Forgiveness and Punishment

43

Melissa continues in her memories.

"Are you ready Melissa? It's about time for the ceremony."  Travis says coming into her room.

"Yeah, it's been a long time coming, Travis. Honestly, I was beginning to think it wouldn't ever happen." Melissa says nervously before taking a deep breath and taking the bouquet a maid hands her. She just wishes that she had a female to stand up with her, but she broke tradition and instead has her brothers stand up with her.

Timothy has Mel and Travis standing with him.

Just then Cliff comes in with the others, Timothy, TJ and Tad.

"Before we begin, there is something you five should know. Right now everything is fine, but once Timothy and Melissa mark each other, Timothy will be hard pressed to accept Melissa being with you other three. In fact it might send him into a jealous rage."

"What? Why? What about him being with his children he made?" Melissa demands more than a little stunned. They all are more than a little stunned at what Travis just told them.

"I haven't been with my children since I met you, Melissa. My children are all older, many of them came over with me and others I made shortly after I came. My youngest is a couple of centuries old. I have long ago established strong bonds with them and no longer need to be sexual with them. Drinking blood alone will suffice. You are my first child in more than two centuries."

"And you never plan on making another?" Melissa demands. This isn't something they have talked about. Although, she has no intentions of ever making another child. She only made the ones that she did out of necessity.

Timothy shrugs at her question. "I have no intentions at this time of making more children. I only turned you because you were dying, otherwise I wouldn't have, at least not until I had no choice in the matter. That came rather early in our relationship and caused us a great many problems. Even during the best of times it's a hassle turning humans and I no longer see a need to do so."

Melissa turns to Cliff and demands, "You brought this up awful late Cliff. Since you saw a need to do so before the ceremony, do you have a way to fix it?"

Cliff smiles smugly at Melissa. She has always been incredibly sharp and intelligent, he is very pleased at how perceptive she is. "As a matter of fact I do. After the regular ceremony you three," Cliff motions to TJ, Tad and Travis, "need to be marked by Timothy and you will need to mark him as well. I suggest you do this in a more private situation though, the other vampires don't need to know about the special arrangement you will have. It's unheard of for vampires to mark more than one person and the other people mark him back as well."

"Hold on, Cliff, won't that make me jealous? They are after all my children." Already Melissa can feel her anger at the mere suggestion it brings.

Cliff looks shocked then intrigued, "Yeah, I guess it would. I guess you will have to be marked by all of them as well." With that he smiles brilliantly. "Damn this is going to be the most interesting thing to happen since the last purge." And only he and the participants will be aware of it. His maker would have gotten a kick out of this if she was still alive. Too bad he had, had to kill her to keep from telling the humans about them all. She truly wanted them all to die.

"So why don't we all just mark each other now and do the official marking in front of the others?" Melissa asks impatiently now.

Cliff shakes his head. "No, you must mark Timothy first and do it in front of the witnesses, after all that's why the vampire elite has come from all over the world." It is a rare enough occurrence that the seethe leaders traveled from all over the world. Not just that, but it's even more rare that a seethe leader finds someone to mark and be marked, but it's never happened that a council member do so.

"Why?" Melissa asks through gritted teeth.

Cliff looks at her startled, he hadn't paid close attention to just how angry his words were making Melissa. He makes soothing gestures and sounds. "He has to be your primary mate as it were. He is your maker, he is the one that asked you to mark him and he is the one that you said yes to. He is the seethe leader and seethe leader of your children, it would be an insult to him to not mark each other first. 

"After the ceremony, before the reception you five disappear long enough to make the markings then you three slip into the reception before Timothy and Melissa. No one will suspect anything and you will all be safe enough to continue as you are now." Cliff says in a rush to get the information out before Melissa explodes from her anger. 

That would not be good, in any way shape or form.

Melissa looks at him hard before turning to the males. "Are you four willing to do as Cliff suggests? I won't blame any of you if you don't wish it."

They all in fact have shining bright eyes at the thought of it.

One by one they turn to Timothy to see what he says.

"Melissa? Is this something you would like to happen? If not, I will do my best to hold back my jealousy. I know how important it is to be with your newborns and even though TJ and Travis have been vampires for years they are still fairly young as are you." Timothy says stroking a stray curl that's near her face.

"Just how good will your control be, Timothy? You know how often I am with them, with you."

"It will be very difficult, I admit. There are times when it is already hard for me to hold back."

Melissa has to consciously stop herself from biting her lips at this time with his words. She gives a faint smile as she turns to the other three, "What about you three?"

They all smirk at her. "We have no problem marking you, Melissa and we wouldn't mind marking Timothy either if he will have us." TJ tells her and she can feel their desire for this strongly.

She raises her eyebrow at how strongly she feels their want for this outcome before turning back to Timothy. "Well, Timothy, what is your response? It seems the ball is in your court now. They want it, I won't have a problem with it. What about you?"

Timothy's eyes shine brightly at the thought. Then he smiles his sexy smile that always makes Melissa want to be private with him. "I would be honored to have them mark me as well."

He looks at the other three males, "I am honored that you would be willing to accept this, but I want you to know, that Melissa is my primary and will always take precedence over you three."

They all grin, "Of course and we wouldn't want it any other way. She will be ours as well."

Once that was worked out they took their places for the ceremony. Once the wedding was done the marking ceremony took place. Unlike with the wedding portion, once the marking took place there was a great shout as the vampires present acknowledged their dedication to each other.

The humans that were there were hypnotized by the vampires ahead of time to not notice anything out of the ordinary with the ceremony. They will remember a lovely ceremony with loving words and a super heated kiss to mark the sealing of the vows.

The wedding party left the room and met quickly in an empty room and they all marked each other. Since they all wanted Melissa to be their primary they waited for their turn and then took whoever they could afterwards.

Then, like Cliff told them they slipped into the ballroom for the reception. Then a few minutes later Timothy and Melissa show up and the party begins.

Melissa knows that she will always remember how incredible that night was.