Darkly Devoted (Book 1, 2, 3)

OTF Chapter 3 - Makeover

Chapter 3

AS PROMISED, Julian showed up to take her dress shopping. Vivienne took Blake home after the encounter at the royal palace. His apartment was an entire top floor of the hotel she saw in her visions. Vivienne would expect nothing less of a Thorne. After a shower, she went with Julian to a nearby boutique where the Sales Associates there pulled an array of stunning dresses to try on.

The first one that caught her eye was a white tiered dress with a black ribbon around the waist. It came with matching black satin gloves and a black velvet choker.

"I heard about what happened," Julian said, sitting with his legs crossed and a fedora on his head. "Your angle is that you need to convince her you're in love with some oaf. That way, she'll stop seeing you as a threat. I don't know what the red-headed she-demon has against him other than the fact that he tried to kill her. Big deal."

"No," Vivienne said as she spun around in the mirror. "I'm going to kill her. Next time she sits on that throne, I'm going to impale her."

"Uh, you're seriously willing to kill your friend, Allison, just like that?" Julian whistled. "Even though I know girls are vicious, sorry if I wonder if you really have the guts to go through with it."

"What choice do I have?" Vivienne yelled at him. Another dress caught her eye. This one was strawberry red with rows of shimmering folds made to look like fish fins. "She's psychotic."

"Nah," Julian said, admiring his own reflection in the store mirrors. "You're going to have come up with a better plan than that. If you kill your friend Allison's body, Maglania will just find another host. She probably has half a dozen young girls in the wings. You need to find the chains that bind us to her and destroy those first."

"Sure, why not! Let's go," Vivienne said, sarcastically. "I'll bring my flint, and we can go do that tonight. You know where she keeps them, don't you?"

"Slow down, genius," Julian said. "I do, sort of, which brings me back to my original point. You need to find out where she keeps these chains that bind us to her. I am going to guess it is in a vault in the palace somewhere. Probably under layers of Segais wood." Julian stood up and picked through her dress pile. He held up a black dress with lace sleeves and diamond details on the collar. "Try this on. Can't hurt to go with the classic colors."

"Maglania is cruel, but Allison is crazy and vengeful," Vivienne said as she held up the black dress to her body in the mirror. This was more to her tastes. "I can't decide who I fear more."

"Here," Julian said as he clasped a pearl choker around her neck. "Perfection! Sometimes, I surprise even myself."

"Okay," Vivienne said with a sigh. "I'll take this. What is it? Like probably a couple of thousand dollars?"

"No, hun. This is haute couture, and it's at least a hundred thousand a pop."

"What?" Vivienne asked, nearly spitting on the dress in shock.

"Excuse me, do you know whose dick you're jumping on? Blake won't even feel it. And honey, just one dress? No, stop thinking like a peasant. You're taking one of everything. This isn't the only party you're going to."

"Wow," Vivienne said as she stroked the colorful silk flowers on the dresses on the hanger. "It's good to be rich." She held the ethereal dress out and wondered if she could get used to this.

"Yup," Julian said and tossed a couple of more dresses into a pile on the couch. They were in velvets and satins, with elaborately embroidered flowers and glittering one-of-a-kind buttons. "Keep on putting the moves on that kid like you were doing today. He's completely smitten with you especially now, considering all the times you rejected him in the past. You're a genius."