We join Abby and Xander on their big day, a huge wedding at Hotel Spectre. When the rings go missing, the bridal gown gets tainted with blood and the groom starts a fistfight in the garden, only the efforts of friends and creatures can make Abby have the wedding day she deserves.

  Whatever fate had in mind, this will be the happiest damned bride that ever animated her lawn ornaments. Or else.

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  Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  A Nexus Wedding

  Copyright © 2011 Viola Grace

  ISBN: 978-1-55487-796-6

  Cover art by Martine Jardin

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

  Published by Devine Destinies

  An imprint of eXtasy Books

  Look for us online at:

  www.devinedestinies.com

  A Nexus Wedding

  By

  Viola Grace

  Dedication

  To Tina, Jay and Janet who wedged me through this book. It’s short, but here because of them.

  Chapter One

  otel Spectre gleamed in the early morning H light. The tents placed in the garden began to fill to capacity as everyone arrived for the Nexus’s wedding.

  Abby peeked out between the drifting panels of silk and fidgeted. She couldn’t see Xander, but she could feel that he was over on the other side of the garden and just as anxious as she was.

  In an effort to make sure that the rings had remained safe, Xander had given them to her most trusted gnome, Bitsy.

  Bitsy had fallen asleep and his daughter had taken off with the rings, proudly hiding them where no one had been able to find them. The gnome-goyle was currently wailing in frustration because she would not be allowed to attend the wedding unless she got the rings back. The hardest part of it was that with the Hotel’s morphing architecture, Alphie wasn’t sure where the rings were anymore.

  “Nexus, we need you back here for hair and 1

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  nails. They will find the rings, I am sure of it.”

  Mistress Galfor was more rattled than she was trying to let on. Her four hands were tightly clutched together as she darted nervous glances toward the dress rack.

  “Is something else wrong?”

  “No, no, of course not. Relax. This is your special day.” Galfor shoved her into the chair in front of the mirror that was set aside for the bride’s use.

  A vampire hairdresser started on her locks and an elf knelt at her feet, taking her hands into her custody.

  Abby was trapped and these women had determined looks that told her she wasn’t going anywhere until they were done.

  Mistress Galfor darted out of the bridal tent and found Raven Dexter.

  The midwife looked at her with curiosity, her blue leather corset with black silk skirt making her look like an exotic blooming flower. “What is it?”

  “The gown is stained. We need someone to remove it.”

  “The gown? Oh my god, the bridal gown?”

  Raven’s red eyes were wide with shock.

  “Yes. There was a problem with transport and a 2

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  splinter gouged into the hand of one of the carriers.

  A troll.”

  Raven

  winced.

  “Troll

  blood

  is

  the

  worst-possible stain. Of course, it would have to be something like that. Give me a moment.”

  Raven turned around and scanned the growing crowd. “I think I may be able to find someone to help. How much time do I have?”

  “An hour. The bridesmaids are helping me delay, but I don’t know how long it will take to do Abby’s nails and hair.”

  She was almost crying. Her tears welled but didn’t fall. This was a disaster. “I would put on a new panel, but I don’t have enough of the spider silk. We have to clean that gown.”

  Galfor accepted the hug that the midwife gave her.

  “Give me ten minutes. I will find something.”

  There was something so calm about those red eyes under the white arched brows.

  With a shaking nod, she returned to the bridal tent. While across the garden another outburst of activity was occurring, she didn’t even look. Her mind was locked on the gown and the stain that would mark it forever if something couldn’t be done before the ceremony.

  In a move of desperation, she grabbed her phone and called the assistant who was still at the shop. “Bring every unbleached silk gown we have.

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  Every single one. I want them here when you bring the last of the gowns for the bridesmaids and flower girls. Use a portal. I don’t want you to waste any time.”

  “Mistress, are you sure? That is close to twenty gowns.”

  “Bring them all. This is an emergency.” She snapped the phone closed and tucked it into her clothing so she could feel the vibration if it went off. It was time to pretend everything was normal.

  Abby was an amazing client, but it was her wedding day and everything had to go according to plan. The Nexus’s wedding had to go off without any problems.

  Verne stopped Strykr outside the groom’s tent. “Is everything going according to plan?”

  Xander’s great-to-the-nth-degree grandfather scowled. “Not really. The singer hasn’t arrived and the musicians keep breaking into fistfights. Too many races are represented and they are furious that no one is being given priority.”

  Verne closed his eyes and winced at the replay from his own wedding months earlier. “Hellebore isn’t here?”

  “No. I have heard that her family wasn’t provided with transportation. We are arranging an 4

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  emergency transport, but a gateway that big has to be created offsite.”

  “Did you call her?”

  Strykr blinked. “No. I didn’t think of that. I have been depending on communication from her family.”

  “Don’t. They are not fans of half-breeds.” He flipped open his phone and dialled the singer.

  “Hellebore, this is Verne.”

  “Hey, Verne. This is a little bit of a flashback, isn’t it? Seems the matriarch forgot to include us in the transport.” The hypnotic tone of the singer came through, even on the phone.

  “Are you ready?”

  “Yup.”

  He pressed the phone against his chest. “Strykr, can you open a portal at the far end of the garden?”

  “Certainly, I am on my way. Where am I opening it?” He took two strides and stopped, waiting for instructions.

  “Hellebore, do you have a beacon?”

  “Yup. Abby gave me one in case something like this happened. It’s shaped like a gnome first place medal.”

  Verne started to laugh. “Hellebore, focus on the Hotel and squeeze the medal. It’s a transport key.”

  “You aren’t serious?”

  “I am. She made them for the gnomes and they work fairly well at bringing them home again.”

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  Laughter cascaded through the phone line. “I will see you in a few minutes.”

  Verne hung up and smiled at Strykr, “Crisis averted.”

  The old elf smiled and took a deep sigh in relief.

  “I will go and offer my grandson a few words of advice on living with a Nexus.”

  “Go ahead, he could use all the advice he can get.”

  Strykr opened the tent flap and disappeared inside while the roar of a motorcycle engine at the edge of the property announced Hellebore’s arrival.

  That was one thing off his list. Now, where was the caterer?

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  A Nexus Wedding

  Chapter Two

  t’s not in here. How could you think it was in

  “I here?” Bitsy was hissing at Echo and the dragon took offence.

  “I tasted Xander and Abby in here. How could I know that they used this room to sneak aside and frolic?” The dragon shook her spotted head and scowled. “They seem to have copulated in ten percent of the building.”

  They were on the floor with the ballrooms and the wide expanse of dance floor stretched before them. “I am sorry. If Alphaica hadn’t taken off with the rings, I wouldn’t have endangered the wedding.”

  “True, but she is a handful.”

  “Buffy and I both need to watch her when she flies.”

  Echo inclined her head and she picked Bitsy up by his shoulders, taking flight. “There are other places to search. I sense something in the basement that seems a likely candidate.”

>
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  Bitsy would have shrugged, but pinned as he was, he simply agreed. “Let’s get moving. Time is running out.”

  “Where did the caterer go?” Laura and Seesee were in the centre of the hotel kitchen watching the staff milling around, trying to come up with the morning buffet for all of the species.

  “He had a nervous breakdown. The idea of cooking for the Nexus as well as all of the dignitaries was too much for him.” Salleth the lamia let her scales rub against each other.

  Seesee assessed what still needed to be done and made an executive decision. “Call in all of the food vendors from the Magic Summit. Abby likes their food and she doesn’t really care about what she eats as long as it doesn’t kill her.”

  Salleth blinked. “Okay. If you are sure…”

  Laura nodded. “Wonderful idea. Bring them in as fast as you can. The council will bear the price of the transports.”

  The snake’s scales writhed. “You want them all transported?”

  “We do. Time is of the essence here.” Seesee smiled grimly as she helped take some small items out of the oven. “Get a mind healer in here in the meantime to work on the caterer. He shouldn’t 8

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  have taken the contract if he couldn’t do the job.”

  “Will do.” Salleth was on the phone and talking to food vendors in seconds, promising them full recompense for all of their products and services if they could get their butts into a portal.

  Laura sighed in relief. “That was a close one.”

  Seesee smiled and her prehensile hair writhed with tension. “We aren’t out of the woods yet. Let’s head to the tent for hair and nails. Abby will be getting twitchy by now.”

  Raven found the person she had been looking for over by the snack buffet. “Gregack. Is Caleg around?”

  “Midwife.” He nodded and jerked his head toward a gathering of mothers with children.

  “Caleg is enjoying the party, thank you for the invitation.”

  “Not a problem, Abby has always been very accommodating, she understood the politics involved.” Raven patted the goblin on the shoulder and went to speak with his troll bride.

  Caleg’s face lit up shyly as Raven approached.

  The two-year-old in her arms smiled and waved at Raven. “Hello, Cisthigin. That is a pretty, pretty dress.”

  The small goblin-troll half-breed giggled and 9

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  shrugged her shoulders.

  She hugged the troll lightly and whispered in her ear. “Caleg, I need a boon.”

  “Whatever you need, midwife.”

  “How do you get troll blood out of silk?” Her whisper was as quiet as she could make it and still be heard.

  Caleg smiled. “Another troll has to suck it out.

  A simple procedure. Why? Did you get blood on your gown?”

  Raven flicked a look toward the bridal tent.

  “Not my gown.”

  “Oh. Oh. Let me just drop Cissy off with Gregack and I will come with you.”

  “You can bring her along. Gaia is there and it would be nice for her to have someone her own size to play with.” Raven and her first troll client walked together to the bridal tent.

  Gaia was with the gnomes in the front chamber and she looked with fascination at a person who was just her size, though of a different species.

  The two girls in their pretty dresses squealed and started chasing the gnomes around on wobbly legs.

  “Galfor? Could you come here?” Raven stood and called cheerfully to the seamstress.

  The stressed goblin came out and looked at Raven with relief. “You found something?”

  “Someone. Galfor, this is Caleg. Caleg is willing 10

  A Nexus Wedding

  to suck the blood out of the gown.” Raven smiled and watched the women shake hands. “I will watch the younglings.”

  Raven settled to catch the little girls if they got too close to a gnome and in less than twenty minutes, Caleg was out, wiping her lips. “It’s done.

  Clean as a whistle. She is just rinsing and drying the affected area now. A lovely gown though. I can see why she wanted to save it.”

  Raven hugged the troll and smiled at Cissy as she and Gaia worked to corner Mitsy. “I owe you one.”

  “You owe me nothing. If it wasn’t for you, I would have been dead in labour.” Caleg gave her a hug that almost cracked her bones. “Why aren’t you in the bridal party?”

  “I am…sort of. In my position, I have to run at a moment’s notice. I won’t risk ruining a wedding.”

  She grinned and ran a hand down her leather corset. “Plus, this is much more my style. I will man the guestbook later.”

  “I would have to agree. Your job does kick in at awkward times.” She grabbed her daughter before the girl could make a lunge for the gnome. Cissy kicked and wailed, but a stern tap on her nose and she quieted.

  Gaia looked disappointed to lose her hunting companion. She sat down and grabbed a handful of crayons, scribbling away in her colouring book, 11

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  leaving Mitsy to catch her breath.

  Caleg waved as she left, “Best wishes to the Nexus.”

  “I will pass them along.” Raven smiled and waved back to Cissy who wriggled both hands over her mommy’s shoulder.

  Pulling a lock of hair over one shoulder, Raven casually worked her way deeper into the bridal tent. “Hello, Abby. You look amazing.”

  Out of the corner of her eye, Raven noticed a relieved Galfor casually steaming a white gown of beautiful construction. An assistant with a pile of bags was looking pleased but exhausted. That must have been Plan B.

  “Raven, you look amazing. No calls yet?”

  “Not yet. I am hoping to make it through the vows.” She smiled and winked at Abby’s reflection.

  “Do you think you and Eyleno will ever make it down the aisle?”

  “Only if I am delivering a baby in Vegas and we can get a fifteen-minute ceremony in.” She chuckled. “Nah, his mother is too freaked by the thought of a magic-less woman in the family.”

  “Too bad. You two are cute together. You could be enjoying all this.” Abby nodded her head to the vampire working on her hair and the elf on her nails.

  “Looks like fun, but I have to stay loose in case I 12

  A Nexus Wedding

  am needed. It’s a burden, but there it is.” She chuckled. “I am going to go out pixie counting.

  There looks to be a flock coming in from the west.”

  “Good. I was hoping that they would be able to make it. They are interrupting a migration for this.”

  Raven laughed. “You set them up to migrate?”

  “I had to. It was an act of desperation.” They shared a laugh and got glares from her aestheticians.

  “I will see you later. You are looking lovely.

  Every inch a bride.”

  Abby’s shy smile gave Raven a boost as she exited the tent. She exhaled heavily and grinned with triumph. “One disaster averted.”

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  Chapter Three

  he pixies swirled above the garden and Bitsy T gestured to them. “They can find them. They outnumber us by hundreds.”

  “Excellent idea. You grab one and try to explain the problem.” Echo’s snarl indicated the flaw in his plan.

  “There is the special one. She will find them.”

  Bitsy was confident. He had to be. He didn’t want to tell the Nexus that he had lost her rings and no one could find them.

  “Right. I will fly through them, you try and snag her.”

  “She is the one cracking with the Nexus energy.

  You should be able to spot her.” Bitsy didn’t like the dragon’s attitude. It wasn’t Echo’s fault that the rings were missing. The Nexus was depending on them. She should be more helpful.

 

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