Dreams Made Flesh

unleash her immense power to cleanse the taint of those two bitches out of the Blood. His heart beat painfully as he looked into those haunted eyes, knowing it was no longer Jaenelle who watched him.
    "What do you want?" Witch asked.
    Daemon swallowed the lump in his throat. "A wedding ring," he said, his voice roughened by longing…and a fear that he might still lose the one person who meant everything to him. "I want the wedding ring you promised I'd wear after I got back from Hayll."
    She went so still he wasn't sure she was still breathing. Then her eyes changed again.
    "I'm not the same as I was when that promise was made," Jaenelle said.
    He couldn't stop himself from looking at the Jewel she now wore. Twilight's Dawn was a Jewel unlike any other, which made it extraordinary. But it wasn't the Ebony Jewel she used to wear. It wasn't the Black that had been her Birthright. As unique and mysterious as Twilight's Dawn was, it still represented a loss of the power she once wielded. And that did make her different, but…
    He sat up to face her. Brushed his fingertips over her face. "No, you're not the same…except in the ways that truly matter."
    "Do you really believe that, Daemon?"
    Can you accept the difference ? That was the question under the question.
    "Yes, I really believe that." And I can accept the difference.
    A sheen of tears brightened her eyes as she smiled. "Then let's do it. Let's get married. Today."
    Now! Excitement, fierce in its intensity, flooded through him before common sense intervened. He rested his forehead against hers and forced himself to consider the ramifications of following desire.
    "We can't." He pulled back enough to see the uncertainty, and a hint of hurt, on her face. "Sweetheart, there's nothing I'd like better than to marry you today, but we can't."
    "Why not?"
    He sighed. "For one thing, the coven and the boyos would never forgive me if they weren't invited to your wedding." Her wedding. Things were still too shaky between him and the rest of the humans who had made up her First Circle that they would give a damn whether or not they came to his wedding. "If we're going to avoid hurt feelings, we have to have a formal wedding. That means sending out invitations, talking to Mrs. Beale about preparing a wedding feast for the guests. It will take a few weeks." And the Darkness only knew what other rumors might be spread about him in that time.
    Jaenelle echoed his sigh. "You're right. But…"
    The look on her face made him giddy… and a bit terrified.
    "We could have a private wedding today, just for us, and then have a formal wedding in a few weeks," she said.
    "You mean a secret wedding?" Yes! But common sense, which he was really beginning to resent, intruded once more. "There isn't a Priestess in Kaeleer who would be willing to marry us in secret and risk the wrath of the Queens who rule Kaeleer…not to mention Lucivar and Saetan."
    She took his face in her hands. "Daemon," she said, her voice full of laughter, "I've just discovered something about you. As much as you know and as much as you've experienced, you can still be naive about some things."
    His mouth hung open, and no brilliantly phrased words came out.
    After giving him a smacking kiss on the forehead, Jaenelle got out of bed and headed for the adjoining bathroom. "If we leave within the hour, we can get there by this afternoon."
    "Where?"
    "Since we'll have to rent a Coach here in Amdarh to ride the Winds to the Hall, contact Ladvarian and tell him to have one of our private Coaches ready so we aren't home long enough for anyone to ask questions. And tell him not to bring anyone except Kaelas."
    "Why do we have to bring him ?" Daemon grumbled as he got out of bed and slipped on a robe.
    Jaenelle paused at the bathroom door. "Daemon? Where are you planning to sleep for the next decade?"
    Hell's fire. "Fine. All right. I'll tell the Sceltie to bring the cat."
    She just smiled and closed the bathroom door.
    Great. Wonderful, Daemon thought as he left their room to use the bathroom down the hall. She had a point about placating those two. If Ladvarian's feelings were hurt by being excluded, the Sceltie could make his life very difficult. And Kaelas had a few points of his own. They were called teeth and claws. Pissing off an Arcerian cat who was a Red-Jeweled Warlord Prince and who already resented that a human male was claiming a piece of Jaenelle's bed wasn't the best way to begin his new position as a