Lucile Lecoeur tucked the stray strands of her copper red hair behind her ears and tried to look sufficiently bored as she sat at the small round table near the water lily pond with her best friend Sibyl Belladonna.
In truth, she was more excited than she let on. She could not believe Sibyl had asked her to go on a super exciting adventure with a hot looking male vampire!
She could hardly wait. Earlier that day, Sibyl had sent an image of Vander Greyson to Lucile and she had nearly swooned.
"Oh my gawd! He's so HOT!!!"
"Oh hush. Don't you dare even think about it!" Sibyl frowned at Lucile's obvious excitement. "He is my daughter's brother-in-law, which means he is on par with my children's generation."
"What does that have to do with me?" Lucile raised an eyebrow.
"If, for some godforsaken reason you happen to hook up with Vander, you will have to consider my daughter as your sister-in-law." Sibyl rolled her eyes. "That would put me on the same level as your mother-in-law!"
"Wouldn't that be funny, Mommy dearest?" Lucile cackled. "Don't you worry about that though. He's too young for my taste."
She sniffed appreciatively and waved a hand in an expressive gesture.
"I am more interested in an older gentleman, one who has silver highlights in his hair and some wisdom lines around his eyes."
Sibyl had sighed as her mind wandered towards Jero. He also had silver highlights and wisdom lines. He was also very handsome. Much good that ever did her.
"So when is this hot stud going to be coming?" Lucile prodded Sibyl with a sharp bony elbow.
"Ouch!" Sibyl growled under her breath. "Stop that. I told him to be here by noon today. It's still half an hour till midday."
"Fine." Lucile took a deep breath. "I will sit here and sip on my carbonated beverage and think calming thoughts."
Sibyl sighed. "If you had wanted calming thoughts, you should have gotten a calming drink like chamomile tea instead of that nasty sugary soda pop."
"Pshah." Lucile waved a hand. "Only old ladies drink chamomile tea in the middle of the day. We young ladies drink sodas!"
Sibyl rolled her eyes and took a sip of her hot coffee. In truth, she was also a bit nervous about handing Lucile off to the enigmatic Vander Greyson.
He was the first vampire she had ever met, and she wasn't sure how friendly he would be with a witch.
"Remember, Lucile. Your job is to get Vander through the worlds safely and then find Viviene and her husband and bring them back to Faria in one piece."
"Yes, yes. I know."
"No fooling around. No wasting time. Get them back as soon as possible."
"Yes, yes."
"And try to find a way to keep scry-visuals in place so that we can continue to communicate."
"I'll try, but I'm not sure if I can contact you from a different realm."
"Do your best." Sibyl patted Lucile's hand. "And do be careful. Although you're one of the most powerful witches in Faria, you're not immortal."
"Yes, yes." Lucile nodded again. She was about to say something else when she noticed Sibyl's eyes had turned to look at something—or someone past her shoulder.
Lucile turned her head in the direction of Sibyl's gaze and found herself looking at the tall muscular figure of a man with deep black hair that hung loose around his shoulders.
His face was angular and classically beautiful, with a strong jaw and a high narrow nose. His dark intense eyes held a streak of red within each pupil.
"Good day, Lady Belladonna." He greeted cordially and gave a curt bow. "And greetings also to your friend."
"Well hello Vander." Sibyl patted the chair next to her. "Please have a seat. I want you to meet Lucile Lecoeur. She will be the one accompanying you to the other realm."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Lady Lecoeur. My name is Vander Greyson."
"Oh, the pleasure is all mine." Lucile grinned mischievously. "Please call me Lucile."
Vander nodded. "Lucile it is."
As he raised his head, his eyes lit upon Sibyl's face.
"Talia looks exactly like you." His shapely lips curved into a winsome smile.
"Well I am much older than she is, but thank you for being kind." Sibyl grinned.
"I was not trying to be kind. You and your beautiful daughter Talia look so much alike that there is no way I could ever possibly not recognize her mother."
"I thought you were Cedric's friend. I didn't realize you also knew my daughter."
Vander shook his head. "I actually ran into Talia before I had a chance to meet Cedric. I have a closer connection with Talia than I do with him."
"Interesting." Lucile murmured even as her eyes glazed over and her body trembled.
"Sibyl!" Lucile screamed as Vander caught Sibyl's body before she fainted to the ground.
"What's wrong? Are you hurt?" His face was full of concern.
Sibyl blinked and shook her head.
"No. I—I'm fine." She struggled from his grasp and held her head with both hands.
"Woman, you scared me half to death!" Lucile wailed. "What just happened?"
"I just had—a vision." Sibyl whispered, shaking her head to clear her mind. It was a very strange vision and she could not seem to reconcile it at all.
"What—what did you see?" Lucile asked, more guardedly. True Visions that came upon High Seers were sacred events which had a certain methodology of documentation.
In order not to lose the True Vision, the Seer who had received the vision had to relate it to as many other Seers as possible so that the Vision could be recorded faithfully.
Fortunately, Lucile was available for that task since she had been present at the moment the Vision unfolded.
Unfortunately, there was also another person beside them and he was not one of the High Seers. In fact, to be completely proper and within guidance, the vision had to be handled with utmost secrecy.
"Take down the True Vision, Lucile." Sibyl commanded without hesitation.
"But—"
"Take it down!" The tone this time was of a High Priestess bidding a coven High Seer to complete a task.
"Yes—yes High Priestess." Lucile gave a bow and pulled out a pad of paper and a pen from her tote bag.
Best friend or no, when the High Priestess demanded obedience, the High Priestess got obedience.
"Let it be noted that as of midday today, a True Vision has been recorded." Sibyl began mumbling in that tone which clearly indicated that she was completely in the zone of a vision.
"The Vision foretells a voyage which spans three worlds, of which Earth is the central world which touches the other two in diametrically opposite poles."
"The Bloodless Royal Vampire must—" Sibyl choked. "Must take the Coven Queen Bride through the worlds, to safely navigate through the double veils. Only through the mark can he safely return from behind the double veils."
"What???" Lucile gasped.
Sibyl turned to look at Vander with shocked eyes.
"He must take the Coven Bride to—"
"I heard you the first time!" Lucile screeched. "I'm asking you what the hell did you see? Who is the Coven Queen Bride?"
Sibyl squeezed her eyes shut. She was not trying to focus her vision. It was altogether too clear, the long wavy raven hair, the crystal blue eyes…
"The Coven Queen Bride that Vander must take and mark—is Talia."