Silent Bite-A Scanguards Wedding (1001 Dark Nights) (5 page)

“I’m not against your friends,” she insisted and sighed heavily. “But you need more of them.”

Ursula’s forehead creased. “More?” She was perfectly fine with the friends she had. Besides, the only person she really wanted to spend time with was Oliver. But of course, he wasn’t here. He had to stay at Samson’s house during daytime.

Her mother stepped closer and gripped her chin, making her look up. “Have I taught you nothing about our culture when you grew up? You can’t have four bridesmaids. Four means death. And you don’t invite death to a wedding.”

“Hui Lian, don’t you think you’re being a little overly dramatic?” her father suddenly interrupted.

Then it clicked for Ursula. Why she had forgotten that fundamental fact she didn’t know. Maybe it was simply the stress of the wedding preparations that was getting to her.

“But you can’t ask me to tell one of them that she can’t be my bridesmaid. That wouldn’t be fair. Dad, please help me here.” All four of her friends were looking forward to being bridesmaids.

Her mother softly stroked over Ursula’s hair. “Of course not, Wei Ling. That’s why you’ll have to find four more. We’ll need eight bridesmaids. Eight will bring you luck.”

Relieved, Ursula exhaled. “I guess I could ask Delilah and Yvette.”

“Who are they?”

“Delilah is married to Samson. You’ll meet him soon. He’s Oliver’s boss. And Yvette works for Scanguards too.”

“So Yvette is one of the secretaries?”

Ursula shook her head, suppressing a laugh. If Yvette heard that, she’d have a fit. “No, Mom, she’s a bodyguard like Oliver.”

“A woman?”

She could firmly see the wheels in her mother’s head turn.

“Well, maybe she’s not the best choice then. We’ll probably never find a dress for her.”

Ursula pulled back. “What? Why not?”

“Well, if she’s a bodyguard, you know . . . ” Her mother hesitated and lowered her voice. “She’s probably very butch. Isn’t that what it’s called? I mean, if she’s a bodyguard.”

Ursula shook her head in disbelief. “Oh my god! Just because she’s a bodyguard doesn’t mean she looks masculine. There’s nothing butch about Yvette. She’s one of the most feminine women I know.”

Her father dropped his newspaper and folded it, a smirk on his face. Ursula met his gaze and had to grin when her father rolled his eyes, a gesture that luckily Ursula’s mother didn’t notice.

“Oh!” At least her mother had the decency to blush. “Well, in that case . . . But we still need two more to make it eight.”

Sometimes Ursula really wondered how her mother could still hold on to all the prejudices she’d grown up with, while she’d lived in Washington D.C. for the past twenty years and had been exposed to a diverse population.

“Do you have any other friends you can ask?”

Ursula searched her mind. “I guess we could ask Rose. I’m sure she’ll do it.”

“Well, it’s unusual to have one’s future mother-in-law as a bridesmaid, but I guess we don’t have much choice.”

“Don’t let Rose hear that. I don’t want her to think we only asked her because we were in a jam.” Luckily both Rose and Quinn were still asleep and would remain so for another few hours.

Her mother let out an outraged breath. “Wei Ling, you make me sound like I have no tact. Did you hear that, Yao Bang?” She glanced at her husband, who simply acknowledged her words with a smile, knowing that she didn’t really expect an answer. “Of course, I won’t say anything to Rose.”

Ursula refrained from rolling her eyes. Instead, she contemplated who could become her eighth bridesmaid. She didn’t know many women in San Francisco. She’d only attended a few classes since her escape from the blood brothel and had not really connected to anybody. Her life was with Oliver. Besides, the need to keep his secret had made her cautious about whom she invited into their home. She had to choose somebody who knew about vampires.

. . . or was a vampire herself. Vera.

“I know a very nice Chinese lady. I can ask her.”

“A Chinese woman? That’s wonderful. Who is she? Do we know her family?”

Ursula chuckled. “Mom, just because she’s Chinese doesn’t mean you know her or her family.” It was highly unlikely considering Vera had been a vampire for some time. And she didn’t exactly move in the same circles as her parents. Ursula was certain of that. Vera ran a high class brothel in Nob Hill, whereas her parents rubbed shoulders with other diplomats and government officials in Washington D.C. “There are hundreds of thousands of Chinese people living in San Francisco.”

The sound of the doorbell startled her. She looked to the wall clock. Rarely anybody ever visited a vampire household this early. It was barely past ten in the morning.

She was about to get up to see who was visiting when she heard heavy footsteps coming down the stairs.

“Coming!” Blake called out to whoever had rung the bell.

A moment later, she heard the door open and another familiar voice greet him: Wesley, Haven’s brother.

“Hey, hope I’m not too early, but you said the tent guys were starting early.”

Their voices came closer and within a few seconds, both humans entered the kitchen. Well, technically Wesley was a witch, though his powers left much to be desired. According to what both Blake and Oliver had told her, Wesley had still not been able to gain all his witch powers back that he’d been robbed of shortly after his birth.

“Hey, morning, guys!” Blake greeted them, then pointed to Wesley. “This is Wesley Montgomery. Wes, these are Ursula’s parents: Bang Tseng and Liliana Tseng. Did I get that right?”

Ursula cringed and shook her head, indicating to Blake that he’d just butchered her parents’ names. “It’s actually Yao Bang and Hui Lian.”

Blake scratched his head, grinning unashamedly. “Oops! Well I knew it was something like
Bang Bang
.” He made his hand into a gun, pretending to shoot. “That’s kind of how I remember things. You know, associate the words with something familiar. Sorry. And
Liane
—so is that a diminutive of Lillian?”

Ursula rolled her eyes. Wordlessly, she mouthed,
stop it
, while swiping her index finger horizontally across her throat. She could always count on Blake to screw things up.

Meanwhile Wesley politely shook her parents’ hands. “Nice to meet you, Mrs. Tseng, Mr. Tseng. I hope you had a good flight.”

Her parents smiled at Wesley, clearly relieved not to have to listen to any further butchering of their names.

“Did I hear that the tent will be built this morning?” her father asked.

“Yes, that’s why I figured I’d come and help out. To supervise the workers. Make sure they don’t mess things up and break stuff,” Wesley offered.

Her father turned to her. “Is Oliver not coming to help with that?”

“He can’t. He’s protecting a client today,” Ursula answered quickly, pasting a regretful expression onto her face. “Last-minute booking. They couldn’t find anybody else on such short notice. It’s their busy season, Dad.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Oh, I had no idea there were seasons for bodyguards.”

“Oh yeah, totally!” Blake chimed in. “Whenever there are any political or big society events, we get a lot more bookings.”

Her father gave Blake a scrutinizing look. “So you’re a bodyguard too.”

Blake nodded proudly. “Yes. I work for Scanguards too.”

“Me too!” Wesley piped up, as if this were a competition. And between those two guys it generally was.

“Hmm, so if you two are bodyguards at Scanguards, why is it that Oliver had to take a booking when he should be taking care of these things, rather than one of you helping with the wedding arrangements?”

“Uh,” Blake mumbled.

“Neither Blake nor Wesley are fully trained yet,” Ursula said quickly. “They don’t have all their certifications yet, so they’re not allowed to protect a client on their own.”

The explanation seemed to satisfy her father. “Well, good, then.”

Another ring of the doorbell interrupted them.

“That’ll be the tent guys. I’ll let them in,” Blake announced.

As he walked back into the hallway, Wesley on his heels, Ursula felt her mother’s hand on her arm. She turned to her.

“We’ll need to somehow get dresses for the extra four bridesmaids,” her mother announced, looking at the list in her hands.

“I’ll first have to talk to them.”

“Good. Call them and while you’re talking to them, ask them for their dress size, and then we’ll need to go shopping. Do you have a local seamstress who can help us make alterations if we need to?”

Her mother was a veritable waterfall of questions.

“And when we’ve found the right dresses, they can meet us for the fitting.”

“But can’t we just get the dresses, bring them here, and then have everybody try them on and then get a seamstress to make the alterations here?” Ursula suggested. Having Yvette, Rose, and Vera meet them for a fitting during the day would be impossible. As vampires, they had to avoid daylight. Only the humans and the hybrids would be able to do a daytime fitting.

“That’s too complicated. We’ll have to do it right at the shop.”

“But that won’t work.”

“Why not?”

Ursula scrambled for an excuse. “Well, they work during the day. They can’t take time off.”

“Rose works?” Her mother’s head motioned to the ceiling. “But she’s still asleep.”

“Uh.” Panic raced through Ursula. “Well, she starts a little later. I’m sure we can do something one evening.”

Her mother gave her a displeased look. “You’re making this all very difficult, Wei Ling! I’m just trying to help you.”

“I know, Mom,” she said quickly in order not to upset her. “I really appreciate it.”

“Well, then, let’s not waste any more time.”

Ursula already sensed how this week would turn out: stressful, exhausting, and chaotic. And she dreaded every single minute of it, knowing that Oliver wouldn’t be around much. Maybe pretending to her parents that she and Oliver didn’t have an intimate relationship hadn’t been such a good idea after all. Maybe she should have just come out with it at the beginning. Her parents would have been upset at first, but at least Oliver would have been able to stay at the house. And she would have a shoulder to lean on and arms around her to wipe away the stress of planning a wedding.

6

The door to the tradesmen entrance which opened to a narrow path leading along Quinn’s house stood open, and two men were carrying heavy metal rods through the walkway.

The moment the sun had set, Oliver had walked the short distance from Samson’s Nob Hill house to Quinn’s mansion in Russian Hill. He’d not taken the car to Samson’s, because there was no extra parking in the garage, and parking on the streets of Nob Hill was virtually impossible.

Oliver followed the workers through the narrow walkway that led into the garden, curious to see how far they’d gotten.

When he reached the garden, he looked around. Several men were busy, connecting metal rods to build a scaffold that would eventually be draped with huge canvas panels to create a tent that covered the entire backyard and connected seamlessly to the back of the house and its back entrance. A sliver of it would also drape around the other side of the house to lead to the French doors in the living room so that the guests wouldn’t have to trek through the kitchen or the dirty tradesmen entrance to get to the tent.

Things seemed to be moving at a swift pace, but Oliver knew it would take a good two days until the tent was operable. Only then could other things be brought in, like tables, chairs and decorations.

Oliver turned away from the workers and walked through the open door into the kitchen.

Wesley stood over the kitchen counter, munching on a sandwich.

“Hey!” Oliver greeted him.

The wannabe witch lifted his hand in greeting, his mouth too full to speak.

“Where is everybody?”

Wesley swallowed before he answered. “I suppose with ‘everybody’ you mean Ursula?”

Was he indeed that transparent? At any other time he would have denied it, but he missed the woman who would soon be his wife and his mate, and he couldn’t care less whether Wesley wanted to tease him about it.

“So? Where is she?”

“Out shopping with her mother.”

“Do you know when they’ll be back?”

Wesley shrugged. “I heard something about bridesmaid’s dresses. That’s when I tuned out.”

“And Ursula’s father?”

“Probably still upstairs. He wanted to lie down and rest. I think the whole racket down here seems to have tired him out.” Wes set down his half-eaten sandwich and walked to the door that led into the hallway, peered outside for a moment, then closed it again and turned back. “So while we’re alone, I wanted to ask you for a favor.”

Oliver lifted an eyebrow, always suspicious when Wesley wanted something because whatever it was, it generally led to a minor disaster. “What kind of favor?”

Wesley rubbed his neck. “Well, you heard about the puppies, right?”

“Haven’s Labrador puppies that you once turned into piglets with your magic?”

A sheepish grin spread over Wesley’s face. “Yeah, it’s just, I’ve been trying to turn them back into dogs, but it hasn’t worked.”

Surprised, Oliver couldn’t suppress the chuckle that built in his chest. “Are you telling me that they are still pigs?”

“Haven is none too happy about it either. So, I hit the books and came across this spell that should work. Only thing is, I need a few drops of vampire blood to—”

“No way!” Oliver interrupted. “Go hit up your brother!”

Wesley made a grimace. “He’s already turned me down. So I figured maybe you’d wanna help out.”

Oliver narrowed his eyes. “Is that why you volunteered to help out with the wedding preparations, so you can get me to give you some of my blood?”

Wesley huffed, outraged. “As if I would do that! I’m helping out because I want to. I thought we were friends.”

“You’re totally transparent, Wes!”

He shrugged. “So? Come on. It’s just a few drops. I brought a little vial. You won’t even feel it. It’s just a pinprick. And it’s all for the greater good. If I can’t turn those pigs back into dogs, they’ll eventually turn into bacon and sausage.”