***
Mia hurried through the woods. She was moving away from the house as fast as possible. She was getting sick of seeing those two together. She couldn’t even kill Jessondra like she had done with the others because the little witch was too powerful.
"My dear brother," she whispered, leaning up against a tree trunk. "So emotional. So loving, you can’t see how she’ll hurt you."
She slammed her fist against the trunk. Now they were getting married. Her brother and a human...although she wasn’t quite sure about Jessondra’s humanity. She could tell that there was something different about that woman, something her brother obviously found attractive.
"I’ll not let it happen. I will not lose my sweet brother to that con artist thief!"
***
Blake leaned back in his chair and propped his feet up on the kitchen table. Skye walked in and smacked his feet back to the floor.
"If Jessondra sees you with your feet on the table, she’ll remove them from your legs," Skye chuckled. He walked over and pulled a bottle from the fridge.
"She’s out shopping." He pulled his sunglasses down. "For your honeymoon."
Skye nearly choked on his drink. "What?"
Blake burst out laughing. "Nothing." He paused a moment, grinning at his friend. "I saw her making out a shopping list. I envy you."
Skye took a drink before Blake could see the grin on his face. "All the more to look forward to."
Blake leaned forward and lowered his voice. "You two haven’t done it, have you?"
Skye raised an eyebrow. "Now, what business is it of yours?"
"Just answer the question."
Skye turned and looked out the window. "Our lives don’t give us a lot of ‘free time’. Hopefully, that will change."
Blake looked unconvinced. "Ah, excuses, excuses, if she were my girlfriend..."
"She’s not!" Skye snapped. Then he grinned, "She scares you."
"She’s scary! You all are! I live with two vampires and a witch tied up in the black-market."
Skye leaned up against the sink. "You can always leave."
"And go back to a normal life? No way!"
***
Jessondra laid her dress out on the bed. Tonight was the night. Her entire life would change. She walked over to the large dresser next to her bed and pulled open the drawers. She quickly put everything in place with ease from years of practice.
From her shopping bag she pulled out three red candles, some ribbons, and a pack of incense. She put the candles into matching holders and tied a white ribbon around each one.
She lit the incense and candles, then stood back with her eyes closed. She focused on feeling the energy of her body, pulling it in, then pushing out. She repeated this until the candles had burned down to the ribbons, then she snuffed them out. She took the ribbons and placed them beside her hairbrush.
"I've got a good feeling about this."
***
Jessondra stood at her open window. A full moon shone down on her. Her long, white dress fluttered in the wind. Her hair, which had been so perfectly done up with white ribbons and flowers, was now falling down her neck.
Skye stood in the doorway, transfixed by her beauty. He was dressed in black, a simple suit. He walked up to his wife and wrapped his arms around her waist.
"Good evening, my wife," he whispered against her ear.
"Good evening, my husband," she replied.
A lone howl sounded, and caught their attention. "How long will he be gone?" Skye asked.
"A week." Jessondra snuggled deeper into her husband’s embrace
"And Mia?"
Jessondra remained silent.
Skye sighed. "She did say she would leave. I just never thought she’d go through with it."
Jessondra walked out onto the balcony. "She’s survived seven hundred years, she’ll be all right."
Skye pushed aside a strand of golden hair and kissed his bride’s neck. "True. Let’s not ruin our time with such thoughts."
***
Just past the edge of the clearing, a figure stood in the shadows. He held a pair of binoculars up to his eyes and watched the newlyweds.
"Disgusting."
He put the binoculars into a pouch on his belt.
"I better stop this before my workload doubles."
***
"Skye, maybe we should go inside."
"I like it right here," he murmured. He slipped the shoulders of her dress away. His jacket was on the floor and half the buttons of his jacket were undone.
Jessondra leaned back against the railing, but the smooth silken fabric of her dress made little friction with the metal. She slipped backwards, and only Skye’s tight grip kept her from falling.
Skye laughed and picked her up into his arms. "Maybe we should go inside."
Jessondra wrapped her arms around his neck and let him carry her inside.
Just as they crossed over the threshold Skye stopped suddenly. He dropped Jessondra, and she fell with a thud before rolling away. She stared up at her husband with concern, then panic when she saw the tip of a metallic stake protruding from his chest. He collapsed to his knees and fell into his wife's arms.
"Skye, no!"
Jessondra sensed another presence and looked up. "You killed him!"
The figure approached. "He’s not dead yet."
The tone of his voice chilled Jessondra to the bone. She removed the stake and tried whatever she could think of to help him. The slayer just stood at the window.
Skye’s green eyes fluttered open and his hand reached up the touch her cheek. His arm fell across Jessonda’s blood soaked lap.
Jessondra gripped the metal stake in her right hand. She slowly stood and faced the other man in the room.
"You murdered my husband," she hissed, an eerie echo following her words.
"I killed a monster," he replied coolly. His hand moved to his belt.
"Don’t!" He stopped in surprise at the command. "Don’t move."
He shot her a smirk before leaping over the balcony railing. He landed on the roof below and fell to the soft ground.
Jessondra followed at full sprint. She never felt the branches that torn at her clothing and skin, or the water that soaked her slippers.
When the vampire hunter reached the coastline, he stopped for a moment to catch his breath and think.
"Damn," he wheezed. He’d never encountered anything like this before. That wench should have thanked him! Instead she was coming after him for revenge.
Something slammed into him. He and Jessondra were thrown several feet into surf.
Jessondra recovered first. She stood, still clutching the stake, one slipper lost, her dress in tatters.
"Get up," she growled. The hunter stood. "Why?"
"He was a vampire. I am sworn to kill them."
Jessondra slashed with the stake, catching his arm. "He did nothing!"
"He existed. He had to die."
"No," she screeched. "You have to die!" She threw the stake and it would have hit mid chest if the hunter had not dodged. It only grazed his shoulder.
As he twisted he drew another weapon, firing right at Jessondra. Miraculously she managed to avoid the bullets and landed a solid kick to his wrist. The hunter clutched his broken wrist to his chest and watched as Jessondra retrieved his gun.
"Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t kill you?"
The hunter fell to his knees. "I’m impressed. You should have been born a hunter."
"I don’t kill innocents."
The hunter laughed. "And yet you have a gun in your hands."
"You killed my husband. The only man I ever loved. You. Will. Pay."
The hunter flung his arms out, giving her a clear shot. "Go ahead. It won’t bring your husband back. He died a long time ago."
"No, but it’ll make me feel a lot better knowing that you won't be killing anyone else."
"Jessondra!" Blake burst onto the beach in full wolf form. "What are you doing?"
"He killed Skye!" Jessondra cried.
Blake’s eyes glowed an eerie yellow. "Let me at him."
"No! He's mine!" Jessondra gripped the trigger.
The hunter looked up at her with golden eyes set deeply into tan skin. His dark hair was dreadlocked and fell in front of his face.
"You seemed so concerned with your husband’s life," the hunter said. "You spew pretty words about not killing innocents. I don’t think you could kill anyone in cold blood. Even me."
Jessondra stood there for a moment, absorbing his words.
Then she pulled the trigger.
***