Rise of the Blood

think, which means she’s got some kind of help, a talisman to enhance her power or an effigy she’s constructed to work sympathetic magic. All we have to do is find it. Junie and I have already tossed her room and it’s not there.”

“Which means she has it on her.”

“Bingo. And we’re going to get it. If not us, then Hector or Apollo. We’ve got it covered.”

It was the first good news I’d heard since I’d seen the tabloid back in L.A. But it wasn’t a done deal yet, and there was still the matter of Rhea. I knew Hector had told her about the goddess rising. I wondered if he’d filled her in on the rest, like the fact that Rhea could ride me like the city bus. I made sure to tell her, figuring she and Junie would be close enough at the wedding to take me down if I started to act out of character.

“Hector told me about that. But he also says that you saved Apollo’s life. Junie and I will keep an eye out for trouble. If we have to, we’ll stop you, but we’ll do our best to use non-lethal means.”

She grabbed my gown and changed gears so quickly I got whiplash. “Okay then, let’s get you suited up.”

There was a knock at the door, followed immediately by Tina’s voice. “Hurry up in there. We’re taking a few quick pics, then we’re off to the church!”

Althea held out my dress, and I carefully unbuttoned my shirt and dropped trou to step into it and shimmy it up my body, careful not to disturb a single curl. Althea zipped it for me, and I searched for my shoes. Golden sandals with straps that crisscrossed my ankles and tied at the back. Thankfully, they were flats, so that Tina could almost level the field when she donned her four-inch heels.

When I caught sight of the full effect in the mirror, I had to admit that the dresses maybe hadn’t been such a bad choice. The green somehow set off the amber of my eyes and my dark curls contrasted nicely, tumbling over the draping. I felt weirdly powerful. Almost goddess-like, only a lot less bloodthirsty than those I’d met so far.

“Do I have time to make a quick call?” I asked Althea.

“Really quick. I’ll cover for you.”

I went to the phone in the room and was especially careful putting the receiver up to my ear. I dialed Nick’s and my room.

“Tori?” he answered.

“It’s me.”

He let out a huge breath. “Thank God.”

“Want to walk me to the church? We’re headed down to the lobby in just a minute.” I needed to see him. Everything else was such a mess, but Nick…he was my touchstone, my normalcy in the midst of chaos. I was only just realizing how much that meant to me. He was straightforward, direct, by the book. With Nick, I never had to worry about ulterior motives, what game he was playing or who he really was. Unlike, it seemed, everybody else…including me. I didn’t even know who I’d be from one moment to the next.

“I’ll meet you down there,” he said.

Tina appeared in the doorway, hand on one hip. “Come on. The photographer wants to take some candid shots before we go down.”

I bit my lip rather than point out that they couldn’t exactly be candid if they were planned.

“See you in a few,” I told Nick and hung up.

Out in the main room, Tina posed facing a huge mirror with me pretending to adjust her veil. We all posed around her, admiring the ring. There was another candid of Tina holding the curtains back, looking wistfully out the room’s picture window at the view. There were a dozen or so more poses with a zillion shutter snaps for each before the photographer let us go. To her credit, they were quick. She set them all up and knocked ’em down.

I tried to focus on Tina and her day rather than the bodies, police investigation and impending doom. I hoped my smile looked natural, sure the photographer would have told me if it was too hideous. She’d already told us how to stand, where to look, how to cock our heads and stick out our chins and chests, lean in and generally contort ourselves into the world’s least comfortable positions for the sake of the “candid” camera angles.

Then we were on our way down. One of the primping people had gone ahead and caught us an elevator. I picked up Tina’s train and held it so it wouldn’t be caught in the doors. Her dress was a ruched, sequined fit and flare ball gown with the bling concentrated toward the top, getting scarcer and simpler toward the bottom. In her four-inch heels with her hair bigger than everyone else’s—more Marie Antoinette than Grecian goddess—she looked like Bridal Barbie. It was the first time since we were eleven that she could stand and almost look me in the eye.

“Thank you,” she said, as the elevator closed on us. “For being here, for finding Uncle Christos to give me away.”

I admit it, I got a little choked up.

“No problem. You’d do the same for me.”

“You look beautiful.”

“So do you,” I said, blinking away the tears in my eyes before they could dissolve the glue on the false eyelashes they’d given me.

We smiled at each other, and I could almost forget everything going on outside this elevator. Then it hit bottom, dinged and opened up, and I realized there was at least one thing I didn’t want to forget. Armani. Nick.

He stood there in a silver-gray open-necked shirt with no tie beneath a dark blue suit. He had actual product in his hair, it seemed, so that for once it didn’t flop over his amazing eyes that were just a shade lighter than his suit. He looked good enough to eat. Way too good to take to a public place where I’d be expected to keep my hands to myself. I wanted to drag him back into the room and rip the rest of the buttons off his shirt.

He licked his lips as he looked at me, those incredible eyes growing darker as they did when he wanted to drag me off somewhere private. I didn’t know if we were okay yet, but it was clear that at least we weren’t finished with each other. That was something.

I forgot to pick up Tina’s train as she exited the elevator, instead going right to Nick. I waited for him to open his arms, to take me into them and hold me so that I could apologize and…but he just stood there, arms at his sides.

My heart fell until he said, “I’m afraid to touch you. You’re so perfect.”

“Oh no,” Tina cut in as I was about to tell him he was being ridiculous, “No touching. Not until after the ceremony and the pictures.”

Nick looked amused and offered me an arm instead of a hug or a kiss. Apparently, that was okay, because Tina didn’t protest when I slid my hand along his forearm and held on.

Uncle Christos stood a few feet away with his date, Detective Beverly Simon of the LAPD. Clearly, we Karacis investigators had a type. He kissed her warmly on the cheek and left her to offer his arm to Tina, since he was standing in for the parents she’d lost.

Tina looked sad for a moment, maybe thinking of them, but then Uncle Christos smiled that infectious smile he had and said, “If I had a daughter, I’d want her to be just like you. You look beautiful, m’dear. Like a cake topper.”

“Or Bridal Barbie,” I said, out loud this time.

Christos laughed so loudly that everyone stared. “Bridal Barbie, only better, because you are Greek!”

“Hear hear!” a voice agreed wholeheartedly. I recognized it as Hermes, and looked to see Christie beside him in a dazzling silver sheath dress.

Another person to protect. That was what ran through my head. My heart started to pound, and I didn’t know if it was pessimism or precognition—fear or knowledge that something would go wrong.

I looked for Jesus, wondering what he’d say about my transformation, but I didn’t see him. Clipboard guy stepped up to block my view of the others assembled and clapped to call us all to places in the procession. We were walking to the church. Tina had told me about this bit. Paper lanterns—luminaries—had been lit and placed all along the sidewalks of the short walk to the church, and the hero and heroine of the film were to first catch sight of each other in the candlelight, which meant that Apollo and Serena were here