheart, I bought you a dress. It"s a New Year"s Eve party, even I know that I can"t get away with jeans and biker boots." He then nodded to the front of the car where I could see a garment bag lying over the passenger seat.

Jared would be wearing a suit.

Suddenly all worry and fears fled me, and all just from the idea of getting to see Jared in a suit for the first time. It was a completely irrational reason to make all my worry disappear.

I knew that if my fears did come true and this hadn't been the only thing he was planning, then our time together was limited. But as for tonight, well at the very least I wasn"t going to let anything get in the way of us having a good time. By the Gods we needed it, especially after what we had been through.

"Well let"s hope this party goes better than the last one did and no wars break out."

He turned me to face him, tipped my chin up and told me,

"Oh, I think this will be one night we"ll never forget and hopefully, for all the right reasons."

"What do you mean?" I asked, then he whispered,

"I finally get to see in the new year with you."

The kiss that followed was just as sweet as his words.

We saidour goodbyes to my parents, telling them that we would see them later at the party before getting in the car and making our way to Afterlife. Like I said, my aunt had already told me the plan, so it wasn"t then surprising that not long after we made it inside, I found myself being led away from Jared by a flurry of female excitement.

My aunt had embraced me first, and as always, she was a figure of beauty in her causal tight gray jeans and oversized, black-knit sweater. One that had a cowl neck and was tucked at the front into her waistband in a fashionable way. Of course, I was still trying to get used to seeing her looking so young, because clearly there was no longer a reason to hide her true self from me.

Just like my uncle, who had been handsome as an older guy but now, well it wasn't surprising he had caught the eye of my aunt. Hell, according to her, he had caught the eye of the whole damn town, and every town they were ever in for that matter. A statement I knew now hadn't been over-exaggerated. But as for my uncle, he was nowhere to be found, which meant he was no doubt ready for Jared to join him at the Table of the Kings meeting.

Then, after one of her famous Aunty mega hugs, she walked over to Jared and relieved him of the dress box. However, when Pip emerged, seemingly from nowhere, and grabbed the shoes, Sophia emerged just as quickly and promptly took it off her.

"You are wearing too many candy rings and made your hands sticky," Sophia warned, making Pip pout, and well, it did have to be said that she was wearing too much candy to make it safe when being around designer shoes. Something I discovered after Pip complained,

"Aww no fair, I love new shoes but then I also love old shoes, but not the smelly ones, or those sneakers Toots has that are nearly falling apart and over thirty years old." At this my aunt rolled her eyes and complained,

"Oh great, this again… jeez, I mean it's not like I wear them anymore."

"Yes, because people usually keep scruffy old shoes for the sentimental value," Sophia mocked, making my aunt fake her outrage.

"Hey now, it's not like I have them in a glass box and keep them as a shrine to my former life and, besides, whose side are you on anyway? Are you really going to defend the person whose idea of spring cleaning is parting with her chewed gum collection?" I instantly looked to Jared and made an ick face, making him grin back at me.

"Hey, that was a rough day for me, one of those suckers looked like the spitting image of Darth Vader… get it? Spitting image!" she said, laughing at her own joke and making some of the candy gumballs stuck to her dress fall off. Gumballs, I should mention, that were strategically placed in lines around the maze of her Pacman skater dress. Black, ripped fishnet tights over a hot pink legging and spiked white PVC ankle boots completed today's mad look.

As for Sophia, as usual she was the picture of perfection, in her long-sleeve, black and white houndstooth print, pencil dress. One that had a gold zip that went from the hem of her skirt all the way up the center to the sweetheart neckline. Her long, black curly hair, was pinned artfully to one side without a single strand of it out of place. This was a complete contrast to Pip, whose hair was tied up in eight bunches over her head in what look to be a random pattern.

But as fun as it always was seeing my aunt and co, the one person I was most excited to see, was my cousin Amelia. Hence why I ran into her arms the second she appeared at the bottom of the club's staircase, after squealing her name. And just like me, she did the same, crying out my name and meeting me halfway.

Because we had always been so close in age, it had been more like growing up with a sister, and I most certainly loved her like one. Since we had made it back from our separate trips though time we hadn't yet seen each other. It seemed like we had both needed time to process everything that happened. Unsurprisingly, her husband stepped up behind her before nodding to me in acknowledgement.

"Ella, a pleasure to see you looking so well, especially after such turbulent events," he said in that smooth as silk tone of his.

"Ohh, you mean when we all took a supernatural trip down memory lane and scared the living shit out of our men…? Those turbulent events?" Amelia said, making me laugh because she never held back, and that was one of the things that I loved most about her. Lucius grumbled before commenting dryly,

"It"s been less than a week, Pet. Needless to say, I do not need reminding about you sneaking out of our bed in the middle of the night to put yourself in danger."

"Try being in a fucking jail cell while that shit is happening," Jared added, now coming to stand next to me, while the most mischievous members of the family had taken my boxes and left already.

"Touché, HellBeast, I think you win. Although from what I hear, you had plenty of things to kill the time with."

Jared growled a little before commenting darkly,

"It was never enough."

"No doubt," Lucius agreed before holding his arm out and saying, "I believe we are needed, Cerberus."

Jared nodded the once, then pulled me into his arms and kissed me goodbye, telling me that he would see me later before the celebrations started. I wasn"t the only one receiving this treatment because Lucius was doing the same, only his came with a warning…

"Keep out of trouble, little wife." Amelia winked at him and while giving him a girl scout salute, said,

"I make no promises, I break no promises."

"I thought we agreed you were not going to make that your new motto," he grumbled in reply.

"Did we though?"she replied in a patronizing tone, making me giggle. Jared tugged me closer, as was his habit, and warned,

"Don"t get any ideas." I then took a page out of Amelia's book and repeated,

"I make no promises, I break no promises."

Jared rolled his eyes and walked away shaking his head, making us both giggle when we heard Lucius say,

"We have no fucking hope, my friend."

Naturally, we both continued to giggle.

After this, Amelia led me away to what was clearly going to be a girly pre-party held in her aunt Sophia's private wing. Growing up and not knowing that half of my family were all supernatural, there were a lot of places in Afterlife that I had never seen… or even knew existed for that matter. Of course, since then, I'd had my eyes opened, especially when discovering they actually had freakin' dungeons in the basement. Or the fact that they had a temple filled with dead bodies and a giant tree of life. So yeah, there was that. But this also meant that finding out my cousin's aunt had an actual, real life sex club next to her bedroom shouldn't really have been shocking. And I am talking, BDSM furniture, hanging robes, sex swings… the whole caboodle and shebang!

Thankfully for me, the sex club was empty, but that didn"t mean that Amelia didn't chuckle when she saw my reaction when being led through the private club. Of course, the two men dressed in tuxedos drawing back the curtains and acting as waiters was a nice touch, but I was just glad they weren't butlers in the buff. Which also meant their offered drinks as we were led into Sophia's boudoir thankfully didn't come with a slice of ass.

Of course, my aunt Keira, Pip, and Sophia were already there and definitely in party mode already. I had to smile as Amelia rolled her eyes when seeing her mum and co all dancing with hair brushes in their hands pretending they were microphones, singing away to Dolly Parton's 9 to 5. I knew from experience that this was my aunt"s favorite song and, clearly, Amelia had seen this scene quite a few times in her lifetime before.

Which meant as soon as a waiter approached with a tray full of champagne and offering her a glass, she took one and said,

"Hell yeah, and keep them coming." I had to laugh at that, then she looked at me and said, "Trust me, we will both need it for this next part." And she was right, because for the next few hours, I felt like I was at a beauty salon ran by three crazy ladies who clearly were used to this ‘play party dress up' tradition.

Honestly, I didn"t know whether this was a bedroom or a place of business! I felt like a fish out of water, despite ever since entering into Jared's world I had worn more dresses in that short time than I had in my whole life put together. But then, due to my job, it wasn"t often that I had the chance to dress up and well, there wasn't much need for a cocktail dress at the local bar.

However, I also couldn"t deny the thrill of excitement knowing that the dress I was going to wear tonight had been bought for me by Jared. So by the time my hair and make-up was done, I was eager for the last task on the list. It was time for me to put my dress on. Which also meant that I wasn't the only one who was grinning with excitement. Especially when I opened the lid and finally saw it, and I wasn"t the only one who gasped either.

The dress was exquisite, and the material so beautiful I was almost afraid to touch it. In the end, Amelia nudged me and teased,

"I think this is the part where you"re supposed to take it out of the box." So, after giving her a smirk, I did just that, soon holding it up against me, and after Pip's wolf whistle, she said,

"Who knew the HellBeast had it in him?"

"But of course he does. After all, he has great taste," my aunt replied on my behalf, before winking at me. And just ten minutes later I was staring at a different girl in the mirror and wondering if…

This Ranger was reallyready for the ball?