Man in the Mirror at the Wedding

Sequel to ESCAPING FROM THE VAMPIRES

*

Bly Aberdeen brushed the long hair over her shoulder and stared at her reflection in the mirror. It seemed like yesterday, and yet long ago at the same time, that she had scooped up a newborn baby girl from Cartier Plantation and run naked through the pecan trees with John Aberdeen Senior right behind her and two vampires in pursuit. She wished John had lived to be with her this week.

Being the mother of the groom and hosting the population of an entire small Kansas town on this ranch was challenging, but as Hannah's guardian she was mother of the bride as well. Keeping the secret for twenty years didn't make it any easier.

She stroked the brush through her thick gray mane and remembered John Junior's face when he saw his naked parents run into the Aberdeen's Louisiana home that night. "Is this Aunt Yazzie's baby, Momma?" he had asked. "Where is Aunt Yazzie?" At Three years old he knew something was wrong, but couldn't understand vampires or mirrors... or destiny. Today he couldn't even remember a time when he didn't love Hannah.

"Bly..." came the voice from the mirror.

Bly looked behind her reflection to see Lucius Carter. Not the naked, blood-smeared man she and John had sent into the other realm, but a mage in a gray suit. He seemed to step between her reflection and the glass as she stood to welcome him. "It is good to see you, Lucius," she said as she placed her palm flat against the glass.

Lucius responded by placing his hand against the inside of the mirror, palm to palm with only the glass between them. "I'm sorry it's been so long. Time moves differently here."

"I know," said Bly. "And I know why you've come."

"You've got to stop this, Bly. They're both my children... it isn't right."

"I can't stop it, Lu. Even if I could I wouldn't. Yasmine made me swear it to her."

The mage's face changed in an expression of sheer astonishment. "Yasmine made you...?"

"The day before Aaron and Phinneas killed her she came to me. I threw the bones and confirmed everything she had seen. Ruth read it too."

"What else did she see?"

Bly turned her back so Lucius wouldn't see her wipe the tears away. "Neither Johnny nor Hannah will live to be thirty." Suddenly she spun on the balls of her feet and looked him in the eyes. "But their daughter will help you destroy your brothers! It IS her destiny!"

"Destiny... for a child who hasn't been conceived yet," said Lu. "It is a strange world you and I brought them into, isn't it?"

"The world we were born into ourselves." She put her hand on the glass again.

"May I see her?" said Lu. "Or both of them? My time is short... I couldn't find her through any of the other mirrors in this house..."

"I know where she is," said Bly and started out the door with her night dress billowing behind her like the white dress had billowed in the breeze when Lu saw her running with John Senior to rescue him eighteen years before.

In Johnny's room Hannah was naked, straddling him like her pinto pony. She ground herself against his pubic bone, moaning loudly as her climax approached. He wasn't far behind, feeling the pressure building in his testicles. Instead of bringing him off, Hannah bent forward and kissed him. His hands rubbed her breasts and she clinched her vaginal muscles around his aching, begging, rock hard member inside her.

The lovers were so lost in passion that they didn't have time to react when Bly's key opened the door. She grabbed Hannah's wrist from the side of her son's face and shouted "Come quickly! Your Father is here!" as she pulled Hannah off the bed.

"What?" Hannah screamed as she tried to find her feet. Bly half led and half dragged the girl out into the hallway.

"Auntie!" Hannah screamed. "I'm naked!"

"No time!" her guardian snapped as they approached her bedroom. "His time is short!" She pulled Hannah into the room and pointed at the mirror.

Hannah's eyes opened wide and her jaw dropped as she recognized the man in the photos Auntie Bly and Uncle John had showed her all her life. He really WAS in the mirror.

Lucius wasn't surprised that his daughter was naked; In the Old Way, virginity was expected until the betrothal, not necessarily until the wedding night. Except for her hair being yellow instead of red, she was the image of Yasmine.

"Come closer, Hannah," he said.

"Daddy?" Hannah whispered as she placed her hand on the mirror then leaned against it as if she was trying to hug him.

"Yes, Hannah," said Lu. "I'm real." Over Hannah's shoulder Lu saw that Bly had picked up the pitcher from her wash basin as if to say "If you tell her she's marrying her half-brother I'll smash that mirror!"

"I came to give you my blessing," he said to his daughter. She turned her head to look into his eyes for the very first time in either of their lives.

"Can you come OUT of the mirror?" she said with tears streaming down her cheeks.

"No, Darling, my magic isn't strong enough yet. It's taxing my powers just to hold this image now."

"But you will come back someday?" she whimpered.

"You may have a child of your own before I do..." Lu glanced up to see that Bly had put the pitcher back. "If your first child is a girl, name her after Bly. Good-by for now..."

The image began to fade and Hannah found herself looking into her own eyes in the mirror, and for the first time she felt the cold glass against her naked breasts. She pushed away and turned, eyes full of tears, and stumbled into Bly's arms.

Johnny came through the door, still struggling to zip his pants, and found his naked fiancée on the floor in the arms of his mother. The vague image, burned into his mind as a three-year-old, flashed before him: The night his parents brought Hannah into the Aberdeen family's protection. "Mom?" he gasped.

His mother looked up at him. "Yes, Johnny, Lucius Carter WAS here in the mirror. He gave his blessing for this marriage." She looked back down at the top of Hannah's head. "It's almost midnight, Johnny. You shouldn't see your bride on the wedding day. Help her into my bed. She shouldn't be alone right now."

"Uh, Mom, you know we were, uh..."

"Yes, darling, I know what you were doing. Tomorrow night you can start all over again and it will all be legal, and on the full moon Auntie Wynda will be here to confirm your union in the Old Way. But tonight..." Bly stroked Hannah's hair and kissed the top of her head. "Tonight, I need to be her mom, too. Pick her up and put her in my bed."

Johnny bent down and Hannah shifted her self from her foster-mother to her husband-to-be, letting him lift her. As he let her down on the mattress his mother had one more order.

"First thing in the morning, Johnny, have Lonny and Buff put the big mirror from the hall outside, behind the seats. I think Lucius will want to watch the ceremony."