Beautiful Monster 2 (26 page)

I fought with all my strength to raise my head, and look at him.

“Who are you?” I asked, my breath coming fast. I could feel my heart struggling to beat and I knew my time was drawing to a close. He bent down, a soft smile on his face.

“I’m the very first vampire, child. And I do not wish for us to end here. What you share with Liam, and the love I see here in this coven is exactly what I and others like me have been working to create for centuries. That vampires can co-exist with humans.”

“My father,” I sobbed. “My father is dead.”

“Yes
.” He didn’t hide that fact from me. “But this supernatural world exists so that nobody is ever truly gone. For when one is lost, amends cannot be made, love cannot be created, grudges cannot be forgiven. Nothing can ever truly be mended if the chance to do it is not there.” He reached out to take Liam’s hand and brought it to my neck, where my pulse barely beat. The world seemed to slow down again, and I felt my heart stop, just for a fraction of a second. Liam trembled, but held strong.

“Selene will live,” Connor said, and it felt like he was a hundred miles away. “For I have known love, and lost it, and have been lucky enough to find it again, in a creature nature swore me against from the beginning. I will not let Liam and Amy lose a second chance. Even if it means being a creature of the night forever.” His voice got stronger as he spoke. “Those who wish for Selene’s death must go through me.”

I didn’t know what they did, or what happened, but I did know that Selene remained a vampire. Liam’s face came into my field of vision.

“I’m so sorry, Amy,” he whispered
.

I used the last of my strength to bring my hand to his face and draw it close to his mouth, where his fangs protruded. My hand slipped, brushing his lip and revealing them more.

“The show must go on, Liam, no matter what.”

"No matter what,” he whispered, and then leaned into my neck, sinking his teeth into me.

I felt the venom seep into my veins, but after the pain I experienced just minutes ago, it felt like morphine. I can’t describe what transforming felt like. It was like a blessing and a curse. I screamed as I felt Liam pull me from the spike and onto the ground.

The whole world spun out of my vision, and I saw light and darkness collide and a burst of stars. My eyes rolled back and I felt my heart stop, and yet, I didn’t lose consciousness. I felt the venom flow into my body, cooling it and nothing felt natural. Everything felt disconnected and yet connected. I felt strength flow through me and the wound close on my stomach
as if by magic. And then, I felt a familiar hand on my arm and I began to breathe again, sucking in deep lungfuls of air as my vision cleared. I looked up to see Sarah’s face hovering over me with a tearful smile. I had healed, I had transformed, and here she was, as if this was her purpose in life, to be here at this moment, to keep me human.

“The show must go on,” she whispered, tears falling dow
n her face.

I glanced down at
my stomach and saw the flesh healed. Slowly, I sat up, careful not to move too fast. Selene was now in Elias’s grasp, and for the first time, looking absolutely terrified. I didn’t know what her fate would be, but I had a feeling she would be kept barely alive, and suffer for the pain she had caused. All this time, I had thought it was us breaking the rules, when it fact, it had been her.

Carefully, I rose to my feet, surprised at how good I felt.
My mind wasn’t clear, I knew that. To my left, my father still lay, and on trembling legs, I walked over to him, and crouched down.

He was dead, there was no doubt about that. Tears fell as I reached to close his eyes, and I felt Liam’s hand on my back.

“He’s at peace, Amy. He’s with the one he loves.”

“I know,” I whispered, brushing my hand over his rapidly cooling cheek.
“I want to leave this place, Liam. There’s been so much death and sadness here, I don’t think I could take it if we stayed.”

He wrapped his strong arms around me, kissing my hair and whispering soothing noises.

“We can do whatever you want, my love. But our experiences make us who we are. Without this place, even in sorrow, we would never be where we are.”

I almost broke down. I had to
bite my lip to the point of breaking the skin to keep myself in check. Shakily, I rose again, facing the crowd of vampires who now stood, surrounding Sarah. Tonight, they thought they would become mortal, and because of me, they could not.

“Thank you,” I whispered, trying to look each one of them in the eye. “Thank you.”

To my surprise, starting with Connor and then Steve and the rest, they dipped low to me.

“You are the Queen of our Coven leader, and so you are our Queen too. You have taught us tonight a new meaning of life.”

I brought my hands to my face, trying not to cry. Liam kissed my cheek, taking my hand, and drawing me forward. I reached out for Sarah and she wrapped her arms around me.

“I’m so glad you’re ok.”

“Me too,” I replied, hugging her tight. “Thank you, Sarah, for everything. Not just tonight, but for everything. For talking to me when I was a nerdy housebound kid. For encouraging me to never give up on my dream. For always being there. I couldn’t do any of this without you.”

“As long as I’m your maid of honor,” she whispered, trying to keep the mood light.

I grinned for the first time. And then I turned to the others, who had circled around me.

“We have a show to finish,” I said, and they nodded.

Amy, as young Meg Giry, grows so much as a character in the final act of the show. This young actress is a Hollywood superstar in the making, and we will be keeping our eye on her in the coming days,
said the final review of the show, published in the biggest entertainment magazine on the West Coast the next day. I glanced at the photo of us taking our final bow, my costume ripped and bloodstained. If they only knew what had brought me to that point; what had happened on my journey. If they only knew my pain, my love. But that was a secret that I would never be able to share. That was my mine alone to keep, safe in my love for him.

There had been too many deaths in the two short years since I had entered the real world. Nina, Porsche, the unborn child Sarah never got to carry, and now, there was fresh dirt on my father’s grave.

That was something I would never quite be able to come to terms with, that my father wasn’t waiting in the house down the street, that he wasn’t bustling around in the kitchen, or telling me to do my homework. But yet, I considered myself blessed, which seemed like a funny thing to do in my situation. To the world, I was a child without parents, the tragic TV star who received hundreds of messages of condolences every week,
whose life was up in the air and supposed to be dying of AIDS. I had thought that I would never return to the Red Theater once the curtain fell on Phantom, that I would have to get away from the place that changed my life.

But I found that I couldn’t. It had changed my life for the worst, but also for the better. I had met Liam, the love of my life, in that
theater, and my dreams of being an actor had come true. I had played two of the most important roles there. I had met my mother there, a chance I otherwise never would have gotten. And today, I had both my parents by my side, solid as if they were alive, playing with my veil and twirling me around to have a look at my wedding dress, fit for a princess. Sarah was standing by in a purple bridesmaid dress as I put the finishing touches on my makeup.

“Do you think you could have gotten anything puffier, Amy?” my father teased me
.

I looked down at the layers and layers of tulle flowing onto the floor below me, the floor that had once been covered with my blood. That was before, when AIDS ruled my life. When my mortality loomed in my face. But no longer was that an issue. For every night, Liam taught me how to control my cravings, how to withstand the pain of transformation. And most nights, we hung out in Sarah’s trailer on the set of her new TV show,
Witch
, which I thought was ironic. But being closed to Sarah, now that the binding spell was reversed, meant that we didn’t have to transform at all. But honestly, although I hadn’t told Liam, the pain of transformation was nowhere near some of the pain I had gone through as a human. Being a vampire meant strength, power, confidence, all the things I didn’t feel like I had in life.

The worst part was feeding. I had
seen what had happened to Nina and I didn’t want to end up that way. And yet, I couldn’t bring myself to feed on humans, not yet. So blood bags were the way to go. I could see Liam was worried about me, but it was a choice I made, which was good enough for me.

I had chosen to marry Liam in the Red
Theater not only because that’s where it all began, but because my parents could attend.

I had fits of sadness and panic when I was alone in my father’s house, having moved out of the dorms, and knowing that he wasn’t ever coming back. But I had to look on the bright side, to know that I was so much luckier than other people in my situation. As long as I had Sarah and access to the
theater, I could always visit my parents, always come back to them. And they would be waiting for me, watching the shows in the theater, and holding hands. One day, this might be harder than it was. Liam and I agreed to five years in the human world; five more years pretending everything was alright. And then, we weren’t sure what we would do. We knew we would have to disappear. Five more years with him looking completely un-aged was pushing it, especially for someone who was constantly photographed. But however we decided to disappear, it would be together. A tragic car accident, a kidnapping, something that would ensure that we were dead and the world would forget about us.

And I knew that when the time came to just have each other, we would be alright.

“Could have, but I went with subtle.” I winked at him as my mother fixed my veil one last time.

In order to have my parents there, I had to sacrifice
the big wedding that I had always dreamed of. Most of my friends couldn’t come, and any distant family wasn’t invited. But as my fame from
Ranger
rose, I felt like a small private wedding, with people from the supernatural world, was better. Especially since their world was mine now.

“You look beautiful,” my mother said, placing a warm hand on my shoulder. “Sarah, darling, come here, let me fix your flowers.”

“I like them this way,” Sarah replied, but stepped forward, letting my mother tug on her bouquet.

Sarah was my only bridesmaid, but honestly, I couldn’t think of anyone better to be a bridesmaid
than my best friend, the sister I never had.

She checked her cell phone and then looked up at me with a smile. “It’s time, Amy.”

“Oh my God.” Now I felt the nerves flow in, my heart accelerating to about a thousand beats a minute. Just because I was a vampire didn’t mean I wasn’t capable of getting nervous.

“Amy
.” Sarah gave me a smile. “Normally, I’d say getting married at 19 was retarded and what the hell are you thinking and all that crap… but I couldn’t think of two better people for each other than you and Liam. You don’t have anything to be nervous about. And finally, when they say forever in the vows, you guys can actually mean them, opposed to all the other three second Hollywood marriages.”

“Such a romantic speech,” I teased her as I saw the lights dim.

I took a deep breath, as I heard the opening strands of music and linked arms with each of my parents for the walk down the aisle and up onto the stage, another reality that I never thought I’d have.

I had chosen an instrumental piece, the Celtic Wedding March, for Sarah to walk down the aisle too. As rehearsed, she went down slowly, the small audience watching as she
dropped flower petals on the floor. She had wanted to drop black roses, the Phantom’s special, but I had drawn the line and reminded her that as surreal as this was, this was my wedding, not a theater show.

Finally, the
Wedding March faded out and Here Comes the Bride started. I looked to my dad as he pulled my veil over my head and we stepped through the doors.

The entire audience was on their feet, watching me with smiles of encouragement, as I approached. The audience was full of vampires, witches, and even a few werewolves that Liam knew, all eyeing each other awkwardly, but happy for me. I cast my gaze to the front, and there stood Liam, taking my breath away.

He was dressed in a black suit, slick and sleek. His hair was styled back and he was clean-shaven. His eyes sparkled as he smiled at me, and then he said something to Peter, who was his best man.

I had spent hours staring at those eyes on TV, on the computer, and on posters, but never in my life did I think I would be marrying them, and everything attached to them.

I slowly walked up the aisle to him, and then up the stairs, where I had walked a thousand times before to play Belle and Meg and everything in between. Liam couldn’t seem to tear his eyes from me, watching my every movement. To be fair, I couldn’t take my eyes off him either.

My parents brought me to his side, and I turned to my father, who lifted my veil up and over my face, before turning to the priest.

“Who gives this woman to this man?”

“We do,” my parents chimed in
together, and I almost burst with happiness.

They were holding hands, no doubt memories of their own wedding flooding in. They stepped back, and I turned and joined hands with Liam. It was finally happening.

“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today…” The priest began to speak, but I tuned him out, holding hands with Liam and practically reading his mind. He was just as happy as I was. “If there is any here who knows of a reason why these two should not be joined in holy matrimony, speak now or forever hold your peace.”

I held my breath, looking around. I half expected Selene to burst in with a reason, and try to take either of our lives. I expected an
elder to burst in and claim that this was against the rules of vampire law, to marry one you sired. Hell, I even expected Thomas De Ritter to come in, and wrestle us to the ground, sending us back to our human form and staking both of us.

He especially hadn’t been happy with the outcome of the situation, and it was something both Liam and I felt extremely bad about. We had made him a promise, and they had only agreed to work with us on the grounds of that promise. Yet, there was one more vampire in the world instead of several less, and my father’s blood was on our hands. On top of that,
after a week learning what she could about Shields, Sarah, as Porsche had before her, decided that life wasn’t for her, and left as quickly as she had come. The vampire war with the Shields had gained speed, and I knew it was something we would have to face in our future. But not now. Now, I was marrying the love of my life.

Liam and I had gone back
and forth between writing our own vows and speaking traditional ones. In the end, we decided on traditional ones, deciding that, like the creatures we had become, marriage was an age old coven and those were the words that should be spoken to gain entrance. It was just like learning lines.

So, when the priest turned to Liam, he smiled broadly, his hands shaking a bit, and began to speak.

“I, Liam, take thee, Amy, to be my lawful wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse…” He paused and I raised an eyebrow. Liam? Nervous? That didn’t happen. “… For richer or poorer, in sickness and in health… till death us do part.”

“To love and to cherish,” The priest interjected and Liam laughed a bit nervously.

“To love and to cherish,” he repeated, blushing and even I had to smile.

When it came time for me to speak, I took a deep breath, determined to show him that a little newbie actor could remember her lines better than him.

“I, Amy, take thee, Liam, to be my lawful wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health... till death us do part.”

“To love and to cherish,” the priest reminded me and the audience burst into laughter. “Let’s leave that part in.”

Liam gave me a devilish grin and a smile stretched across my face.

“And now, the bride and groom will exchange the rings,” the priest said
.

Liam put his hand out to Peter, who handed him a small gold
circlet that had belonged to his own wife, Liam’s grandmother.

“With this
ring I thee wed, with my body I thee worship, and with all my worldly goods I thee endow,” he almost whispered slipping it onto my finger.

The prop ring from Phantom was still on my hand, I had refused to take it off, even when Liam took me to a proper jewelry store and offered to get me a diamond the size of my face. That was the ring he proposed with and so that was the ring I would wear.

Sarah handed me his ring, and I reached for his hand.

“With this
ring I thee wed, with my body I thee worship, and with all my worldly goods I thee endow,” I said, slipping it over his knuckle, having to push a bit to make it fit. And there it was, the two of us, holding hands, wedding bands sparkling in the theatrical lights. I knew then that I would never want to leave that school, leave that stage. It had become such a part of me that there was no way anything could take me away from it. There was now as much sorrow in this place as happiness; tears of equally bad and good times. Who would have thought the theater I snuck into as a child would change my life forever?

The priest smiled upon us and turned us slightly towards the crowd.