“But—”
“No buts. Help or get out.”
Quint didn’t scowl or frown. Her expression didn’t change. Even her scent was unchanged. Quint had no emotional reaction to my statements at all, even when I was snarly. She pulled out the scarlet leather armor, hung its hanger on a hook, and held one hand out to me, palm up. She made a littleGet upgesture. I stood. She yanked off my robe.
I almost flinched. Fortunately I was wearing undies, but I wasn’t used to anyone seeing me unclothed in half-form. I didn’t like people looking at me. I glared at her. She ignored my reaction.
She walked around me, eyeing me clinically, evaluating. “You’re right. No dress would do you justice.” She shook her head. “You are magnificent.”
A weird feeling trickled through me, uneasy, surprised, uncertain. As far as I could tell, Quint wasn’t lying.Magnificent?Steeling myself, I looked in the mirror for more than just a glance.
Tonight’s half-form consisted of the shoulders, legs, arms, and knobby hands of my half-Beast, with a more muscular human torso, tiny waist, narrow hips, and human feet. I had a long neck, my human face and head, with cat ears up high and hairy, poking through the fancy black braids like golden furry ornaments. I frowned. I looked like a cat version of Jessica Rabbit. Or a boobless and hairy Barbie doll from the fifties. Not...
Magnificent? Me?
Quint stretched the armor out on the bed, unfastened all the belts, buttons, zippers, and securing mechanisms, and began belting it in place on my body, cinching the straps for a perfect fit. She knelt in front and offered a new pair of convertible dress boots for me to slip my feet into. And then she began to add my weapons, mostly the ceremonial stuff, starting with my sword and the sterling and wood stakes, and ending with Bruiser’s gift, the Mughal blade. Its curved scabbard rested at my hip, the shape somehow following around my side, the stone handle near my waist.
My gold gorget went on last over my gold nugget necklace and the armor, along with two matching snake arm cuffs that once had held magical workings and had belonged to vamps. Both of which had been beheaded.
In record time, I stood looking at myself in the mirror. Beast peeked through my eyes to see too, and the golden glow of her presence was...Magnificent? Holy crap.
Beast is best hunter,she thought at me.Beast is beautiful and dangerous but needs killing teeth to go with claws.
Mmmm. Not tonight,I thought back.I like the human face.
Quint and Beast were right. And... just... wow.
Quint stood on the chair I had been sitting in. Rising up behind me, she lifted her arms and placedle breloqueon my head. It snapped into place, tight—too tight.
I hadn’t planned to wear the crown, but Quint hadn’t asked me. Now there was no getting it off. Every time it snapped into place, I was afraid it was stuck there for good, but when it was ready, it came off just fine. I had to keep reminding myself of that.Stupid crown.
We headed to HQ to probably get in everyone’s way and make people stop what they were doing to accommodate the queen. Tough. I was going to stick my nose into everything.
***
The ballroom was stunning. The smell of smoke was gone. The magic that hid the damaged ceiling was holding up, security was on high alert to keep anyone from throwing spells or fireballs, so the room and HQ itself was likely safe. A string quartet was playing quiet strains. The flowers smelled sweet, as if just picked, the linens had all been replaced.There was a dark rose carpet down the center aisle between the chairs. Yeah. Perfect.
The wedding was scheduled an hour after dusk, and the guests started gathering half an hour early, seated by HQ’s security guys, who were Wrassler’s best friends and “dudes of honor,” as he had started calling them. An excited hushed murmur underlay the stately silence as the guests were ushered in.
I stood in a dark corner, Quint at my side, an unexpected and uncomfortable presence. Quint was wearing a ball gown, but even an untrained eye could see the weapons bulging here and there. Together we watched everything, my bodyguard ready for anything. At least she wasn’t a chatterbox.
The first half hour, as guests arrived and were seated, went off like a charm. No one tried to drink down a human, no vamps issued challenges or cut one another to a bloody death.
The officiant arrived. Since the ceremony wasn’t being held in a Catholic church, which would have allowed her to have a Catholic priest, Jodi had chosen an aging Episcopal priest, Father Juan Ramirez. He was probably the first priest of any stripe or denomination to enter the Council Chambers of the Mithrans of New Orleans without holding up a silver cross and being followed by a mob carrying torches. Father Juan was insanely curious—and nonjudgmental—about vamps, so that helped. He shook every vamp’s hand, he made eye contact without fear of being rolled, and he made the sign of the cross, and no one caught on fire.
The vamps were equally interested in the priest. As they entered, their eyes found him instantly and followed his every move. If vamps still wrote journals, I guessed everything about the wedding and Father Juan would be immortalized for posterity.
I figured all that was a step in the right direction of peace and harmony between other paras and humans. Not that I wanted to use this ceremony as part of the peace efforts. That was a Leo thing to do, and even the thought made me uncomfortable. Pulling my mind away from Leo’s multilayered plans, I went back to studying the crowd from my shadowed corner.
The vamp and blood-servant groomsmen were all wearing black dress coats with tails, white shirts, piqué waistcoats, and white bow ties worn around standing collars in the wing-tip style. They properly finished it off by wearing high-waisted black trousers and patent leather oxfords, or court shoes.
Some of the warriors in the crowd wore orders insignia and medals. Others in the crowd wore top hats, white gloves, white scarves, pocket watches, and orchid or rose boutonnieres.
I had spent so much time around fashion-conscious vamps that I knew what all that crap meant. Not that I admitted as much to my new bodyguard / fashion consultant.
Every single male was resplendent, especially Bruiser.Holy crap.He looked great in that formal getup. And when Koun entered... Even with my more human nose, I could smell Quint’s interest. She thought he looked hot. He seemed oblivious to her interest.
The women were in full-length ball gowns or evening gowns in all the colors of an artist’s palette, all wearing evening gloves past the elbow and carrying small handbags. They wore expensive faceted stone jewelry, and there were glittering tiaras here and there.
