It Only Gets Worse

Chapter Twelve + Epilogue

×Chapter Twelve×

After a long car ride of awkward silence, Aided, Nate, and I step out and head into an expensive-looking, fancy bridal store. I am too out of sorts to really see what it’s called before we walk in through the doors.

Inside, I have my breath taken away by the fabulous dresses, corsages, and other miscellaneous wedding things for sale.

There are many other girls and women in the massive store trying on dresses, but none of them have brought their fiancé with them like I have. A lot of them pass with jealous gazes  at Aiden and Nate, not really caring which one belongs to me. I can’t help but blush and maybe feel a mite bit protective of Aiden…

“Look around and pick whatever you seem to like,” Nate says to me, after the store manager questions us on whether we needed help or not, and is sent away.

“Well…” I draw out, “I…think I like this one in the back.” Turning back around I lead them to the very back of the store, where we passed by on a round-about look throughout the place.

Once we arrive at the dress, I point my finger and smile.

“This one?” Aiden asks, bewildered.

“Yes…” I say, wary.

“But it’s so…simple, just like your ball gown. I thought you’d want one kind of…elaborate. That’s your kind of thing.”

“Well, not this time, and not the last time, either,” I bark. “I want this one.” I can feel myself getting back to my old grumpy self. Which is not what I want. But I can’t help it! Aiden is so…infuriating.

With a sigh, Aiden says, “Okay.” He checks the price tag, and nods with approval. “Hardly too expensive at all. Nice pick, Felicity. And if you like it, then I’m fine with it.”

Sure you are. I tell him in my mind, giving him a short glare.

The dress is white, of course, with an unadorned bodice, but from the waist down is subtle ruffles, falling over each layer to the bottom of the dress. It really isn’t that plain, though not the most intricate one here. But I am in love with it.

When we have finished purchasing it and are carrying it out to the parking lot, I can feel something strange cause the hairs on the back of my neck to stand up.

I turn around to see who’s behind me, only to be caught in a chokehold by a strange blonde boy, wearing sunglasses. He turns me around to see Aiden and Nate.

“Touch me and I kill her, right here, right now.”

Hopefully nothing will happen; we’re in a parking lot for fuck’s sake! I can’t talk because he’s cutting off my air.

“Let go of her, you angel filth,” Aiden says coldly.

“I want something from you.”

 “I’m not giving you shit. Get your hands off her!”

“I need you,” the angel explains calmly, “to hand her over by her 18th birthday or we will take her by force. Whether she is dead or alive.”

Shoving me away from him, I fall in Aiden’s arms gasping for air. “That bastard!” he yells, looking past me, only to find the angel gone. Thankfully, no one was in the parking lot to see our little exchange.

“Why does he want me then? Why not take me now?” I ask, dumbfounded. “If they want me for their army, then why wait?”

Aiden looks down at me. “That’s when our bond wears off. When you turn 18. And unless I turn you into a vampire before then, they have control to take you away from us.”

This only means one thing, then. I’m going to be a vampire really soon. But wouldn’t the angels know this? It seems too easy, almost a trap. Then I realize one thing I think that Aiden and Nate don’t know.

“He said dead or alive. If you change me, then he won’t be able to take me into their ranks. He’ll just kill me, instead.”

“…I think she’s right, Aiden,” Nate says.

× Epilogue ×

                “No, I know we have chosen the right decision!” Aiden shouts in his father’s room. Nate, Chaise, Daemon, Damion, and myself are seated in here, too. We’re all having a conversation about what happened earlier.

                “Do not shout at me,” The king says superiorly. “I know,” he then says, tone softening, “that once you’ve made up your mind, there’s nothing I can do to change that. King, or not; father or not.”

                “Felicity is going to be my wife and I will turn her. It is the best way to protect her. I am not letting the angels have their way with her. When they come back, we will fight.”

                I don’t know what to feel. Shock, I would say, would be the right term. But I have to agree, this sounds much less dangerous. I will be much stronger as a vampire, right? Especially since I’m supposedly an already strong hybrid? And considering the squabble I saw Aiden and Chaise in earlier, I am definitely thinking I can be much stronger than that. And also, since, they weren’t really exerting their full strength in the first place, right?

                “I’m in,” I say, looking at Aiden. No matter how pissed he gets at me, or how pissed I get at him, I am on his side. Nothing can take us apart. I do not want to be separated from him. Ever.

THE END OF BOOK 1