"You all settled in for the night?" Tom poked his head around the door to the spare room. I looked up, nodding a little nervously from where I sat, perched on the end of the clean, untouched, perfectly made double bed. Tom stepped in to the room, it appeared he was about to initiate some form of conversation, closing the door behind him. "I'm sorry about earlier."
"No. You have every right to be angry with me." I shook my head in disagreement with him. "We shouldn't have even gotten involved with each other" I referred to Dougie, my heart giving a giant thud, trying to remind me of the hurt I was now feeling constantly. I didn't need reminding.
"I judged you too quickly." Tom spoke solemnly. "Being a vampire is all about going on instinct, and you did just that. It was just bad timing." He straightened up, now leaning against the closed door behind him. "I'm supposed to give you a run down or what happens tomorrow."
"I don't suppose that includes telling me who I'm partnered with?" I tried to laugh at my own joke. The effort, unfortunately, just wasn't within me anymore.
"Only Harry knows that, Claire. It's going to be a surprise for everyone." Tom spoke, a smile playing on his lips momentarily. "Would you like to see your gown?"

Gown?
A gown?
What bloody gown?!
Would I like to see it? I'd like to know what it is first. Honestly. They ask questions around here like I should know what they're talking about.
"My gown?" I questioned after a few moments of gawping blankly back at him.
"What you'll be wearing tomorrow." He replied, eyes twinkling with some kind of hidden secret, a mysterious glint.
"So, you people choose to marry me off, and then you dress me?" I folded my arms tightly over my chest. This was unacceptable.
"Look." He paced quickly to the wardrobe; I'd not even looked in there yet. He swung the doors open and chose carefully the item he was to take out. "This dress is traditional. I guess for humans, it'd be a wedding dress."

He pulled the garment slowly, covered in a long clothing bag. He laid it down on the bed, placing my hand over the zip, and obvious gesture for me to open it up. I could hardly refuse now, could I?

I bit my lip as I carefully pulled at the near rusty zip, dragging it down the bag, opening it slowly. Inside, all I could see was a pearly colour shining through as the light hit it. Yom then wrapped his hand around the hook of the coat hanger, pulling the item from it's plastic layers and revealing it in all it's glory.

Oh wow.

"It's beautiful." I gasped in a whisper, reaching out, yet not daring to touch it. Afraid I would damage the silky dress that looked breakable to the very touch.

"it was Lily's." Tom smiled, admiring it. "Your mother's. I'm not sure how Harry got hold of it, but he's had it as long as I've known him."

"I just though I'd be in my jeans and t-shirt." I giggled, still gawping at the glamorous frock before me.

Chapter Fourteen

It was a classy number, long and flowing, an obvious train at the back. The garment itself, made to hang off a girls curves. The type of dress one would expect to see on a red carpet. Certainly not something I had ever anticipated wearing myself.

"It's important to dress appropriately." Tom smiled.

"Does everyone come to the ceremony?" I asked

"Only family." He replied. "Very intimate. And one person to oversee the event."

"Very small gathering then." I remarked.

"Yes." Tom nodded thoughtfully. "If it's Doug, you'll only have Harry in the room with you, what with Jessi being human and all."

"What about the overseeing person thingy?" I frowned.

"Harry does that too. Because he's the highest rank out of us all." Tom replied with a dopey grin. It seems Harry does practically everything around here. Go figure. "He's stressed you know, with tomorrow."

"Who? Harry?" Why would he be fretting over it?

"He's really hoping that you don't hate him." Tom said, his eyes now fixed on mine as if giving them a thorough investigation, interrogation of the mind. "You don't, do you?"

"He's my brother. I can't hate him." I shrugged "I just dislike him at the moment."

"Claire, Honey, you have to try to understand that he's trying to keep hundreds of years of tradition alive. He not just doing it to pss you off." Tom scorned then sighed heavily. "He doesn't want to lose touch with what your father was once in charge of." There was a pause as he thought briefly about what he would say next. "He needs to prove to himself that he can do it. Juggling his responsibilities was already hard before you arrived, handling the clan and being a good boyfriend. Then there was you, which would mean he'd be juggling you, the binding, Tene and other clan matters. And now he's going to be a first time dad." Tom gave me half a smile, hoping I'd be listening to him. "I wouldn't be surprised if he snapped any time soon."

"He did. In the car on the way here. I pushed it too far, I think." I groaned. Now that Tom had put it like that, I think I was a little more understanding towards my brothers way of dealing with everything. After all, he was only trying to do what he thought was best.

There was a peculiar smell in the air as I woke the following morning. A floral scent, mixed with the familiar aroma of burning candles. I moved slightly, finding that the comfort of the bed I had originally fallen asleep in was not in fact there. I sat up, eyes wide as I focused on the new surroundings.

This was not Tom and Natalie's home. In actually fact, this was the club, with added candles being the only source of light, and the floral smell belonged to the dozens, no, hundreds of flower petals scattered on the floor. I stood up, stepping carefully over the candles that had been arranged in a circle around my sleeping body. It was then that I noticed I was already wearing the dress.

I gathered the light material that draped across the floor in my hands and padded barefoot towards the heavy door, the entrance in to the pipes. Locked, as I'd already assumed it to be. I groaned inwardly, looking around me, seeing no other point of exit, escape, anything.

I gasped sharply, jumping nearly out of my skin upon spying Harry sitting quite calmly in a chair in the corner of the room, watching my every movements. Talk about creepy.

"You scared the sht out of me you tw-t!" I hissed, coughing when my voice refused to wake like the rest of me had done so far.

"Step back in to the circle." He spoke quietly, looking defeated, waiting for my fight back. I obeyed, not questioning him once as I moved back, standing in the spot where I had woken. The centre of the circle, in the centre of the room.

He stood up, walking over to me slowly before turning me to face away from him. I heard the door unlock behind me, and two sets of footsteps in the room. Both getting closer. Harry stood in front of me, beaming broadly as he pulled a piece of scrawled on paper from his pocket, hands shaking. I placed my hands over his, making him look up to be met with my smile.

"I understand." I whispered. He nodded in acknowledgment, allowing my hands to drop, one being caught by a stranger. A hand in mine.

"Hi Claire."