3. Red

3

RED

I was excited about wedding planning for about five seconds, and then the fighting began.

" Red is an important color to vampires. Every royal wedding is red—it's tradition," Queen Rune says, raising her voice as she leans closer to her victim.

Mom doesn't back down. If anything, Queen Rune raising her voice only makes her more determined to win the argument. "But my daughter's favorite color is pink. Who cares what your stupid traditions are? This is her wedding, not yours."

Queen Rune sucks in a sharp breath and puts a hand against her chest. "Well, I have never been talked to so rudely before!"

Mom snorts. "Maybe not to your face. I guarantee with that attitude many people have talked behind your back."

"Take that back." Queen Rune takes another step closer.

I glance at Eden. Her eyes have bugged out and she has sunken back into her chair as far as she can get.

I don't think she is going to help right now.

I'm not sure what to do in this situation. Do I step in and try to get them to stop fighting? And whose side am I supposed to take? I wish Damek were here.

I glance at my phone again, noting that he's five minutes late. He hasn't texted to let me know he was running behind. I hope he's okay.

"I will not take it back." Mom puts her hands on her hips as she stares down my future mother-in-law. "I will not allow somebody like you to push around my daughter."

"I'm not pushing her around, I'm just trying to help her. This is a day she will remember for the rest of her life and it must be perfect," Queen Rune says, defending herself.

I do not doubt that her only worry is for herself and her family—she doesn't care about me. Still, I keep my mouth shut. I can do whatever makes her happy for this wedding, just as long as I don't have to get involved in this argument. I can't stand the bickering and fighting—it's starting to feel like a family dinner back home.

"Madeline, what do you think?" Mom turns to face me.

I think I'd rather be anywhere but here. I open my mouth, then close it. "I, uh… I think maybe we should wait for Damek." I look at the time on my phone again. "He should be here any minute. I'd rather get his input."

I look toward Eden, hoping to get some kind of advice from her.

She leans closer and whispers, "A royal vampire wedding is traditionally red. Since you are half succubus, nobody will think it strange if you decide to do something different."

Eden is too sweet for her own good, as she takes both of their sides.

No, rather I think she's taking my side of things. Whatever I want, I know she'll support me. I would've thought my mom would be the same way, but the way she glares at Queen Rune, I wonder if she will argue against anything she picks.

Uh, why didn't anybody warn me how difficult this would be?

I glance at my phone again and see I have a text from Damek.

Sorry, I'm running late. I'll be there soon.

Of course he's running late. Because he's smart. Why didn't I think of that?

Next time, I vow to be late, even if Queen Rune complains about my tardiness—anything to avoid…

"How dare you suggest that I lack class," Mom says, pointing a finger at Queen Rune. "Have you looked in the mirror lately? Nobody has worn shoulder pads since the eighties."

Queen Rune gasps. "I'm not wearing shoulder pads."

"Oh." Mom blinks slowly. "I didn't realize your shoulders were so wide."

"You take that back." Queen Rune points a finger at my mom.

I hide my face in my hands and wish that invisibility was one of my powers. Now that would come in handy.

Eden pats my back, trying to comfort me, but there is no comfort for this. How am I supposed to survive five more months of this until the wedding? Will they fight the entire time? Maybe Damek and I really should just elope. We don't even have to go anywhere, the county courthouse would do. However, I'm not sure that vampires recognize human marriage licenses as legal proof. Human ceremonies are very different from our own.

"Madeline." Mom whirls around to face me. "You need to speak up for yourself. This is your wedding. What do you want?"

I clear my throat, hoping to stall for time—just how late is Damek going to be? "Pink may be my favorite color, but I don't think I want my wedding to be pink. It's not just my wedding, but Damek's too. Maybe we should go with something more traditional."

Queen Rune grins smugly at my mother. "Like red ."

Mom stares at me like she can forcibly change my mind with a single look.

"Mom," I say, giving her my best stern look. "Can you try to get along with Queen Rune? She's going to be family, after all."

That takes the smug smile right off Queen Rune's face—the reminder that, yes, this wedding is for her son who is soon going to be married to a succubus.

Five months. I can handle five months.

Right?

My stomach churns with anxiety as I contemplate running away. Australia is nice this time of year—they're going into fall. But I fear even the other side of the hemisphere isn't far enough away.

"Sorry I'm late." I sigh in relief as I turn to watch Damek walk through the doorway. He slips into the chair beside me. "Did I miss anything important?"

"No," Queen Rune and Mom say in synchronization.

Damek glances at me, raising an eyebrow. I sink further down in my seat, wishing for the day to be over .

"Now that we've settled on a color—" Queen Rune begins.

Mom cuts her off. "We didn't settle on a color. My daughter simply said she didn't want pink, but she never said she wanted red."

Damek leans closer to me and whispers as our moms argue. "After we're done here, do you want to go out?"

"Out?" I ask, trying to tune out our moms' arguing, though I do hear my mom say something about ‘masculine shoulders.'

Damek also pretends like he can't hear their arguing. "On a date."

My stomach flutters. "You want to go on a date with me?"

He rubs a hand on the back of his head. "Uh, yeah. I mean, if you're up to it. I know you're busy since your mom is here, but I figured we should take the time to get to know one another. I know we're already engaged, but…" his voice trails off.

He's nervous, I realize.

It's extremely attractive to see how anxious he is about asking me on a date.

I look up at him through my lashes. "I'd like to go out with you. Maybe we can ditch the wedding planning early."

Damek chuckles. "Have they been at it long?"

I glance back to where our moms are. They're both standing again. Queen Rune is looking down her nose at my mom while my mom has both hands on her hips. She's giving just as much as she's taking. I do not want to get involved, so I turn back to Damek and nod.

"Yes, they started arguing about what color scheme our wedding should be right away," I explain.

"Did you ask your opinion?" Damek raises an eyebrow.

I shrug. "Sort of. Mostly I think they just asked because they wanted me to pick a side—I told them we should wait for you."

He grins. "I don't care what color our wedding is. I just plan on showing up in a tux."

I tuck a strand of hair behind my ear. "And I'd prefer to just show up in a dress. Can we elope?"

"Unfortunately, no. Vampire law dictates that multiple clans must be present for a royal wedding to make it legal," Damek explains.

"I didn't get that far in my vampire education." And I likely won't now, not since Kaine, my advisor, is busy looking for my older brother, Lucien.

"Have there been any leads in finding Lucien?" Damek asks.

I shake my head. "No, but Kaine has a large group scouting different locations. If Lucien is to be found, Kaine is going to find him."

Which will make Julien happy because if Lucien doesn't come home soon, Julien is going to have to take over as heir. Even though the wedding is five months away, our clan leaders want Julien to take over duties as heir. Julien is trying to put it off as long as he possibly can. He doesn't want to be heir and I can't blame him—I didn't want the job either.

"They will find him." Damek takes my hand in his and he laces our fingers together. My body relaxes at the touch.

Since when do I find Damek's touch so soothing?

When the room quietens, I look up and find Queen Rune studying Damek and me, her eyes squinting. Mom's face is red as she glares at Queen Rune.

Are they done fighting? Did they decide on a color yet?

"Damek, what do you think about a wedding color?" Mom asks, breaking the silence. "Do you want to side with your mother, who thinks blood red is appropriate for a wedding, or with Madeline?"

Damek's mouth opens as he looks between my mom and me.

"I didn't say I had a problem with red." I shrug, hoping to show my indifference.

Queen Rune doesn't grin smugly like I thought she would. Instead, she looks at Damek. I glance at him and see that he's looking at me.

"Whatever Maddie wants is fine with me." He grins sweetly. "The wedding is about her, after all."

I shake my head. "No. It's your wedding too."

"And yet nobody will be looking at me on that day—everybody will be looking at you."

My heart swells at the compliment. Eden and Mom both look at us, tears in their eyes. Queen Rune, however, still stares with an expression that I can't read.

"Do you need anything else from us?" Damek stands from the chair and tugs me with him. "If not, Maddie and I are going to head out early. We have plans."

Oh, he is good at avoiding uncomfortable things. From now on, I will make sure I wait for him before I go into any meeting that involves both of our moms.

"Have fun," Eden says, waving at us.

"But…" Mom says.

It's too late. Damek and I are already halfway out the door. I sigh in relief as the door shuts behind us.

"That went well," he says.

I laugh, shaking my head. "It's not funny, I know it's not. Our moms hate each other. Is this what planning our wedding is going to be like?"

"No." He tugs me to a stop. I turn to face him and he looks down at me. "Don't worry—things will work out, you'll see. This wedding isn't about either of our moms, it's about us. It's about the future of our clans. My mom knows that and she won't screw that up. And I imagine your mom won't either."

He's right. I just wish they wouldn't argue, especially not over silly things like color schemes.

"And you're sure we can't just run away and get married?" I ask again.

He grins. "Tempting. If we could, I would. But I argued to give you six months, and we are going to take every advantage of this time to get to know one another."

I nod. "Yeah, okay. Let's go out on this date that you have planned."

He tugs me forward again and I forget all about wedding plans, color schemes, and our fighting mothers.