Chapter Five
Weddings Never Go As Planned
(At Least Not When Erika's Involved)
Erika Hunter opened her eyes and wished she hadn't. Benny-Boy, the strange, rubber jumpsuit loving wereleopard who had been responsibly for infecting Erika with the modified strain of lycanthropy that caused her to change into a leopardess every once in a while, was leaning over her. Wearing, predictable enough, a rubber jumpsuit. His eyes glowed golden in the dark.
"Oh gods above…" Erika muttered. "What the hell are you doing here, may I ask?"
"You got us fired," came the plummy voice of Benny-Boy's partner. "That was foolish…"
"Like?" Erika sat up and shoved hard at Benny-Boy, who fell to the floor in an uncoordinated blur. (He might be a huge, graceful cat at times but he's a clumsy try hard as well. Everyone has their layers.) "What are you two doing here anyway? You're supposed to be in LA, not here in New York. Go away and let me get some sleep. It's going to be a very long day tomorrow."
"Oh, I heard about that," the Plummy One said, her attitude suddenly changing to that of the gossip. "Too bad for you, sweetie, your daddy marrying that bitch. Is he insane? Oh no, he wouldn't be, would he… Bethany can twist men around her little finger. It's her job, you know."
Erika stared at her, very interested. "No, I don't know. How is seducing men Bethany's job?"
"Well, she's a –"
"Erika, who're you talking to in there?"
Speak of the devil and she will come. Bethany's voice rang outside the door and next minute Benny-Boy and the Plummy One were gone. Erika growled, feeling her teeth grow to fangs inside her mouth before she got a lid on her temper. She'd been so damn close…!
"Erika? Who're you talking to?" Bethany opened the door and walked in. She was wearing a tiny semi-see-through, red silk, baby doll nightie. Erika closed her eyes. Did she have to walk around looking like a frigging porn star?
"My very own personal inner demons," Erika said pithily in reply to her soon-to-be stepmother's question. "But they're gone now, so perhaps I can get back to sleep…?" She left it hanging and rolled back over, closing her eyes. After a moment, Bethany left the room again, muttering something under her breath. Erika guessed that it was not a prayer that her beloved soon-to-be stepdaughter would never change, would stay just as sulky and bad tempered as ever. More likely the woman was wishing Erika had never been born.
"Erika! Get up! You have to start getting ready. NOW!"
Erika sat bolt upright in bed at Bethany's screech suppressing a scream of terror as she shrugged away nightmare she'd been embedded in. Bethany had featured in the bad dream as the main villain, with spiny bat wings protruding from her back and a long lizard like red tongue lashing from her mouth. She'd been terrifying, half woman, half demon.
She sighed and dragged herself out of bed, stumbling towards the shower. Her expression brightened somewhat as she glanced out the window. She gave a small evil chuckle – it was pouring with rain…
Poor Bethany. It looked as though her wedding was going to be a wet one…
Half an hour later, Erika was sitting in a luxurious Mercedes, trying to squirm into the door to get away from her soon-to-be stepsister, Hope. This was a serious case of the Ugly Stepsisters – except Hope and Faith were gorgeous.
Hope had her mother's thick dark brown hair in a glossy bob and flawless skin. Her eyes were a clear light blue. She was fourteen, nearly four years younger than Erika, but what she lacked in years of experience, she made up for in pure nastiness. So far today she'd made several awful comments about Erika's choice of attire (faded blue jean, black t-shirt and Docs), her hair, her looks… Just about everything about her really. If Erika hadn't of grown up in Los Angeles going to a school full of complete bitches who were horrible to her on a regular basis, she would've gone completely insane already.
Faith and Erika were the same age but they couldn't be more different. Faith had darker hair than her mother and sister, pure black and perfectly straight. Her eyes were pale violet though, exactly like her mother's. Her skin was fair. She was the same height as Erika, give or take an inch, with a body to die for and impeccable fashion sense. Today she was wearing a knee length pencil skirt, white tailored business shirt and jacket with black ankle boots. She made Erika look scruffy.
Her temperament was totally different to Erika's as well. She was quiet, hard working, sensible and completely dominated by her more forceful mother and younger sister. Erika felt sorry for her – she had to live with Hope and Bethany…
The Mercedes came to a halt and Erika was out of the car long before the chauffeur had time to come around and open the door for her. She stood on the curb, taking a deep breathe and feeling like she'd just escaped utter hell. But Hope followed her almost immediately, saying, "You do know that you're supposed to wait for the nice man to open the door, don't you, Erika?"
Erika turned and smiled at her soon-to-be stepsister. "I am perfectly capable of opening a door on my own, sweetie… Can't you manage it?"
She saw Faith smile slightly behind Hope as the younger girl gave Erika a look of utter hatred. Erika smirked slightly and walked up the steps of the imposing building they'd stopped at, trying not to think of the terror that probably awaited her.
It was worse than Erika could have ever predicted. Nearly eight hours later, a bewildered and mildly furious Erika was ejected back onto the street, to scramble into the Mercedes and try to avoid all mirrored objects. She did not want to see what she looked like. She shuddered, memories of the horrors she had been forced to endure resurfacing. They'd sat her down on a horrible salon chair and done scary things to her hair. She had managed to retain her emo fringe only through grabbing a pair of scissors and threatening to stab the hairdresser if she touched it. After that there had been no mercy. She had been plucked, moisturised, and then made up to within an inch of her life. Complicated things had been done to her hairdo and then she'd been hurried into her dress, forced to wear horrendously high blue heels, which she was having serious trouble walking in and then admired briefly by a triumphant horde of hairdressers, makeup artists and dressmakers before being shoved out the door.
(About the only good thing that had happened to this wedding in Erika's point of view was that the hot pink dress idea had been dropped and the bridesmaids were instead to wear sky blue knee length slips. Erika had thanked whichever gods had been listening, and had considered sacrificing Hope on someone's altar. She'd discarded the notion only when D had pointed out that it was most likely that no god would actually want to have someone like Hope sacrificed to them.)
Anyway, the day had not been any good so far. Erika was hoping that the trauma would induce her brain to just blot the day out, file the experience away into a box in the back of her mind marked "Things That Will Never Be Spoken of Again". That would just be kinder all round.
A few minutes later, Hope and Faith slid into the car and they were off again, heading. To Erika's profound relief, Faith was the one who ended up sitting next to her, not her younger sister. Erika felt a little too limp and washed out to want to exchange verbal barbs with her so charming stepsister-to-be. But sadly for Erika, Hope was nothing if not insistent. She leant around her sister and sneered at Erika. "Still insisted on that plebby hairdo?"
Erika sighed and looked at Faith. "What does plebby mean?" she asked the other girl in a weary sort of voice. Faith replied hesitantly. "It's an insult, coming from the word pleb, which is a shortening of plebeian. It means unrefined, lower class…"
"Ah," said Erika. She leant around Faith and gave Hope a winning smile. "Yes, I have insisted upon my "plebby" hairdo. I do have some standards and I would prefer not to resemble a poodle who'd been struck by lightning, the way you do…"
Hope sucked in a furious breath, glaring at Erika, and began to talk. "Oh, you think you're so clever, don't you," she snarled. "But you're not. You're just a scummy little leech, trying to suck money off of Daddy. I heard you last time you visited, begging him to help you scrape up enough to move out of your big, bad drug-addict step dad's house. Well, give it up. He doesn't even like you. He likes me and Faith better. And you know what? After Mommy and Daddy get married, I'll make it so you'll never be welcome here ever again. You won't get a cent of Daddy's money, not ever. I'll make your life a misery, you know that? I'll tell them you did all sorts of things to me, and by the time I'm finished with you, Daddy will never want to see you ever, ever again. I'll –"
"Why do you call him Daddy?" Erika interrupted, having, like Faith, kept quiet up until now, content to let the words wash over her as the other girl worked her way through her not-very-articulate little hissy fit.
"What?"
"Why do you call him Daddy?" Erika repeated. "Don't you have your own father?"
Hope refused to reply and the rest of the drive to the private garden where the happy couple would be getting married was completely silent.
Well, Erika thought sourly, at least the garden's pretty.
She wandered through it, her stiletto heels held in one hand, her bare feet feeling the chill of the wet grass beneath her feet. It had stopped raining sometime during Erika's little makeover, and the garden was beautiful, with the late afternoon sun glancing off the water droplet on the plant leaves. Erika sighed and sat down on a partially dry bench, being careful not to get her dress wet (several different people would kill her if she did) and stared around her, silently appreciating the beauty of the garden. The wedding would start in half an hour, and this was probably going to be the last few moments of solitude she had left. She closed her eyes and sighed again. "I wish D was here," she said out loud, her voice startling in the quiet.
"Really?" said a familiar voice. "That's flattering."
Erika's eyes snapped open, her head whipped around so fast she nearly broke her neck and then she flung herself at the Chinese man with a scream of delight. "D! What the hell are you doing here?!" she yelped, throwing her arms around his neck and hugging him as hard as she could. He laughed, his arms light around her waist, tugging her briefly closer and then letting her go again as she stepped back, blushing at what she'd just done.
(Way to go, Erika, her mind jeered. How hard it will be for him to guess that you harbour a "small" affection for him… Not.)
"I am here," D said sweetly, smiling at her. "Because I was invited. I've met your stepmother a few times before and it appears that she remembered me. Normally I would have refused but I decided that perhaps you might need a little moral support."
"D, you are a life saver. A veritable hero in… a… suit. My gods, you're wearing a suit." Erika stared at him in disbelief and D fidgeted slightly, tugging at the jacket of the expensive looking black suit that he was wearing. "Yes," he said. "Miss Bethany actually insisted that I wear one. Can I just mention how much of a sacrifice I am making on your behalf?"
"I'm touched," Erika said, laying one hand over her heart. "Truly."
"I would think so. Oh, I had almost forgot. The ceremony is to start shortly and the bride is expected so I surmise you should come back up to the part of the garden where everything is taking place. I really doubt that anyone would be impressed if you were late."
Erika laughed. "They'd kill me very dead and then Bethany and Hope would probably skin me and turn my hide into an incredibly fetching little handbag."
"I haven't met the lady's daughters, but judging from my experiences with Miss Bethany herself, that is entirely possible. Shall we go?"
He offered Erika his arm with a bow, smiling slightly. She put her shoes back on, took it and the two of them swept from the garden, the epitome of elegance and poise. At least on the outside, anyway. D was having to support Erika so she didn't fall over in the five inch heels.
The wedding was horrendous. Erika stood there, trying very hard not to hurl as she listened to her father and Bethany exchange the vows they had personally written. They were sappy and so incredibly cringe-worthy. There were long moments where the bride and groom just stood there gazing into one another's eyes as the wedding guests said, "Aw, how sweet! They're so in love!"
The only thing that kept Erika sane was D. He stood in crowd with a small worried smile on his face. Erika just knew that he was pondering the sanity of nearly everyone in the garden. The look he gave Erika whenever his eyes rested on her was sympathetic.
Erika felt a headache tugging at her brain. For a second white hot agony flared behind her right eye and then it was gone, leaving her weak and swaying.
"Poor Erika," D murmured under his breath as he watched his teenage assistant stand swaying beside her vindictive younger stepsister. He wondered what was wrong with her and then her head turned and he met her eyes. D nearly collapsed. She was in agony…
A second later the pain hit him too. He gasped, clutching his head in fine boned hands. People near him looked at the stricken Chinese man in surprise and then they were hit. They all collapsed, gasps and screams ringing out in the stillness of the garden. Erika's father fell to his knees, howling with pain before he passed out. Unconsciousness reigned.
Ten seconds later, the only people on their feet were D, Erika, Bethany, Hope and Faith. Erika was on her knees beside her father, calling his name and shaking him. D staggered up to her, giving Bethany, who was standing perfectly still, stunned, a worried look as he passed her. "Erika," he said quietly. "Leave him. He won't be waking up until this is over."
"Until what's over?" Erika demanded, staring up at her boss with a worried gray eye. "D, what's going on?"
D looked at Bethany. "Would you like to explain for her, Miss Bethany?" he asked politely. "Or should I?" He tilted his head on one side, looking the very picture of polite enquiry. Bethany didn't reply. The pain was ebbing and D could think straight now. And what he was thinking was that he was furious at Bethany for putting Erika in so much danger. To Erika, he said, "Bethany's ex-husband is about to arrive. Please try not to draw too much attention to yourself and there's a chance we might get out of here alive." He carefully avoided mentioning Erika's father, hoping she wouldn't notice.
Sadly, Erika was nothing if not perceptive. "And my father?" she demanded. "What happens to him?"
Bethany let out a little sob. That was all the answer Erika needed. She stood up, kicking off the high heels and glaring around, her eyes flashing dangerously. "If anyone touches my father… I'll kill them." she snarled. She was just managing to restrain her claws and fangs from growing. Her ears desperately wanted to creep up on top of her head and change shape. She firmly told them to behave. D looked at her warily. "Be careful," was all he said.
A moment later, the fabric of the world ripped open and a demon stepped out.
He was nearly eight feet tall and resembled a large lizard who'd decided he wanted to walk on two legs. He was covered in dull green scales and his eyes glowed red. It turned out he was just the doorkeeper… Hope and Faith whimpered and covered their eyes with their hands as their father stepped through the rift.
Erika glared at him. He looked fairly human, about six foot with thick scruffy black hair and pale skin. He wore black from head to toe, looked to be in his mid to late forties, was as good looking as Erika's father, in a gothic sort of way and had cold, pale blue eyes.
"Why, hello, Beth…" he said, smiling icily. "I heard you were getting married again. I'm hurt that I wasn't invited…" He wandered closer to Bethany, who was standing there trembling in her utterly gorgeous wedding dress, looking like her world was coming to an end. "D-Don't hurt him…" she pleaded in a tiny voice. "Please…"
He just smiled and turned towards Erika's father. His eyes flicked over Erika and D. He frowned. "Why aren't you two out of it?" he asked. "That spell was meant to hit all humans."
Neither of them replied, D because he didn't particularly want to and Erika because she was busy telling her body that a tail was not necessary. The demon shrugged. "Ah, well, little matter…" He moved towards Erika's father with a predator's stalk. "If you'd just excuse me, I need to tear that human to pieces."
Erika lost several of her fights. "Try it…" she hissed, as her teeth narrowed to points, her fingernails turned to claws and her ears shifted up to the top of her head, changing to a leopard's as they did so. Her eyes turned golden with slit pupils. Her one triumph was that she managed to avoid growing a tail. That would have been embarrassing.
D sighed and moved away. "I had hoped that this wasn't going to happen…" he observed to no one, walking over to stand next to Bethany and her daughters. "But sometimes there's just no reasoning with her."
Erika met his eyes and just for a second her far too pointy teeth flashed in a smile and then she was back to glaring at the demon, who was watching her with mild amazement. "And exactly what would you be?" he asked her curiously, moving closer.
"Wereleopardess," Erika said flatly. "Leave my father alone." She sniffed the air restlessly, her ears flicking around and picking up a million different sounds on the night air. She could hear the far away traffic and smell Bethany's terror. There was the acrid stench of the gatekeeper demon, and the strange, sharp smell of Hope and Faith's father. She could hear Faith gasping for breath, and Hope muttering a prayer, begging that her father go away NOW. She could smell the scent of incense coming off of D. That calmed her somewhat.
"Why would I want to leave him alone?" the demon demanded. "He's marrying my wife."
"Your ex-wife," Erika snarled. "And as far as I know he doesn't have the slightest inkling that you exist. Get over it. You are divorced."
The demon stared at her for a long moment, his face impassive, then he lunged forward. Erika didn't think, she just reacted, whipped her hand around and raking him across the face with the claws of one hand, while she ripped at his stomach with the others. He hissed and drew back, his shirt shredded and blood leaking from the deep cuts on his face and stomach. The cuts started to heal even as Erika watched. That wasn't good – if he healed almost as soon as she hurt him, then she didn't really have too much of a chance.
But suddenly he wasn't interested in fighting. "Why are you doing this?" he asked. "Do you want Bethany to be your stepmother? From what I've heard she's been making your life hell."
"I don't really like her," Erika explained, feeling suddenly exhausted. "But for some unknown reason my father does. So there isn't too much I can say about it. So will you just go away so this wedding can be done with and I can go home and sleep for a few days?"
The demon smiled then, a genuine smile. He turned his head and looked at Bethany with cold eyes. "Best wishes for your marriage, sweetheart," he said smoothly, as if he hadn't just been trying to kill her fiancé. Glancing at Erika again, he added, "I'll talk to you again later."
"Oh, what fun…" Erika muttered, lifting her hands up and tugging at her ears, trying to pull them back to where they were supposed to be. "D, how do I turn back to normal?"
She ignored the demon as he walked back through the gate, disappearing with a flash of red light.
Half an hour later, the happy couple were happily married and they drove off to the reception quite happily. After getting special permission from her new stepmother, who was feeling quite generous at this point in time, to forgo the wedding celebrations, the daughter of the groom travelled by taxi back to her father's house, where she gathered her stuff together, changed into jeans, t-shirt and Docs, loaded her stuff into the boot of her taxi, got back in and was driven to the airport where she got onto a plane with her boss and flew back to Los Angeles.