Heather Graham - Keeper of the Dawn

But neither had they found her dead.

* * *

Friday evening they decided to have a rehearsal dinner at the Snake Pit.

They brought Charlaine and Alan Hildegard, and Lieutenant Edwards gave up his evening to sit watch over Brigitte so all the Gryffald cousins and their fiancés could attend.

It was when Alessande was on her way back from the ladies’ room that she ran into Greg Swayze.

“Hey, congratulations,” he told her. “I was...stunned when I heard. I hadn’t really realized you two were a couple. I mean, well, I wouldn’t have asked you out if I’d known.”

“No need to feel bad. We were on a break at the time.”

“That wasn’t that long ago.”

“I know. But then...” She smiled encouragingly. “You’re good-looking and talented. I’m sure you have no trouble meeting women.”

“The thing is, I don’t want a woman who—well, who wants to use me just to get a part,” he said.

She grimaced at that. “Well, I did meet you because of the film.”

“Yeah, but you’re one strange actress. You practically told me that you didn’t want the part.”

She shrugged. “I’m not much of an actress. I do like extra work, though. I don’t have to do anything but show up and then get paid.”

He smiled and touched her hair. “Well, you’re one of the good ones who got away. I always seem to be taken by tall blondes with blue eyes.” He paused for a moment, looking thoughtful. “I met another actress who fit that description and was right for the part. She was enchanting. Regina, her name was.”

“Regina Johnson?” Alessande asked.

“Yes,” Greg said. “I can’t believe you know her. I met her several months ago, right when I was trying to get the project going. I was infatuated. She read the play and said she loved it, so I had her read for me.

“I told her that the decision on whom to cast wasn’t going to be mine and that there would be auditions, but I had hoped she’d do an official reading. But then...I lost touch with her.”

Alessande stared at him. “She’s missing, Greg. That’s why you haven’t heard from her. You know that Mark and Brodie are cops—they’re looking for her, along with half the LAPD. If by any chance you do hear about her or from her, please let me know. We’re desperate to find her.”

“Missing,” he said. Then his eyes widened. “Oh, no! Those two women who were murdered, they were actresses, too, and—oh, my God. They looked like her.”

Alessande nodded.

“You have to find her!” he said.

“We will, Greg. We will,” she promised.

She hurried back to the table, where Brodie was leading a silly toast to Mark. The minute he finished, she leaned in and told them what she had just learned.

Mark slipped an arm around her shoulders. “That confirms her connection to the film, which is great, but it doesn’t get us any closer to finding her. But tomorrow—”

“We’ll flush them out,” she finished for him.

“And it will also be the best day of my life,” he declared.

Father Lars Gunderson appeared to be quite calm, a notable achievement, seeing as they had filled him in on the circumstances. The only thing that had upset him at the beginning was his impression that he would be staging a sham wedding.

But then Mark had assured him that he wouldn’t be faking the wedding, which was going to be 100 percent real.

Real.

The thought made Mark tremble.

He knew beyond a doubt that he’d been waiting for Alessande all his life. That seeing someone as he saw her, needing someone as he needed her, being happy just to share a room—not to mention a bed—with her, was what he had waited all these years to know, to have. He loved her, plain and simple, and he wanted to marry her, to have children with her, to see what traits they might carry, what talents they might or might not have.

At the beginning, he realized, she had meant to stage a sham wedding, something to precipitate what they had seen in their visions. But the minute he had spoken, they’d both known it was real, that whatever the future held, they would face it together.

And now it was happening.

The Hildegard family—including Brigitte—would be in attendance. Death in the Bowery was well represented, too. Greg Swayze, Katrina Manville, Tilda Lyons, Milly Caulfield and Taylor Haywood had all been invited. As had Antony Brandt, Hugh Drummond and Jerry Oglethorpe, of the House of Illusion, not to mention Bryce Edwards and every Other on the police force.

Whatever danger showed, they should be covered.

It was a shame that their wedding had to be so rushed because a woman’s life was at stake. But whatever happened, the marriage would be real.

The ceremony was planned for dusk. They would make their vows just as the sun began to fall in the western sky. Since a number of human beings would be among the guests, they’d decided jokingly that they weren’t going to say anything about the hundreds of years they both hoped to live. But whether they lived ten or another ten hundred, it didn’t matter.

Mark knew that he would love her forever.

The church began to fill up. The line of parked cars extended down the hill from the building to the street. Women arrived wearing spring colors that glowed in the gentle light of the waning sun.

Alessande would be here soon, along with the Gryffald cousins. Declan had provided the women with a white stretch limo for the day.

In one of the choral rooms, with Brodie standing by as best man, Mark took a long look in the mirror. The third tux he’d been shown had been the one he’d seen himself wearing in the vision. It was old-fashioned in style, charcoal-gray, worn with a white shirt and red vest.

“This is crazy,” Brodie told him for the several-thousandth time. “You do realize you haven’t even known each other a full two weeks.”

“We have a long, long time ahead of us,” Mark told him.

“We could have tried a different strategy. I mean, for all we know the cult won’t even show up to this wedding. We’ll end up no closer to the truth, and the two of you will still have rushed into a wedding.”

But Mark shook his head. “I believe in certain truths. That the greatest ‘religion’ we can follow is that of being as decent as we can to our fellow man, standing up for those who need our help and doing the right thing when we can. As Others, we spent years segregating ourselves, and even now, no matter how well we live our lives, some will still disapprove, will refuse to accept a union between vampire and Elven, even though Alessande herself is already of mixed blood. But that’s their loss. The point is, I know I love Alessande. I know that she loves me. And this wedding is what’s supposed to happen for the two of us. As far as I’m concerned, our visions were just a warning that we have to be careful today—and you can’t be much more careful than we’re being here.”

Brodie sighed. “I hope you’re right about that. About all of it.” He walked over to the door and opened it to look into the sanctuary. “It’s filled up—wow. So much for no one coming on such short notice.”

“Are the Hildegards here? Is Brigitte between Alan and Charlaine?”

“They’re flanking her like a pair of gorgons,” Brodie assured him. He shook his head. “We know that Brigitte was part of it. And we have the rest of the movie people here, as well. If any of them are in on it, too, we could be facing real trouble.”

“And we’re prepared,” Mark assured him. He walked over to the door and looked out himself. He felt reassured by what he saw. Declan’s massive leprechaun valet, Barney, was standing at the rear of the church. All those who could make it from his station house were there, including three werewolves, two shapeshifters, another Elven and four vampires. The cops—human and Other—were all armed.